No God but God: The Origins, Evolution, And Future of Islam

This is one book that is really best read cover to cover without omission. If you want to understand the modern day behaviour of Islamic populations, you need to know both the belief and the history of how it arose. Aslan suceeds by starting at the chronological beginning and later on devoting a chapter to a few of the major sects within Islam. The book title derives from the 5th pillar of Islam : the profession of faith. Ironically each major sect (as the author points out) seems to have a different version of this profession of faith, despite being known as one of the three great monotheistic religions. The reasons for the differences only make sense in the light of history, which Aslan has a very good grasp of. I should add that the chronological diverging of religious practice seems to be a common trait of all major belief systems and not a critism unique to any particular one. I thought that author bias (we all have one), was kept to a minimum, although I felt personal emphasis was given to the (very significant) suffering inflicted Husayn ibn Ali at the battle of Karbala. So I wasn't surprised to read later on that the author originated from Iran (although fled to the US during the revolution of 1979) To sumarise, this book is a scholarly, yet readable story of Islam and should also edify the average westerner (like me) on the rights and wrongs of history, especially with regard to the British empire.

I found this book astonishingly readable, so I can wholeheartedly recommend it to non-religious and non-academic readers who happen to need some up-to-date insight into Islam. It is clearsighted in its historical scientific approach, and up-to-date on the major researches going on in comparative religious studies in this field. I gained insights which led t me to correct some positions I held about Islam having lived in so-called Islamic countries for some time. For understanding how we can develop strategies together to lead us out of the current rather antagonistic and sometimes violent encounters between the major religions of the world this book has clear pointers.

I'm very interested in Islam and generally in everything concerning Middle East so I was no ignorant to the book subject that is why rather early on I've noticed that Mr Aslan is a bit too pro shism. However I think it's acceptable as many other books are pro sunni or simply ignore shia branch of Islam. The book however does not suffer much from it, Mr Aslan is a very knowledgeable gentleman and certainly can write, the book is full of interesting facts and anecdotes so I would certainly recommend it. I think it's a good book for a person who know little or next to nothing of Islam as for someone else it can be probably a bit boring to read again what are the pilars of Islam and alike, on the other hand it's written in a way that I found it interesting despite knowing all this already.

A book for Muslims and non Muslims alike - a very different angle/perspective of historic Islam. Well researched, thought and written book

great book

A very interesting book. Well researched and well written. It does come across as a defense of Islam however. I decided to read it hoping to be impressed by the faith, but I came away less so. Mohammed seems to be more of a virile Che Guevara than a Jesus or Buddha. Or worse, perhaps. For example, p70 quotes the Quran stating that much depends on the translation. So, regarding women, you should either "talk to them suasively......and go to bed with them", or "admonish them and abandon them in their beds and beat them". This is spiritual stuff for sure. There's a fair bit of killing going on too, and neither Mohammed nor Aslan seem to mind this too much. For example, lacking inspiration on what to do with the Qurayza who betray him he defers to the trival Hakam. The Hakam decides to execute the men - estimates range between 400 - 700 - and enslave the women. Now, Aslan quite rightly points out that most other religions have had their fair share of bloodshed. But the difference is that with Christianity or Buddhism it wasn't the main man who was involved. Did Jesus instruct the execution of 400 people and enslavement of women and children? Tribal traditions and the historical context are frequent themes. Sometimes Mohammed breaks with them, for example to allow women to divorce men. Other times, for example when marrying a nine year old child. Alsan states that Mohammed "needs no defense on this point". Er, so marrying nine year olds is fine right? Rather, Mohammed seems to do whatever suits him personally, and also politically in growing his power base. He's not big into dissent either as we can see when he's challenged by Al-Tabari, p62. "Those who disobey God and His Messenger, and who try to overstep...will be thrown into Hell". Seems like a fair answer if you don't agree with someone. What I'd like to know also is how can the change in the Quran be justified? Originally Aslan states it is like the Kahins, but as time passes becomes less so as the Kahins are not entirely well thought of. How convenient. Surely if we have a direct communication from God who created the entire universe, he would be able to give us clear unchanging instruction, not tied to the context of 7th century Arabia, and not riddled with ambiguities? And could we have it in all languages please considering that it might be easier than having aboriginies, eskimos, etc. learn Arabic. Again, surely not too much to ask from the Creator of everything. Another point is the campaign against false prophets. I'm curious, how were the false prophets tested? What rules were applied to them, and I would think to Mohammed also, to ensure that a prophet was true? Similarly, for pagans and monotheists, non-believers, etc. Obviously this is why there aren't any hippy festivals like Glastonbury or The Burning Man in Iran or Saudi Arabia. According to Mohammed, our motley crew of dancing fairies and druids deserves to be put to the sword. Let's hope it just doesn't happen near the main stage on a Saturday night. Perhaps Mohammed and Jesus were quite different after all.

The author has given in depth review of the historical facts giving us a book of much substance and details.

I love the book but it isn't the latest version. This is not stated in the blurb so I was disappointed about that.

If tou read " Not God But God " by Reza Asian, you understand thatal-Musliminin is different from Islam Fundamentalism. the al-Musliminin is originally the mutual aid society. I had read also in other book. But, the persons who don't understand that, expressed the opinions as the specialists, but they are the amateurs. the al-Muslimin and Hamas are possible to persuade, and Taliban and the al^Qaeda are impossible to persuade. Almost all of the people cpuld not understand such things. On true meanings, specialits don't exist. In short, they don't read the good books, and cannotstudy sufficiently.

_No god but God_ by Reza Aslan is a fascinating, well-researched, and timely book on the history and future of Islam. In this ambitious work Aslan had three goals. He sought to provide a critical look at the origins and evolution of Islam, not only telling its story but discussing why the religion developed the way it did. Aslan is a big believer in religious scholars and individual worshippers coming to terms with the "spiritual and political landscape" of Muhammad's time, of understanding how this influenced the origins and development of Islam. Any reasonable interpretation of the rise of Islam and how it should be practiced today must come to grips with the cultural milieu of sixth- and seventh-century Arabia, an understanding of which is vital in tracing how Muhammad's "revolutionary message of moral accountability and social egalitarianism" was over time reinterpreted by later clerics into various "competing ideologies of rigid legalism and uncompromising orthodoxy," something which fractured the Muslim community and widened the gap between Sunni Muslims, Shi'ism, and Sufism. A major example Aslan discusses is the rights of women. Islam is often seen as being restrictive and repressive when it comes to women but the author says this was not always so. Muhammad actually introduced many reforms that benefited women, such as a religious view that both sexes were equal in the eyes of God, the right to own and inherit property, divorce their husbands, and limits on the number of wives a man may have, major advances for women when compared to their status in pre-Islamic Arabia. Only after Muhammad's death, when the hadith were collected and canonized (stories and anecdotes about the Prophet and his earliest companions) did women start to lose their rights. Religious scholars - nearly all men - sought to regain the male political, religious and economic dominance they had had before Muhammad's reforms. Hadith that were helpful to women were discarded or misinterpreted and those of doubtful authenticity were deemed official when it suited their purposes. The veil for instance was not "enjoined upon Muslim women" anywhere in the Quran but instead arose later. What originally was something that only Muhammad's wives wore when their home was the community's mosque became at first a way to emulate those wives and then still later yet another means for males to regain their dominance, an example of the "rampant misogyny" of many early Quranic experts. Aslan also analyzed other important debates within Islam by looking at the context of 7th-10th century Arabia. He wrote that Islam is too often characterized as a "religion of the sword" for instance, but he maintains that at the time religion was not an individual choice as it is now; instead, "religion was your ethnicity, your culture, and your social identity...it was your citizenship." All religions of the time, including Christianity, were "religions of the sword." Similarly, the unfortunate and seemingly permanent association of apostasy (denying one's faith) with treason (punishable by death) dates back to early rebellions against the Caliph shortly after Muhammad's death, not anything the Quran stated. A second goal of the book was to note the nature of what he termed the Islamic Reformation, something that is going on right now. The insurgency in Iraq and the bombings in Bali, Madrid, and London, should not be seen only as some jihadist war against the West, but also the results of a civil war within Islam, as various divisions within the Muslim world fight over the future of the faith. Many Muslims favor a more moderate and pluralistic Islam, while to others this is "anathema to their own puritanical beliefs." Not unlike the Christian Reformation, much of the struggle is over who has the authority to define faith, the individual or institutions. As with the Christian Reformation, the first target is not those of other faiths, but those within the faith who do not agree. In many ways the West is but a bystander, if a target at all only so as to galvanize other Muslims to the jihadist cause. The major issue in the Islamic Reformation is the nature of religious authority in Islam. As there is no official, central religious authority, it is instead scattered among a number of smaller, competing though highly influential institutions in the Muslim world, institutions that have maintained a virtual monopoly on interpretation not through any divine decree but instead as the result of scholarship; by maintaining a stranglehold on religious learning, they have kept a tight control over Islam itself. However, dramatic increases in literacy and education and now widespread access to new theories and sources of knowledge as well as a swelling sense of both nationalism and individualism have challenged this monopoly, leading to a variety of "lay" interpretations, from secularizing Western Muslims to Muslim feminists to "veiled-again" Muslims who have rediscovered their faith and traditions. Osama bin Laden is in fact a product of, not a counter to, these newly emerging (and wildly diverging) theories. The Christian Reformation was a violent and bloody contest that embroiled Europe in war and devastation for over a century. It took "fifteen vicious, bloody, and occasionally apocalyptic centuries" for Christianity to progress from pre-Reformation doctrinal absolutism to the doctrinal relativism and pluralism of the modern era; Aslan predicts the Islamic Reformation will be very similar, a "terrifying event, one that has already begun to engulf the world," its battleground not the deserts of Arabia but Islamic cities such as Baghdad, Cairo, and Damascus and Western cities with Muslim populations such as London and Paris. Finally, Aslan sought to advocate reform within the Muslim world. A practicing Muslim, he wrote that some will be upset with the term reform or Reformation, as they resist the notion that there is any inherent flaw within Islam that needs "reforming," while others will consider the term too optimistic, perceiving the rise in jihadist violence not as an indication of any evolution but of devolution within the Islamic world.

What a fabulous book. As an American, I've been subject to news day and night about how all Muslims are terrorists. I do not believe in generalizations like this and I know many Muslims who are wonderful people. I also know lots of people, people I consider smart, who believe this stereotype. No G-d but G-d unravels the mysteries of Islam to the uninitiated. Alsam, the author, reveals the man who was Muhammad, and his "disciples", a term I use here to draw a correlation to the development another great religion. Muhammad revealed the words of G-d through the Koran, which he taught orally. This oral Koran was passed down through several generations before it was ultimately compiled into a book. But, since Muhammad did not leave formal succession plans, for several generations competing factions fought over direct political leadership as well as religious leadership. During this early period, the religion began to split as some spiritual leaders interpreted the hidden meanings behind the Koran. Ultimately, this led to the primary factions of Islam today, Sunni, Shia and Suffi. Each "brand" of Islam sees itself as the correct spiritual interpretation, and others not so much. But, over the years, expansion of Islam into the Ottoman Empire, the expansion and colonization of the British into Asia and the political interventions of the Americans beat down the proud Muslims. This created instability, and ultimately lead to extremism. Most of the violence perpetuated is focused between the various factions. Ethnic cleansing has been a problem seen across the middle-east and other Muslim countries. The issue for the future, according to Aslam, is how to reconcile the religion with today. How does one get the extremists to pass control of the religion onto more modern interpretations that work with modern society. As I said earlier, this was a fascinating a well written book. Alsam has published a number of scholarly texts about Islam, Christianity and Judaism, as well as the relationship between these great religions and others. He just released a new book, Zealot about the life of Jesus. This is coming up on my reading list. If you have any bias against Islam, or see all Muslims as terrorists, this is a must read book. To understand why extremism seems to be the face of Islam in the world, you need to understand the background and development of Islam. You also must be able to interpret its growth and development throughout turbulent times.

The book is very well written. Very easy to read and very informative. Could be used as a supplement or secondary approach on research on Islamic history and contemporary times. I would recommend someone interested in Islamic history to read --- Margin Langs: Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources One complaint about the book is, it emphasizes too much on 'shia' world. And doesnt critque clearly on shia ideologies and formations as he does for the "sunnis'. However, I do recommend everyone/anyone to read this book and form their own opinions.

When I bought this book I was looking for a very neutral, historical overview of Islam. This book does an amazing job of delving into the historical context that Islam developed both from and in. I found that aspect of the book to be informative while giving me the necessary historical context to better understand the religion as well as some insight into who today's Muslims are and where they stand in the world. I gave this book 4 stars (wish I could give it 4.5) instead of 5 for one specific reason. I was looking for a more neutral examination of Islam. Reza Aslan (the author) spends some page space making the case that Islam is compatible with democracy, as well as explaining what factors have created the impression in many westerners that Islam intrinsically bends towards theocracy. He makes a compelling case, in part, because this is far from the focus of the book (which is to inform the reader). Aside from the above critique (based on my expectation of the book), I found No god but God to be an enjoyable read throughout. In addition to being entertaining it was immensely informative. I would recommend this book to anybody who has a limited knowledge of the basic facts surrounding Islam and a desire to improve their understanding of the religion and its believers.