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Laddar... Understanding the Hadith: The Sacred Traditions of Islamav Ram Swarup
   Ingen/inga Det finns inga diskussioner på LibraryThing om den här boken.  tuckerresearch | Aug 7, 2011 |  inga recensioner | lägg till en recension
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Noted Indian writer and polymath Ram Swarup explores the meaning of Islam through the words of the Sahih Muslim, considered by Muslims to be one of the most authoritative of the collections of "traditions" (Arabic Hadith) about the life of the Prophet Muhammad. Like the Koran, these traditions are believed to be divinely revealed by Allah and they complement the verses of the Koran, in many cases expanding upon them and explaining the context of their revelation. As Swarup notes in his introduction, to Muslims the Hadith literature represents the Koran in action, stories of "revelation made concrete in the life of the Prophet." Among the orthodox they are considered as sacred as the Koran itself. Swarup is plainly skeptical of the claim that the Hadith literature is divinely inspired. In the introduction he says, "The Prophet is caught as it were in the ordinary acts of his life - sleeping, eating, mating, praying, hating, dispensing justice, planning expeditions and revenge against his enemies. The picture that emerges is hardly flattering. . . . One is . . . left to wonder how the believers, generation after generation, could have found this story so inspiring. The answer is that the believers are conditioned to look at the whole thing through the eyes of faith. To them morality derives from the Prophet's actions. . . .his actions determine and define morality." The Sahih Muslim, a massive work consisting of 7,190 traditions divided into 1,243 chapters, is hardly accessible to the average reader; so Swarup quotes representative selections that touch upon the main tenets of Islam: faith, purification, prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, marriage and divorce, crime and punishment, religious wars (jihad), paradise, hell, repentance, and many other features of the religion. To non-Muslims this work provides many insights into the mindset of the average Muslim who is raised on these traditions about Muhammad. It also underscores the gulf that exists between the sanctum of orthodox Islam and an increasingly secularized Westernized world. Inga biblioteksbeskrivningar kunde hittas. |
Pågående diskussionerIngen/ingaPopulära omslag  
 Google Books — Laddar...GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)297.14306Religions Other Religions Islam, Babism, Bahai Faith Textual Sources ShariahKlassifikation enligt LCBetygMedelbetyg: (4.33)
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First, most in the West would be surprised to learn just how much of Islam and Islamic culture lies outside of the Koran. (Just as so much of Mormonism is not in the Book of Mormon.) In the Protestant West especially, religion is in the book, the Bible, but so much of Islam is contained in the hadith, saying either by Muhammad or concerning Muhammad by his early followers. These hadith, of which there are thousands, have been passed down the generations, and must be linked properly to an early follower of Muhammad.
This collection is edited by a Hindu thinker with an ax to grind against the Abrahamic religions, Ram Swarup, and taken from a translation of a hadith collection called Sahih Muslim, a Sunni compilation. Instead of presenting the hadith or quoting from them at length, he paraphrases them, explains them, and comments on them.
Generally, the point of this collection is, despite the title, meant as a screed against Islam. And it does that job ably. The Muhammad of this collection is no Jesus, he is a self-serving plunderer and raider, who has others kill Jews and poets he hates, who weds pubescent girls and beds Coptic concubines, who kills on whims and pillages to bring people to his faith, who... hates dogs. Really. Hates dogs. It honestly reminds me of Joseph Smith or L. Ron Hubbard, especially when its about his sexual relations, wives, or booty.
The problem with the book is its editor/author - you know he is trying to throw scorn on Muhammad and Islam, you know he cherry picks the "worst" hadith, and even, towards the end, he begins referencing other works of history, not the Sahih Muslim, and even praising Hinduism.
It's eye-opening. But it's meant to be. (