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Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy

Jonathan A.C. Brown

4.36 · Rating details · 692 ratings · 111 reviews

Few things provoke controversy in the modern world like the religion brought by Muhammad. Modern media are replete with alarm over jihad, underage marriage and the threat of amputation or stoning under Shariah law. Sometimes rumor, sometimes based in fact and often misunderstood, the tenets of Islamic law and dogma were not set in the religion’s founding moments. They were ...more

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Hardcover, 384 pages

Published August 7th 2014 by Oneworld Publications

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Nov 24, 2014 Alex Linschoten rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

If I had the money, I'd buy copies of this book for all my English-speaking friends and colleagues. Such a fascinating account of hadith scholarship and the ways in which Islam's scholars and intellectual apparatus have sought to come to terms with their scripture. Brown uses key moments of debate and controversy over the Qur'an and hadith/sunna to illuminate features of the scriptural interpretative tradition. I realise that makes it sound fairly dry/dull, but Brown takes care to make the text ...more

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Sep 08, 2014 Murtaza rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

This is probably one of the most timely and necessary books I've read on the question of Islam and its continued vitality in the face of modernity. Starting with an examination of the tools of Islamic legal exegesis - a hugely expansive field - the author demonstrates the means by which it has traditionally been determined what "Islam" is in any particular area, or even region.

Particularly, as a scholar of hadith, he shows how hadith have come to be transmitted by various means and most interest This is probably one of the most timely and necessary books I've read on the question of Islam and its continued vitality in the face of modernity. Starting with an examination of the tools of Islamic legal exegesis - a hugely expansive field - the author demonstrates the means by which it has traditionally been determined what "Islam" is in any particular area, or even region.

Particularly, as a scholar of hadith, he shows how hadith have come to be transmitted by various means and most interestingly he discusses philosophical approaches its transmitters have taken throughout history.

The idea of a hadith being rated "sound" (sahih) does not connote with its identification with an actual reality as such. There have always been different levels and types of truth and definitions of what is "true" (pragmatic truths, correspondent truths, coherent truths) and if a saying or represented a greater good. Furthermore, there has always been an accepted consensus among Islamic scholars that there were a huge number of fabricated hadiths which have been created and often accepted for myriad reasons. I won't go into great detail here, but it bears saying that the author uses an incredible range of history to show that hadith have never been an exact science or intended to operate on par as a second Quran. Hadith are not and have never been intended as an infallible stopgap against reason, or intended to overwhelm scriptural evidence from the Quran or from other sources of Islamic history. Interestingly, this has also been the position of ulama throughout history.

Such a position is not to endorse the modernist (and essentially incoherent) Quran-only approach to usul-al-fiqh, but to say that the idea of doubting particular hadith, especially when faced with preponderance of starkly contradictory evidence, or when it goes against empiricaly rationality or established Islamic conceptions of the "good", has never been an unprecedented position and has historically been quite common. Only when faced with the wages of modernity and the insecurities it has wrought has this ossified in contemporary times.

One thing I truly appreciated, and I think any reader would, is the authors forthright engagement with some of the biggest theological flashpoints between Islam and the contemporary West. The mentions of domestic abuse, carnal pleasures allegedly enjoyed by martyrs, jihad, relations between faiths, the marriage of Muhammad (saw) and Aisha, as well supernatural events related in the Quran, are often mustered as the best evidence supposedly against it. However this is a superficial engagement with 1400 years of Islamic jurisprudence, within which one can find intellectually satisfying answers to all these questions which also happen to correspond with normative belief throughout history. The author goes into the lives and trials of those Islamic modernists who have felt epistemological crisis when confronted by seemingly irreconcilable differences between the canon of their own cherished civilization and the realities of modernity. In fact, such a conflict does not seem very stark when Islamic beliefs and knowledge are viewed in the full light of understanding.

Although it also could not be said to track perfectly to Western modernity (nor can anyone religion) neither the Quran nor the hadith can said to endorse any of these things. Indeed, saying "the Quran/hadith/sharia says..." on any matter is inherently absurd. One can find a plethora of different soundly argued points within Islamic scholarship, and within each individual madhab, on essentially any legal position. The sharia, much maligned today, has always been a much more flexible, humane and intellectually sophisticated tradition than many of its supporters or detractors even seem aware of. Bringing up hadiths for instance which on surface appear vulgar, impossible or cruel fails to recognize how or why they were even recorded (for instance, hadiths dealing with non-temporal issues such as the afterlife were recognized as being allowed to take liberties in description out of the belief it'd serve the pragmatic truth of exhorting goodness and effort towards God, while those recording methods of worship were recorded far more stringently). It also fails to incorporate linguistics, the obvious and necessary shifting of terms and contexts in language over 1400 years, not to mention the way hadith were manufactured or accepted for varying reasons.

As the author mentions, epistemological periods often change when people come to discard or change their canonical literature. The sources of what is considered absolute truth, the truth in light of which reality is measured, may shift from older sources to new (ie. moving from religious books to secular sources of utility in judgement) and thus forge new ways of looking at the world. Muslims believe that the Quran is given for all time, and as such can always be reconcilable. Faced with an overpowering and sometimes hostile Western secular modernity, ancient books can seem like an albatross or perhaps something to be reevaluated simply so that it may conform to what now is seen as really "true". But while it may not give a free license to any behavior when studied in depth it becomes apparent that Islam is not the constricting or oppressive worldview which both its opponents and some of its proponents today claim. Islam is not an overbearing rulebook as many of us have been led to believe, it is a system which can incorporate not just assertive reason but even outright skepticism without much difficulty. Aside from broadly recognized core tenets, there is a huge thicket of existing legal opinion, and a huge array of exegetical tools to approach new issues which are all "right" and are all "Islam".

I really recommend this book to anyone seeking to understand Islam, whether from the inside or outside, as well as those grappling with questions about the reconcilability of Islam with positive contemporary values and beliefs. The book also happens to be written engagingly, with relevant anecdotes and an author keenly aware of the most sensitive questions existing around Islam today.

(P.S. A companion for further reading about tools of exegetical analysis would be Between God and the Sultan by Knut Vikor, also impressively researched work) ...more

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Oct 03, 2014 Tim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: islam, islam-western-islam, islam-jurisprudence, islam-sunni, islam-sunna, islam-living

The concepts of tradition and authenticity and the intermingling of the two are constant themes in my own spiritual path. The search for truth leads one to seek stability through solid foundations that have been proven in the course of time, but also to a desire to sweep away the elements that look, sound and feel like human interpretation. What speaks to us most deeply through the clutter of life? What themes do we see ever-present in all things that speak to a universal truth? For me, they are The concepts of tradition and authenticity and the intermingling of the two are constant themes in my own spiritual path. The search for truth leads one to seek stability through solid foundations that have been proven in the course of time, but also to a desire to sweep away the elements that look, sound and feel like human interpretation. What speaks to us most deeply through the clutter of life? What themes do we see ever-present in all things that speak to a universal truth? For me, they are themes of love, justice, peace, equality and the like. Yet the very language we use to describe those themes is interpreted through many different symbols, which carry different meanings depending on who is listening.

What Islam as a tradition has done is to attempt to take the timeless words spoken by divinity and make them pragmatic in a world whose very nature is time and change. Brown – himself a Muslim - makes no apologies for this tradition – specifically Sunni Islam. He states correctly that regardless of how we approach Islam from a standpoint of belief, it deserves to be studied in its own right as one of the greatest “world intellectual and cultural achievements” (location 337). It’s the kind of tradition that will be able to stand up to the tough questions, and also the kind of tradition that needs no apologetics. No one needs to defend Islam, it’s true, a better way of saying it is that we need to wade through the dross that’s been placed on top of the authentic message.

It is against this background understanding that Brown tackles some of the toughest questions hurled at Islam by a cultural milieu shaped by the West. For a Western convert this makes for fascinating reading. For others, the detailed examinations of Hadiths (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) might become tedious. Yet this is an immensely important book for those seeking to get to the authentic in religious traditions.
For those unfamiliar, the foundations of Islam scripturally rest on the Qur’an and the sayings/actions of the Prophet Muhammad that have been passed down in what are called “Hadiths”. The Qur’an is the unaltered word of the divine, the Real, God, Allah. One of the greatest claims to truth that Islam carries is the unchanged Qur’an that has been passed down through the centuries in its original language. No other scripture can make this claim. Speakers of the Arabic language will attest to the perfection displayed in the Qur’an’s very style and construction. No other piece of Arabic literature comes close. To fully appreciate the Qur’an it must be read and understood in its original language. InshaAllah I can personally experience this someday. To accept these features of the Qur’an is a fundamental requirement of what it means to be a Muslim.

Living the Qur’an in a religious tradition that theoretically governs every area of life requires an example, and this is found in the person and actions of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.). To know these actions we turn to Hadiths which – in theory – Muhammad himself said as attested to by trustworthy companions who then passed it down through trustworthy scholars over the ages. This is where tradition wades into the realm of interpretation. Did Muhammad say these words verbatim, and if so did the hearer convey them “accurately”? What is meant by accuracy? What linguistic elements particular to context have been missed in translation through various cultures, times and modern linguistic definitions? What is the underlying essence of the meaning of what Muhammad (s.a.w.) intended with the original message?

These are controversial questions for committed Muslims, with the degree of controversy depending on the environment in which Islam has been presented to the individual. The scholarly tradition of Islam has in practice become nearly as important as the Qur’an itself. To question this tradition is for many to approach placing “partners with God”. For others, it simply shows the encroachment of a foreign culture into areas in which it has no business. This then produces reactionary responses on all sides, and the underlying authentic message/meaning/purpose gets lost in the fight to uphold the tradition. In and of itself this fight says a lot about what it is we’re truly living for: the authentic itself or simply the “tradition”?

This is a complex book that seems meant to start a dialogue. Brown purposely stays away from providing many answers and focuses on criticism of Hadith through historical Sunni Hadith methodology. The subjects he tackles are the most controversial as posed in “Western” circles such as the age of Aisha when she married Muhammad (s.a.w.), the rights of women, stoning as punishment, etc… The most glaring omission to my eyes is homosexuality. That issue has been admirably addressed by Scott Kugle in Homosexuality in Islam, a highly recommended read.

I gave this book four out of five as I felt there was simply too much material. This created a feeling of discontinuity in the text and at times a disjointed style of writing without a clear progression. But this should in no way detract from one’s desire or need to read it. The questions raised are of the utmost importance for those seeking to understand.
...more

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Mar 16, 2014 Hamza rated it it was amazing

Shelves: islam, favorites, religion, prophet-muhammad-ﷺ

Wow, what a book! It's definitely not for the faint of heart, as Dr. Brown breaks down a lot of concepts within Islam with very eloquent, professorial language. I found myself having to google a lot of the words he used. We need more books like this: books that aren't afraid to bluntly express the pros and cons of early hadith criticism without taking on a Qur'anist "They're all crap!" approach. Dr. Brown is well-known for his previous writings and lectures on Islam and ahadith in particular, so ...more

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Sep 19, 2015 Dennis Fischman rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction

You have in front of you an ancient text that people you respect have assured you contains all the wisdom of the world. But you have a hard time understanding it. It uses the language of a different time, and poetically at that, and it's hard to know what it means or how you should act upon it. Worse, there are particular passages that seem to contradict what you think you know for sure, or command you to do something you believe you know is wrong. How do you make sense of it, and how do you liv You have in front of you an ancient text that people you respect have assured you contains all the wisdom of the world. But you have a hard time understanding it. It uses the language of a different time, and poetically at that, and it's hard to know what it means or how you should act upon it. Worse, there are particular passages that seem to contradict what you think you know for sure, or command you to do something you believe you know is wrong. How do you make sense of it, and how do you live by it?

These questions are familiar to me, as a Jew who is acquainted with the rabbinic tradition of interpretation. So, I had an advantage when I picked up Jonathan A.C. Brown's book on the Sunni Muslim tradition of interpretation. I've also met and talked about religious issues with Muslims (mostly online), so some of the history and terminology of Islam were familiar to me. If you don't have that background, then this book might be a slog for you, even though the author makes every attempt to welcome us all in.

One thing that is very different in Islam than in Judaism is that the reported sayings and actions of the prophet Muhammad have a weight of their own. Jews respect Moses, but we don't act like him, and the only sayings of his that we follow are in the Torah. For Muslims, though, an authentic lesson from the life of Muhammad (called a Hadith) can be just as important or more important than what's in the Qur'an--because some schools of thought say you can only interpret the Qur'an in light of those examples. So, there is a "science of Hadith" aimed at making sure that the stories that are passed along about Muhammad are reliable.

Brown tells us about the four schools of Hadith interpretation and the differences between them. He discusses the ways that Hadith can be strong or weak based on whether they have an unbroken chain of reliable narrators behind them. They can also be widely corroborated by independent sources or limited to just one chain of narrators. He also says something new to me but which makes sense to me: that a Hadith used for determining practice (especially legal practice) has to be more carefully examined than one that just has a good moral to it. At least for some Muslim scholars, an exhortation to good behavior can be backdated to Muhammad without much harm--while others are concerned that if they accept any weak hadith at all, the whole structure will come into question.

Brown clearly admires the flexibility that Hadith interpretation provides for people who live in changing circumstances. He's gently impatient with modern, Western readers who think they can just pick up the Qur'an, or a Hadith, and know "the real meaning." At the same time, he's refreshingly honest in the last chapter of the book about the points where it might just not be possible for a modern person to reinterpret certain parts of the Qur'an or certain Hadith in a way that makes them acceptable to us, and what a quandary that is.

If you are willing to put the time into it, this book will reward you with knowledge and insights at every turn. ...more

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Jul 26, 2014 Shaimaa Ali rated it really liked it

I just came across this book through many readers here in Goodreads, some even rate it with a very high praise that once I found it I started reading it. However, it was an exhausting read!. Although the writer has profoundly discussed so many claims and accusations, but it sounded a bit repetitive & almost with no proper conclusion. (That was my main concern about it).

The author ( Prof. Brown) started his book by discussing Islam, its sources (Quran & Hadith), different Shariah schools (for exa ...more

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Jan 20, 2015 Wayfarer rated it really liked it

Shelves: islam, hadith-sunna-studies

Dr. Jonathan Brown present's a very readable and complex discussion surrounding the complexities involved in and challenges presented by Tradition in general and the Islamic Tradition in particular in relation to prevalent Western worldview. The discussions are varied and parallels are continually drawn with Western religious and secular traditions throughout the text, allowing the lay western reader to be continually engaged and with an aid to somewhat understanding the Islamic tradition. Thoug ...more

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Sep 09, 2014 Azzam To'meh rated it really liked it

The book details how the Islamic (not Muslim) intellectual tradition formed and how scholars (and pseudo-scholars) interacted with the world throughout the Muslim history. It delineates, fairly accurately, the reason why Muslims react in certain ways under conditions of intellectual and political inferiority; and posits the scholarly professional critical framework of dealing with problematic hadiths and approaches. It is an amazing book that any Muslim attempting to interact with the modern wor ...more

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Nov 22, 2017 Razi Shaikh rated it it was amazing

A brilliant book to get the hang of hadith, the history, breadth and the issues associated with it. Brown’s style is accessible, yet marked by a respectful academic rigour. Suggest the book to both Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

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Sep 28, 2015 Matthew rated it really liked it

4.5 stars - a seriously impressive work of scholarship. A wide variety of people would likely find reading this book extremely useful, whether a casual reader or someone digging a bit deeper.

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Aug 04, 2017 Jonathan Brown rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: islam-or-middle-east

This book is a tricky one to evaluate. Jonathan A.C. Brown's primary objective seems to have been to show that the Islamic intellectual tradition is potent, diverse, rich, and worthy of serious study in its own right (none of which I've ever doubted - so am I part of the target audience, or not?). He has perhaps the best treatment I've yet seen of the origins of, and practical and theoretical differences between, the major jurisprudential schools (madhahib). In a sweeping, engaging, and detail-r This book is a tricky one to evaluate. Jonathan A.C. Brown's primary objective seems to have been to show that the Islamic intellectual tradition is potent, diverse, rich, and worthy of serious study in its own right (none of which I've ever doubted - so am I part of the target audience, or not?). He has perhaps the best treatment I've yet seen of the origins of, and practical and theoretical differences between, the major jurisprudential schools (madhahib). In a sweeping, engaging, and detail-rich flood of text, he explores several key debates within Islam today, especially where various specific hadiths, and hadith sciences in general, are concerned; and his proposal that early hadith scholars used different levels of strictness in evaluating the authenticity of hadiths on different topics, and that this is the key to unraveling many 'authentic' but problematic hadith today, is certainly of great interest. In all this, I'd go so far as to call this book essential - it should be required reading for any student of Islam.

That said, there are flaws here, too. Brown seems to want to come off as erudite for erudition's sake; or, in other words, he tries too hard, and it leaves a bit of a taste in one's mouth. (He stands in contrast to the majority of scholars I read, whose erudition of equal or greater caliber shines through without going through pains to display it.) He knows his particular subject matter quite well, but when he ventures outside of it, then, regardless of what sort of polymath he'd like to be seen as, he stumbles. His very uncritical stumping for radical reader-response theories of literary meaning is a stain on the book, and in one chapter where he talks a great deal about Martin Luther as a proposed analogy for certain Muslim reform movements (and, in the process, Brown pontificates on what Luther really meant vis-a-vis tradition), the actual number of citations of Luther's writings is a distressingly meagre one - near the very end, cursorily referencing two pages of Luther's Large Catechism. And any time Brown abstracts from the Islamic tradition to broader cross-tradition questions of 'scripture,' 'canonicity,' 'tradition,' and so forth, he runs risks that perhaps he ought not have. That aside, while he weighs in on a few of the interpretive questions raised in the book, he does so quite inconsistently, seemingly only where he has particular passion. I merely found this curious. And in his appendices treating certain specific narrations, he occasionally notes that a given narrator in the isnad was criticized by leading hadith scholars as lacking in some measure of reliability, but enlarging even slightly on the reasons and providing a brief example or two would have been a greater help.

Still, all in all, in spite of these flaws and criticisms, the book's many merits add up to a worthwhile addition to the field - I'd give it 3.9/5 stars, had I that level of precision at my fingertips here. ...more

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Feb 26, 2017 Zubair Habib rated it it was amazing

This book was incredibly well done. The aim of the book is to give an outline of how Islamic theology developed. There is particular emphasis on the evolution of the four legal schools that are followed and specific discussion on some contentious topics .

The author has an incredible depth and breadth on the topic, but what I found most reliable was the lack of personal voice in his presentation. It is almost encyclopedic in tone, only towards the last bits of the book does some of his own voice ...more

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Jan 27, 2020 Michal Lipták rated it really liked it

This is a fascinating journey. Jonathan A. C. Brown is himself a convert, follower of Hanbali madhhab (or so wiki teaches me) and, one can say, a conservative - indeed, it's the combination of his breathtaking erudition in (not only) Islamic philosophy, history and jurisprudence with the eloquence of a Western conservative and familiarity with Western conservative mindset and themes that makes his arguments not only revealing, but also immensely readable and relatively easy to follow.

Gradually, This is a fascinating journey. Jonathan A. C. Brown is himself a convert, follower of Hanbali madhhab (or so wiki teaches me) and, one can say, a conservative - indeed, it's the combination of his breathtaking erudition in (not only) Islamic philosophy, history and jurisprudence with the eloquence of a Western conservative and familiarity with Western conservative mindset and themes that makes his arguments not only revealing, but also immensely readable and relatively easy to follow.

Gradually, Brown leads us through history of establishment of four basic madhhabs (schools of Islamic jurisprudence - fiqh): Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali, and familiarizes us with the methodologies. Firstly he leads us through intricacies of legal argumentation and logic, the rating and interpretation of hadiths, the function of logic, reason, analogy (qiyas), custom, consensus, "best practice" (istihsan) and so on. This was the most gripping part for me as a total outsider. You will learn about evaluation of "isnads" - the lines of transmission of hadiths - and of many ingenious ways of filling the gaps in the scripture and teachings.

With this background, Brown confronts - in form of case studies - some of the most controversial topics in Islam from the point of view of Western liberal order, such as: role of women (with emphasis on whether they are allowed to lead prayers or be political leaders [enjoyably, he lists influential Egyptian cleric Mohammed al-Ghazali in favour of women leaders, who in turn cited, somewhat masochistically, Golda Meir as example of a leader surpassing most men in competence]), underage marriage (with emphasis on example given by Aisha), jihad, apostasy, hudud punishments, beating of wives and so on.

What I find admirable about Brown - not only in this book, but also in his articles I've read previously - is that although he's clearly sensible to the controversies, and would clearly like to make Islam look better in eyes of Western liberals, he doesn't flinch before the difficulties and doesn't opt for liberal-pandering interpretation that renders the rich interpretative tradition of fiqh single-handedly obsolete. So, for example, Quran 4:34 does indeed permit striking a wife, and aside from some sort of poststructuralist interpretation it can't be read away, as much as would wished for. What he proceeds to show, however, is that reading it away is indeed what many of the scholars - ulama - wished for as long as Islam existed (in one - although unreliable - hadith, Prophet himself expresses unease about this God's revelation). Moreover, the actual "use" of striking the wife was almost completely discouraged to the point of being "disliked" (makruh, one category above "prohibited" or haram). He lists countless examples from juridical practice through centuries that show striking of the wife to be almost indefensible before Sharia courts. But - and this is surely enough to earn an ire of liberals like myself - he maintains that one can't interpret striking of the wife as inherently wrong.

As for Aisha's case, Brown convincingly rejects efforts to tamper with her birth certificates and interpret her as in her teens - efforts made by some liberal-minded Muslim clerics. No, Brown considers it established that the marriage was indeed consumed when Aisha was nine, and that this cannot be interpreted as sin since Prophet cannot commit a sin. He then proceeds to show how legal practice discouraged such child marriages to the point of non-existence, despite at many points maintaining that nine was indeed, theoretically, the lower limit for marriage. Aisha's and Prophet's case was, however, considered to be a sui generis and sort of miraculous case whose recurrence cannot be ruled out in principle, but which for all practical purposes didn't recur. Still, for an outsider, operating on the basis of modern Western norms, it's surely much easier to consider Prophet a paedophile and engaging with this sort of exegesis requires to suppress many prejudices, and frankly, many wouldn't see the point in it.

At other times, one's heart is warmed when Brown brings Islam closer to accepted Western liberal order - when he, for example, convincingly argues (against such heavyweight as Qaradawi) for women leading prayers, or when he interprets the famous hadith about killing Jews (one that at one point found its way to Hamas' charter) as unreliable, despite being included in reputable Sahih Muslim hadith collection, where it is considered sound. Brown's novel but convincing - again, for the outsider - argument is that this belongs to "End of Days" genre of hadiths, and these hadiths (alongside, for example, etiquette hadiths or exhortation hadiths) bore less of a scrutiny by the transmitters as more important hadiths focusing on basic tenets of faith, liturgy or legal matters. In all such cases, however, one wonders to what degree is Brown really influenced by aligning Islam with modern liberal standards which, for example, despise anti-semitism (he surely is to some degree trying to do this, too) and to which degree he's engaging in better scriptural interpretation. And to be honest, any preference to the latter is troubling for liberal outsider such as myself.

In any case, the overall landscape of Islamic jurisprudence - although in Brown's case, more focused on its Sunni part - is fascinating. Secular liberal reasoning rarely thematizes its sources and when it does, it's more often philosophically clumsy than not. In general, this kind of reasoning tends to proceed from some basic, and as simple as possible principles. At their basics, though, the basic principles tend to appear quite a lot as revealed truths in religion. Religion, on contrary, thematizes the sources precisely through acknowledgment of the revealed truths, which are rightly treated as beyond reasoning, as absolutely transcendent, although - "fides quaerens intellectum" - not incompatible with reasoning. What in my mind sets Islam apart from, so to say, Catholicism, is the particular temporality of revelation. Where Jesus strikes within the world suddenly, Muhammad takes his time, builds a state, acts as judge, as war leader, marries and has children, and so on. Where apostles have barely some time to grasp basic tenets of what will emerge as Christianity, first Muslims have time to establish a state which will set a moral example for posterity, live in a state of grace, with revealed truths emerging through years - and when political strives appear in this state, they take up instantly theological significance, too - which results in Shiite-Sunni divide. As a result, Islamic jurisprudence, theology and philosophy has much more material to work with.

This results in a system that's both surprisingly flexible and impenetrable, since navigating its byzantine and at many times bizarre intricacies appears - again, to an outsider, nonetheless - as inhuman task. Although one thing is sure - sitting down to read Quran or some hadiths is absolutely useless when one wants to grasp at least some insight into how Islam "works". Brown is clear on this count in the end - never study alone, always seek help of a shaykh. Anyway - it is this impenetrability that, from the other side, appears, conversely, as rigidity.

In any case, the enjoyment for me as Western liberal here is twofold: firstly, it's nice to have better idea about who one of the "ideological rivals" is. Secondly, the intricacy of Islamic scholarship, despite giving results that Western liberal finds indefensible, is nonetheless intellectually stimulating. It forces one to consider the "rootlessness" of liberal value system and doubt the too easy deductions from the basic principles. It makes one consider the function of tradition and that tradition is not impediment to reason, on contrary, it can very well stimulate it. One cannot build a tradition from a scratch, and certainly not a tradition to replace something like Islam - because that ultimately was established by God, not men. This "rootlessness" is necessary condition in which Western liberalism finds itself, it cannot avoid it, and I wouldn't consider myself a liberal if I didn't believe that this can ultimately be turned into an asset, not deficiency. But how exactly, that I don't know, and I feel that this issue is confronted far less than it should, even as far as some sort of foundational texts are considered (German tradition of transcendental philosophy being promising, but somehow unsatisfying). In the meantime, engaging with Islamic thinking through wonderful (even if from the normative point of view disturbing) books like that of Jonathan A. C. Brown is as good a subsidy as it gets for me. ...more

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May 19, 2018 Miss Susan rated it liked it

Shelves: islam, non-fiction

picked this up after trying to contact a shaykh about a sahih bukhari hadith that struck me as impossible to be true from it's surface reading -- was there context i was missing? am i misunderstanding its classification? how did bukhari evaluate the validity of hadiths anyways, i know about isnad evaluations but did he also look at content?

i didn't get a response but being blessed with money i figured i'd see how far i got by buying some books on the topic. pretty far it turns out! brown's clea picked this up after trying to contact a shaykh about a sahih bukhari hadith that struck me as impossible to be true from it's surface reading -- was there context i was missing? am i misunderstanding its classification? how did bukhari evaluate the validity of hadiths anyways, i know about isnad evaluations but did he also look at content?

i didn't get a response but being blessed with money i figured i'd see how far i got by buying some books on the topic. pretty far it turns out! brown's clearly widely read with regards to early islamic thought and i appreciated the cogent explanation of the methodological differences between the hanafi, maliki, shafi'i, and hanbali madhabs. he's at his best when he sticks to describing early islamic history -- i was texting my cousin excerpts throughout because there were tons of interesting tidbits i wanted to follow up on (thanks for the footnotes bro, appreciate a writer who follows good citation practices) -- and i gotta say, just looking at our conversation, i can see a pattern of me being like '...will you get to the point' when he gave into the temptation to pontificate on his understandings of western philosophy. the start to chapter 6 was probably the worst example of it -- he spent like a half dozen pages on like kant and john stuart mill just to basically say that traditional ulama assumed an ignorant public that required 'noble lies'. bro, they've passed on, please chill about trying to defend them via comparison to the west and just acknowledge what they believed

it'd also be a lot stronger if he engaged with more female scholarship -- you can MAYBE have a pass when we're talking hundreds of years ago but frankly, his discussion of verse 4:34 was appallingly poorly done. feminist muslim scholars have been wrestling with this verse for decades and he barely gives a nod?

(i actually double checked the copyright date when he didn't bring up laleh bakhtiar's reading just to see if this is old enough that he could've missed it. nope, first published in 2014)

(i would also say that the lack of any mention of tradition and lgbt muslims is a gap but given that i've run across brown's opinions on this elsewhere i'm glad he went with keeping quiet. scott siraj al-haqq kugle is out there for anyone who wants to read work engaging with this -- i personally intend to at some point)

anyways, overall quite interesting. five engaging chapters out of seven + a bibliography to dig through are decent value for seventeen bucks. 3 stars ...more

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Jun 17, 2019 Qutaiba rated it it was amazing

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I have never read a book so comprehensive, elucidating, and rich in its content and style about the Islamic tradition. This book is an eye opener for us Muslims who have become unnecessarily apologetic and helpless since the advent of modernity and western sensibilities. It fully explores the details and nuances of Muslim interpretive tradition; and how it is very different from the prevalent common notions about it in the everyday life. The very foundation of Muslim interpretive tradition is th ...more

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Dec 02, 2015 Bob rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Anyone who wants a deeper understanding of Islam

Shelves: 5-star-books, owned

An essential insightful academic examination of the history and evolution of Islam, particularly the impact and evaluation of the various levels of hadith (a saying or action of the Prophet, based primarily on the establishment of a verifiable line of transmission), the role of ulama (religious scholars) and Shariah courts in interpretation, and the variety of external impacts on the religion throughout its history, particularly in the modern age. I came away with a much deeper understanding of ...more

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Feb 02, 2015 Mohamad Ballan rated it really liked it

An enlightening read. Dr. Jonathan Brown has written an important and highly relevant work which needs to be read (and re-read) carefully in order to be truly appreciated. The work is essentially an insightful mapping out of the (Sunni) Muslim interpretive tradition and a detailed discussion of the various aspects of scriptural hermeneutics in the modern world. Dr. Brown seeks to demonstrate his point by taking a set of case studies--including issues as varied as apostasy rulings, domestic abuse ...more

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Aug 29, 2017 Meaningless rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, islam

It is an amazing book with respect to its content and writing style. It has provided me with a framework to think reasonably about the collection& interpretation of Hadith and related literature. The book summarizes the history of collection of Hadith, Establishment and evolution of different sects (Sunni, Shia, Salafi, Mutazillah, Qaramtah), efforts of different Jurists/Imams to understand religion, Quran and Saying of the Prophet (PBUH) in their times, challenges to interpretations like philos ...more

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Jan 03, 2017 Sagheer Afzal rated it it was amazing

I had the pleasure of meeting the author at Princeton a couple of years ago and he struck me as a very erudite and personable scholar. This book bears ample testimony to his erudition.

In the UK; despite the abundance of indigenous scholars there is never any discussion on the authenticity of the hadith which they liberally dispense from the pulpit. In this eloquently penned book; Professor Brown has done an admirable job in exposing numerous false hadith which have over time embedded themselves I had the pleasure of meeting the author at Princeton a couple of years ago and he struck me as a very erudite and personable scholar. This book bears ample testimony to his erudition.

In the UK; despite the abundance of indigenous scholars there is never any discussion on the authenticity of the hadith which they liberally dispense from the pulpit. In this eloquently penned book; Professor Brown has done an admirable job in exposing numerous false hadith which have over time embedded themselves in the canon of hadith quoted by the Sunni clergy.

Hadith which are patently absurd and universally accepted; such as the Hadith of the Devil farting or the Fly Hadith or even the Hadith in which Riba is likened to having physical relations with your mother are examined in detail and as ever when I read historical anecdotes of my fellow Muslims I was astounded at how violent my brethren became when they encountered anything different. It is hard to believe that a mundane matter of whether or not to raise your hands before prostrating could be a cause for physical assault. Or even result in the creation of a multiple books debating this issue.

Professor Brown gives a very cogent reason why forged Hadith have remained unchallenged by comparing the evolution of scriptural authenticity in other religions and this is a major triumph of the book. It elucidates a familiar trend amongst all religions. The power of the clergy and how they have gained controlled of the laity by quoting hadith which they felt would subjugate them. It was with great surprise that I learnt whilst reading this book that prior to coming into contact with the Western world; Muslims never read or studied the Holy Quran on their own.

The ulema expressly forbade such a practice for obvious reasons. Allowing people to think for themselves would decimate the power of the clergy. To keep the laity compliant all manner of apocryphal hadith were told. In the words of Kant: 'A Guardian class empowered to tell a Noble lie...shrouding the flock in ignorance and superstition to keep them placid and malleable.'

Naturally; a few intrepid souls questioned the validity of an Islam without Hadith. But for many such a notion remains unthinkable. The author quotes a remark made by a Zaid Shakir; a leading American Imam; 'If you knock out Sahih Bukhari then you knock out Shariah' A very troubling realisation. It was surprising to learn that Quranists or proponents of a 'Quran Only' movement never gained significance. Due to the advocates espousing an Islam compliant with Western sensibilities; of which Kamal Attaturk was enamoured with and Sayid Qutb was repulsed by.

A fundamental question is raised in the book. Do you need the ulama to mediate divine scripture to the masses? I am of the opinion that you do not. History bears witness to the fact that the ulema have been very selective of the interpretations of the Quran. By disregarding the interpretive possibilities in the Quran and proffering a perspective aligned to their own individual view; they have done a huge disservice to Muslims. Whereas before; the difference between the clergy and the laity was solely dependent on education, now this is not the case. In the current age; more people enjoy an education that empowers them to think for themselves.

An indoctrinated Mullah proclaiming hadith whilst oblivious to their veracity should not be the reality that it is today. Muslims seeking rulings to cover every aspect of their existence, no matter how trivial, from scholars ever eager to comply, is not a phenomenon but a very tragic fact of life. In page 153 of the book you learn that the Ulema debated about whether or not coffee was a magnet for vice. You could perhaps claim that this was during the reign of the Ottoman Empire but the underlying point is still valid. You still find scholars today who broaden the domain of haram with an endless supply of hadith. I can personally cite examples I have found of scholars declaring that according to hadith whoever keeps their garments below ankle length will go to hell or hadith that state that whoever keeps the friendship of a non-Muslim is a snake.

Professor Brown mentions the context of the hadith regarding the length of your garments. In pre-Islamic Arabia; the wealthy were inclined to let their garments drag across the ground when they walked because it signified the fact that they had servants who would wash their garments for them. Quoting Hadith without context is not regarded as untoward in the Muslim world today. This book provides profound reasons why it should be.

The only part of the book where I felt the author should have delved deeper was when he mentioned the time when Sufism was the dominant form of Islam and Sufi Masters or sages were aplenty. If epochal sages like Ibn Arabi could use their mystical prowess to divine a chain of transmission by looking at hadith then why was no effort made to eradicate the surfeit of false hadith? Professor Brown does not really provide adequate analysis of this matter.

Towards the end; the book does meander. Too much time is dealt with the infamous Quranic verse allowing beating your wife. Here the author does seem to become somewhat apologetic and defiant. But that in no way vitiates the quality of this remarkable book.

All Muslims should read this book. ...more

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May 19, 2018 Hassan Ahmed rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favourite, books-i-have

What an amazing book!!! It deals with almost all contemporary issues that Muslims and Westerns see as puzzling in Islam. I wish to read it again and assimilate everything written in it. I recommend everyone to read it!

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Feb 19, 2020 Umar Shaikh rated it it was amazing

Shelves: islam

An extremely informative and very readable book that I would recommend to anyone looking to learn more about Sunni Muslim thought.

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Oct 20, 2017 Daniel Diaz rated it really liked it

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A Colorful, Vivid and Cohesive Narrative of the Struggle of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy

Dr. Brown provides a fascinating look at the way in which Prophet Muhammad's legacy was preserved in the hadith literature (a vast collection of his words and deeds), then discusses how this literature was formalized into the four schools of jurisprudence in Sunni Islam with its incredible diversity of opinions, reasonings, and interpretations of the Prophet's sayings.

Then, he discusses the ways in whic A Colorful, Vivid and Cohesive Narrative of the Struggle of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy

Dr. Brown provides a fascinating look at the way in which Prophet Muhammad's legacy was preserved in the hadith literature (a vast collection of his words and deeds), then discusses how this literature was formalized into the four schools of jurisprudence in Sunni Islam with its incredible diversity of opinions, reasonings, and interpretations of the Prophet's sayings.

Then, he discusses the ways in which colonialism and foreign intervention in Muslim societies created anxiety and a crisis of confidence in the way that Muslims looked at their religious tradition. Several colonial and post-colonial religious movements around the Muslim world struggled with the issue of balancing the new values and sensibilities of so-called "modernity" (what is many times European values and sensibilities masked as neutral) with what they perceived as the strange or unpalatable narrations of the islamic tradition--e.g., does the Devil really run away farting when the islamic call to prayer comes? How can the Sun prostrate to God? How can dipping a fly that falls in your drink and then removing it be good for you?

Although these questions may seem inconsequential to contemporary outsiders of the Islamic tradition, many Muslims living in a world increasingly influenced by the hegemony of secular thinking and scientism struggled to make sense of why the Prophet of God would say seemingly trivial things.

Dr. Brown also devotes a lot of time in the latter half of the book to address a lot of the more famous polemical issues that are a big cause of anxiety and fear for both Muslims and non-Muslims alike--e.g., Aisha's age during her marriage to the Prophet, the myth of the seventy-two virgins for martyrs, women-led prayer, domestic violence and the islamic tradition, etc.

What sets this book apart from being a mere book of apologetics is his sober and disciplined contextualization of each issue not only by evaluating hadiths according to classical methods of hadith criticism and historical methodologies, but also by taking a look at the way islamic courts around the world have actually dealt with these issues historically.

The author provides invaluable insight into larger questions, like the relationship between tradition (i.e., hadith literature) and scripture, the challenges that result from cutting off with tradition, the question of who gets to interpret scripture, the benefits and consequences of telling Noble Lies, and the struggle of balancing scriptural and extra-scriptural sources of truth.

Highly recommended read. ...more

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Aug 20, 2017 Nadinastiti rated it really liked it

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The most important things from this book are:
1) Quran and hadith science is absolutely complex and you can't just interpret hadith without knowing context.
2) Hadith status is not just sahih and da'if (https://quranacademy.io/blog/hadith/).
3) Context is EXTREMELY important and of course scholars have different approach to different people. Scholars won't treat the educated same as uneducated ones, and there is a difference between what Quran/hadith says and what the scholars approach to the same ...more

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Dec 13, 2014 Peter Last rated it really liked it

Interesting perspective on some of the controversial aspects of Islam such as indiscriminate killings, 'wife beatings' and some other bizarre concepts attributed to Islam. The author explains that the modern crisis of Islam derives from it's adherents deviation from traditional interpretation of Koran and Hadith (Muhammad's sayings), mainly due to Islam's encounter with the modern age. He masterly explains some of the misunderstandings about Islam's teachings and indirectly tries to show that Is ...more

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Apr 09, 2017 Fardeem Munir rated it it was amazing

I was always a fan of Dr. Jonathan Brown's work and he does a fantastic job highlighting the varying levels of complexity in the hadith tradition. Recommended to anyone wishing to get a basic overview on how the tradition works and how the scholars have historically dealt with controversial material. ...more

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Jun 01, 2017 Azmar Khan rated it it was amazing

I've read a lot of books but even the best of them get a 4 star. This is the only book that deserves a five star from me. Highly recommended.
...more

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Jun 09, 2015 زينب rated it really liked it

Shelves: history, islamic

A good book. If you are a Muslim, you probably need to read this.

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May 26, 2020 Shuaib Choudhry rated it it was amazing

Superb book which recounts the Islamic tradition and how an Islamic society is built through it's derivation of laws and customs in line with theological doctrine. It's an excellent basic introduction to hadith and fiqh and provides a good base for further exploration of these topics. He covers the burning questions many modern Muslims have in regards to aspects of their faith particularly when it comes to supposedly problematic hadiths or quotes from the Quran, examples being, the 'Wife beating Superb book which recounts the Islamic tradition and how an Islamic society is built through it's derivation of laws and customs in line with theological doctrine. It's an excellent basic introduction to hadith and fiqh and provides a good base for further exploration of these topics. He covers the burning questions many modern Muslims have in regards to aspects of their faith particularly when it comes to supposedly problematic hadiths or quotes from the Quran, examples being, the 'Wife beating verse' in the Quran or the hadith of the 72 virgins and other verses which do not seem to make sense to modern sensibilities. The author first paints a map of the Islamic interpretive tradition as well as the whole scholarly history of this intellectual pursuit and the apparatus surrounding this. He then goes onto shows how hadiths and the Quran are used to devise a legal system which was then applied in actual cases thus setting precedent and a whole legal tradition.

The author deals with these controversial verses fairly well within the Islamic tradition and how these were interpreted in the past. Criticism such as stating that the hadiths which deal with laws and rules of society are pretty strict in their isnad and validity whereas hadiths that deal with more esoteric concepts like apocalyptic predictions and other topics which do not form an essential part of doctrine or legal tradition are more lax on this. But he also makes a great point about how the mindset of the one reading something will evidently bias ones judgement to understand the writing constrained by a certain perspective; beautifully captured by a phrase "hermeneutics of suspicion" which he borrows from Paul Ricoeur, a French philosopher who deals with hermeneutics. Further to this he has a wonderful passage, "For Muslim scholars interpreting a verse, what mattered and how it was understood and dictated as well as practised was not a function of distance between apparent and interpreted meaning. Rather what mattered was the interpretive distance was justified by sufficient evidence.". This is how he deals with a lot of passages which are deemed as controversial in the interpretive lens of modernity. Though sometimes I do feel the author doesn’t provide his stance clearly. Maybe he's afraid to fully state it because he's not fully sure himself, a dilemma many of us face. Or maybe for fear of controversy he avoids stating it to err on the side of caution or perhaps it just wasn't clear enough for me even if it was present in the text.

This book incorporates aspects of epistemology, history and historiography, hermeneutics and the strife between modernity and tradition and how one navigates this divide. I believe he handles this divide really well and I would recommend this to any Muslim to aid them in understanding their religion further as well as helping to them navigate the challenges of being religious in the modern day. He poses some excellent questions at the end for any modern Muslim: What makes a good Islamic preacher/speaker/teacher? Is it a consistent and honest approach to deriving Islamic teachings from scriptural sources? Or is it the ability to make the audience feel Muslim and modern, at the same time, even if that feeling is only temporary? Wonderfully capturing the main dilemmas facing modern Muslims and the associated dichotomies in finding their identity and place in this world. Overall I think this is a truly excellent book and should be recommended reading for any Muslim as well for any non Muslim who is interested in learning more about Islam and it's inner workings. ...more

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Aug 26, 2020 AJ rated it it was amazing

When I initially picked up this book I assumed it would contain refutations to the claims made by Islam’s opposition. It is so much more than that. The author takes you to classical Ulama settings such as Damascus and Cairo. He then revives the contemporary debates at those times that are not so far from the ones today. The book delves into the methodological approach to the four schools of sunni schools of thought, in addition to discussing the philosophical approaches of the mu'tazila and the When I initially picked up this book I assumed it would contain refutations to the claims made by Islam’s opposition. It is so much more than that. The author takes you to classical Ulama settings such as Damascus and Cairo. He then revives the contemporary debates at those times that are not so far from the ones today. The book delves into the methodological approach to the four schools of sunni schools of thought, in addition to discussing the philosophical approaches of the mu'tazila and the ash’ari.
An example to the differences of the school of thoughts methodological approach – Abu Hanifa was in Baghdad a newly cosmopolitan city, soon to be the birth place of what is often referred to as the Islamic golden age, because of the surroundings Abu Hanifa was in he had the challenges of adapting Islamic ruling to an ever-changing world. Imam Malik on the other hand was in Medina one of the lands of the Prophet, he therefore used custom as it was seen and used that as a means to testify the reliability of hadith scripture.
The book examines some of the debates that concerned the Ulama which include polygamy, Quranic scriptures and what the interpretations mean, hadith which make little sense in the contemporary period and so forth. The hadith where the Prophet instructs Um Waraqa to go home and lead the pray raises the discussion on gender roles within Islam and if this can be interpreted to women leading the pray or being leaders. Aisha, the Prophets wife was a teacher in the life and sayings of the prophet, it could then be argued that why is this not the case in the Islamic world today.
Imam Ghazali and Ibn Sina, two classical Persian scholars are seen back and forth on their interpretations of hadith, both vastly different.
My take away from this book: For an individual to be militant on the certainty of hadith reliability or in-fact interpretation is out right ignorant or naïve to the complexity of such a process. The author has opened my eyes further to the problematic nature of interpretation, and what can be observed throughout history are the two camps. The revivalists and the reformists. The revivalists with the aim to bring Islam back to its original roots, following Islam like the Prophet and his successors. Imam Ghazali was a revivalist and so was ibn Taymiyah, yet funnily enough both still had a different methodological approach. The reformist wants to change Islam to suit with the contemporary period and the likes of Ibn Sina it could be argued was in fact a reformist. Now, we have individuals who want to shape Islam to conform with LGBT rights etc. This is where I would say the problem of the reformist come into play. This is where you are replacing one belief system for another. Can it be that truly no one is influenced by anything and that the reformists want to reform to logic and rationality. Which begs the question, is rationality, rational? Or is it in fact what we deem to be rational based on our life experiences and our societies under-pinning ideology?
Islamic revival therefore seems appealing but again, the classical scholars still had differences and this shows the problem and complexity of unification under one coherent ideological, philosophical understanding of Islam.
...more

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Feb 24, 2020 Breinholt Dorrough rated it really liked it

An incredible book for a serious student of Islam who already had a moderate grasp on the religion. The scholarship here is levels above and beyond what I was expecting, and I'm thoroughly pleased with the result. Most admirable is how Brown maintains neutrality throughout the entire work, establishing excellent ethos. For real - Brown could be anywhere on the religious spectrum, and you couldn't tell. He aptly argues using Western philosophies from ancient Greece to today, Buddhist thought, Chr ...more

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About Jonathan A.C. Brown

Jonathan A.C. Brown

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Jonathan Andrew Cleveland Brown is an American scholar of Islamic studies. Since 2012, he has been associate professor at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He holds the Alwaleed bin Talal Chair of Islamic Civilization at Georgetown University.

He has authored several books including Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenges and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet’s Legacy ...more

Books by Jonathan A.C. Brown

Hadith: An Introduction (Foundations of Islam)

The Canonization of Al-Bukhari and Muslim: The Formation and Function of the Sunni Hadith Canon

Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World

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“Many Americans and Western Europeans proudly trumpet the diversity of cosmopolises like London and New York without realizing that cosmopolitanism does not mean people of different skin colors all sitting around over wine at a bistro table complaining about organized religion. It means people who hold profoundly different, even mutually exclusive, beliefs and cultural norms functioning in a shared space based on toleration of disagreement.” — 15 likes

“It is simplistic and naive to explain jihadism merely as an inevitable growth from Islam’s ‘violent’ scripture, or as no more than a miscarried interpretation triggered solely by some tragic misreading. It cannot be separated from economic discontent, the enveloping context of US global power, America’s influence and military actions in the Muslim world and, most of all, the gaping sore of the Israel–Palestine conflict.” — 3 likes

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