Reza Aslan Review of his book: No god but God; The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam (Published in the year 2005)

No god but God; The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam (Published in the year 2005)

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Author and background: Reza Aslan, is Iranian-American scholar that specializes in religious studies, he has a degree in religion from the University of Santa Monica, a Master of Theological studies from Harvard, a Master in fine arts in fiction from the University of Iowa and a PH.D in sociology the University of Santa Barbra, so we can say the man knows his stuff.

Review: Look I was drawn to this author after reading Zealot the Life and times of Jesus of Nazareth, even though I didn’t see eye to eye with him in every topic that he wrote in that book I really enjoyed his point of view, he understands theology and he can explain it in  ways that  makes sense and in a practical way, he doesn’t lose himself in philosophical nonsense that goes nowhere (this tends to happen with these types of authors), he never get too muddled. So I set out to find other books that he had published and I came across with this master peace, this book is about the history of Islam and it’s much better than Zealot basically because he not trying to hammer in and prove a hypothesis like he’s trying to do in Zealot. So If you like studding Religions in general, or you want to understand Islam in general, the Iranian revolution or Muslim Fundamentalism this book will really open your eyes.

The Good:

·         I have been studying Religion and its impact on International Relation for more than 16 years, and Reza actual explains the deference between Sunni, Shia and Sufi Muslims, better than most writers, and he also establishes difference between Islamists and Fundamentalist, perfectly.

·         He has a profound knowledge of History, Islamic Culture and Theology, that never divorce one another in the way he explains Islam, it’s very insightful, he's not like most western authors that tend to have a disjointed analysis separating everything into its parts and here is where you lose valuable information, and it isn’t as ethnocentric as most Western authors .

·         Reza actual writes about personal issues about being Iranian and going back to his mother land to visit.

Reza Aslan

·         His analysis of pre-Islamic Arabia and the Early days of the Prophet is impeccable actually it the first time I find a author that writes about this in such detail.

·  The book explains that Islam didn’t have an insular evolution it was very influenced in its early stages by Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrian beliefs. Zoroastrian preaching established “the existence of Heaven and Hell, the idea of bodily resurrection, the promise  of a universal savior born to a young maiden, and the apocalyptic battle between good and evil”, as one can observe Zoroastrian influence in all three religions. Now going back to Islam Aslan explains that this religion and its Prophet where born in a multiethnic and multireligious society, from my point of view Muhammad tried to create the ultimate and definitive religious syntheses, trying to overcome tribal and ethnic boundaries in doing so he made some major doctrinal changes, thanks to divine revelation (note author does not use this term) for those who are believers, creating a new religion.

·         Aslan illustrates a Muhammad that was politically very intelligent, that was pretty much a self made man, claimed in social leader as preacher, his knowledge of tribal politics, the reputation as a fair Judge/ Hakam, which in his society gave a person great prestige, and also used marriage to for political alliances.

·         Muhammad tried to dismiss tribal and ethnic boarders; he helped the poor and pushed for social reform and economic justice. The Ummah in a way converts into the new tribe that must respect the social norms proposed by the Prophet, everyone is equal. For Muhammad, your religion is your citizenship.   

·         The author explains that the veil in Islam, actually is a pre-Islamic tradition, during Muhammad’s time only his wives had the obligation to use them, Aslan explain some time after his death the Veil became more popular because it was used to emulate the Prophets wives and their example. Muhammad actual did very much for Women’s rights during his time, Umar the second Caliph had a heavy hand in reducing women’s right establishing a negative doctrine towards them in general.

·         Speculative theology makes no sense in most of the Muslim world; from my point of view this has a colossal impact a social/political scale that will shape the Islamic world in a way that it will differentiate itself from the west, being that it has the same Judeo/Christian and classic origins. 

·         Aslan talks about the five pillars of Islam and how this establishes who is a Muslim and who is not. He establishes that they are not oppressive obligations they are task for only those who can perform them. They help the believer involvement in the community, this is the church in Islam, the Ummah confers  meaning and purpose.

•    Torah/Old Testament+ Gospel/New Testament+ Quran = Umm al-Kitab/ Mother of all Books, it’s considered by Muslims as a single divine scripture, there for Jews  and Christians are considered ahi al-Kitab or People of the Book, each one establishing its own Umma. Author make the affirmation that the Torah had a special place in Islam, for the first two centuries Muslims read it with the Quran. So someone should explain to Bill O'Reilly and the rest of the US right that the ten comandments are  part of Muslim doctrin.  

The Bad:

·         This book hasn’t been published here in Argentina so a have an E book copy, I hate working with these books, I have an OCD issue with underlining stuff in books and writing on the margins. (I know this isn't the authors fault; I just wanted to rant a bit).

·         The author talks about metaphysical events that happened to Muhammad, without questioning them, but in his book Zealot Aslan discards most of Jesus’s miracles, excepted for healings and resurrection (most read Zealot to understand). 

·         I personally didn’t understand the relevance of the debate between the people that think that Quran is created or uncreated. (If any wants to explain it to me post it in the comment below).

Some core topics, debatable stuff and Analysis:

• ·         The Author establishes that the conflict or friction that the west seems to have with Muslim world isn’t Cultural (he doesn’t define this pretty elastic term and just like Samuel Huntington’s civilization concept never is truly defined ) in nature but religious, it’s not a Clash of Civilizations but a Clash of Monotheisms. One God not only rejects all other gods, it rejects all other explanation for God. One God One Truth, absolutely irreconcilable. From my point of view I think both factors Cultural and Religious play their own part in this conflict between the West and the Islamic World, they cannot be separated, even in the West some religious concepts have been imbedded so deep into our culture that we actual don’t perceive them as such, but have become basic cultural and social values, and it fuels most underlining etnocentric views of superiority. The way the believer establishes his religious identity is conditioned with cultural and historical factors, affecting his/hers views the world, and not all believers integrate their religion in their belief systems in such an absolute level as proposed by Reza, religious relativism rains on both side off the debate, if thing where not like this we would be locked in total conflict with the Islamic world as a whole, but he is right that on a theoretical level one God one truth, is totally correct, religion tends to be monopolic in Nature.

• Some Arab tribes started to convert to Christianity, and as a religion started to be a growing cultural force in the region, it also had an influence in early Islam the author mentions that the Quranic apocalypse is very similar to the Christian apocalypse. Also Aslan illustrates that when Amina (Muhammed’s mother) was pregnant se was visited by an angel, very similarly to the story of Mary with Jesus.
• The Author explains that in Islamic tradition Muhammed was illiterate and there for the creation of the Quran is his greatest Miracle, but he explains that this is all true but one must recognize that he was a merchant and a buisnes man he must have had some basic reading and writing skills, and one must also take into account the Quran was written some after Muhammed death.  Now in comparison with Judiasm and Cristianity Aslan explains Moses proved himself with magic, note the author uses this word  instead of miracale, and Jesus did the same with healing and exorcisms, while Muhammad used langue he proved that the spoken word truly had mystical powers. “Community that do not rely on the written records tend to believe that the written word is continuously recreated through there myths and rituals. In these societies poets, priest, shamans…poetry and artful manipulation of the language is thought to posses the dive authority necessary to express fundamental truths” p 100, and this had a profound impact on the Quran when it was finally written. And the Quran itself not only the foundation of Islam but also the foundation of Arabic in its written form.  
•   Muhammad actually establishes an Islamic State that latter would become the Caliphate. Abu Bakr is Muhammad first successor to the prophet and to head the community up holding the religious institutions, but not defining practices and no prophetic authority. Arabs have a aversion hereditary lineage, the Caliph was chosen through negotiation and consultation among the elders, not elected by the Ummah. Now the Caliph must be obeyed because he had been placed there by the will of God but Aslan explain that the Prophet never truly explains which is the especific mandate Caliph, this historically leads to all kinds of turmoil and problems in the Muslim world.
•        Ali’s exclusion from the selection for caliph because he was considered too young, but later he and his wife Fatima (Muhammad’s daughter) was disinherited from Muhammad’s property. For many Ali wasn’t the fourth Caliph he was the first or something else the Imam the proof of God on Earth, establishing a whole new doctrine in Islam so giving birth to the Shi’ah who view themselves as a divinely founded institution that could be only run  by the most  pious person in the community, irrespective of his tribe, lineage or ancestory.
•       Reza explains Jihad does no translate into war, actually the crusaders coined the phrase of holy war and during this period this concept creped it way into Islamic doctrine, the thing is that the author explains that war in Islamic terms most be fought defensively. Aslan explain that the Islamic scholar Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1338) is the Muslim equivalent of Saint Augusts, writing about when war was valid to fight and when not. Now Taymiyya is pretty vague in explaining what’s an aggression (from what I have investigated from his works) against Islam and actually legitimating taking proactive steps against violation against the faith. 
•      The author actual goes to great lengths to establish paralallisms between Judaism and Islam establishing that both share most main religious figures , stories, anecdotes and they tend to view things from the same perspective, I personal  think that the context that they were born in to, in this case the desert plays a major role in this, while Christianity is born in a urban context , but the main difference is how each faith interpret things. The conflict between Jews and Muslims for the author was spawned for political, economic and tribal/political issues not religious, from my point of view  in part the religious legitimization from a Jewish tribe must have been an issue for the Prophet, this would have undermined his political power if they didn't recognize him as a prophet, Aslan opposes this position, he explains that Muhammad imposed a tax free market and this hurt Jewish interest and  the Banu Qurayza ( a Jewish tribe in Medina) had ties to his enemies the  Quraysh, we most remember Muslims  viewed themselves as heirs of Jewish tradition during their time in Medina prayed facing Jerusalem and they had adopted many Jewish customs like dietary laws and purity requirements. Muhammad specifically orders his followers to fast with Jews in coincidence during Yom Kippur. 
• Muhammad had issues with the Holy Trinity, God cannot be divided, so there is some level of interpretation of Jesus on theological level, we must not forget the he is considered  a Prophet by Muhammad. 
• Shi’ah believe that the legitimate succession from Muhammad come from his son in law Ali and his grand sons Hasan and Husain and as legitimate successors they are known as   Imams and they represent the spiritual authority of the Prophet while the Caliph  for Sunni’s could be considered as the vice-regent of the Prophet on Earth, Aslan establishes the Iman actually lack political power. The Prophet transmits the message of God Imams translate it for human beings, Adam was the first Imam, Abraham is the Prophet Isaac and Ishmael are the Imams, Moses is the Prophet/Aaron is the Imam, Jesus the Prophet/Peter is the Imam and finally Muhammad the is Prophet/Ali the Imam. The author explains   human being do not have the capacity to attain knowledge of God on their own, the Iman is the mediator. Iman possesses esoteric knowledge that they keep in a secret book and they are the only one that truly know the secret name of God.
• Three major intellectual movements are born in the Islamic world as result of the colonial experiment: Modernist (who wanted to adopt European institutions like the rule of law in their countries), Pan-Arabism (for example the Ba’ath political party is spawned out of this movement) and Pan-Islamist ( the Muslim Brotherhood, with Hassan al-Banna as its intellectual father), which gives way due to political persecution into Islamic Radicalism, with Sayyid Qutd at its for front. Aslan explains that Pan Islamism is a reaction (among many social injustices) against Christian missionary activity, but it was more of a social movement not a political party, when it radicalized it became a full blown political actor. Its  Interesting to see the last vestiges of Pan-Arabism as we have in the Bashar al-Assad Regim are battling to survive against Isis which is a horrible offshoot from the Pan-Islamic ideology.  
•         The ideology of Islamism, is of a political Islam, it calls for the creation of an Islamic State, it’s a social political order defined on Muslim Values, their political view establish that  secular Modernist governments have failed and must be replaced. Author establishes that Islamism is a synonym to Fundamentalism, which is a overly simplified vision of  Islam, overly centered on the Tawhid, heavly fixated on “There is no god but God”,  tremendously reactionary in there action the author establishes the Kharijites, the ones responsible for Ali’s death as the first historic fundamentalist. 
•      Muhammed idn Saud (died in 1765) founded the Saudi regime was the Emir Ad-Diriyyah, who forged a pact Muhammed ibn Abdul-Wahhad who was a radicalized Islamic preacher and scholar, who was basically hellbent in stopping any adulteration of Islam, stripping Islam of what he saw as superstitious innovations and restore Arab purity, setting him crash course with the Shi’ah and Sufi populations living in the Arabian Peninsula.  
    

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What's your opinion of this author and his book? please feel free to post your coments

 Rating: 8 out 10