Muslims, Their Beliefs and Practices - I-Epistemology

Book Reviews 141
The important issue of combating anti-Muslim prejudice is also covered,
and attention is drawn to media stereotyping, in particular. The
comment, “the American Muslim community is deeply concerned that anti-
Islamic feelings on the part of the general public are growing rather than
abating, exacerbated by international incidents of violence carried out in the
name of Islam and abetted by the unfortunate portrayal of Muslims and
Islam in the media.” This is even more resonant, of course, following the
tragic events of September 11, 2001.
The final chapter, “Looking to the Future”, (Chapter 8), presents issues
of immediate concern which the Muslim community has to come to terms
with and work out, such as authority, unity, leadership, women and politics.
The book ends on a positive note, stating that Islam is here to stay and can
no longer be regarded as “foreign” or “eastern.” “Islam has become part of
America and Muslims are a growing and vital segment of its population.”
The appendices to the book include brief biographical sketches of
notable figures on the American Muslim scene, a glossary of Arabic and
Islamic terms used in the book, and an exhaustive list of resources for further
study, including addresses of organizations throughout the US and a
large selection of Islamic websites.
This book is a useful introduction both for students of religion and social
studies, and also for the educated general reader. It may be recommended for
teachers, social workers, politicians and other professionals who need to
develop an understanding of what Islam is and what it means to its followers.
Muslims who want to know more about the history of their community
in America will also find it of interest. On the whole, it is an upbeat and positive
book; the author appears sympathetic towards Muslims and frequently
allows Muslims to “speak for themselves” by quoting them directly.
Muslims, Their Beliefs and Practices
A. Rippin.
New York: Routledge, 2001. 346 pages.
Huda Khattab
Author and Translator
Toronto, Canada
Muslims, Their Beliefs and Practices is the revised 2nd edition of a previous
work with the same title divided in two volumes: Vol. I, “The Formative

142 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 19:1
Period,” published in 1990, and vol. II, “Contemporary Period,” which
appeared in 1993. The present issue, like the preceding one, is a synthesis of
the development of Islam throughout its history, from the 7th to the 20th
century, with an insight into the challenges of the future. The author makes
a review of Muslims’ perceptions of their religion as well as the scholarly
activity – by Muslims and non Muslims – dedicated to it. This critical attitude
distinguishes the book from other introductions to Islam. According to
its bibliography, the book is addressed to an audience deemed reluctant as
regards to languages other than English. Yet the style and content of the book
make of it a complicated reading for a lay public who tries a first approach
to Islam.
Muslims, Their Beliefs and Practices is organized in six parts, each one
introduced by a list of the most significant dates for the subject matter in
question. Practical examples excerpted from the sources or the author’s personal
experience are used to illustrate his arguments. Notes appear at the
end. Subsequently, the reader is provided with a glossary, a bibliography
additional to that mentioned in the notes, a list of websites of use for students
of Islam, a thematic index and finally, an index of Qur’anic citations.
Part I, “Formative Elements of Classical Islam,” contains three chapters.
Chapter 1, “Prehistory”, covers the 6th century, a period in the history of
Arabia on which research about the constituent elements of the new religion
has focused. For his part, Rippin puts forward a gradual process from the 6th
to the 8th centuries in the broader spatial context of the Near East as a more
suitable model to understand the emergence of Islam. In Chapter 2, “The
Qur’an,” the author describes its form and content. Going further, he poses
the questions of how, why and when the Qur’an became a text with the
aspect it has today. Chapter 3, “Muhammad,” discusses the problems of the
historicity of the Prophet’s biography as well as its significance.
Part II, “The Emergence of Islamic Identity,” includes four chapters.
Chapter 4, “Political action and theory,” turns around three subjects: (a) the
role of religion in the territorial expansion of the Arabs, (b) the role of politics
in the enunciation of the classical form of Islam, and (c) the final separation
between both the religious and the political spheres with the emergence
of the class of the religious scholars (ulama). The latter assumed the
formulation of Islamic faith and law: a process analyzed in chapters 5,
“Theological Exposition,” and 6, “Legal Developments,” respectively. His
treatment of these aspects appears rather influenced by the writings of P.
Crone, M. Hinds and N. Calder. Chapter 7 is dedicated to the description and
interpretation of Islam’s external face: “Ritual Practice.”

Book Reviews 143
Part III, “Alternative Visions of Islam,” contains chapter 8, “The Shi>a”,
and chapter 9, “Sufi devotion.” Rippin underlines the symbolic value of the
differences between Shi>is and Sunnis and their political functionality. With
respect to Sufis, the author concludes that they have represented more than
an alternative, a supplement, to the Islamic way of life.
In Part IV, “Consolidation of Islamic Identity,” the constant re-elaboration
of the literary tradition of Islam is presented as an effort to respond to
the reality that has also led to the consolidation of an Islamic identity.
Chapter 10, “Intellectual culture,” addresses the non-religious sciences in
the classical period. Chapter 11, “Medieval Visions of Islam,” covers the
process of reinterpretation of Islamic traditional disciplines in the post-classical
period (13th-18th centuries).
Part V, “Modern Visions of Islam,” is the longest part of the book. It is
distributed in four chapters: chapter 12, “Describing Modernity,” focuses on
the impact of western colonization of Muslim lands. Rippin also insists on
the need to pay attention to Islam’s internal dynamics, and situates the definitions
of modernity, post-modernity and tradition in the Islamic context.
How have Muslims responded to the challenges of modernity? By means of
a recreation of the figure of Muhammad, a question analyzed in chapter 13,
“Muhammad and Modernity.” Also by means of a constant reinterpretation
of the Qur’an, illustrated in chapter 14, “The Qur’an and Modernity.” In
chapter 15, “Issues of Identity,” the significance of the Islamic identity
nowadays as well as the evolution experienced in its defining elements is
examined. In this area, Rippin sees a tendency towards a “personalization of
the faith” in which the ritual practices have been given a new meaning.
Part VI, “Revisioning Islam,” contains chapters 16 “Feminism’s Islam”
and 17, “Visions for Islam in the Twenty-first Century and Beyond”.
Chapter 16 addresses Islam’s response to change in the traditional family
structure and the role of women in society. Chapter 17 is an attempt to outline
the main challenges that Islam will have to face in the 21st century,
challenges which, this time, are posed by dissenting voices from inside the
Muslim community. What the future generations of Muslims will make of
this potential, concludes Rippin, is uncertain. Finally, he points to the convenience
of seeing Islam, like other religions, “on a continuum, attempting
self-conscious definition at times and reaching into the experiential dimension
of religion in order to refresh those definitions at other times.”
The preceding sketch can hardly do justice to the content of a work so
rich and suggestive as Rippin’s. His is a highly commendable book, which
combines the effort to synthesize a complex and vast phenomenon like

144 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 19:1
Islam with sharp criticism and a projection into the future. All works of synthesis
have shortcomings, however: not all the facts that we judge as relevant
are included; and bibliographical references are not always those we
would have expected. This was particularly evident for me as regards
Islamic law: Rippin has not followed the results of recent studies on the
subject; his treatment of the subject, “the application of Islamic law in the
Middle ages,” is obsolete.
To these “natural” and somehow unavoidable limitations I would like
to add the following remarks:
In his foreword, Rippin declares his intention to concentrate on the
Arab-Persian Empire to study the classical period of Islam, in the Near
East, the Indian subcontinent, Malaysia, North America and Europe for the
modern period. Yet this focus responds more to the training and interests of
the author than the fact that the most important events might actually have
taken place in those geographical areas. As a consequence of this method,
Islam is portrayed as the receptor of a variety of external influences, while
the influences it exerted over other religions are ignored.
To be precise, I am referring to the process operated through the Muslim
West by means of which the Islamized Greek thought passed to Europe,
affecting not only scientific and philosophical knowledge but also theological
speculation. In this connection, the name of the physician, philosopher,
theologian and jurist Averroes can in no way be omitted. This omission is all
the more surprising when we see that Rippin has taken into account other
prominent Andalusian figures such as the Zahiri jurist, Ibn Hazm, and the
Sufi, Ibn al-`Arabi. The existence of “Purification Movements” is traced
back to Ibn Taymiyya (13th century). However we have examples of much
earlier manifestations of this tendency with the Almoravids (last quarter of
the 11th century) and the Almohads (second half of 12th century).
Another negative consequence of Rippin’s delimitation of his subject
appears in his treatment of Sufism. The movement is presented as if it had
never entered the political scene before the 16th century. However, it is
known that in the first half of the 12th century, the Sufi order known as the
Muridun, led by Ibn Qasi, seized power against the Almoravids in the western
region of al-Andalus. Moreover, Rippin refers to the use that some
Islamists made of the figure of the Hanbalite Damascene Jurist, Ibn Taymiyya,
while he silences some modernists’ resource to the Malikite
Granadan jurist al-Shatibi.
The term mufti, legal expert who issues non-binding advisory opinions,
is erroneously rendered as judge. My final comment relates to the discussion

Book Reviews 145
on the fabrication of prophetic traditions. According to I. Goldziher, J.
Schacht and G.H.A. Juynboll, these reports were a late artificial elaboration
gradually projected back to the Prophet’s era. These opinions appear to be
still admitted by a majority of scholars. However, I have missed some reference
to W. Hallaq, H. Motzki, D. Powers, and U. Rubin, who have recently
questioned them.
Delfina Serrano Ruano C.S.I.C.
Instituto de Filologia, Departamento de Estudios Arabes
Madrid, Spain
Perspectives on Islamic Law, Justice and Society
R .S. Khare, ed.
Lanham, MD: Roman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1999. 207 pages.
This short, 207 page book is a refreshing overview of Islamic legal principles
and new trends within Islamic societies. Though Islamic law has often
been viewed as a sluggish monolith, it is actually a rather dynamic field.
R.S. Khare has assembled a number of distinguished academics to discuss
Islamic law, not as a homogenous entity, but rather in light of the reality:
that Islamic law is multi-faceted, varied, highly regional and must be
viewed in light of historical changes.
Thus, this collection of essays focuses upon the manner in which
Islamic law, as an organic law, is constantly reconciling historically changing
socio-economic conditions with modernity and technology. The collection
is organized in three parts. The first part outlines the concept of Islamic
law, formal legal institutions and traditional Islamic scholarship. The second
portion of the book focuses on the regionalism of Islamic law and the
manner in which the colonial period had a provocative impact upon the
evolution and endurance of certain Islamic legal institutions. The final portion
of the collection uses two interesting cases in which modernity and
technology are problematizing and calling for a fundamental rethinking of
seemingly “basic” principles.
The unifying theme of the essays is the manner in which Islamic societies
today are dealing with modernity and the manner in which technological
advancements and global changes affect Islamic societies and concepts
within Islamic law. Though at times the collection seems fragmented due to
the different disciplines of the authors, this variety allows for a solid and
nuanced understanding of the issues.