Great World Religions: Islam

By: John L. Esposito, The Great Courses

Narrated by: John L. Esposito

Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

How familiar are you with the world's second-largest and fastest-growing religion? In these 12 lectures, Professor Esposito guides you through the facts and myths surrounding Islam and its more than 1.2 billion adherents. Many in the West know little about the faith and are familiar only with the actions of a minority of radical extremists, but this lecture series will help you better understand Islam's role as both a religion and a way of life, and its deep impact on world affairs both historically and today.

What does the future hold for Islam and the West in the new century? How will it change under the influence of conservatives, reformers, and extremists? Moving from Muhammad to the present, from the 7th to the 21st centuries, you'll explore Muslim beliefs, practices, and history in the context of its significance and impact on Muslim life and society through the ages, as well as world events today. Topics you'll cover include the life and legacy of the prophet Muhammad; the nature and true meaning of jihad; the Muslim beliefs about other faiths such as Judaism and Christianity; Islamic contributions to mathematics, science, and art; the intricate relationship between Islam, modernization, capitalism, and democracy; and much more.

Professor Esposito takes a closer look at the historical development of two great Islamic institutions: Islamic law and Islamic mysticism. And he examines the worldwide "struggle for the soul of Islam" occurring today between conservatives and reformers, mainstream Muslims and extremists.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2003 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2003 The Great Courses

Muslim review of the course

If you could sum up Great World Religions: Islam in three words, what would they be?

Accurate, fair, best

Would you be willing to try another book from The Great Courses and John L. Esposito ? Why or why not?

Yes because its the best out there.

Any additional comments?

I found the first 2 videos to be fair and truthful. John Esposito does an excellent job of explaining the religion, the diversity of the religion and the 5 pillars. He brings in the concept of Jihad masterfully at the end of the second video.

The only complaints which were really small mistakes were around the 38 second mark in the first video in which he stated that some Muslim nations ban women from driving along with other issues. The reality is only Saudi Arabia bans women from driving which Professor Esposito is cited stating on politifact. At the 11:31 mark he states that Zakat is paid in Ramadan. Zakat is actually paid 1 year from when one meets the nisab (minimum requirement of savings to be required to pay zakat). Around 22:40 mar of the first lecture Esposito states that Islam had mainly male scholars and was patriarchal. Fine but Women Muslim Scholars vastly outnumbered Christian/Jewish women scholars which were much more patriarchal. Its very important to contextualize. We cannot compare modern day Islam to modern day Christianity/Judaism. Many modern Muslim nations are less than 60 years old and Islam is 600 years younger than Christianity. However the first 1200 years of Islam, Islam was well ahead in women rights only to be surpassed in 1970 with voting, credit card and inheritance rights. In some ways Islam still stands on the moral high ground with a marriage gift, requirements of men to provide for women, requirement of men to attend religious services but not women and more. Always contextualize!!

I gave this 4 stars because it is in my opinion one of the best videos on Islam out there today that I know of. Common Ground Institute & Services is planning to release similar videos by Muslim scholars for the public. I would recommend the following scholars on You Tube for further knowledge on Islam:
-Hamza Yusuf
-Yasir Qadhi
-Omer Suleiman
-Tariq Ramadan
-Abdul Hakim Murad

Thank you
Sami Aziz
Muslim Chaplain for Wesleyan University
Hartford Seminary Masters in Muslim-Christian Relations

As a Muslim, this is fairly accurate

As a Muslim, I wanted to understand how Islam is being presented to non-Muslims in an academic way. This is fairly accurate on the fundamentals, but there were several points I would have wanted to correct the professor at, especially in the second half of the course.

Introduction with depth and without bias

I was cautious at first, given that a shallow, slanted view trends to sell better than a more nuanced look; especially given the current political climate.

I was quickly, pleasantly surprised by the quality of these lectures. Mr. Esposito provides a wonderful introduction to Islam, customs, and mainstream thought while giving historical and comparative analysis. Mr. Esposito also addresses extremism, it's relation/separation to the mainstream and gives context for verses (taken out of context) commonly used to justify extremism. Mr. Esposito them goes even further to explain how extremists are actually in violation of Islam.

Throughout, Mr. Esposito gives references and points to exact instances to support the material. Thus, he avoids the all too common trap of, "trust me, I have a title. "

I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in learning more about Islam, whether they were new to the topic or well versed. Mr. Esposito uses an academic approach, so if you are expecting proscletizing you will be disappointed. But, if you have a genuine curiosity, you will not be disappointed.

Disappointing

This course is actually a series of essays read aloud by the professor, with no attempt to make them into lectures. As a result, the monotonous pacing and complex sentence structure make it almost impossible to listen attentively. This is the first Great Course I've e we found to be so poorly done.

Good Info, Less than I Wanted, AWFUL LECTURER

The information was good and respectful, and was presented well. I did learn stuff about Islam.

I'd been hoping for a LOT more detail, but that's largely my own fault for failing to notice that it was only a 6h course, as opposed to the 21h course I'd last purchased. Lesson learned!

But he was SO HARD to listen to! So many long random pauses! I listened to most of the course on 1.5x, and all was much improved, but there was still the occasional odd too-long pause. Even at 2x his speech patterns were distracting!

If I were to do this again, I'd look for the same lecturer's book on Audible, which looks to contain much of the same content, but is narrated by someone else.

A VERY brief introduction to the subject

A fan of the Great Courses, I usually enjoy the wealth of information I can get from a single title. This title, however, was way too short. There was only one chapter (30 min) for example, about Muhammad and I cannot tell anything about the Koran from this lecture- it's structure, message, the famous comexities and paradoxes and the like.

Beginning to Understand

Would you consider the audio edition of Great World Religions: Islam to be better than the print version?

Not applicable.

Who was your favorite character and why?

No characters. It's a lecture series.

Have you listened to any of Professor John L. Esposito’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I haven't but he was engaging.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Not possible.

Any additional comments?

I have a Christian background and didn't understand this third member of the Abrahamic tradition. There is a lot of information and you will begin to understand not only the divergence from Judaism and Christianity but the split between Sunni and Shia. I recommend it with caution because you will know that you understand more but also that a mountain of information is still out there.

A few hours of why 'No true Muslim' is a terrorist

I wanted a history or theology 'course', not 9 hours of poorly justified harangues about the nature of 'true' Islam, where minorities doing really bad stuff are called extremists, and minorities doing good (by Western standards) are held up as examples of how good Islam is as a religion.

The entire series of lectures is rife with similar logic issues, from the early claim that Islam is an Abrahamic religion because it co-opted some of the tenets and history (rather than grew out of an existing Judaic tradition) to the later claim that almost all conceptions of negative aspects of Islam aren't really part of Islam because there's a group of practitioners who doesn't follow that aspect.

I didn't go in looking for an Islam bashing session, or reasons to hate Islam, but I was hoping for a more honest approach. This definitely wasn't one. It is 100% from the perspective that Islam is a wonderful religion, and any problems it has integrating with the modern world are due to the world, or minor subgroups barely worthy of any discussion or consideration except to talk about how they are polluting the 'true' meaning of Islam.

Admittedly this is a very short overview course, and there's not enough time to cover everything. The lecture on the 5 pillars was interesting, but wasn't tied to much historical context.

The discussion of the hijab was a particularly good discussion, although in the end felt a little unconvincing. Certainly there are freer societies where women choose to wear a headscarf as a means of expressing religious identity and opting out of an appearance driven culture. Tying that 1 to 1 in with the treatment of women in conservative dominated societies is a false comparison that does more harm that good to the Islamic cause.

At the end of the day, anything as nebulous and porous as religion needs to be considered from the point of view of the preponderance of its practitioners, and trying to define the 'true' version of a religion is rather meaningless, especially when going on about it comes at the expense of time that could be spent discussion the actual history or theologies of various sub groups.

Muslim Apologists Unite!

What did you like best about Great World Religions: Islam? What did you like least?

The lecturer actually "taught" that western views of Islamic female coverings are more oppressive than the coverings themselves. What? Also, Aisha is only described as the Mother of Believers and narrator of hadithas--not as he 6 or 7 year old bride with whom he consummated the marraige at 9 years old. Not even mentioned. Dhimmis and dhimmitude are described as progressive for it's time, and not like a tax to believe and worship as you please. There are many, many unsavory bits left out or just pushed aside.

What could The Great Courses and John L. Esposito have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

This appeared less of a lecture and more of the Professor just poorly reading out of a book he wrote with many ackward pauses.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Professor John L. Esposito?

Another professor I suppose.

Did Great World Religions: Islam inspire you to do anything?

Almost inspired me to stop listening in the first lecture. Anytime someone tries to justify action with a "they do it too" arguement (in this case, Crusades and abortion center bombing), I know their arguement is weak.

Any additional comments?

We get it. Islam good. There is no doubt there is an agenda here. If you are looking for some good history, you'll find it. If you are looking for a white wash of bad rap of Islam as of late and to feel like a bigot if you question otherwise, you'll find that too. Too hard to take one with the other. I need a good series that puts out there the good with the bad--the whole story. I expected such from a university professor.

mildly informative but disappointing

I'm disappointed that someone like this would be teaching in our universities. The professor's voice is annoying and his New York accent is very distracting. As for the content of the lectures , I like some of the information but was disappointed to hear the professor constantly degrade the Catholic Church and Christianity in order to justify Islam. This lacks objectivity and should be listed as a celebration of Islam as opposed to an academic overview.