For all its limitations, a stimulating peek into an argument now rarely made.
A new translation of an Arabic treatise arguing that the Muslim world has fallen behind its European counterparts.
Arsalan’s work first appeared in 1929—this new translation by author Qureshi makes available, in accessibly lucid terms, a perspective largely absent from today’s public debate regarding the relationship between Islam and modernity. Arsalan, a Druze prince (1869-1946), posits that Muslims worldwide have suffered from a state of decline—that they are no longer as wealthy or politically powerful as the rest of the world; they no longer command as much respect or fear as they once did; and they no longer contribute to the advance of science. However, the author rejects the theory that this loss or this diminishment of cultural vitality—this “weakness and backwardness”—is the result of a devotion to Islamic religion or somehow an expression of the doctrinal demands of the Quran. In fact, Arsalan contends that the historical success of Islamic civilization was precisely because of its religion and that the faith has become corrupted, along with Muslim leaders, over time. As a result, he contends, the Muslim world suffers from general ignorance, cowardice and fear, moral weakness, and a lack of self-confidence deeply experienced as a “collective sickness.” Muslim conservatives are rigidly backward looking and timid about adapting to the modern world, the author argues, while Muslim progressives thoughtlessly imitate European culture, conflating modern sophistication with an abandonment of their religious identity.
Arsalan makes, in spirited and sometimes strident tones, the case that a rededication to the Quran is what Muslims need most. In his view, the Quran demands that Muslims work and sacrifice; faith and prayer are not enough. “So, it is possible for Muslims if they resuscitate their determination and work in accordance with what their Book urges to reach the level of the Europeans and Americans and Japanese in terms of knowledge and advancement while remaining connected to their Islam just as these others have remained connected to their religions.” Even the lack of technological advancement, as far as the author is concerned, is a symptom rather than the crux of the issue. If Muslims can recover their “determination, zeal and courage,” they can catch up. The author’s argument can be peremptory. He rarely if ever rigorously examines the possibility that there are elements of Islamic theology that conflict with the tenets of modernity, and the discussion of the Quran is less than searching. Also, there are significant issues simply sidestepped in his analysis—for example, the place of women in Muslim society. Furthermore, the author’s discussion, while never self-skeptical, can be vague. He has very little to offer regarding what will inspire the rededication to Shariah law for which he issues a resounding call, and he doesn’t provide much of an analysis of why, as he says, a spirit of sloth and a lack of self-assurance overtook the Muslim world in the first place. However, Arsalan does provide a fascinating assessment of the double standards by which Europeans and Muslims are judged, the former trumpeted as thoroughly secular despite their Christian commitments and the latter derided as fanatics for their Islamic ones.
For all its limitations, a stimulating peek into an argument now rarely made.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-39-841282-8
Page Count: 126
Publisher: Austin Macauley
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PROFILES
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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