In many religions God is also conceived as perfect and unfathomable by humans, as all-powerful and all-knowing (omnipotent and omniscient), and as the source and ultimate ground of morality. I witness that Muhammad is His messenger. On one hand, we have a wealth of easy-to-read historical and cultural information about Islam in a great, readable format for Western audiences. This set the stage for the emergence of a bona fide monotheism. No god but God had been on my list for a long time and it was totally worth the wait. Each chapter of the book deals with a specific topic within Islam. Fight in the way of God those who fight you, the Quran says, but do not begin hostilities; God does not like the aggressor (2:190). Aslans own account of Muhammads community indicates that non-Muslim citizens had more limited rights than the Muslims who shaped the ideals and social arrangements of their society. Give the coin to me, he said. He is the copy of God, in the words of al-Arabis greatest disciple, Abdul Karim al-Jili: he is the mirror in which the divine attributes are perfectly reflected; the medium through which God is made manifest., More than a thousand years before Christ, Zarathustra preached the existence of a heaven and a hell, the idea of a bodily resurrection, the promise of a universal savior who would one day be miraculously born to a young maiden, and the expectation of a final cosmic battle that would take place at the end of time between the angelic forces of good and the demonic forces of evil., It is a shame that this word, myth, which originally signified nothing more than stories of the supernatural, has come to be regarded as synonymous with falsehood, when in fact myths are always true. These Muslims believe that the ideals of Islam and nationalism are diametrically opposed to each other, to quote Mawlana Mawdudi, founder of the Pakistani sociopolitical movement Jamaat-i Islami (the Islamic Association)., For European colonialists like Alfred, Lord Cromer, the British consul general to Egypt at the end of the nineteenth century, the veil was a symbol of the degradation of women and definitive proof that Islam as a social system has been a complete failure. Never mind that Cromer was the founder of the Mens League for Opposing Womens Suffrage in England. The Quran is Gods direct self-revelation to humanity. According to the Islamic statement of witness, or shahada, "There is no god but Allah". In No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, Reza Aslan chronicles the development of Islam from its unpromising beginnings into a force to be reckoned with worldwide. Also includes sites with a short overview, synopsis, book report, or summary of Reza Aslans No god but God. In his book No God but God, Reza Aslan claims that "In all, there are said to be three hundred sixty idols housed in and around the Kaba, representing every god recognized in the Arabian Peninsula." Therefore people from all over Arabia congregated in this area to worship their gods. CRI Web: www.equip.org Tel: 704.887.8200 Fax:704.887.8299 3 God include the familiar Muslim acclamation, "In the name of God, the Compassionate, the . There are, of course, many paths to the summit-some better than others. No, Christianity and Islam are not two paths to the same God. A fascinating, accessible introduction to Islam from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Zealot and host of Believer FINALIST FOR THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD In No god but God, internationally acclaimed scholar Reza Aslan explains Islamthe origins and evolution of the faithin all its beauty and complexity. As the events of the Indian Revolt demonstrated, the British believed that the best way to curb nationalist sentiment was to classify the indigenous population not as Indians, but as Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, etc. But because every path eventually leads to the same destination, which path one takes is irrelevant., However, Saudi Arabia quickly discovered what the rest of the world would soon learn. Therefore, the entity God can be seen as dead in so much of the identity or character God no longer exists, but is still there in the universe. While both are considered equally valid approaches, the tension between tafsir and tawil is but one of the inevitable consequences of trying to interpret an eternal and uncreated scripture that is nevertheless firmly grounded in a specific historical context., Nor is it surprising that three of the first four leaders of Islam were killed by fellow Muslims, though it is important to recognize that both the rebels who murdered Uthman and the Kharijites who assassinated Ali were, like their spiritual successors among the Jihadists of today, far more concerned with maintaining their personal ideal of Muhammads community than with protecting that community from external enemies.. Elsewhere the Quran is more explicit: Permission to fight is given only to those who have been oppressed who have been driven from their homes for saying, God is our Lord (22:39; emphasis added)., This creator God was called Allah, which is not a proper name but a contraction of the word al-ilah, meaning simply the God., There are striking similarities between the Christian and Quranic descriptions of the Apocalypse, the Last Judgment, and the paradise awaiting those who have been saved., But tawhid, which literally means making one, implies more than just monotheism. For some, Muhammads actions in Medina serve as the model for Muslim-Jewish relations; for others, they demonstrate the insurmountable conflict that has always existed, and will always exist, between the two sons of Abraham. Eventually Waraqa, Uthman, and Ubayd Allah converted to Christianity, proving how influential this faith was in the region. It may take another generation or so for this era of anti-Muslim frenzy to be looked back upon with the same shame and derision with which the current generation views the anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish hysterics of the past. And they believe that in this very place Abraham was on the point of sacrificing Ishmael, before being stopped by the promise that he too, like his brother Isaac, would beget a great nation, whose descendants now roam the sandy valley of Mecca like a whirlwind in the desert., Religion, it must be understood, is not faith. Email Address: Follow Sites like SparkNotes with a No god but God study guide or cliff notes. Try to appease it, and it will take control., It took many years to cleanse Arabia of its false idols. It will take many more to cleanse Islam of its new false idolsbigotry and fanaticismworshipped by those who have replaced Muhammads original vision of tolerance and unity with their own ideals of hatred and discord. Dr. Reza Aslan, an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions, is author most recently of Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. As one would expect, Muhammads innovations did not sit well with the male members of his community. But the cleansing is inevitable, and the tide of reform cannot be stopped. Of course, such a process takes time. This website generates no revenue, has no banner ads, and does not collect information to sell to third parties. In traditional Eastern philosophy, this notion of radical unity is often called monism: the idea that all things, despite their variety, can be reduced to a single thing unified in space, time, essence, or quality. A fascinating, accessible introduction to Islam from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Zealot and host of BelieverFINALIST FOR THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD In No god but God, internationally acclaimed scholar Reza Aslan explains Islamthe origins and evolution of the faithin all its beauty and complexity. He suggests that if ever there is a conflict between the two, it must be the interpretation of Islam that yields to the reality of democracy, not the other way around (266). 626 likes, 14 comments - Holistic lifestyle + fitness (@katie.bevington) on Instagram: "I almost lost it today. So who is God, Allah or Jesus? Your Spirit mixed with my Spirit little by little, he wrote of God in his Diwan, by turns, through reunions and abandons. Depending on the study guide provider (SparkNotes, Shmoop, etc. Aslan, however, does seem to think of an Islamic democracy as in some sense an Islamic state. But lately Ive learned that King fought for more than African American rights. In No god but God, internationally acclaimed scholar Reza Aslan explains Islamthe origins and evolution of the faithin all its beauty and complexity. God resembles nothing in either essence or attributes., Muhammads example must have had a lasting effect on his early followers: as Nabia Abbott has shown, throughout the first two centuries of Islam, Muslims regularly read the Torah alongside the Quran., Consider, for example, how the following verse (4:34) regarding the obligations of men toward women has been rendered into English by two different but widely read contemporafirst is from the Princeton edition, translated by Ahmed Ali; the second is from Majid Fakhrys translation, published by New York University: Language To me, this was worth reading, because Reza Aslan made the story if Islam come alive and told me so much I didn't know about Islam. The argument became heated as each man insisted on having what he desired. English, l-nsi il popolo ; i popoli ; le nazioni Read more , The five pillars of Islam (arkn al-Islm ; also Read more , A doxology (Ancient Greek: doxologia, from , doxa, glory Read more , raqiya sky ; firmament ; heaven Read more , Assiah (or Asiyah, also known as Olam Asiyah, Read more , Abrahamic Study Hall 2015-2023 - Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy - About Us, I just wanted to remind you of a statement that represents the thinking here at ASH (Abrahamic Study Hall): The book describes the history of Islam and argues for a liberal interpretation of the religion. Which is what Aslan seems to do, as well. It concludes with enthusiastic expression of hope for reform in the direction of a democratic Islamic culture, but Aslan offers little reason to believe that this is the likely outcome, to say nothing of its inevitability. His prognostication and current realities are utterly discordant. This updated edition addresses the events of the past decade, analyzing how they have influenced Islam's position in modern culture. Tafsir answers questions of context and chronology, providing an easily understandable framework for Muslims to live a righteous life. The Meaning of Life: What is our purpose on Earth? Public awareness of Islam, the worlds fastest-growing religion, has gone from the basement of our consciousness through the roof, and is now somewhere in the stratosphere, but six years hence, this still has not translated into useful knowledge for very many people. . Whether man made or heavenly sent, timeless or bound to a specific era, there's a thing or two about Islam that one can learn to appreciate. -- who casually overturned some of Mohammad's famously moderate teachings after he died, by claiming they'd heard Mohammad say otherwise. 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