Exploring Islam in a New Light: An Understanding from the Quranic Perspective
By Abdur Rab
http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?isbn=0-595-47940-5Emphasizing the Quran?s messages of peace, tolerance, and compassion, this book intentionally avoids Hadith-based ideas to significantly contribute to the ?Quran only? movement in Islam.
Book DescriptionThis Islam is spiritual, humane, and scientific, far from its fanatic and militant image it carries in the West. It shows how man can evolve spiritually to lead an enriched, progressive, and blissful life. It advocates tolerance and peaceful co-existence and disapproves of gender or human discrimination and harsh punishments. Abdur Rab argues that, regrettably, the Hadith undermines and misrepresents Islam. Numerous Hadith texts contradict the Quran, reason, and science and send conflicting, confusing messages. The criteria used to authenticate the Hadith are flawed and simply inadequate.
This book is an impassioned call to understand Islam solely in Quranic terms and to reform practiced Islam, distorted by Hadith-based ideas.
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I just received the book and skipped through it. The first thing I noticed was the foreword by Prof. Riffat Hassan, the well known feminist Muslim scholar and student of GA.Parwez. Next to this the very good reviews by convert Prof. Jeffrey Lang (author of "Loosing my Religion" & "When angels ask", prof. in Islam) and prof. Reza Aslan (author " No God but God") and others.
All of them praised its' Qur'anic approach and also agreed on the need to return to the Qur'an. This coming from 2 well-known Islamic professors shows that the Qur'anic stance is gaining ground everywhere.
The topics are laid out very good and his approach is very professional. Next to laying out some well-known issues, he also brings in some fresh ideas. Good use of footnotes and quoting of Qur'anic verses makes this a very good work and important for us to have.
A must have for progressive Muslims!