Exploring Islam in a New Light: An

Understanding from the Quranic

Perspective
A Snapshot
(Weblink:

http://www.deenresearchcenter.com/Blogs/tabid/73/EntryId/78
/My-Book-A-Snapshot.aspx)
SEP 28
Written by: Abdur Rab
9/28/2009 8:02 PM
The book is a renewed attempt to provide a new, comprehensive vision of Islam. It makes
a compelling case for a reformed Islamic practice that follows only the Quran, and rejects
the widely revered Hadith literature. It seeks to promote a new way of thinking about a
reformed Islam—one that can reconcile all Muslims and create the civil, moral Islam the
Quran dictates.

The book’s central focus is on how humankind can achieve its overall moral, ethical and
spiritual progress. Islam is a spiritual, humane and intellectual practice—one that
emphasizes righteousness on the part of all human beings. Righteousness on one's part
includes cultivation of appropriate and progressive mindset attitudes, and just and decent
behavior to fellow human beings. Islam promotes living in peace and harmony with
others, being tolerant, good, just and compassionate to them with special kindness to
parents, orphans, the poor, and the needy, and service to humanity at large.

Contrary to what science to date would have us believe, God exists, and we have a
special purpose to fulfill in life. This book’s focal point is that we, human beings, are
here to serve only God Who really is the supreme Ideal for us. Serving Him really
amounts to emulating Him in all of our thoughts and deeds. Prayer to God has a special
meaning. Prayer is nothing but sincere endeavor on one’s part to upgrade oneself into a
better self. It helps us keep away from indecency and evil (29:45). It serves to accelerate
the process of human evolution, which is taking place anyway inescapably. God is ever
present in all of our work. God helps those who help themselves. We accelerate our
 progress by seeking God’s help (2:45, 107, 153, 286; 1:4–7; 3:147, 160; 17:19; 72:22).
This is the real meaning of salat or prayer.

People generally overlook the fact that to follow the path of religion is essentially a
spiritual quest to understand God and His attributes, and understand how He creates or
acts. They overlook that it is a spiritual quest to understand one’s own purpose in life, and
the latent potential self-development. Religiosity is really one’s sincere endeavor to attain
self-purification, and acquire spiritual wisdom to lead a flawless, enriched, progressive,
and blissful life, and enjoy a still better afterlife.

The book cites some fundamental building blocks of spiritual progress or evolution: Ego,
Love, Will and Knowledge. These factors or faculties underlie all creative action or
evolution. Ego refers to the individual self or personality, not egotism, that can act. Love
is a major propelling factor. At the same time, one needs to develop one's Will, and
increase one's Knowledge to go forward spiritually. Love and Knowledge are two most
precious gifts with which God’s righteous believers are blessed (19:96; 2:269).

The book also calls for understanding Heaven and Hell in a new light. This might appear
to be a very radical thought, but the Quranic ideas as analyzed in the book do suggest that
God does not really create any Heaven or Hell for us; it is we who create them by our
own deeds. It is through our deeds that we can transform this troubled, dull and dreary
earth into a Heaven, and create a still better afterlife. On close reflection, this might be
construed as the real purpose of religion.

The most emphasized, recurrent theme of the Quran is that righteousness is the key to
success. True righteousness or religion consists in emulating the virtues and qualities that
define God. To be righteous, just observing some liturgies is not enough; one needs also
to be morally and ethically fully upright. One needs to have a right iman or mindset,
which involves much more than a mere belief in One God and His Messenger
Muhammad. The process involves embracing various elements of beliefs and thoughts,
and nurturing the right attitudes of modesty and tolerance, as well as getting rid of wrong
attitudes such as fatalism, intolerance, greed, fear, etc. The Quran wants us to be right,
just and kind to all. The true image of Islam countenances neither intolerance nor
violence nor harsh punishments. The Quran condemns violence and terrorist acts in the
strongest possible terms. The rigid application of the so-called shariah (traditional
Islamic) law is also not justified in the light of the Quran.

The book also represents an attempt to effectively respond to the social, political and
economic challenges of modern time. The ideal relationship between husband and wife,
according to the Quran, is one of equality and complementarity, characterized by mutual
love, respect and understanding. God is gender-neutral. So the status of women in Islam
cannot be subordinate to that of men. The book delves at some length into the question of
the deplorable status of women in Muslim countires, and how we can elevate it to that of
men. Monogamous relationship is to be normally preferred. Polygamy can be seen as
permissible only as a safety device in exceptional circumstances. Divorce, according to
the Quran, is only a gradual process with a human face. The system that requires a
 divorced wife to marry another person in order to remarry her former husband after
taking divorce from the second husband often found to be practiced in some Muslim
societies is a despicable practice. Such a practice is not really sanctioned by the Quran.
Islam condemns slavery and modern-day slavery-like practices in unequivocal terms. A
good Muslim will never enslave a person, but will rather free him or her, or keep him or
her as an equal member of his family.

In fact, God never discriminates between human beings, whether male or female, by any
criterion whatsoever—race or ethnicity, color, gender, language, religion, political or
other opinion, national or social origin, property or wealth, manpower, birth or name any
other similar status—except righteousness. To Him, the only thing that really counts for a
man or a woman is righteousness, i.e., right or good conduct (7:26; 49:13; 2:62; 5:69).
The Quran demands utmost tolerance on the part of all men and women toward all their
fellow beings, ignoring differences in race or ethnicity, color, gender, language, religion,
etc., as mentioned above.

Reformed Islam, according to this book, calls for an efficient and dignified way of
ridding the world of the problems that create poverty. This includes embracing a free
competitive capitalistic system with socialistic overtones—free and competitive because
restrictions and controls on the movement of capital, goods and services, and
monopolistic practices create inefficiencies and injustices in an economy and stifle
economic growth. One important implication of the Quranic directions is that there
should be an equitable distribution of economic resources, especially land, if these are
found to be starkly unequal in a society. An important message of Islam is that none
should fully enjoy his own fruits of labor, but should share them with his fellow beings
through an appropriate distribution system. Such a system must necessarily encompass
public welfare and development expenditures. Spending in God’s way (zakat or sadaqa)
must be understood in a much broader sense than is generally being understood by
Muslims. The purpose of such spending should be to alleviate poverty, help people stand
on their own feet, and bring about other human and social development. And it should
embrace in a significant way public taxation and spending.

Contrary to what is generally believed among Muslims, the Quran does not really
condemn interest per se that is being universally used for lending and borrowing
purposes, and also as a monetary policy instrument, and an essential device for efficient
allocation of productive resources. What it condemns is interest that is charged to people
who deserve humanitarian treatment. So-called Islamic interest-free banking is a
misnomer, an unsound institution, and a drag on the development of Muslim countries.

The book details how the Hadith has perpetuated the harsh, extremist version of Islam,
and created the fanaticism, violence, strife, and inequality seen so often in western
portrayals of Islam. Using theological, historical and objective arguments, it persuasively
challenges the authority and reliability of the Hadith, denouncing it as a major distraction
from the spiritual goodness of the “Quran-only” Islam. It demonstrates that there are
serious problems with the so-called prophetic traditions. Numerous texts in the so-called
Sahih Hadith are found that contradict the Quran, science, or reason. The criteria used to
authenticate the Hadith are inherently flawed, and simply inadequate. The Hadith, falsely
attributed to the Prophet's holy name, has long been misguiding Muslims in their mindset
attitudes, beliefs and practices, and in their approaches to many issues such as the status
of women relative to that of men, marriage and divorce, dispensation of criminal justice,
and maintenance of justice, peace, and harmony in society. The ideas that seriously
distort religious conceptions and practices, insult and at the same time idolize the Prophet
of Islam, demonize and weaken women’s position in society, encourage fanaticism and
fatalism, encourage archaic barbaric or harsh punishments, block progress and
modernization, encourage intolerance, violence and terrorism, and extol the virtues of
aggressive jihad against other communities—all come from the Hadith.

The book also calls attention to the ominous rise of religious fanaticism and extremism
among some Muslims, who are shamelessly responsible for orchestrating violent and
terrorist acts, and crimes against humanity in the name of "Islam", and are thereby
tarnishing the image of Islam in the Western world. To combat this menacing problem,
the book calls for a thorough reform of religious education in the Muslim world—for
remodeling of the madrasah education on the pattern of modern education, retaining
reformed religious education, stripping out spurious teachings of traditions, as an
additional subject. It maintains that the true revival of Islam can come only when
Muslims return to, and understand, their only Holy Book, the Quran.

The book contains an annex (to Chapter 3) that provides a partial, but detailed, list of the
attributes of God, which well exceed the generally perceived number (99). In addition, it
has an appendix containing a number of select themes with detailed Quranic references.
The book is completed with professionally annotated endnotes, cited references and an
index.

Professor Riffat Hassan of Louisville University, in her foreword to the book,

considers my book "of significance amongst scholarly works, written by modern
scholars against the backdrop of the contemporary situation," as "a first serious
attempt to understand Islam profoundly from within," and as one "that offers
valuable insights on a number of issues of interest and concern to contemporay
Muslims." She also thinks that my "book has much to offer to all readers who are
keen to see and understand Islam as it is embodied in the Quran." Among the other
praise for the book is that from Professor Reza Aslan of the University of
California, Riverside, author of No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and
Future of Islam: “At a time when misconceptions about Islam are on the rise, even
among Muslims, Abdur Rab has provided a compelling argument for returning to
the Quran for a deeper, more complete, more original understanding of the meaning
and message of Islam. The result is a book that posits not a NEW interpretation of
Islam, but a more authentic one.”[1]

[1] To read a consolidated version of the foreword and reviews, please visit the Islamic Reform website
link: http://www.islamicreform.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=75:exploring-islam-
in-a-new-light&catid=49:quran&Itemid=82. To know more about the book and its author, and read his
articles on Islam, please visit the website: www.explorequran.org.