No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam

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No god but God ...

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No god but God REZA ASLAN a Random House The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam New York ...

For my mother, Soheyla, and my father, Hassan Copyright © 2005 by Reza Aslan All rights reserved. Published in the United States ...

�� Acknowledgments Thank you, Mom and Dad, for never doubting me; Catherine Bell, for getting me started; Frank Conroy, for givi ...

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In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful ...

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�� Contents Prologue: The Clash of Monotheisms xi Author’s Note xxi Chronology of Key Events xxiii 1. The Sanctuary in the Deser ...

x Contents 8. Stain Your Prayer Rug with Wine THE SUFI W A Y 194 9. An Awakening in the East THE RESPONSE T O COLONIALISM 220 10 ...

������ Prologue THE CLASH OF MON O THEISMS MIDNIGHT, AND FIVE hours to Marrakech. I have always had trouble sleeping on trains. ...

xii Prologue But the only way to avoid them completely is to be asleep, so that they have no choice but to move on to the next b ...

Prologue xiii The American gripped my shoulders and turned me toward him. “Will you please tell this man we were sleeping?” He w ...

xiv Prologue they were foreigners; they did not understand the complexities of social decorum in the Muslim world. Surely the co ...

�� Prologue xv perched between two knapsacks on the luggage rack. The box was filled with green, pocket-sized New Testaments in ...

xvi Prologue war have been forced, under threat of torture by their captors, to eat pork, drink liquor, and curse the Prophet Mu ...

Prologue xvii providing health and education to the impoverished throughout the world, is nonetheless predicated on the belief t ...

�� xviii Prologue through time like a river. Rather, sacred history is like a hallowed tree whose roots dig deep into primordial ...

Prologue xix observations at all! Rather, they were interpreting those events in order to give structure and meaning to the myth ...