For a book club, I would recommend G. Willow Wilson's The Butterfly Mosque. For a more academic book, try Carl Ernst's Following Muhammad. Jon Esposito (at Georgetown) also writes fairly accessible books about Islam for the non-academic audience.

I would not recommend simply reading the Qur'an without some guidance. It can be a little boring, and the translations are not great. You might want to try Michael Sell's book, Approaching the Qur'an, though, which has a selection of passages from the Qur'an and analysis.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^ Because Islam claims that the Quran is the perfect and final word of God.

How can there be multiple interpretations of the perfect and final word of God? That's irrational.

Only the Arabic Quran is considered the word of God. That is why hundreds of Muslims who do not speak Arabic memorize it in Arabic. Islam believes that translations, while helpful to believers who do not know Arabic, by nature are imperfect renderings of the Quran.

^^ Sorry--should have read hundreds of millions...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ibn Warraq "Why I am not a Muslim". I read quaran in several different translations in English and in three other foreign languages. But this book was an eye opener. Great for the book club discussion!

You should read it along with the one that gave him the idea to write the book to understand the problems fully.

I thought OP was asking about Islam, not Christianity. Reading comprehension?

Meh. If that was the rabid ex-Catholic, she needs therapy for personality disorders or something.

Signed, not a Catholic myself

Is the rabid ex-Catholic back out and about on DCUM? Glad to hear it. I've been worried that her condition did her in.

There are a lot of free, high quality history materials online fr Annenberg and SPICE among others. Not a book, but good support for someone new to studying Dar Al Islam. I also love Saudi Aramco's free cultural magazine on the Islamic world. Their website has every issue archived.
FWIW, I'm Catholic.

Anonymous wrote:^^^ Because Islam claims that the Quran is the perfect and final word of God.

How can there be multiple interpretations of the perfect and final word of God? That's irrational.

Only the Arabic Quran is considered the word of God. That is why hundreds of Muslims who do not speak Arabic memorize it in Arabic. Islam believes that translations, while helpful to believers who do not know Arabic, by nature are imperfect renderings of the Quran.

^^^ Because Islam claims that the Quran is the perfect and final word of God.

How can there be multiple interpretations of the perfect and final word of God? That's irrational.

HI,
I actually am Muslim (from birth) and I would NOT recommend reading the saudi approved translation of the HOly Quran, that's the Yusaf Ali one. That translation is sponsored and approved by the Suadi Religious authorities who are very narrow minded and their biases definitely bleed through. I don't even recognize some of the verses quoted here since I grew up with such a different translation. In English I'd recommend you read the translation by A.R. Omar. Its a good translation even though I'm not really sure what 'persuasion' of Islam the author belongs to exactly but he is Sunni. the idea that the second largest religious group in the world is in any way cohesive as far as belief goes is ridiculous. Catholics don't agree on basic issues even with a Pope, why would Muslims? This fiction that we are all one 'umma' is really irritating from an insiders point of view and that the house of Suad has some religious authority is ridiculous. There is NO religious authority in Islam other than each individual person's choice and experience- the 'clergy' of Islam as well as the universities etc were all created after the death of The Holy Prophet saw so they aren't authoritative by any means.


This is amazon Link.

http://www.amazon.com/Holy-Quran-Arabic-English-Translation/dp/0976697238/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1450119327&sr=8-5&keywords=Quran+by+%27Omar

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ibn Warraq "Why I am not a Muslim". I read quaran in several different translations in English and in three other foreign languages. But this book was an eye opener. Great for the book club discussion!

You should read it along with the one that gave him the idea to write the book to understand the problems fully.

I thought OP was asking about Islam, not Christianity. Reading comprehension?

Meh. If that was the rabid ex-Catholic, she needs therapy for personality disorders or something.

Signed, not a Catholic myself