Shortlist for Islamic Reading

Philosophy Forums Religion and Spirituality
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We Muslims consider ourselves the best community to have ever lived. Sure, you’ll find bad among us, and posting shrill and often falsified newspaper headlines is a bit redundant because l could sit here all day, every day, posting even more news headlines showing Atheists and Judaeo-Xtian crimes.

For me, this would be irrelevant because if the evil isn’t traced to the scripture, then it’s people being people.

So, please, read about us from our own sources FIRST before judging us. The Qur’an and Sunnah (traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him) are a treasure to us. It’s hard to draw away from the ahadith (traditions) of the Prophet when reading them, there’s so much wisdom there, hopefully you’ll appreciate why we’ll never forget him no matter what happens to us in this world.

Here is my recommended list:

- Qur’an - the best English translations are probably by Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall, Abdulhaqq & Aisha Bewley, or AJ Arberry, but it helps to occasionally dip into other translations too, there are sites with multiple parallel English translations available. In fact, once you’re done with these translations, seek out others. The Qur’an is also colloquially known by some as the Al Furqan, meaning “The Criterion”, my point being: this book is ESSENTIAL reading for understanding Islam and along with the Sunnah, for judging the actions of people that are undermining us from within and without, by badmouthing, misrepresenting us, etc.

- https://sunnah.com/ for online Hadith compilations - this site is top, top, top quality. It has the full range of the top compilations. In all fairness l’ve found good things in the Al-Kafi compilation used by the Shi’ah, but unfortunately that contains some obvious fabrications where a person randomly reminds us we must respect the People of the House, thus politicising the prophetic Household (peace be upon them). Bear in mind though, that we still consider the Shi’ah Muslims and it is probably a nullifier of Islam (excommunication) to declare Shi’ah unbelievers arbitarily. We aren’t cruel like that and like l said l’ve read lovely things in Al Kaffi.

- The website of Abu Amina Elias - he is a North American convert to Islam and although he seems to have Salafistic leanings, honestly l’d consider myself unfit to shake hands with him he’s so superior to me in every way in my opinion. His website showcases some very dear ahadith of the Prophet.

- Rumi in a Nutshell (published by Hodder & Stoughton) ISBN: 0340694688
Nice concise book that gives you the best of Rumi. This helped me a lot. Rumi’s Mathnawi - e - Manawi was a Persian-language composition of quatrains said to be the “Qur’an in Persian” - don’t be fooled by non-Muslim commentators that try to link it to some lady-worshipping pagan rebellion against Islam by Aryans. It’s Islam pure and simple - Sufism is the beginning and end of Islam. Moomins (“Believers”) are the core and the highest expression of Islam. The word “Believer” in Islam could mean People of the Book or Believers in general, or someone who is a worshipper in the very core of the soul, someone that is a fully realised worshipper, it’s basically like the word “Darling”, so, that’s what Sufism is basically and Rumi’s works illuminate the path of love which makes us “Darlings”.

- Abdul Qadir al Jilani - “Secret of Secrets” (available in English translation everywhere) - Jilani was arguably the greatest Sufi ever (my personal fave is Rumi but that’s just me - Jilani goes into specifics whereas Rumi is more like spiritual calligraphy)

- Ahmad von Denffer - “A Day with the Prophet” - this is a concise book showing the basic daily routine of the Prophet

- Ibn Kathir - “Signs Before the Day of Judgment” - translated by Huda Khattab. This is very important to understand the way the world is headed. There is a strong belief that the Final Hour will come something like 1,500 years after Islam but others have dismissed this, but in any case - this book doesn’t list that calculation, it settles on more agreed-upon views of the words of our Prophet. Believe me this book is scary. To my Jewish cousins, please note: the destruction of Jews foretold by our Prophet will come at a time when almost all Jews have converted to Islam, just before and during and after the return of Jesus (peace be upon him). There will be a few who would still oppose Christ - it is these who will be destroyed at the forthcoming time of Christ’s rule.

- Martin Lings - “Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources” ISBN: ‎0946621330 - whilst l haven’t read this (so l hope l’m doing the right thing by recommending it), this is highly regarded. The Prophetic biography l read was The Sealed Nectar by Mubarakpuri, which was very hard to read in English translation, but it ultimately helped me a lot so you can go with that too if you like. Reading a biography of the Prophet is very important to understand how to interpret the Qur’an, it was a revelation which unravelled over approx. 23 years, spanning Makkah (the early phase, more Sufistic, spiritual), Madina and then Makkah again (these latter phases of the Qur’an were increasingly legalistic as Statehood developed). A biography of the Prophet would help you understand specific offhanded references in the Qur’an and specific peculiar events which formed the backdrop of some revealed verses.

Conclusion:

Without a good reading list like this, you’ll be at the mercy of people that are committed to deluding you away from Islam - there are many such people out there and they don’t always overtly appear as Islamophobes! Peace!

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General Note:

  • All the books l mentioned can either be had for free online (including some YouTube videos narrating them so you won’t even have to read anything) but if you buy them, they will be cheap (apart from the hadith compilations, which are huge publications and expensive to produce in physical form).

About Qur’an:

  • The Qur’an is repetitive perhaps because it enables the reader to start wherever they wish. Also, one of the core messages is to avoid eternal Hellfire and that cannot be repeated enough.
  • Some inconspicuous parts reveal great depth if you ask why they had to be phrased in the particular way they were (it helps to check multiple translations to get a feel of the peculiar wording in some parts). My take is that God stoops to explain things to us hence great complexity is often locked up in syntax.

About Sufism:

  • It is not a sect. If worship were homework, then Sufism would be homework music (in fact, it often is music, or poetry). It is just a refinement and a pleasure. It is not a separate rite, nor is it an acadamic subject (e.g. in comparative religion) as many non-Muslims try to turn it into, including on this forum.
  • Unfortunately some followers of Abdul Qadir al Gilani began saying after his death: “O Gilani, for the sake of Allah, help us”. This is a grave wrong in Islam. Obviously the correct wording should be “O Allah, for the sake of Gilani, help us”.
  • Another concise work by Gilani is “Futuh al Ghayb” (Revelation of the Unseen). Available anywhere.
  • There emerged Sufis of other religions in the advent of Islam, e.g. Zoroastrian (e.g. Mir Zulfiqar Ardestani? Author of the Dabestan-i Mazaheb, one of the greatest books on the religions of India ever written, proper first hand testimony, not Orientalism - download it via archive.org), Jewish (Maimonides of Egypt, Solomon ibn Gabirol of Spain, Abraham Abulafia of Spain / Malta, and another one from Syracuse whose name l forget) and Christian (Kahlil Gibran, probably others too).
  • That said, according to Islam, there is no other religion acceptable to God but Islam (obviously, otherwise why would it be revealed?). However, it is also true that Allah loves to hear excuses:
    Al-Aswad ibn Sari’ reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “No one loves to be praised more than Allah Almighty, and no one accepts more excuses than Allah Almighty.”
    Source: al-Mu’jam al-Kabīr lil-Ṭabarānī 836
    Grade: Sahih (authentic) according to Al-Albani

So my point is, we live in an era of immense disinformation (and malinformation) about Islam. This, coupled with the fact that we have no right to say who is saved and who is not, and the immensity of God’s mercy, we cannot presume anything about people outside of our religion (and besides, Islam acknowledges that there will be many non-Muslim believers from prior times, in Heaven). But formally: Islam teaches that the only religion to adopt, is Islam, in the sight of Allah - even though Sufism is the common heart of all Believers of all faiths (i.e. the beginning of Islam) and the very best of Muslims (i.e. the end of Islam).

Conversely, Avoid:

  • Avoid Ahmadiyya websites (Google —> Best Ahmadiyya websites), they are a sect centered around one of the 30-or-so lesser Antichrists that will emerge within the Islamic world before the big Antichrist - the Dajjal - who will be a man with godlike powers (every prophet warned against him, hence Paul twisted Nazarene Christianity into Trinitarianism and made Messiah into a man-god, to confuse him with the False Messah, the one eyed Dajjal). That lesser antichrist was Mirza Ghulam Ahmad who claimed to be the second coming of Christ. Funny thing is, some of the Ahmadiyya sites are pretty good reading, until they mix in all this stuff about how the signs before the day of Judgment have all now been fulfilled and Jesus was allegorically or physically reborn in Punjab, India.

I cannot give religious advice but you can make your own enquiries using the sources l’ve recommended here. Thank you.