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

Few things provoke controversy in the modern world like the religion brought by 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 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 eternal truths of scripture amid shifting values. 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. Few things provoke controversy in the modern world like the religion brought by 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 in fact and often misunderstood, the tenets of Islamic law and dogma were not set in the religions 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 Delhis great mosques to the trade routes of Islams 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. 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. Foreword......Page 14 Preface......Page 17 Acknowledgments......Page 20 Notes on dates, transliteration, abbreviations and citations......Page 23 1 • The Problem(s) with Islam......Page 25 2 • A Map of the Islamic Interpretive Tradition......Page 43 3 • The Fragile Truth of Scripture......Page 115 4 • Clinging to the Canon in a Ruptured World......Page 174 5 • Muslim Martin Luthers and the Paradox of Tradition......Page 236 6 • Lying about the Prophet of God......Page 309 7 • When Scripture Can’t Be True......Page 377 Appendix I • Marracci and Ockley on Aisha’s Marriage to the Prophet......Page 409 Appendix II • Hadiths on a Parent Killing His Child......Page 413 Appendix III • The Hadith of Riba and Incest......Page 417 Appendix IV • The Hadith of the Seventy-Two Virgins......Page 422 Notes......Page 427 Select Bibliography......Page 457 Illustrations......Page 478 A much needed and timely work on the contentious issues of Islamic thought in the modern world This is a pdf version of previously uploaded epub version of this book