Understanding the Koran: A Quick Christian Guide to the Muslim Holy Book

Rating:
Summary: A Brief For Why Christianity Is Right And Islam Is Wrong
Review: I am very disappointed. Although this book contains much useful information, I must respectfully disagree with reviewers who found it even-handed. The tone is not overtly hostile to Islam, but the content consists of a lengthy argument as to why Christianity is the true religion and, as the author says, "the Muslim view of God is defective -- not completely wrong but ignorant of some of the deepest truths concerning the nature and work of God and therefore unable to lead Muslims into the presence of the God of love, who rescues sinners through Christ." (p.91) I suppose people find it balanced that he does not condemn Muslims to damnation outright: "I believe . . . Muslims fall into the category of those worshipping the true God in ignorance rather than those pursuing a false god." (Id.) This argumentative approach is unfortunate, because the author obviously knows a tremendous amount about the subject. But in the course of his detailed comparison of Christian and Muslim scripture he actually winds up telling us very little about what Muslims really believe.

Rating:
Summary: A basic, readable intro to the Koran
Review: It's vital for Christians to intimately know their foundational holy book, the Bible. But it's also important to have an idea of what other religions teach as well, if only for facilitating respectful dialogue with those of different beliefs. With the plethora of resources available, there's no excuse for ignorance in this regard. However, it can be tough enough mastering Christian doctrines, much less trying to learn tenets of other faiths. "Understanding the Koran" is a welcome help in that regard (please keep in mind that it's written with a Christian slant, as you've probably guessed).

The author discusses some surprising and relevant facts about the Koran. For example, he reveals how the standard version of the Koran was decided upon more for political than religious reasons. As for doctrinal issues, he spotlights Koranic vs. Biblical views of God (one God/one person vs. one God/three persons) and Jesus (human prophet vs. fully human/fully God savior/intercessor). That was particularly interesting to me, since some claim that all religions point to the same God. If so, then how can two of the world's largest religions differ concerning His nature, character, and how we must relate to Him? Perhaps a choice must be made - one that has both earthly and eternal consequences.

At any rate, some of the critiques he uses on the Koran's origin and canonization have also been leveled against the Bible (just ask the "Gospel of Thomas" advocates, or any skeptic). However, the author doesn't really acknowledge those issues. I would have appreciated seeing the two compared and contrasted, especially how the Bible's creation and compilation stacks up to that of the Koran. But that path would've necessitated a much larger book, so I respect his choice to limit this one's scope. Other sources will be necessary to gain those insights (which isn't a bad thing).

"Understanding the Koran" is a basic, readable introduction to the Islamic holy book, and a good jumping-off point for further study. Christians must become more informed about the Koran and Islam, especially after the events of 9/11. Indeed, there are Koranic passages that accord respect to Jesus Christ and those who follow Him. We should do no less towards Muslims, even while standing for Jesus and the Trinity.


Rating:
Summary: Perhaps This Will Help In Ministering to Muslims
Review: Muslim Belief: How the Qur'an Fits Into Abrahamic History

Muslims believe that the Qur'an is the Word of Allah (God). They believe that it was dictated to the Prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel over a 20+ year period 1400 years ago. They believe that it has Allah's personal mark of protection over it, so unlike any other religious book, it is supposed to be exactly in the same pure state it was in when it was first revealed a millennia and a half ago (the Arabic Text part anyway). And they believe that it is the "Last Testament;" that it marks the end of the Revealed Scripture from Allah and that there will be no more additions to The Book. It is now complete.

For its part, the Qur'an itself claims (written in first-person narration as the Voice of God Himself talking directly to the Prophet and sometimes to us) that it is the last part of a larger Book that came to many peoples before. It claims that this last part is the universal message for all of mankind, whereas the previous major Books, the Torah of Moses and the Gospel of Christ Jesus were only specialized, specific messages for a local population.

Now because Muslims believe that every dot, squiggle, fathah, kasra and dumma in the Qur'an is the actual Word of Allah on Earth, when they read the Old and New Testaments, the parts that back up what the Qur'an claims tend to really stand out to them in a very obvious manner; to the point where they sometimes just can't believe that Christians and Hebrews don't see it too. For example, in Sura XXVI verses 192-199 Allah says:

"Verily this is a revelation from the Lord of the Worlds:
With it came down the Spirit of Faith and Truth-
To thy heart and mind that thou mayest admonish
In the perspicuous Arabic tongue.
Without doubt it is announced in the mystic books of former peoples.
Is it not a sign to them that the learned of the Children of Israel knew it as true?
Had we revealed it to any of the non-Arabs, and had he recited it to them, they would not have believed in it."

That last part is in reference to the fact that when the high ranking Rabbis in the Hebrew tribes of Makkah and Medina heard the Qur'an recited for the first time they immediately believed in it. In Deuteronomy 18:18/34:10 they had the old prophecy of a Prophet with a book coming from their brother nation of Arabs, so they were expecting him. The Qur'an mentions elsewhere that Muhammad's coming was foretold in the previous messages, so when Muslims come across passages like that they are not surprised at all.

The Qur'an also claims that the religion of Islam that it propagates is the same religion and message that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob practiced. Hebrews and Christians dismiss this statement for seemingly obvious reasons, but in recent studies of the contents of the so-called Dead Sea Scrolls, the scholars have discovered that the message taught by James the Just from the first Christian Church as given to him by his brother Christ Jesus is the same as that taught in the Qur'an and is not the same as that taught by the Torah or even by Pauline Christianity (see The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered and James the Brother of Jesus). Muslims simply accept these findings because the Qur'an already said so, but in actually reading the Old and New Testaments the reasons for these statements again stand out obvious to them.

The Religion/Faith of God as practiced by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was called "Torath Yahve" or instruction/moral law of God. It was also practiced by Jacob's kids (especially Joseph) and his great grandson Moses. At that time the Torath Yahve had never been written down; it was always an oral message and everyone was apparently A-Okay with that.

And then came the Exodus. Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egypt towards the land that Allah had promised to give to the offspring of His friend Abraham. But it was not easy. They gave Moses and Aaron hell the whole step of the way. And it was by no means simply the bone-weary complaints of the traveler, no. Despite the many, many, many (and MANY) signs and wonders Allah showed them almost daily, the Children of Israel would drop God's teaching and worship idols, doubt and disobey God's word and everything. God was (literally!) always getting fed up and about to wipe them out and start over when Moses had to jump in and remind Him of the promise to Abraham, and then God would calm down. This would happen almost every week during the entire journey. And every time it happened, as punishment Allah would give the Children of Israel new strict and ever more complicated laws to follow to make up for what they were putting Him and His Apostles through. These laws not only grew longer and longer but they also got a long list of Curses that would happen to them if they didn't follow all the laws to the letter. This was the punishment for the Children of Israel for their continuous rebellion.

When they reached the edge of the Promised Land across the river Jordan, Allah told Moses to write down the Law. Thus the complex, super-strict burden of the Laws called the written Torah was born. God said it had to be written where they all could come and see it. And He prophesized through both Moses and Joshua that the Children of Israel would rebel again and annul the Abrahambric Covenant and be destroyed. Of course it did happen. The only child of Israel left is Judah who has the burden of caring for the written Torah of Moses and the oral message of the Torath Yahve which is only taught to the higher ranking Rabbi or the "...learned of the Children of Israel" as the Qur'an called them.

The Torath Yahve was not for the Children of Israel to follow, their only job was to carry it and safeguard it; they had to follow the super-strict Torah until their Messiah, the last of the Hebrew Prophets came to release them from its heavy burden and allow them to practice the far easier Torath Yahve again. Unfortunately for the Children of Israel, the spirit of rebellion was still upon them. Despite the fact that they had fulfilled the prophesy of their destruction and had been smashed down to only one remaining tribe, and the fact that they had abused the written Torah in their safekeeping and taken on all kinds of wicked, selfish practices they still suffered under the illusion that they were Allah's chosen people. So it was no surprise at all that when their Messiah did come to release them from their centuries old burden, they rejected him because he didn't aid and abet the foul practices they had grown into. They tried to kill him and cursed themselves further.

The Messiah of the Children of Israel was none other than Jesus, son of Mary. He told them that he alone held the key to their salvation; that if they didn't go through him and receive the guidance of the Torath Yahve then they had to remain under every tot and tittle the Torah demanded of them. Jesus said that the secret to getting to heaven is to keep the commandments. Muslims recognize that the concept of the Divine, Son-of-God Jesus came completely out of the imagination of Paul and is not to be taken seriously. Because the gentiles of 2000 years ago were already worshipping beings similar to Paul's Divine Jesus, plus the fact that some of the Hebrews still had that idol-worshipping rebellious spirit upon them, it really comes as no surprise to Muslims that they took Paul's ideas and ran with them with enthusiasm.

Jesus told his twelve companions that he could not stay and spread the Gospel amongst the world-wide community; that wasn't his job. His message was only for the lost sheep of the Children of Israel. If he stayed then the Spirit of Truth couldn't come to give all of mankind the universal message.

Now three points stand out about that last part when Muslims read it. First, the Qur'an said that previous messages (including Jesus') were local, so that is confirmation to them. Second, Muslims know that the reason Islam spread so rapidly in the very beginning of its message among those who knew Muhammad best, was because his nicknames were "Spirit of Truth," "Truthful One" from when he was a very small boy. His wife Khadijah proposed to him because of his upright morality and uncompromising honesty. Third, Muslims remember that there were two Christians in Muhammad's history who told him that they were expecting another prophet because of Jesus' prophesy. It's only been very recently that Christians have been interpreting "Spirit of Truth" and "Comforter" as the Holy Spirit, an aspect of Allah's manifestation in human lives that even the Old Testament gives ample evidence of having already been here.

When the Dead Sea Scroll scholars discovered that the Torath Yahve of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, was the same message that the Children of Israel were safeguarding as their sacred oral tradition, which was the same message that Jesus was trying to exchange for the Torah with God's mercy, which was the same message the Christ gave to his younger brother James the Just who taught it in the first Church of Jerusalem, which is an identical message to the Holy Qur'an, Muslims merely see what they knew all along.

So with this information and a more detailed insight into how Muslims see Islam fitting into the Abrahamic Religious History perhaps you can be even more effective in your ministry approaches. You're welcome.




Rating:
Summary: Informative, fair and well-written
Review: Short summary:

Mateen Elass is uniquely qualified to write such a book. His father was a Muslim. He was raised in Saudi Arabia. He is now a Presbyterian minister in the United States. His short, 10 chapter book introduces the reader to the Koran by telling its history and the common touchpoints that it shares with the Bible, Christian tradition and Jewish tradition. Elass also introduces the reader to the proper handling of the Koran and has a balanced discussion on the role of Jihad in Islam, as defined in the Koran. An optional Bible study is located at the back of the book with lots of questions designed for group discussion.

My review:

An absolutely excellent book! The reader is not required to be a Christian to understand the book - but a working knowledge of Christian tradition and the Bible would help. Mateen Elass has produced a wonderful introduction to Islam and the Koran. He is respectful of Islam throughout the book, but it is clear that he is writing from the Christian perspective.

I have but one complaint: he has excellent commentary in his endnotes that complement the text. Unfortunately, I discovered this about halfway through the book. I wish it had been footnotes instead.

I'll be on the lookout for another book by Elass. Might I suggest a book on Islam itself? Or, perhaps Muslim customs and holidays?


Rating:
Summary: A book deserving wide readership
Review: The book is not only about understanding the Koran. Perhaps more importantly, it is also about understanding the mind, or better, the minds of Islam. It is quite apparent that the author has a deep knowledge and understanding of both Islam and Christianity. While his commitment is unabashedly Christian, from his personal background in Islam he gives us a clear and insightful look into the foundations of a religion that is little understood in the West.

The significant overlap between the Bible and the Koran is surprising to one who knows little about one of them or perhaps both. However, the differences are many, some minor but others major and fundamental. In analyzing these differences, Elass makes a scholarly and respectful case that the Koran is a historically flawed document. This view, of course, is diametrically opposed to that of those Muslims who hold that the Koran consists solely of the literal words of God revealed to the Prophet Mohammed.

In the Koran and the traditions that surround it there are numerous absolutistic claims on Muslims. These include the worrisome concept of jihad, a struggle against what is perceived by Islam to be evil, a struggle that can take many forms including the sword. In the face of the growth of Islam and commitments by Islamic militants to jihad with the sword, what is the Christian response? Elass says it is to reach out in genuine love to Muslims as neighbors, bettering our understanding of them, and "seeking their best interests as we seek our own". The answer to Islamic militancy, however, he sees as lying with the moderates within Islam. They must convince their masses that peaceful coexistence is the better way.

This is an excellent, well-written, informative and challenging book that deserves wide readership. It would have achieved a more satisfying conclusion if its scope had included an articulation of practical ways to bridge the gap between moderate Muslims and Christians. In particular how do Christians help energize moderate Muslims in their struggle with Islamic militants?. How should Christians advise a secular government in the fight against terrorism spawned by Islamic fundamentalism? Another book by this authoritative author is needed.


Rating:
Summary: Finally, a book written from a knowledgeable point of view
Review: Written by a Christian who was raised in a Muslim family "Understanding the Koran" is one of the most even-handed and accurate treatments of the Koran by a Christian writer that I have read. This book stands out as a refreshing breath of fresh air in an area far too crowed by prejudiced and misleading books based more on fear than anything else. Author Mateen Elass provides an understanding not only of the Koran but also of the Muslim faith in general. She discusses history, traditions, and religious custom as well as the belief system itself. If you are tired of the multitude of books that tell you what the Koran says when it is obvious the authors have obviously never read it themselves you will be delighted with this one with an author that obviously has an intimate knowledge of Muslim and Christian religious texts, practices, and beliefs. "Understanding the Koran" is highly recommended to all readers and given the current state of inaccurate propaganda being spread from all quarters it is required reading for anyone who wants an accurate portrayal of the Koran.

Rating:
Summary: Finally, a book written from a knowledgeable point of view
Review: Written by a Christian who was raised in a Muslim family "Understanding the Koran" is one of the most even-handed and accurate treatments of the Koran by a Christian writer that I have read. This book stands out as a refreshing breath of fresh air in an area far too crowed by prejudiced and misleading books based more on fear than anything else. Author Mateen Elass provides an understanding not only of the Koran but also of the Muslim faith in general. She discusses history, traditions, and religious custom as well as the belief system itself. If you are tired of the multitude of books that tell you what the Koran says when it is obvious the authors have obviously never read it themselves you will be delighted with this one with an author that obviously has an intimate knowledge of Muslim and Christian religious texts, practices, and beliefs. "Understanding the Koran" is highly recommended to all readers and given the current state of inaccurate propaganda being spread from all quarters it is required reading for anyone who wants an accurate portrayal of the Koran.