A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam

The "understanding" seems to carry a strong tenor of "you should convert." Further, large parts of the book were highly cryptic or otherwise untenable; one passage comes to mind where he "proves" the validity of scripture by connecting an already-vague prophecy to an entirely unrelated event... his

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sole stated evidence. Nevertheless, it's useful as an introduction to Islamic beliefs if you aren't already familiar, on some level, with them.

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While the title is a bit misleading, it's still a wonderful book. It isn't so much a guide to Islam as random bits of trivia and frequently asked questions regarding Islam (still fascinating).
I absolutely love the anecdotes it cites from the Qu'ran. I highly recommend this book, but ignore the

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title.

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Cheers for trying to make your religion make sense in terms of science, guys, instead of the other way around, like some people we could mention. Jeers for the feebleness of the results.

This is the most beautiful book after qur'an which i wish to give to my non-muslim friends.

It failed to even slightly prove that:

1) Islam is a real religion.
2) Muhammed was a prophet of God.
3) God and Islam view everyone equally regardless of race, age or gender.


That being said, I put my atheist beliefs aside and attempted to read the book with an open mind. And I learned some new

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things. I didn't know much about the five pillars of Islam and my only exposure to the story of Muhammed was through a children's picture book in primary school, so I actually came away from this with more information than I get from most. That was a bonus.

But it still didn't prove anything and I haven't been converted. The example quotes from the Qu'ran were frequently repeated and often irrelevent... apparently a woman being punished for starving a cat has something to do with human rights - well, this is news to me!

At only 70-something pages, though, I read it in no time and, like I said, I now have a slightly greater knowledge of Islam than I did an hour ago.

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Designed to provide basic information about Islam for the general public. The first section gives evidence to prove that Muhammad did receive his information from God and as he was illiterate, had his followers write it down. From this came the Qur'an the holy book of Islam. Sited as proof that

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these prophecies and other material in the Qur'an was received directly from God, there are quotes from modern scientists that an illiterate man living 1400 years ago could not have knew some of the scientific information about embryos and the origin of the universe unless it was revealed to him by God.

There is a general section that gives basic information about Islam and what its followers generally believe including who they believe Jesus was, human rights and justice in Islam and the status of women under Islam. Like most religions, many adherents do not follow the rules laid down in the guide book. One only has to look in Qur'an on what it says about women and then look in Moslem countries for the reality.

Still this is a good source for basic information about what Islam is.

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Just right in terms of introductory material. I appreciate the style and forthrightness behind it. A skillfully written introduction, not overly polemical.