A detailed compendium of facts and ideas that’s not lucid or comprehensive enough to be useful for a wide readership.
An opaque discussion of the Quran and its application to modern problems.
In this history and analysis of Islam and the Quran, Mustapha has a clear mission: convince his readers that understanding the holy text and following the Prophet Muhammad is the way to achieve personal and global happiness. He writes that the Quran “is essentially a guidance delivering man from darkness into light; it has no substitute.” The book offers interpretations of various verses in the Quran and their relationship to life today. Mustapha’s argument leads to the suggestion that a renewed following of Muhammad—led by “the children of Israel” and the establishment of a new caliphate— is the solution to global tensions such as the Occupy movement and the European debt crisis. Arriving at that controversial conclusion, however, is a struggle. The book is packed with references to events and figures from Islamic history; readers without the relevant background knowledge will find themselves overwhelmed by names and terminology. Quotations from the Quran serve as the author’s primary source of proof for his claims, so readers of a dissimilar faith are unlikely to find his arguments compelling. As a whole, the book seems more like a starting place for further research than a complete treatise. One footnote reads: “This is a very profound description of the Sunna that needs careful analysis,” yet that analysis isn’t explicit in the text. Instead, the author often relies on strings of rhetorical questions, which, although a useful study guide for a devoted student, are of little use to the lay reader. Ultimately, it’s unclear who the intended audience is: Readers familiar with the subject will likely already comprehend much of this book’s content, and those unfamiliar with it (or of uncertain faith) may be alienated by the author’s sweeping frame of reference and uncompromising perspective.
A detailed compendium of facts and ideas that’s not lucid or comprehensive enough to be useful for a wide readership.Pub Date: May 18, 2012
ISBN: 9781467883931
Page Count: 174
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Jan. 23, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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