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    No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam
    Unavailable
    No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam
    Unavailable
    No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam
    Audiobook12 hours

    No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam

    Written by Reza Aslan

    Narrated by Shishir Kurup

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A fascinating, accessible introduction to Islam from the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Zealot

    Though it is the fastest growing religion in the world, Islam remains shrouded by ignorance and fear. What is the essence of this ancient faith? Is it a religion of peace or war? How does Allah differ from the God of Jews and Christians? Can an Islamic state be founded on democratic values such as pluralism and human rights? A writer and scholar of comparative religions, Reza Aslan has earned international acclaim for the passion and clarity he has brought to these questions. In No god but God, challenging the "clash of civilizations" mentality that has distorted our view of Islam, Aslan explains this critical faith in all its complexity, beauty, and compassion.

    Contrary to popular perception in the West, Islam is a religion firmly rooted in the prophetic traditions of the Jewish and Christian scriptures. Aslan begins with a vivid account of the social and religious milieu in which the Prophet Muhammad lilved. The revelations that Muhammad received in Mecca and Medina, which were recorded in the Quran, became the foundation for a radically more egalitarian community, the likes of which had never been seen before.

    Soon after his death, the Prophet's successors set about the overwhelming task of defining and interpreting Muhammad's message for future generations. Their efforts led to the development of a comprehensive code of conduct that was expected to regulate every aspect of the believer's life. But this attempt only widened the chasm between orthodox Islam and its two major sects, Shiism and Sufism, both of which Aslan discusses in rich detail.

    Finally, No god but God examines how, in the shadow of European colonialism, Muslims developed conflicting strategies to reconcile traditional Islamic values with the social and political realities of the modern world. With the emergence of the Islamic state in the twentieth century, this contest over the future of Islam has become a passionate, sometimes violent battle between those who seek to enforce a rigid and archaic legal code and those who struggle to harmonize the teachings of the Prophet with contemporary ideals of democracy and human rights. According to Reza Aslan, we are now living in the era of "the Islamic Reformation." No god but God is a persuasive and elegantly written account of the roots of this reformation and the future of Islamic faith.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMar 24, 2009
    ISBN9780739383322
    Unavailable
    No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam
    Author

    Reza Aslan

    Reza Aslan (he/him) is a writer and scholar of religions. He lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife and 4 kids, so he knows a thing or 2 about trying to solve conflicts. Reza always wanted to be a writer. But his mom told him he had to get a "real job" first. So, he spent years at school earning a bunch of degrees so he could become a scholar of religions. Now, he gets to do both of those things: study religion and write books! A recipient of the prestigious James Joyce Award, Reza has written several internationally bestselling books, including the #1 New York Times Bestseller, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. Reza is also an Emmy- and Peabody-nominated scholar and public intellectual who tries to help people make sense of the sometimes nonsensical things we all do in the name of religion and politics.

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    Reviews for No god but God

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      Aslan presents a clear, engaging narrative of the history and development of Islam in all of its complexity. I appreciated the thorough discussion on Iran and the influence of (very) current events on the ongoing Islamic Reformation. While it was written and even updated before the rise of ISIS, this book helped me understand where and how radical Islamic sects like al Qaeda originate and how the American enterprise of democracy building in the Middle East was inevitably doomed.
    • 3/5
      This was educational and very detailed. I have a better understanding of the history and evolution of Islam. And I hope the author is correct about its future.
    • 5/5
      There was a lot to like in this book, subtitled "The Origins, Evolutions, and Future of Islam". It served me well as a good introduction to the Muslim faith, about which I knew lamentably little. I have a new appreciation for the diversity of belief that Islam encompasses, and I finally (mostly) understand the differences between the Shi'a, Sunni, and Sufi branches of Islam. The biggest and most important takeaway, of course, is reinforcement of the knowledge that a very small percentage of the world's Muslims hold the kind of fundamentalist viewpoint that has led to terrorist attacks on the West. Aslan's explanation of how the words of the Quran have been interpreted in ways that seem completely contrary to the actions and words of its prophet, Mohammed, is akin to describing a centuries-long game of telephone played to advance political viewpoints. Things get lost in translation and interpretation, accidentally and deliberately, but once lost they are difficult to retrieve.It's also less than heartening to read that much of the growth in fundamentalist Islam came about as a direct result of Western colonial activity in the Middle East, India, and Africa. It's difficult to read about brutal suppression and the deliberate pitting of one faith's true believers against another's in order to ensure native populations would be too fractured to mount a successful revolution, especially with the hindsight of what those actions wrought over the long term and into our current political landscape. In that sense, this book only reaffirmed my belief that we have no place, militarily, in the Middle East today. What is happening in Iraq is tragic, to be sure, and partly our fault, but nothing we do now is likely to make it better. We would have been far better off never to have started the war in the first place. Perhaps it's no use crying over those past decisions but we need to keep reminding people that time has proven them to be total failures lest we stumble into the same minefield all over again, as has happened time and again.Given all of that, Aslan seems unduly optimistic that the current brand of fundamentalist Islam that has led to so many terrorist attacks will wane as the overwhelmingly young Muslim population moves away from that message and toward a version of populist democracy. He cites the people's uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya to support his view, although a reader can't help but notice that the book was written before the "Arab Spring" failed to truly catch hold and in some places was brutally suppressed or slid backwards into tyranny once again. Aslan also is optimistic that Islam and democracy can (and will) co-exist, though he rightly points out that we in the West must stop thinking our brand of democracy is the only right way to do it. Certainly we have an innate distrust of government that overtly espouses a religious viewpoint, but Aslan argues that just as Muhammed ruled the city of Medina without persecuting the Jewish and Christian minorities who lived and traded there, the same sort of faith-based governance could work today. As you might expect from a book that encompasses more than 900 years of history in just 300 pages, the best that can be said about No god but God is that it is a decent introduction to Islam for those like me who knew little. Further reading would be necessary to truly understand many of the complex subjects that Aslan only lightly touches on, but he provides a strong starting point for the curious.
    • 3/5
      I want to write two reviews for this book. In one I say well done, and thank you Reza Aslan, for your clear prose, your sympathetic defense of Islam, the remarkable way you cram so much--religious history, political history, theology, religious practice--into so few pages.
      In the other I say for the sake of all that's holy Reza, will you stop banging on about how Islam is a liberal-democrat's wet dream religion? Because that doesn't sit very well with your endless claims that the Ulama comprises only the spawn of anti-liberal-democratic-demons. And while we're at it, I'm pretty sure clerics have reasons other than sexism for the decisions they make. Tied in to this, will you stop making obviously bad arguments (e.g., "People say that Islam is a 'religion of the sword.' But Buddhists and Christians fight all the time!" Sure they do. But Jesus and Buddha never commanded armies.)? Will you get off Sufism's jockstrap? I know that's the easiest to paint as the aforementioned L-DWD religion (drink! screw! rock'n'roll! the Gaia thesis! I mean, there must be more to it than that), but it's just possible that that's a sign of weakness rather than strength.

      Instead, I will just say: this is a great, short introduction to the history of Islam. It touches on a few theological/jurisprudential points without knuckling down on them. His idea that Islamic terrorism is caused by a surging conservatism clashing with an equally surging liberalization is a plausible one. But the book's polemic (justified by hysterical Islamophobia, I grant you) distorts its history and argument far too much: if Islam offered only support for liberal-capitalistic governments in the middle east, it wouldn't be as popular as it is.
    • 3/5
      A must read for those striving to understand the political evolution of the religious / political state of Islam. Must read more than once.
    • 4/5
      This book spent time lost on bookshelves, in moving boxes, and in temporarily abandoned backpacks until I finally finished it today. This is the first book on Islam I've ever read, so I'm no expert on the factual parts of the book, but Aslan definitely seems to know what he's talking about. It is mostly a straightforward history of the religion. The last two chapters are about its history under colonialism, the struggle between more moderate forms of Islam with that of Wahhabist Islam, and finally about the future of the religion. If you want a fairly detailed (but not overwhelmingly so) history of Islam, this is a great place to start. My only quibble was in the some of the historical recounting, Aslan shifts into the present tense and takes on almost a fiction-like tone, I guess to make it more relatable. But I found it kind of jarring, because the book is fantastic when it is just clearly written with a measured tone, but without being dry. Apart from this, I highly recommend it.
    • 4/5
      An excellent introduction to Islam. Helpful for outsiders.
    • 3/5
      A pretty good concise account of the revelation to Mohammed and the origins of Islam. Well worth a read.
    • 5/5
      Devoid of references to miracles and divine intervention, this book is a rational commentary on and explanation of the history of Islam, analyzing its origins and early evolution in the social, political and economic context of 7th century Arabia. Well written and concise, it should be included in all Islamic Studies curriculum.
    • 5/5
      One of the things I loved about No god but God is that the author’s personal religious beliefs never really compromises his retelling of the history. It’s almost as if he’s taking a non-Muslim perspective at times in order to prove or explain things, which I really liked because it shows that he’s rational and logical and doesn’t fall back on religious arguments that can’t be proven all the time. I loved is how he writes about the religion in the Arabian penninsula before Islam. He goes a lot more in depth than most authors do on the subject. He does a lot to put things into perspective and to show how truly tolerant and accepting the early Islamic community was. Which is one thing that Aslan keeps bringing up and trying to prove - that the ummah is meant to encompass Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Not just Muslims. Aslan is a rationalist and it definitely shows. Whenever he questions an Islamic concept it always seems to strengthen his faith instead of damaging it. I think it’s supposed to do that to the reader, too. It certainly worked for me. I’ve always been a firm believer in the idea that you cannot have true faith until you question it, and that questioning your religion or your faith is a good thing.
    • 4/5
      I had to read this book for my Islamic History class at college. It is an excellent choice for its intended audience, intelligent Western readers who know little about Islam. Reza Aslan is a good storyteller and his book is very informative and relatively balanced.However, No God But God was a little too ambitious. The book is too short to make any serious attempt to cover the entire history of the religion. Aslan writes in great detail about the first fifty years or so, then basically skips ahead 800 years to the present day, passing over a lot of important events in the meantime. I would recommend this book as only an introduction; if you really want to know a lot about the Muslim religion you need to consult other works.
    • 5/5
      Mr. Aslan walks one through the history of Islam (and his ideas concerning its future) in a (blessedly) slim and readable volume. He wrote the book for a western audience, and he delivers. This book explains more about the origins and operation of Islam as a faith and its impact on politics (both national and global) than any other I have come across. A valuable book for anyone hoping to, at least elementarily, understand Islam.
    • 5/5
      This is a great overview of the history and basis tenets of Islam. It's very readable and informative.
    • 4/5
      A dense but readable and valuable overview of Islam's roots, and the events that led, centuries later, to the factional fighting in the news now. I was particularly taken by the early stories of the Prophet. How have I never heard that awesome story of men washing the heart of the boy Muhammad in a big bowl of snow? (So much better than guys arriving with frankincense and myrrh.)I find meager hope in the reminder that Christianity evolved through Inquisition and Reformation over 15 centuries, and that Islam in entering its 15th century.
    • 4/5
      This book covers two topics: it is an exposition of Islam, its prophet, its tenets and its history, and it is also a argument on the future of Islam, as a modern political philosophy.I found the book to be quite good in its first objective: the stage is set in the tribal and poor Arabian peninsula for the emergence of Muhammad who was to give rise to a revolutionary and world changing religion. The author covers the emergence of the movement, its consolidation and explosion onto the world stage while also clearly introducing Islamic tenets, the five pillars of the faith, the hadith – the interpretation of the deeds, words and tradition of Muhammad as well as the two major branches of Islam, Sufism and Shi’a. Here the book shines: the author has rendered a beautiful and evocative account of the life of Muhammad, and is excellent it its description of the faith and its components.The author also argues that Islam is in the throes of a reformation which pits conservatives whose response to the challenges of colonialism and modernity has been to uphold rigid and literal teachings based on antiquated and unsubstantiated hadiths, and those wishing for a more liberal, egalitarian Islam– which according to the author is in line with the deeds and vision of the prophet. To support his claim, the author points to the egalitarian Medina community set up by Muhammad, his concern for the oppressed, as well as components from Sufism (love, tolerance) and Shi’ism (sacrifice, egalitarianism, jurisprudence).This is a beautiful book both in content and aspiration. Exceedingly well written, the passages on Muhammad are excellent. However, I can only describe the book’s argumentation as wishful thinking. Given the present geopolitical context, the stakes of this Islamic reformation could not be higher – unfortunately, signs of its effectiveness on the ground are hard to come by. It seems to me that those who most closely associate with the oppressed and who offer solutions of egalitarianism and justice are those most opposed to this reformation. Furthermore, those who control Islamic orthodoxy through jurisprudence, custody of holy sites or dissemination – be them Saudi Wahhabism or Iranian Shi’a fundamentalism – are those just as opposed to this reformation. It would truly take a revolutionary and world changing shift for the reformation of Islam to succeed. Also the author is Iranian or of Iranian origin, and his Shi’a slant on things was both refreshing and edgy.
    • 4/5
      Reza Aslan has written a history of Islam that tells a similar story to the one told in many books about Christianity: founder with good intentions, followers caught up with power and "reformation." Aslan's Quran sounds pretty reasonable; its depiction can be contrasted to that given in Sam Harris's The End of Faith. It is probable that, like the Bible, the Quran has enough contradiction to accommodate everybody. In the course of telling us the histories of Muhammad, Islam, and those who would interpret their meanings, Aslan paints a comprehensive portrait of the different branches of Islam - not only Sunni and Shi'ism, but the many divisions within those sects. Unlike authors such as Samuel Huntington in The Clash of Civilizations, Aslan argues that "the violence and bloodshed we are witnessing in large parts of the Islamic world are chiefly the result of an internal struggle between Muslims (rather than of a war between Islam and the West)". The development of Islam is every bit as fascinating as the development of Christianity, and arguably more important to understand these days. I was never bored, and came out with a much better sense of the differences among the different movements in Islam, and why the opposing factions have such hatred of one another.(JAF)