why should we westerners bother to understand islam
there has been one constant factor in human history over the past 13 centuries this is
the confrontation between islam and what was once christendom and is now the secular western world
during the relatively brief period of european imperialism this rivalry between the two faiths
the two cultures could be forgotten while the cold war dominated international politics it was of
minor consequence it has now resurfaced as it was bound to do sooner or later since islam claims a
universal mission as does western civilization the motto of the ottoman sultans one world
one faith one ruler is echoed today in the talk of one world or the new world order
but which world is it to be is peaceful and fruitful coexistence possible
this must depend upon mutual understanding and since decisions depend upon the power to
execute them it is on the western side of the frontier the understanding is most essential
europeans and americans are so deeply convinced of the superiority of their secular liberal culture
that it is to say the least difficult for them to empathize with a profoundly different system
and yet understanding requires some degree of empathy they may ask why should we bother
the answer i believe is that the peace and good order of our world in the 21st century depend
upon this understanding the muslim uma that's the community the global community of believers
is today weak it's confused and divided it will not always be so
and now is the time for the people of what is for the moment the dominant civilization
to make the necessary intellectual and imaginative effort to glimpse the world and human destiny
from a different perspective to the one they take for granted now for us
readers who love books what can we do to begin to become acquainted with this different way of
seeing the world the obvious place to start is a really good translation of the quran in english
this is a new translation by abdal haleem published by oxford university press it's
one i get the sense that scholars do tend in the western university setting
tend to prefer this translation as the best on the market there's a very good introduction and some
excellent footnotes as well halima's professor of islamic studies at soas the school of african
oriental studies here in london and is a very esteemed scholar of the arabic quran the next
book i would recommend as a an outstanding introduction to the life of the prophet of
islam muhammad is a book by martin ling's called muhammad his life based on the earliest sources
this book is very special the the language the english is a literary masterpiece in its own right
it's almost shakespearean in his eloquence and his beauty for that alone i'd recommend it as a as an
outstanding biography but it but in terms of uh the source the sources he uses they're impeccable
he uses hadith from bukhari and muslim and so on so i do recommend uh that book uh as a very
uh good and readable introduction to the life of this extraordinary human being
for a more traditional perhaps more sufi orientated introduction to islam is guidance
classic work islam and the destiny of man this again is an extraordinary book written by a
someone who knew was friends with martin lings who sadly passed away just a few years ago and lastly
i mean there are hundreds of books one could recommend but it to understand islam in its uh
the challenges that it has in the in this part of the 20th 21st century particularly
uh the hadiths and the quran this book misquoting hamad the challenge and choices of interpreting
the prophet's legacy by professor ac jonathan a.c brown of georgetown university is a outstanding
book um and uh he very kindly wrote a little uh a few words for me on his uh on the cover there
this is an amazing book and i do recommend this is available in paperback
as well so um those are the books i recommend us westerners to begin with to understand
islam not that we should all become muslims but that we should understand each other better
and thus bringing good order and peaceful coexistence to our divided world until next time