Textual Sources for the Study of Islam

"Textual Sources for the Study of Islam" ed. by Andrew Rippin & Jan Knappert. Univ. of Chicago Press edition in 1990, (Originally published by Manchester Univ. Press in 1986) [Also published: Totowa, NJ: Barnes & Noble in 1986 and 1987], medium-size paperback, 209 pgs. A rather informative paperback regarding the Quran, Mohammad, & Islam. Briefly, as it reviews the Quran, it cuts out all of the holy preamble blessings and summarizes the contents. It also provides reprints of short selections from early Islamic theologians. Chapter 1: Introduction: Ritual, Law, Theology, Sectarian movements, Islam interpretations. Chapter 2: Scripture, its value and interpretation; Commentaries on the Quran (al-Tabari, Sulayman, al-Kathir, al-Rummani). Chapter 3: Religious history: the story of Creation, Abraham, Muhammad; Chapter 4: Ritual practice: ritual prayr, Swahili prayer-songs, Masnum al-duaayn, Burda of al-Busiri, Nawawi on proper etiquette in reading the Quran. Chapter 5: Baghdadi on law in practice and the variation between the schools of law; Ghazzali on birth control, Abu Bakr Effendi on the alms tax; al-Marghinani on divorce. Chapter 6: Theology: The Letter of al-Hasan al-Basri on free will and predestination; the creed of Ibn Qudama; a popular theological statement. Chapter 7: Sectarian movements: Shiism, Ismailis; Bahais; Mirza Ghulam Ahmad on the surces of knowedge and revelation. Chapter 8: Mysticism: Ibn Hanbal, Ibn 'Ata' on surah 1; Legends of Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani; Sufi prayers; Javanese mysticism; Al-Nasafi on the mystic quest. Chapter 9: Modern World: Sayyid Ahmad Khan on Islam and science; Sayyid Qutb for 'This Religion of Islam', Mawlana Mawdudi on birth control; Imam Kumayni's Iran. There are also Arabic/English translations of the simpler one-line salutations or prayers. This paperback is more of a "reference source" book, as it contains a lot of quotations from many Islamic sources, but with limited "analysis" of the quoted selections themselves -- usually there are several paragraphs denoting the relevance of the selections. The introduction chapter has more extensive analysis that what are provided in the following "readings." A reader definitely needs some knowledge of Islam. But this medium-size paperback is useful for the college student who wants to quickly see the main tenants being presented in various chapters of the Quran. The authors do not seem to have any theological "axe" to grind; everything seems to be pretty much neutral in tone and analysis. Rippin is Assoc. Prof. of Religious Studies at the Univ. of Calgary; Jan Knappert is Senior Fellow in the School of Oriental and African Studies at the Univ. of London.