Tourya’s Reviews > If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran > Status Update

Aisha enjoyed far greater freedoms than many 21century Muslim women. She debated with men, and she went to the mosque and to the battlefield. Once, when Muhammad received a dinner invitation that excluded her, he refused, 3times—until finally the evening’s hosts agreed to include her in the invitation, too. When she wanted to see a public sporting event, he hoisted her up so she could see...

Excellent book that speaks to my soul. So rich analysis not only on Islam but also on identity, history, politics, sociology, and many more. This book is changing my thoughts on many things.

Amazing book, Love the writing style, the structure and the content.

“For Edward Said and the postcolonial critics inspired by him, the West saw the Islamic world as static, peopled by types rather than living, breathing people. The epigraph to his seminal work, Orientalism, was a quote from Karl Marx: “They cannot represent themselves; they must be represented.”

“I’ve never actually read the Quran.” (...)
“Most Muslims haven’t read it either,” Akram said brightly, buttering his scone. “And even if they have, they don’t understand it. The Quran is alien to them. Usually, they’ll just go to the books of law. Or if they’re interested in piety or purifying the heart, they’ll read Ghazali”—a philosopher—“or Sufis like Rumi.”