As the founder of Islam, a religion with over one billion followers, Muhammad is beyond all doubt one of the most influential figures in world history. But learning about his life and understanding his importance has always proven difficult, as our only source of knowledge comes from the biography of him written by his followers, the reliability of which has been questioned by Western scholars. This Very Short Introduction provides a superb introduction to the major aspects of Muhammad's life and its importance, providing both Muslim and Western historical perspectives. It explains the prominent roles that Muhammad's persona has played in the Islamic world throughout history, from the medieval to the modern period. The book also sheds light on modern controversies such as the Satanic Verses, for which author Salman Rushdie was condemned for blasphemy, and the uproar over Danish cartoons of Muhammad, which triggered violent protests around the world. As these recent events show, whatever the truth about Muhammad's life, his persona still plays a crucial role in Muslim life and civilization. About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

Muhammad: A Very Short Introduction

Biographies & Memoirs

Brown, Jonathan A.C.

Leaders & Notable People

Oxford University Press

The most comprehensive examination to date of the idea that Islam, as a system of scripture, law and spirituality, is antiblack It is commonly claimed that Islam is antiblack, even inherently bent on enslaving Africans. Western and African critics alike have contended that antiblack racism is in the faith's very scriptural foundations and its traditions of law, spirituality and theology. But what is the basis for this? Bestselling scholar Jonathan A.C. Brown examines Islamic scripture, law, Sufism and history to determine the extent to which this claim is true - and why. Locating the origins of the accusation in the old trope of Barbary enslavement, modern Afrocentrism and conservative politics, he explains how antiblackness arose in the Islamic world and became entangled with normative tradition. From the imagery of 'blackened faces' in the Quran to Shariah assessments of Black women as undesirable and the assertion that Islam and Muslims are foreign to Africa, this work provides a comprehensive study of the controversial knot that is Islam and Blackness, and identifies authoritative voices in Islam's past that are crucial for combatting antiblack racism today.

Islam and Blackness

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Oneworld Academic

Sometimes rumor, sometimes based on fact and often misunderstood, the tenets of Islamic law and dogma were not set in the religion's founding moments. They were developed, like in other world religions, over centuries by the clerical class of Muslim scholars.Misquoting Muhammad takes listeners back in time through Islamic civilization and traces how and why such controversies developed, offering an inside view into how key and controversial aspects of Islam took shape. Misquoting Muhammad lays out how Muslim intellectuals have sought to balance reason and revelation, weigh science and religion, and negotiate the eternal truths of scripture amid shifting values.

Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet’s Legacy

Tantor Audio

"Brown possesses formidable knowledge of premodern Muslim scholars who sought to preserve accounts of Muhammad’s teachings and practices MISQUOTING MUHAMMAD sheds light on the considerable dynamism and sophistication within the Sunni tradition.” - The Washington Post Few things provoke controversy in the modern world like the religion brought by Muhammad. There is alarm over jihad, underage marriage and the threat of amputation or stoning under Shariah law. Sometimes rumor, sometimes based in fact and often misunderstood, the tenets of Islamic law and dogma were not set in the religion’s founding moments. They were developed over centuries by the clerical class of Muslim scholars. MISQUOTING MUHAMMAD takes the reader back in time through Islamic civilization and traces how and why such controversies developed, offering an inside view into how key and controversial aspects of Islam took shape. From the protests of the Arab Spring to Istanbul at the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and from the ochre red walls of Delhi’s great mosques to the trade routes of Islam’s Indian Ocean world, Misquoting Muhammad lays out how Muslim intellectuals have sought to balance reason and revelation, weigh science and religion, and negotiate the truths of scripture amid shifting values.

Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy

Religion & Spirituality

Islam

Oneworld Publications

AN INDEPENDENT BEST BOOKS ON RELIGION 2014 PICK Few things provoke controversy in the modern world like the religion brought by Prophet Muhammad. Modern media are replete with alarm over jihad, underage marriage and the threat of amputation or stoning under Shariah law. Sometimes rumor, sometimes based on fact and often misunderstood, the tenets of Islamic law and dogma were not set in the religion’s founding moments. They were developed, like in other world religions, over centuries by the clerical class of Muslim scholars. Misquoting Muhammad takes the reader back in time through Islamic civilization and traces how and why such controversies developed, offering an inside view into how key and controversial aspects of Islam took shape. From the protests of the Arab Spring to Istanbul at the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and from the ochre red walls of Delhi’s great mosques to the trade routes of the Indian Ocean world, Misquoting Muhammad lays out how Muslim intellectuals have sought to balance reason and revelation, weigh science and religion, and negotiate the eternal truths of scripture amid shifting values.

Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy (Islam in the Twenty-First Century)

Contrary to popular opinion, the bulk of Islamic law does not come from the Quran but from hadith, first-hand reports of the Prophet Muhammad’s words and deeds, passed from generation to generation. However, with varying accounts often only committed to paper a century after the death of Muhammad, Islamic scholars, past and present, have been faced with complex questions of historical authenticity. In this wide-ranging introduction, Jonathan A. C. Brown explores the collection and criticism of hadith, and the controversy surrounding its role in modern Islam. This edition, revised and updated with additional case studies and attention to the very latest scholarship, also features a new chapter on how hadiths have been used politically, both historically and in the Arab Spring and its aftermath. Informative and accessible, it is perfectly suited to students, scholars and general readers interested in this critical element of Islam.

Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World (The Foundations of Islam)

Slavery and Islam

What happens when authorities you venerate condone something you know is wrong? Every major religion and philosophy once condoned or approved of slavery, but in modern times nothing is seen as more evil. Americans confront this crisis of authority when they erect statues of Founding Fathers who slept with their slaves. And Muslims faced it when ISIS revived sex-slavery, justifying it with verses from the Quran and the practice of Muhammad. Exploring the moral and ultimately theological problem of slavery, Jonathan A.C. Brown traces how the Christian, Jewish and Islamic traditions have tried to reconcile modern moral certainties with the infallibility of God’s message. He lays out how Islam viewed slavery in theory, and the reality of how it was practiced across Islamic civilization. Finally, Brown carefully examines arguments put forward by Muslims for the abolition of slavery. CONTENTS Preface Acknowledgments Notes on transliteration, dates and citation Introduction: Can We Talk About Slavery? What I Argue in this Book Apology for Slavery? Power and the Study of Slavery Blackness, Whiteness and Slavery 1. Does ‘Slavery’ Exist? The Problem of Definition The Main Argument Definition: A Creative Process Definition to Discourse: A Political Process Defining \ˈslā-v(ə-)rē\: We Know It When We See It Defining Slavery as Status or a Condition Slavery as Unfreedom Slavery as Human Property Patterson &amp; Natal Alienation Slavery as Distinction: The Lowest Rung &amp; Marginality Slavery as Coercion &amp; Exploitation under the Threat of Violence The Problem with Modern-Day Slavery Slavery &amp; Islam – A Very Political Question Conclusion: Of Course, Slavery Exists The Proper Terms for Speaking about ‘Slavery’ 2. Slavery in the Shariah What Islam Says about Slavery – Ideals and Reality Slavery in the Quran &amp; Sunna Inheriting the Near East – Roman, Jewish and Near Eastern Laws versus Islam Islam’s Reform of Slavery Basic Principles of Riqq in the Shariah The Ambiguities of Slavery in the Shariah Riqq &amp; Rights in the Shariah Religious Practice Freedom of Movement Social and Political Roles Marriage and Family Life Right to Property Rights to Life and Physical Protection Summary: Law and Ethics 3. Slavery in Islamic Civilization What is Islamic Civilization? Is there ‘Islamic Slavery’? The Shariah &amp; Islamic Slavery Muslims Enslaving Muslims The Classic Slavery Zone Consuming People &amp; ‘Ascending Miscegenation’ Slave Populations Routes of the Muslim Slave Trade Blackness and Slavery in Islamic Civilization The Roles and Experiences of Slaves in Islamic Civilization The Slave as Uprooted Person and Commodity The Slave as Domestic Labor . . . Even Trusted Member of a Household Slave as Sexual Partner Slave as Saint, Scholar or Poet Slave as Elite Administrator &amp; Courtesan Slave as Soldier – When Soldiers often Ruled Slave as Rebel 4. The Slavery Conundrum No Squaring the Circle: The American/Islamic Slavery Conundrum Slavery is Evil The Intrinsic Wrongs of Slavery Religions and Slavery Minimizing the Unminimizable or Historicizing the Unhistoricizable Slavery is Slavery: The Problem of Labeling ‘Slavery’ with One Moral Judgment The Moral Wrongness of Slavery as Unfreedom The Moral Wrongness of Slavery as Owning Human Property The Moral Wrongness of Slavery as Inequality The Moral Wrongness of Slavery as the Threat of Violence The Bald Man Fallacy and the Wrongness of Slavery When Slavery is ‘Not that Bad’: The Problem with Conditions vs. Formal Categories Do Some People Deserve to be Enslaved? Or, Is Freedom a Human Right? The Past as Moral Authority: Can We Part with the Past? The Natural Law Tradition and Slavery Critics of Slavery and the Call for Abolition The Consequences of Moral Progress Muslim Efforts to Salvage the Past 5. Abolishing Slavery in Islam Is Abolition Indigenous to Islam or Not? Islam as Emancipatory Force – An Alternative History Abolishing Slavery . . . For Whom? Concentric Circles of Abolition ‘The Lawgiver Looks Expectantly Towards Freedom’ – Abolition as an Aim of the Shariah Doubling Down – Progressive Islam &amp; the Axiomatic Evil of Slavery Prohibited by the Ruler but Not by God: The Crucial Matter of Taqyid al-Mubah If You Can’t Do it Right, You Can’t Do it at All – Prohibiting Riqq Poorly Done Same Shariah, Diff erent Conditions – The Obsolescence or Unfavorability of Slavery Slavery: A Moot Point &amp; Bad PR Defending Slavery in Islam 6. The Prophet &amp; ISIS: Evaluating Muslim Abolition Do Muslim Approaches to Abolition Pass Moral Muster? A Consensus on Abolition Could Slavery in Islam ever be Unabolished? Abolition vs. ISIS This Author’s Opinion 7. Concubines and Consent: Can We Solve the Moral Problem of Slavery? Species of Moral Change Moral Disgust at Slavery Today Conclusion &amp; Crisis: Concubinage and Consent Consent and Concubines Disbelief is Unproductive Appendix 1 – A Slave Saint of Basra Appendix 2 – Enlightenment Th inkers on Slavery Appendix 3 – Did the 1926 Muslim World Congress Condemn Slavery? Appendix 4 – Was Māriya the Wife or Concubine of the Prophet? Appendix 5 – Was Freedom a Human Right in the Shariah? Appendix 6 – Enslavement of Apostate Muslims or Muslims Declared to be Unbelievers Select Bibliography Notes Index

A thorough exploration of slavery from the perspective of Islam’s authoritative texts as well as moral and philosophical debates on the subject\nWhat happens when authorities you venerate condone something you know is wrong?\nEvery major religion and philosophy once condoned or approved of slavery, but in modern times nothing is seen as more evil. Americans confront this crisis of authority when they erect statues of Founding Fathers who slept with their slaves. And Muslims faced it when ISIS revived sex slavery, justifying it with verses from the Quran and the practice of Muhammad.\nExploring the moral and ultimately theological problem of slavery, Jonathan A.C. Brown traces how the Christian, Jewish and Islamic traditions have tried to reconcile modern moral certainties with the infallibility of God’s message. He lays out how Islam viewed slavery in theory, and the reality of how it was practiced across Islamic civilization. Finally, Brown carefully examines arguments put forward by Muslims for the abolition of slavery.

Central to Islamic practice and law, the term hadith is applied to first-hand reports of the Prophet Muhammad's words and deeds, passed from generation to generation. Informative and accessible, this wide-ranging introduction provides a detailed exploration of their collection, historical authenticity, and role in modern Islam. Complete with a glossary, extensive bibliography, and helpful diagrams, Hadith: An Introduction is perfectly suited to students, scholars, and the general reader.

Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Brown, Jonathan A.C.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Brown, Jonathan A.C.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Brown, Jonathan A.C.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Muhammad: A Very Short Introduction

Islam and Blackness

Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet’s Legacy

Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy

Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy (Islam in the Twenty-First Century)

Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World (The Foundations of Islam)

Slavery and Islam

Slavery and Islam

Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World