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A review by zayni
A Thinking Person's Guide to Islam by Ghazi bin Muhammad
5.0
Initially I picked up this book curious about the title, why 'a thinking person's guide' and not just anyone's guide to Islam? The Author, Prince Ghazi Bin Muhammad, elaborates on this in the introduction:
"Unwillingness to think about things is what Muslims who misunderstand Islam, and non-Muslims who distort it, have in common."
As such this book covers a variety of topics which are either glossed over or completely misinterpreted e.g., Jihad. The author introduces several topics in 12 chapters using 12 verses, this book "is intended only as an educated primer on Islam" and is suitable for most people if they are willing to be open minded. The chapters can be read alone or in order, I read from cover to cover and found the author eased the reader into each topic, then finishing with 'why is it important to know all this?'.
The chapters I found most interesting were 'shari'ah', 'jihad' and 'government', all three are often misconstrued by multiple facets of the Muslim/non-Muslim community. Prince Ghazi was deliberate with his language in referring to shari'ah as a moral code rather than a legal code, though actions are judged by their intentions he says, "the first thing the shari'ah aims to do is make things morally crystal clear to Muslims, as a guidebook to life and to the world". Naturally, this paved an entrance to a discussion on schools of jurisprudence and their usul i.e., how they interpreted ahadith and Qur'an and how rulings were derived from this. Unfortunately, we live in an era where everything is overly simplified, undoubtedly leading to misunderstandings of Islam; it is normal to hear a mantra of "Qur'an and sunnah" but this is lost to the masses and creates an understanding of everyone having the capability of deriving rulings and not following a specific madhab. The anti-usul movement is mentioned in more detail, with some statistics on its growth for comparison, unsurprisingly Usulis have decreased from 99% (1900) to 65% in 2016, 25% of people do not know which madhab they belong to and 9% are anti-usuli (this number was below 1% in 1900). The dangers of this are further explained in the annex as the author states "Certainly not every anti-usuli joins or sympathises with Daesh — only a minority do — but all Daesh members are anti-usulis." because without belonging to a madhab or not knowing, the door to self-interpretation will always be open, and so the author concludes "the only possible effective ideological response to Daesh: traditional Usuli Islam."
Understandably, some people reading this may even fall into the categories of 'don't know' or perhaps you have chosen to not follow a madhab, but this book makes a solid argument for why you should. Even from the chapters of jihad and government it is easy to see how Islam based on usul is the solution, but without usul it leads to various forms of interpretation (sometimes extreme). The annex combined these chapters to tackle ‘The Crisis of ISIS’ so it is obvious how Daesh/ISIS indoctrinate new recruits using anti-usul material and their own translations, manuals etc. Their online propaganda is much the same, through abusing ahādith, presenting a façade of true/Puritan Islam and romanticising barbaric acts in the name of Islam through decontextualizing ahadith or interpreting them in a specific way (advantageous to themselves).
Many Muslims living in the west (it can be argued globally too) are adopting worldviews contrary to Islam, because they assume it has something to offer which Islam does not. The chapter on Government skilfully explores justice and alludes to the maqasid ash-shari'ah, putting everything into perspective; Islam is not a theory, it can be practiced and has been.
Moreover, what makes this book great is the answers to subtle doubts e.g. preservation of the Qur'an and hadith transmission, in a way which is also subtle! It's important the author included this, because without which the full appreciation of the scholars of the madhahib would be lost. The sciences of hadith are something which are often misconstrued, with laymen using labels they are not fully cognisant of. Of course, this book merely serves as a primer, a wakeup call even, and the actual journey to seeking knowledge is a lifelong path, involving a teacher, which one book will not replace.
This book is one which forces the reader to contemplate and challenge their own ideas. The chapters were well researched and eloquent but simple to understand. Though it served to be a primer, I would say Muslims are in dire need of such a book, with its clear language and organisation. May Allah reward the author, Prince Ghazi Bin Muhammad, for his excellent work and allow us to benefit from that which we read. Ameen.
"Unwillingness to think about things is what Muslims who misunderstand Islam, and non-Muslims who distort it, have in common."
As such this book covers a variety of topics which are either glossed over or completely misinterpreted e.g., Jihad. The author introduces several topics in 12 chapters using 12 verses, this book "is intended only as an educated primer on Islam" and is suitable for most people if they are willing to be open minded. The chapters can be read alone or in order, I read from cover to cover and found the author eased the reader into each topic, then finishing with 'why is it important to know all this?'.
The chapters I found most interesting were 'shari'ah', 'jihad' and 'government', all three are often misconstrued by multiple facets of the Muslim/non-Muslim community. Prince Ghazi was deliberate with his language in referring to shari'ah as a moral code rather than a legal code, though actions are judged by their intentions he says, "the first thing the shari'ah aims to do is make things morally crystal clear to Muslims, as a guidebook to life and to the world". Naturally, this paved an entrance to a discussion on schools of jurisprudence and their usul i.e., how they interpreted ahadith and Qur'an and how rulings were derived from this. Unfortunately, we live in an era where everything is overly simplified, undoubtedly leading to misunderstandings of Islam; it is normal to hear a mantra of "Qur'an and sunnah" but this is lost to the masses and creates an understanding of everyone having the capability of deriving rulings and not following a specific madhab. The anti-usul movement is mentioned in more detail, with some statistics on its growth for comparison, unsurprisingly Usulis have decreased from 99% (1900) to 65% in 2016, 25% of people do not know which madhab they belong to and 9% are anti-usuli (this number was below 1% in 1900). The dangers of this are further explained in the annex as the author states "Certainly not every anti-usuli joins or sympathises with Daesh — only a minority do — but all Daesh members are anti-usulis." because without belonging to a madhab or not knowing, the door to self-interpretation will always be open, and so the author concludes "the only possible effective ideological response to Daesh: traditional Usuli Islam."
Understandably, some people reading this may even fall into the categories of 'don't know' or perhaps you have chosen to not follow a madhab, but this book makes a solid argument for why you should. Even from the chapters of jihad and government it is easy to see how Islam based on usul is the solution, but without usul it leads to various forms of interpretation (sometimes extreme). The annex combined these chapters to tackle ‘The Crisis of ISIS’ so it is obvious how Daesh/ISIS indoctrinate new recruits using anti-usul material and their own translations, manuals etc. Their online propaganda is much the same, through abusing ahādith, presenting a façade of true/Puritan Islam and romanticising barbaric acts in the name of Islam through decontextualizing ahadith or interpreting them in a specific way (advantageous to themselves).
Many Muslims living in the west (it can be argued globally too) are adopting worldviews contrary to Islam, because they assume it has something to offer which Islam does not. The chapter on Government skilfully explores justice and alludes to the maqasid ash-shari'ah, putting everything into perspective; Islam is not a theory, it can be practiced and has been.
Moreover, what makes this book great is the answers to subtle doubts e.g. preservation of the Qur'an and hadith transmission, in a way which is also subtle! It's important the author included this, because without which the full appreciation of the scholars of the madhahib would be lost. The sciences of hadith are something which are often misconstrued, with laymen using labels they are not fully cognisant of. Of course, this book merely serves as a primer, a wakeup call even, and the actual journey to seeking knowledge is a lifelong path, involving a teacher, which one book will not replace.
This book is one which forces the reader to contemplate and challenge their own ideas. The chapters were well researched and eloquent but simple to understand. Though it served to be a primer, I would say Muslims are in dire need of such a book, with its clear language and organisation. May Allah reward the author, Prince Ghazi Bin Muhammad, for his excellent work and allow us to benefit from that which we read. Ameen.