History of God - Karen Armstrong

This is a brilliant book depicting the idea of God through out the course of three world religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - from its inception till date. The book has lot of details, but can be experienced as a continuous flow of ideas. In addition to jotting down the historical facts, author had done synthesis of the same and in the last chapter discussed about the future course for "God".
The book starts with the remote sky God who didn't involve in much of the mundane matters. Then came the epic poem, Enum Elish, which was in a way source for the early Jewish scripture. Author explained about how Jewish prophets experienced God - it was more of commandments and action rather than mystical or spiritual experience. The book explained about Mitzvot which came from 10 commandments, Misnah from Mosaic law and Talmud from Misnah. Then the author accounted the life of Jesus - the faith healer or new Moses/Joshua/Messiah, hailed from Pharisee - one of the Jewish school of thought. In 200CE, educated pagans turned to philosophy and emerged the platonist from the ideas of Plato the mystic. Plotinus - neoplatonist - can be considered as early mystic.
Author explained about the emergence of the idea trinity of God. And how that idea was perceived in eastern and western christianity. Western christians took that idea in literal sense. Then he depicted about the God of Islam and life of Muhammad. Then the faction of Shiah, Ahl-al-Hadith who claimed there was no need for intercessor between god and humam, then Mutazilte - the rationalist - postulated a rational god, then the opposing group the traditionalist comprising of Ibn Hanbal and then the Kalamist. Then came the age of philosopher or falsafah and then the period of Mystics. All three religions contributed in both the streams, Muslims being the pioneers, but flourished in all three. Then he explained about the idea of God perceived in later centuries from 15th to 20th century.

Notes: Chapter 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1

Aju in Kandoor

ISLAM in Transition - Muslim Perspectives

This book is a compilation of articles on Islam from various Muslim thinkers from 19th to 21st century, edited by John J Donohue and John L Esposito. It covers on various issues from Identity crisis, Islam and Modern State, Islam and Social Changes; and Islam and Contemporary Issues.
Some of the finest Muslim thinkers less known in English has been introduced in this effort. In addition to Islam, some of the authors have explained about arabism and its relation with Islam.
This book has around 78 articles on the above said topics. Because of too much context switch between the authors and thereby from their line of thinking, towards the end I couldn't keep track of things. I left the effort of completing the book leaving the last topic squarely.

The story of philosophy - Will Durant

The title of book should have been "The story of western philosophy", since it deals with "the lives and opinion of the world's greatest philosophers from Plato to John Dewey". Irrespective this is a great book and a perfect introduction to the subject.
Will Durant has attempted to capture the lives, thoughts and contributions of some of the key philosophers.

Socrates - his simple truth which agitated Greek youth and upset the rulers - his enlighted disciple circle
Plato - his solution to all phases of life - Utopia - The Philosopher King
Aristotle - Greek Science - Great zoological garden - Prime mover
Francis Bacon - After Aristotle - A great believer of mankind - Man first
Spinoza - well versed in medieval philosophy - his transformation from Jew - Active nature and passive nature = God and the world
Voltaire - his pen and plays - liberty - encyclopedia
Rousseau - man of action and revolution
Immanuel Kant - Critique of Pure Reason - Came when scepticism prevail - transcendental esthetic
Hegel - undisputed Philosopher
Schopenhauer - Will - instinct - will to reproduce
Spencer - Post Darwin and Lamarck - Unknowable - evolution - life long work
Nietzsche - Wagner - Zarathusthra - Death of God - The Superman - Aristocracy - inequality in men
Henri Bergson - Creative Evolution
Croce - Man an artist as soon as he forms image in mind
Bertand Russell - The logician - The pacifist
George Santayana - Animal faith - Catholic and not a Christian
William James - Pragmatist - "What are its consequences ? and turns the face of the thought to action and the future" - At the end " ... no advice to be given. Farewell"
John Dewey - Reformation of education - Distrusted the state and wished for a pluralistic order - Old problems have lost their meaning - Philosophy must stay on the earth

After reading Hegel, I assumed that there won't be any more interesting philosophy on its way. Then comes Schopenhauer. And the same with Nietzsche.

For a theologist, Spinoza is an interesting read.

Anyway there is no better way to understand, reading the original works than summaries. But do I have time ?

Tafsir

Tafsir (Arabic: تفسير‎, tafsīr, "interpretation") is the Arabic word for exegesis or commentary, usually of the Qur'an.

Major Tafsīrs of the Quran include:

• Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (838-923 CE): Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī.

• Ibn Kathīr (1301-1373 CE): Tafsīr ibn Kathīr - A classic tafsīr, considered to be a summary of the earlier tafsīr by Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī. It is especially popular because it uses ḥadīth to explain each verse and chapter of the Quran.
• 
  
• Fakhruddīn al-Rāzī (865-925 CE): Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb ('Keys to the Unseen') also known as Al-Tafsīr al-Kabīr ('The Great Exegesis')
  

• Yahyā ibn Ziyād al-Farrā': Ma'ānī al-Qur'ān (The Meanings of the Quran).

• Qāḍī Abū Sa'ūd al-Ḥanafī: Irshād al 'Aql as-Salīm ilā Mazāyā al-Qur'ān al-Karīm also known as Tafsīr Abī Sa'ūd.
• 
  
• Imām Abū 'Abdullāh ibn Aḥmad al-Qurṭubī (1214-1273 CE): Al-Jāmi' li-Aḥkām al-Qur'ān ('The Collection of Quranic Injunctions') by the famous Mālikī jurist of Cordoba, in Andalucia. This ten-volume tafsīr is a commentary on the Quranic verses dealing with legal issues. Although the author was a Mālikī, he also presents the legal opinions of other major schools of Islamic jurisprudence; thus it is popular with jurists from all of the schools of Islamic law. One volume of this tafsīr has been translated into English by Aisha Bewley.
  
  * Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Tha'labī (died 427 AH / 1035 CE): Tafsīr al-Tha'labī, also known as al-Tafsīr al-Kabīr ('The Great Commentary').
  
  * Qaḍi Abū Bakr ibn al-'Arabī: Aḥkam al-Qur'ān
  
  * Al-Jaṣṣāṣ: Aḥkam al-Qur'ān ('The Commands of the Quran')
  
  * Maḥmūd Ālūsī al-Ḥanafī: Tafsīr Rūḥ al-Ma'ānī fī Tafsīr al-Qur'ān al-'Azīm wa al-Saba' al-Mathānī ('The Spirit of Meanings on the Exegesis of the Sublime Quran and the Seven Oft-repeated [Verses]') - often abbreviated to Rūḥ al-Ma'ānī.
  
  * Ismā'īl Haqqī al-Bursawī: Rūḥ al-Bayān
  
  * Ibn 'Ajībah: Al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ ('The Encompassing Ocean'), generally known as Tafsīr ibn 'Ajībah
  
  * Ma'ālim al-Tanzīl- by Ḥasan bin Mas'ūd al-Baghawī (died 510 AH/1116 CE) also known widely as Tafsīr al-Baghawī
  
  * Abu al-Qāsim Mahmūd ibn 'Umar al-Zamakhsharī (died 1144 CE): Al-Kashshāf ('The Revealer').
  
  * 'Abdullāh bin 'Umar al-Baiḍāwī (died 685 AH/1286 AD) - Anwār al-Tanzīl, also famous as Tafsīr al-Bayḍāwī
  
  * Al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz fī tafsīr al-kitāb al-ʿazīz ('The Concise Record of the Exegesis of the Noble Book') - commonly known as Tafsīr ibn 'Aṭiyyah
  
  * Zad al-Masir fi ‘Ilm al-Tafsir - Written by the great Ḥanbalī polymath Ibn al-Jawzi.
  
  * Tafsīr an-Nasafī - Written by the great Hanafi theologian al-Nasafī and published in two volumes.
  
  * Tafsīr Abī Ḥayyān also called Al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ
  

• "Tafsīr al-Jalālayn" ('The Commentary of the Two Jalāls') - This Arabic tafsīr was begun by Jalāluddīn al-Maḥallī (in 1459), and was subsequently completed, in the same style, by his student, the famous Shāfi'ī Sheikh Jalāluddīn al-Suyūṭī (died 911 AH/1505 CE), who completed it in 1505. Jalālayn is very popular with Muslims all over the world due to its simplicity. It has also been translated completely by Aisha Bewley.

• Al-Durr al-Manthūr fī al-Tafsīr bi-l-Ma'thūr ('The Threaded Pearl Concerning Commentary Based on Traditions'), also by Jalāluddīn al-Suyūṭī.
  

Modern Writers of Tafsīrs (Mufassirūn):

* Dr Syed Hamid Hasan Bilgrami: Fuyuooz ul-Qur'ān ('Benevolences of Quran') in Urdu.

* 'Allāmah Ghulām Rasūl Sa'īdī:

* 'Allamah Sayyid Pīr Muhammad Karam Shāh al-Azharī: A great scholar of the last century, wrote one of most accepted Urdu commentaries, Ḍiyā' al-Qur'ān ('The Light of the Quran')[

* Allāmah Sayyid Sa'ādat 'Alī Qādarī: Elder brother of Muftī Justice Sayyid Shujā'at 'Alī Qādarī, has written an Urdu tafsīr, entitled Yā'ayyuhalladhīna Āmanū

* Muftī Muhammad Shafī': Ma'ārif-ul Qur'ān

* Bahr-ul-Uloom Muhammad Abdul Qadeer Siddiqi Qadri Hasrat: Tafseer-e-Siddiqui

• Sayyid Quṭb: Fī Zilāl al-Qur'ān ('In the Shade of the Quran') in Arabic. - Many praise it as a modern tafsīr, but at the same time, many critics including some sunni scholars say that Quṭb had little Islamic knowledge, and wrote his commentary according to his own opinion. It has also been attacked for not following the style of classical tafsīrs.

• Sayyid Abul A'lā Maudūdī: Tafhīm al-Qur'ān ('Understanding of the Quran'), a six-volume tafsir, written in Urdu. The English translation was released as Towards Understanding the Qur'an, and it was also translated into Malayalam and Kannada.

• Amīn Ahsan Islāhī: Tadabbur-i Qur'ān - written in Urdu by Indian/Pakistani scholar. Based on the idea of the nazm (thematic and structural coherence) in the Quran.[2]

* Ghulam Ahmad Pervez: Matalib-ul-Furqān

* Muḥammad al-Ghazzālī, a recent Egyptian scholar who died in 2001 (not the Imām al-Ghazālī): "A Thematic Commentary on the Qur'an"

* Bediuzzaman Said Nursi began to write a tafsīr called Isharat al I'jaz (Signs of Miraculousness)

* Allāmah Sayid Muḥammad Ḥusayn al-Ṭabāṭabā'ī: Tafsīr Al-Mīzān

* Al-Habib Muhammad Ridwan Al-Jufrie wrote Tafsir Al-Jufrie Baina Tafwidh Wa Ta'wil

* Tahir ul Qadri: Irfan ul Quran - Available both in English and in Urdu, by prominent scholar Tahir ul qadri.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tafsir

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