Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Ideals and Realities of Islam by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, ABC International Group Inc. ISBN: 1-930637-11-X Publisher: ABC International Group, Inc. Pub. Date: 01 September, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (3 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Reality is the only thing that counts
Comment: To me it is the reality that counts and not the ideals that look good on the paper. There has been a number of religions and idealogies who promised the Utopia to Man but all failed miserably and Islam is no exception. The reality of Islam is very much similar to that of Commonism, with their promise of universal brotherhood, peace, prosperity, equality, justice, unity, spiritual growth etc etc etc, but what we got instead was just the opposite. No one can argue with historical facts and realities can they? Usually we moslem tell others how Islam tranformed Arabia and built an empire, as if building empire is something unique to Islam. Many other cultures built empires, perhaps even more spectacular that the Islamic one, does that mean that they were backed by divine wisdom and divine approval? What is it about the Islamic empire that makes it unique as compared to other empires and sets it aside as a "Divine empire" vs. an evil empire that rulled by sword and finally collappsed by sword? The reality of Islam is that right from start it created conflicts and fanaticism and caused much bloodshed. Quran, which was supposed to be a book of guidance became a book of confusion, Islam became just another religion, as if we needed one more. This is the reality, what about the ideals? Ideals are easy to come up with, I can come up with a million of ideals that would make our world a "Heaven" on earth, as they say "talk is cheap". What plans do you have to implement these ideals? How are you going to accomplish them? Past 1400 years Islam has failed repeatedly over and over again. Even among our scholars there isn't an agreement of what these ideals are or how they should be implemented and Quran is of no help either. Each group is dancing to a different tune, they have been for almost 14 centuries and there is no end at sight either. Even at the time of Muhammad or right after his death, moslems began their dispute about Quran and Islam and drew sword on each other and many fell vicitim, each group delaring Jihad on the other ones. If Quran and Islam was incapable of acoomplishing a promised Utopia and unity among a few thousand first generation moslems, how do you think it is going to acoomplish it later? Has it been able to? What does history tell us? what is the reality? Some people, like the author who is a Shii, tell us that soemthing went wrong from the very beginning, which denied Islam the chance to prove itslef and its capabilites. Perhaps this claim of Shiism is true. That may very well be an explanation for Islam's failure. There other people who actually don't see anything wrong with the realites of Islam and consider the reality of Islam throughout the hsitory a perfect example, not even God could do better. These folks have the lowest standard of all people and when one is that low, one is just that Low and not much can be done or said. There are yet others, like me, who hold the idea that Islam was a sincere but human attempt to better humanity and our life. The mistake was to make it a "divine" attempt. There is nothing divine about Quran or Islam, if there was, the result would have been much better than what it turned out to be. It should have been classified as a philosphy among many other philosophies, an attempt by human mind to make sense of universe and his own existence. Everyone knows a philosophy is just that, a philosophy, and many people have different views and opinions, most of which are probably wrong, but then no one will die for it and no one will kill for it either. But once you call it a divine religion with absolute truth embeded in it, now you begin to sound frightening.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent
Comment: This is a great introduction to Islam by a professor of Islamic Studies at the George Washington University. It's written for Western readers and relates pretty well to the kinds of questions and preconconceptions the Western reader has about Islam. It's not as easy to read as, say, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Islam" (which is also not a bad starting place, actually) and it does require some concentration, but it is an in-depth analysis of Islamic principles without being so scholarly that it's totally inaccessible.
One thing to note: this is more a book on the academic and theoretical aspects of Islam, such as divine law, the Qur'an, Sunni vs. Shi'i Islam, etc. It doesn't cover the day to day beliefs and practices of your average Muslim. So for someone who wants to learn about the 2nd largest religion in the world, this is definitely one of the books to get. But it might be good to get another one to read in conjunction, one that covers what Muslims themselves are like, such as "American Muslims" or "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Islam."
Rating: 4
Summary: Response to Orientalist
Comment: This book is, if you read enough of them, which thanks god he has written plenty, you can tell by Sayyid Nasr. It has logic built in to it.Main topic is response to Orientalist in their effort to minimize Islam and reduce it to just a Arab custom. Nasr responds to all their claims(may be not all there are so many)and seems to me that he bases all his responses on the idea that Orientalist do not belive Islam being a God given religion. He shows that when they attack Islam they use the arguments that say not having a good logical foundation but in turn they use same arguments in their own religion as fundemantel concepts. As Nasr puts it,He is ready to accept these claims from idolaters but not from the people of the book, for we all have the same fundemantel beliefs about how religions are revealed. All religions are based on some sort of belief and I believe even the quran states that this book is for believers who believe in unseen. What makes Islam better than others is for me that it has more reason and concept built into it.
 |
Title: The Heart of Islam : Enduring Values for Humanity by Seyyed Hossein Nasr ISBN: 0060099240 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 03 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
 |
Title: Islam and the Destiny of Man by Charles Le Gai Eaton, Gaton Charles Le Gai, Gai Eaton ISBN: 088706163X Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr Pub. Date: February, 1986 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
 |
Title: The Vision of Islam (Visions of Reality. Understanding Religions) by Sachiko Murata, William C. Chittick ISBN: 1557785163 Publisher: Paragon House Pub. Date: January, 1995 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
 |
Title: Islam,: The Straight Path by John L. Esposito ISBN: 0195112342 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: January, 1998 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
 |
Title: Understanding Islam by Frithjof Schuon, Annemarie Schimmel ISBN: 0941532240 Publisher: World Wisdom Books Pub. Date: April, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
