Books To Help You Learn About Islam

In No god but God, internationally acclaimed scholar Reza Aslan explains Islam — the origins and evolution of the faith — in all its beauty and complexity. Timely and persuasive, No god but God is an elegantly written account that explains this magnificent yet misunderstood faith.

No religion in the modern world is as feared and misunderstood as Islam. It haunts the popular imagination as an extreme faith that promotes terrorism, authoritarian government, female oppression, and civil war. In a vital revision of this narrow view of Islam and a distillation of years of thinking and writing about the subject, Karen Armstrong’s short history demonstrates that the world’s fastest-growing faith is a much more complex phenomenon than its modern fundamentalist strain might suggest.

Muhammad’s was a life of almost unparalleled historical importance; yet for all the iconic power of his name, the intensely dramatic story of the prophet of Islam is not well known. In The First Muslim, Lesley Hazleton brings him vibrantly to life. Drawing on early eyewitness sources and on history, politics, religion, and psychology, she renders him as a man in full, in all his complexity and vitality.

A significant contribution to the understanding of the medieval holy wars between Christians and Muslims, this volume brings together the best and most complete eyewitness account of the Crusades from the perspective of a medieval Muslim writer. This volume offers a strikingly human portrayal of Islamic perspectives on day-to-day existence, warfare, and the curious European invaders.

Each and every day our newspapers are saturated with references to Islam; Quran, Taliban, Hijab, Fatwa, Allah, Sunni, Jihad, Shia, the list goes on. But how much do we really understand? Are we, in fact, misunderstanding? The Penguin Dictionary of Islam provides complete, impartial answers. It includes extensive coverage of the historical formations of the worldwide Muslim community and highlights key modern Muslim figures and events. Understanding Islam is vital to understanding our world and this text is the definitive authority, designed for both general and academic readers.

Written from the ninth to the twentieth century, these poems represent the peak of Islamic Mystical writing. Each poem reflects both private devotional love and the attempt to attain union with God and become absorbed into the Divine. These translations capture the passion of the original poetry and are accompanied by an introduction to Sufism, the common themes apparent in the works, and includes suggested further reading.

The progenitor of “Muslim punk rock” and one of today’s freshest spiritual voices pushes back against the common assumption that the historic faiths have no occult or magical tradition in this richly learned historical and personal journey through the practice of magic in Islam.

The essential guide to Islam covers every aspect of the Muslim faith and its history — from the life of the Prophet Muhammad and the teachings of the Koran to Islam in the 21st century. Celebrating the scientific, literary, and artistic achievements of the Islamic Golden Age and the ideas of philosophers and theologians across the centuries, it opens a window on the Islamic world.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Jack Miles gives us a deeply probing, revelatory portrait of the world’s second largest, fastest-growing, and perhaps most tragically misunderstood religion. In doing so, Miles illuminates what is unique about Allah, His teachings, and His resolutely merciful temperament. So, too, does Miles uncover the spiritual and scriptural continuity of the Islamic tradition with those of Judaism and Christianity, and the deep affinities among the three by setting passages from the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Qur’an side by side. With his characteristic sensitivity and prodigious command of the subject, Miles calls for us all to read another’s scriptures with the same understanding and accommodating eye that we turn upon our own.