Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians

Peters, F.E. Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003. 285 pp.

I do not believe that if you search the academic world of scholars and specialists on the three Western Religions -Judaism, Christinity and Islam-you could find more than five persons who could come close to Frank Peters' knowledge, understanding, and erudition of those three faiths.

This study is a unique attempt to bridge a gap and present an understanding of Islam to non-Moslems. Starting from the perspective that Islam is misunderstood by Jews and Christians, this work explains Islam in relation to Judaism and Christianity. This is extremely difficult to do. In my own work attempting to explain Christianity to Moslems and Islam to Christians entitled: The Cross And The Crescent, An Ecumenical Perspective (A R Press, 2001) I learned to appreciate the complexity involved in that undertaking.

Islam: A Guide For Jews And Christians is divided into ten chapters covering Scripture, Sacred History, Muhammad and his message, the Prophet's role in Medina, the Quran and its construction, the Caliphates and the community, and, finally, worship and Aceticism. The book contains an extremely important analysis of Jihad and the Sunnite-Shi'ite controversy (pp. 203-215). A short comparative biographical sketch of Jesus and Muhammad is appended to chapter four and is poignant, clear and illuminating (pp. 96-98). This essay is well worth the price of the book!

This book is a masterly study of the religion of Islam; the narrative moves smoothly and seamlessly with great fluidity from topic to topic, chapter to chapter, and between all three religions.

This is a superlative work unparalleled in its objectivity and scholarship. It should be read by anyone wishing to understand Islam.

A.J. Abraham John Jay College (CUNY)

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