Customer Reviews

A Reader on Classical Islam

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Peters in this book gives an overview of Islam based on Islamic sources. He describes the religion, beliefs and concepts. He provides quotations from Islamic thinkers. sometimes he includes his views. He does not separate if the sources are reliable or not.Areas covered, birth of Prophet(SA), expansion of Islam, Islamic sciences, islamic thinkers, Islamic Theology, Hadith Science, Sufism.There are certainly some statements that are disputed by others but it is not Newton's Physics so that all get the same results. I would not take the book as an absolute source book but rather as a refernce point to help to make up ones mind and go to the referenced sources directly. Book has considerable references for comparison or see the quotations in content. It is not written from the point of a Sufi who has belief in Islam but rather as a Theology.

If one wants to get to know about Islam, F.E. Peters is not the person to get your information from. He presents many parts of Islam but he presents them in such a way that it would turn a person off of Islam. Some things are complete lies, and Peters does a good job of putting suspicion in the right places while leaving out key points. I've also experianced Peters first hand, I took a class on Islamic Societies he taught at NYU. If one wants to see Islam from a Western perspective that person may want to try Denny, from what I hear he is better, but really one should talk to a learned man of Islam if they really want to learn about the religion.