In the Shade of the Qur'an Vol. 2 (Fi Zilal al-Qur'an): Surah 3 Al-'Imran (In the Shade of the Qur an, 2) Paperback – Import, April 14, 2015

In the Shade of the Qur'an by Sayyid Qutb may be the most critical book you can read in order to get an understanding of modern Islam and the theoretical basis behind Islamic radicalism. I am concerned when some reviewers give the book only one star and say things which are meant to discoursge you from reading it, as it is essential that we understand the basis of those who are more than a bit annoyed that for so long Islamist countries were colonies of western Christian countries, and exploited for their resources. And the current Islamic world sees that continuing as leaders of their countries appear to be puppets or the beneficiaries of graft from those countries or their commercial interests.But that is not the only reason you want to read this book. It is an excellent exegesis of the Qur'an, when good detailed exegeses are very, very hard to find in American libraries, even college and university libraries. We are so used to being able to find a half dozen very good commentaries on each book in the Bible, that we may misinterpret the absence of good commentary on the Qur'an. And this is good commentary on the Qur'an. It is also uncompromising.When one reads this, it is easy to see how Qur'ranic scholars may take the position that a some Middle Eastern, and a lot of Western Muslim clerics take a position similar to the "Uncle Tom" epithet which was once popular for black leaders who sought reproachment with American white society. But, as both the black and white leaders were "Christian", that was not as far a stretch as it is to obtain a rapproachment between devout Muslims and people who ascribe to Christian doctrines.Unlike Judaism, both Islam and Christianity are universal religions. They actively seek to evangelize the world to their point of view. Christianity emerged from Judaism with an inherent tendency to antagonism toward Jews written into our canon itself. (It does little good to be able to explain all that away, because the explanation require that you actually read and understand the Bible.) Islam grew out of Judaism, another universalist approach fed by ethnocentric Judaism. And, Islam is theologically incompatable with Christianity, because, as you will read in here, it is unequivocally opposed to anything else but pure monotheism, like Judaism. It is most distinctly opposed to Catholicism, where the emphasis is on the clergy explaining what the Bible means to its followers. If you are a Muslim, you are expected not only to read the Qur'an, and memorize parts or all of it, but to also actually pray five times a day. And, I know some Muslims, and they do it.To make it brief, this is an uncompromising exegesis of the Qur'an, from very much the same point of view Mohammed and his followers had when the Qur'an was first inspired and written down. Virtually every other really good Qur'an commentary is either hundreds of years old, or not available to us, or both.