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This website introduces the book Exploring Islam in a New Light: An Understanding from the Quranic Perspective, and its author, Abdur Rab.

About the Author

Abdur Rab, Ph.D., Harvard, has had a long career in economic research and consulting for various government and international organizations, including the World Bank.

His insight into Islam comes from his association with a versatile Bengali spiritual guide possessing deep Quranic and spiritual knowledge, and his close study of the Quran and the Hadith and relevant Islamic literature of modern scholars.
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About the Book

The book is a culmination of more than four years of research effort. Islam, as outlined in this book, is not only a powerful retort to its usual Western stereotyping (as fanatic and militant) but also a marked departure from its conventional interpretation. Conventional Islam is regrettably a mixed message borrowed from both the Quran and the Hadith. This book persuasively argues that the Hadith is "more a detractor of the Quran and the Prophet [Muhammad] than a real guide" (Ahmad, Panaullah - full reference in the book).

It demonstrates with sufficient documentation why the Hadith surfacing more than two centuries after the Prophet's demise is not authentic and reliable enough, and how the Hadith falsely attributed to the Prophet's holy name, has long been misguiding Muslims in their religious beliefs and practices, and in their approaches to many issues such as the status of women relative to that of men, marriage and divorce, dispensation of criminal justice, and maintenance of justice, peace, and harmony in society. The ideas that seriously distort religious conceptions and practices, insult and at the same time idolize the Prophet of Islam, demonize and weaken women’s position in society, encourage fanaticism and fatalism, encourage archaic, barbaric or harsh punishments, block progress and modernization, encourage intolerance, violence and terror, and extol the virtues of aggressive jihad(“holy war”) against other communities—all come from the Hadith.
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Endorsements and Reviews

Some remarks from the Foreword to the book by Muslim feminist scholar Professor Riffat Hassan of the University of Louisville are especially worth citing. Read this and more here.
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Where to Get the Book?

It is available on numerous websites, and should also be available in some retail bookstores such as Barnes and Noble. It is available in two formats—hardcover and paperback. On the publisher iuniverse site, it is also available in electronic version (ebook), which is the cheapest. Some websites where the book can be ordered include iuniverse.com, amazon.com (amazon.ca, amazon.co.uk, amazon.de), barnesandnoble.com or bn.com, tower.com, target.com. eruditor.com, webster.it, booksunlimited.ie, shopping.msn.com, booksamillion.com, tesco.com, lovereading.co.uk, a1Books.com, etc.
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