This book 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.

The book provides a comprehensive description of Islam as found in the Quran, and draws its deeper meanings and implications for spiritual uplifting of all humankind, and to meet the social and economic challenges of modern time. It addresses a wide range of subjects. It emphasizes the civilizing, moral and ethical, spiritual, and humanitarian aspects of Islam, and its messages of peace, tolerance, justice, mercy and compassion. It shows how humankind can evolve spiritually to lead a flawless, enriched, progressive and blissful life, and have a still better afterlife. Subjects covered include the Quran's directions for religious beliefs and practices such as prayer (salat), humanitarian or human welfare spending (zakat or sadaqa), fasting (siam), and pilgrimage (hajj); constituent elements of righteousness in the forms of right mindset beliefs (iman) and right actions (taqwa); matters relating to marriage, divorce, the status of women and the treatment of slaves; and some implications for the economic system. The book provides a rational approach to understanding the conception of God, which rules out any arbitrary action on His part, and the fatalistic dogma of predestination by Him, widely believed among Muslims and Christians. It provides much broader conceptions of salat, zakat and other religious practices to make them fully conform to the true spirit of the Quranic message.

Salat is viewed as overall effort on one's part for self-purification, backed up by consistent and complementary actions. Zakat or sadaqa is described as a system for eradicating poverty and making all poor and disadvantaged groups in society self-reliant, not to perpetuate a beggars class in society. It also includes other spending in God's cause to promote social welfare, and it involves also state responsibility. The book also incorporates fresh ideas such as that some basic factors such as Ego, Love, Knowledge and Will underlie all creative action, including spiritual evolution. It interprets Heaven and Hell in a new light—as really not created by God, but by us by our own actions, good or bad. The purpose of religion is for us to transform this dull, dreary, and troubled earth into a Heaven by our actions, and create a still better afterlife. The book suggests that iman does not consist in simply believing in God and His Prophet(s), but in embracing various elements of beliefs and thoughts, and nurturing the right attitudes of modesty and tolerance, as well as getting rid of wrong attitudes such as fatalism, intolerance, greed, fear, etc. The book then describes what other actions constitute righteous deeds.

The book emphasizes that Islam as professed by the Quran countenances neither intolerance nor violence nor harsh punishments as prescribed by the so-called shariah law. It also highlights the moral responsibilities required of human beings in regards to marriage, divorce, the status of women, and the treatment of slaves. It calls attention to the lousy way divorce often takes place in Muslim societies, whereas the Quran calls for going in a very gradual way. It calls attention to the infamous hilla system that requires a divorced wife to marry another person in order to remarry her former husband after taking divorce from the second husband. The Quran does not really sanction such an abhorrent practice. God is gender-neutral. So the status of women in Islam is not subordinate to that of men. Islam professed by the Quran condemns slavery in unequivocal terms. A good Muslim will never enslave a person, but will rather free him or her, or keep him or her as an equal member of his family.

The book also draws some implications of the Quranic message for the economic system, which include embracing a free competitive capitalistic system with socialistic overtones for amelioration of the conditions of the poor and deprived sections of society, and also suggesting that the Quran does not really prohibit interest that is being universally used as a monetary policy instrument and an essential device for efficient allocation of resources in the economy. What the Quran really prohibits is interest charged to people who deserve humanitarian treatment. Finally the book calls for thoroughly remodeling madrasahs (traditional "Islamic" religious schools) on the pattern of modern schools keeping religious education as an additional subject, and stripping such education of the teaching of any traditional materials (such as the Hadith). Madrasahs, where only traditional religious instruction is imparted and no modern subjects in science and arts are taught, instead of becoming real learning centers of Islam, have rather become breeding grounds of religious fanatics.

(For more description of the book, see various websites by my book search, such as iuniverse, amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc. At the publisher's site iuniverse.com, when readers click on the image of the book, they can see a browse button. By clicking on the browse button, one can read many preliminary pages of the book, including a foreword by Professor Riffat Hassan, the preface of the book, and some beginning pages of Chapter 1.)