Book: Belief In Allah, Umar S. Al-Ashqar

Y’know, I’ve found it pretty hard finding an in-depth, non-wishy-washy (and I don’t mean non-liberal by that) book on Islam. The few I’ve recorded on this blog have either been too much of a reference or socio-political (here, here and here). Which is fine, of course, but I think there is a need to balance these with something a bit more literal and straightforward.

Part one of eight (the others covering Angels, Jinn, The Messengers, The Final Day and Destiny) this book covers the concept of God according to the Quran and Sunnah. Specifically this means the evidence of God’s existence, the sign’s of His actions, the oneness of Him, the history of Aqeedah, and then a comparison with the concepts of God as held by other people (that is, non-Muslims). Despite the size (450 odd pages), weight and at times hard English (it actually has been translated from Arabic) of the book, it did feel like it got through it pretty quickly and easily.

I actually took this from our own bookshelf at home, which was lucky since it was actually close to what I was looking for. There were some things that made me roll my eyes a bit – things like the proofs (which, as someone who thinks that a full proof of correct faith isn't possible, sometimes seemed a bit circular) and the comparisons with other faiths. Having said that, the reader should be able to appreciate both and use them as a start of any further research or debate.

I’m guessing that God and Aqeedah will be the hardest of the topics that this series of books cover, and so I am kinda looking forward to reading the other (less sizable) volumes. Hopefully they won't disappoint!