What Everyone Should Know About Islam and Muslims

by Suzanne Haneef

Written by an American Muslim, this work presents a brief yet comprehensive survey of the basic teachings on the significance of Islam's central concept, faith in and submission to God. It introduces the reader to how Muslims feel about various aspects of life, how they worship, and how Muslims living in the West practice their religion.

Genres: Islam, Nonfiction, Religion, History, Spirituality, Reference

202 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1995

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me as a good resource for non-Muslims who know, or work with Muslims and would like to find out more about their beliefs and practices. In my opinion, this book is very unsuitable for that purpose, and I would not recommend it to others.

Ms. Haneef does a reasonable job of briefly explaining out the basic tenets and practices of Islam, as well as the ways the religion should manifest itself in the everyday life of its believers. Unfortunately, she does not stop there. She editorializes about the moral bankruptcy of "the West" without defining what she means by the term. (As far as I can tell, to her all non-Muslims can be lumped together as "the West" or "Westerners," and all of them believe the same things). In her introduction, Haneef deplores popular media and entertainment that perpetuate unfounded generalizations about Muslims. However, she engages in the same type of stereotyping when talking about non-Muslims. She spends a good part of the book proselytizing on the superiority of Islam to other belief systems, presenting subjective opinion and conviction as objective fact. She is sometimes quite patronizing, prefacing her own beliefs with phrases like "everyone agrees ..." or "it is self-evidently true that..." In fact, her beliefs are NOT self evidently true, and many non-Muslim readers will disagree with her statements. Not because readers are prejudiced, but because they simply do not see the world through the same lens as the author. While she claims to be writing to inform, she is too often writing to convince.

This book badly needed a professional editor. As noted by other reviewers, the text is full of typos, punctuation errors and grammatical errors. Beyond those mechanical issues, a good editor would have reigned in the author's rambling and kept her focused on the book's stated purpose, providing information. The space spent preaching could have been better used providing more detail about Islam and its fascinating history and practices. I would invite Suzanne Haneef to write a spirited defense of her chosen faith and truth as she has come to see it, but that belongs in another book. This is not the place for it.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve long wanted to know more about Islam, but I didn’t want to read one of those books by a Christian explaining why “their” God isn’t ours, or by someone trying to tell me the danger “their” faith represents. This book by a self-described “devout Christian” who “later discovered Islam” seemed like just what I needed, and it’s certainly been an interesting read. For myself, I’m a “devout Christian” with no intention of changing but every desire to learn more…
This book certainly taught me more, not only about what Muslims believe, but also about how my own faith appears to others, and how easily we misunderstand each other while using the same words. I learned a lot about beliefs, traditions and language, saw head-coverings through different eyes and shared a desire to see an end to injustice and oppression. While we cannot agree on everything, the author’s conclusion that “Muslims and Christians share many similar beliefs, values, moral injunctions and principles of behavior” is well-stated. And while I found some of the author’s misunderstanding about my faith painful, they certainly put into perspective my own misunderstandings about hers.

Disclosure: I’ve searched for a book like this for a while and I really enjoyed it.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good explanation of Islam written from the perspective of a woman who adopted the faith later in life. What she describes sounds appealing on the whole. But what jarred me throughout was the enormous gap between the faith she depicts and the reality I have seen in the so-called Muslim countries of the world. But Haneef herself acknowledges that true Muslims are the minority, even in Muslim countries. The same could be said of Christians, although Muslims often are unwilling to acknowledge this fact. I recommend this book to anyone who desires to better understand this belief system. I didn't come away converted, but I did come away with a better appreciation and understanding of Muslims. I have one major criticism. This book desperately needs a good editor. There are many typos, but even worse there are places that simply don't make sense because they are unclear or because the sentences seem to end without completion or flow into one another without proper punctuation. This significantly detracts from the reader's interaction with the book.

[Fatima Karim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished reading this book "What Everyone Should Know About Islam and Muslims" by Suzanne Haneef and it was just so amazing and touching.
you can read from here https://www.slideshare.net/FatimaKari...
great book. I recommend to everyone. :)

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic resource for non-Muslims. I read this before studying abroad in Morocco (predominantly Arab Muslim country), and I learned a lot about Islam.

[Suzanne Hess · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone who wants to know more, but does not want to read the Quran.