God in the Qur’an by jack miles knopf, 256 pages, $26.95 Jack Miles, a former Jesuit seminarian turned author and editor, is best known for God: A Biography. In his latest book, he compares the gods of the Qur’an and Bible, with sympathy for the former. Instead of addressing the . . . . Continue Reading »
For a European government to bring a blasphemy prosecution in 2017 is incongruous, to say the least. Continue Reading »
The incidents are numerous, and the phrase is one: “Allahu Akbar.” What does it really mean? Why is it so significant for those executing these attacks? Continue Reading »
God is Beautiful: The Aesthetic Experience of the Quranby navid kermaniwiley, 400 pages, $45According to the Islamic doctrine of iʿjāz, the Qur’an is an inimitable book, a miracle. Western scholars, pointing out grammatical errors and other infelicities in the text, have long criticized this . . . . Continue Reading »
Feminist Edges of the Qur’an by aysha a. hidayatullah oxford, 288 pages, $24.95 M odern developments in the study of the Qur’an began in Western academia in the mid-late twentieth century with scholars like Fazlur Rahman. Leading thinkers in this field such as Riffat Hassan, Azizah . . . . Continue Reading »
On Thursday, August 27, 2015, the first part of Iran’s most expensive movie trilogy, “Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah,” opened nationwide in Iran. It took more than eighty months for this movie to be completed. Its primary goal, according to its director Majid Majidi, “is to reclaim the . . . . Continue Reading »
Does Islam worship the one God of Abraham, like Jews and Christians, or some other god? Many strident voices insist Allah is a different god. Inconveniently, though, the three great monotheistic faiths claim Abraham as their patriarch and resulting from that, each claim Abraham’s one God as their . . . . Continue Reading »
On Wednesday, September 24, 2014, “More than 120 Muslim scholars from around the world joined an open letter to the ‘fighters and followers’ of the Islamic State.” The signees represent the Sunni branch of Islam (with the exception of one Sufi person), and include important Muslim figures such as the former and current Grand Muftis of Egypt and the Muftis of Jerusalem, Bulgaria, Kosovo, and Malaysia. They live and teach on Islam in the Middle East, North, Central, and West Africa, Europe, North America, and the Far East. The letter relies heavily on the Qur’an and various “trustworthy” sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as classical Sunni writings and interpretations. It attempts to rebut the ideology of ISIS with cardinal Islamic texts that ISIS itself has cited. Continue Reading »
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