Misquoting Muhammad - The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy by Jonathan A. C. Brown (US edition, paperback) - 9781780747828

AN INDEPENDENT BEST BOOKS ON RELIGION 2014 PICK Few things provoke controversy in the modern world like the religion brought by Prophet Muhammad. Modern media are replete with alarm over jihad, underage marriage and the threat of amputation or stoning under Shariah law. Sometimes rumor, sometimes based on fact and often misunderstood, the tenets of Islamic law and dogma were not set in the religion’s founding moments. They were developed, like in other world religions, over centuries by the clerical class of Muslim scholars. Misquoting Muhammad takes the reader back in time through Islamic civilization and traces how and why such controversies developed, offering an inside view into how key and controversial aspects of Islam took shape. From the protests of the Arab Spring to Istanbul at the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and from the ochre red walls of Delhi’s great mosques to the trade routes of the Indian Ocean world, Misquoting Muhammad lays out how Muslim intellectuals have sought to balance reason and revelation, weigh science and religion, and negotiate the eternal truths of scripture amid shifting values.Biographical NoteJonathan A.C. Brown is Professor and Alwaleed bin Talal Chair of Islamic Civilization in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is the author of Slavery & Islam, Misquoting Muhammad and Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World.Table of ContentList of Illustrations Foreword Preface Acknowledgments Notes on dates, transliteration, abbreviations and citations1 The Problem(s) with Islam A world full of God Taking Islamic scripture and its interpreters seriously2 A Map of the Islamic Interpretive Tradition The word of God, the teachings of His Prophet and the mind of man Obey God and obey His Messenger The beginnings of the Islamic interpretive tradition Abu Hanifa and the Partisans of Reason Malik and the authority of custom The power of reason: the Greek legacy and Islamic theology Shafi‘i and the beginnings of Sunni Islam The collection and criticism of Hadiths Putting reason in its place in Sunni theology and law The great convergence of Sunni Islam Legal theory and its discontents Sufism and inspiration from God The iconoclasts and Islamic revival Twilight of an era3 The Fragile Truth of Scripture A crisis of confidence Canons and reading scripture with charity The turning over of an era Reading scripture so it’s true The Islamic science of epistemology and interpretation (Usul al-Fiqh) The language of God and the rhetoric of His Prophet The Qur’an: valid for all times and places Hadiths and interpreting the life of the Prophet Changing times and the reasons behind scriptural law The interaction of the Q