A New Introduction to Islam, by Daniel Brown
A New Introduction to Islam, by Daniel Brown, is a great book about Islam from an academic perspective. I feel like I learned a whole lot.#
The declaration of an Islamic general to peoples under siege:#
God has sent us and has brought us here so that we may extricate those who so desire from servitude to the people [here on earth] and make them servants of God; that we may transform their poverty in this world into affluence, and that we may free them from the inequity of the religions and bestow on them the justice of Islam. He has sent us to bring His religion to His creatures and to call them to Islam. Whoever accepts it from us, we shall be content. We shall leave him on his land to rule it with us; but whoever refuses, we shall fight him, until we fulfill the promise of God. (Tabari 1992, 12: 67) [p. 6-7]
There is a theory of the rise of Islam that links it with the rise of trade in Mecca. However...#
It was not the sort of trade that would put Mecca on the map. Which explains why, in fact, Mecca was not on anyone's map. No one in the wider world seems to have had any idea where Mecca was, or even that it existed, before the Arab conquests (Crone 1987a: 134). [p. 17]
On the focal point of Shi'i Islam, Husayn and someone who filled a similar role in the succession battle:#
Husayn and Ibn al-Zubayr present an ironic contrast. Ibn al-Zubayr had a fair amount of political and military success and at one time ruled a vast expanse of the empire; today, only the specialists in Islamic history know his name. Husayn, on the other hand, was an abject political and military failure; yet his martyrdom altered history and his passion is reenacted yearly by millions of Shi'i Muslims. [p. 40]
There is an interesting discussion near the end of the section on Islamic Origins (p. 43) about how Muhammad is not mentioned in early writing about Islam, despite the wide mentioning of Allah.#
On the origins of the Qur'an...#
A striking characteristic of the Qur'an is the extraordinary uniformity of the Arabic text in all extant editions. (This assertion applies only to the consonants in the text, not the vowels.) Whether we compare modern printed editions or the oldest manuscripts, the basic Arabic text in any given Qur'an is consistent with every other --- so consistent, in fact, that when small anomalies are discovered they loom large. [...] For at least twelve centuries the text has proven remarkably immune to the forces of time. [p. 55]
Another interesting aspect of the Qur'an is how often Christianity is mentioned with severe emphasis on the heresy of particular (Trinitarian) strands of Christian theology. [p. 59]#
On reading the Qur'an as an unstudied outsider...#
The best way to get at the meaning of the Qur'an, one might think, would be to pick up a translation and read it for oneself. Inexpensive translations are accessible enough, after all, and why should one read a textbook synopsis when one can read the original, which happens to be rater more interesting? This is excellent advice for anyone who wishes to read the Qur'an for personal edification. It turns out to be very poor advice for anyone concerned to understand how Muslims approach the content of the Qur'an. A simple comparison will make this clear. Suppose that a student unfamiliar with the Bible, but knowing it to be Christian scripture, was to begin reading it to try to understand Christianity. She would like begin at the beginning, in Genesis, and before she was a quarter of the way through she would not need to read any further to know that Christianity is a religion that condones child sacrifice, misogyny, and genocide. If our student had some vague impression of endemic violence, wife battering, and child abuse in Western societies she would immediately know where to place the blame. The dominant religious tradition of Western civilization is quite obviously a misogynistic and violent religion, as anyone who begins to read its scriptures can immediately see. [p. 63]
The meaning of the Qur'an:#
The overall thrust of the Qur'an is remarkably simple, and can be summarized in one paragraph. It begins, of course, with God. God is One, the Creator of all that is, including humankind. We humans owe God exclusive allegiance and worship, but we tend to allow our attention to wander and to associate created beings with God. Such association, called shirk, is the most basic of sins. God is merciful, however, and that mercy is most clearly manifested in the form of prophets and scriptures sent as reminders to call forgetful humans back to exclusive worship of God. [p. 64]
A page from Islamic history... when the Medinans were defeated by the Meccans after the opposite circumstance, the Meccans claimed to have "evened the score", but...#
To this 'Umar made the famous reply: "We are not equal. Our dead are in paradise; your dead in hell." [p. 80]
Given the Prophet's declaration that "My community will never agree upon an error", some Islamic schools of legal thought focus on consensus. This is an interesting question that all religions and legal questions should ask... how important is consensus, and can a group in complete agreement still be wrong? [p. 123] Notably in Islam, this is a "hard sell among the Shi'a" (p. 125).#
The 73 Sects of Islam (p. 136)#
There is an interesting discussion of the Crusades (big deal of Muslims) and the Mongol invasions (devastating and brilliant, but not as inspiring of conservativism as is typically thought) in the chapters on crises.#
An amazing paragraph on a particular Islamic law:#
Some modern Muslim men also see no difficulty with this reading [of the Qur'an], but on the whole the equation "one man equals two women" does not go over well in the modern world, especially among women. [p. 218]
There is an interesting parallel in Islam with regards to marriage (Nasr Abu Zayd) and the consequences of excommunication in restored Christianity. (p. 219)#
On Wahhabism:#
It is one measure of the success of Wahhabism that is has for so long and so successfully convinced many non-Muslims that it is the real thing. [p. 230]
A closing thought on Pluralism:#
If God had so willed, he would have made all of you on community, but [He has not done so] that He may test you in what He has given you; so compete in goodness. To God shall you all return and He will tell you [the Truth] about what you have been disputing. (Qur'an, Sura 5, verse 48) [p. 231]