No god but God: this book is available as a new member gift“Gripping narrated and thoroughly examined…a literate, accessible introduction to Islam.” –The New York Times

“Wise and passionate…an incisive, scholarly primer in Muslim history and an engaging personal exploration.” –The New York Times Book Review

“Precise…acutely perceptive…For many troubles Muslims, this book will feel like a revelation, an opening up of knowledge too long buried.” –The Independent (London)

This unconventionally-written account of Islam—a religion that now has more than a billion adherents around the world—made the New York Times bestseller list, and was “Best Book of The Year” for both the Financial Times and the Los Angeles Times. It achieves what more historical non-fiction books should aspire to, offering an irreverent admixture of scholarship and entertaining anecdotal information. The book is suitable for both the well versed and neophytes of Islam.

Though it is the fastest-growing religion in the world, Islam remains, for much of the West, shrouded in ignorance and fear. In No god but God, Reza Aslan, an internationally acclaimed scholar of religions, explains this faith in all its beauty and complexity. Beginning with a vivid account of the social religious milieu in which the Prophet Muhammad forged his message, Aslan paints a portrait of the first Muslim community as a radical experiment in religious pluralism and social egalitarianism. He demonstrates how, after the Prophet’s death, his successors attempted to interpret his message for future generations—an overwhelming task that fractured the Muslim community into competing sects. Finally, Aslan examines how, in the shadow of European colonialism, Muslims developed conflicting strategies to reconcile traditional Islamic values with the realities of the modern works, thus launching what Aslan terms the Islamic Reformation. Timely and persuasive, No god but God is an elegantly written account of a magnificent yet misunderstood faith.

Reza Aslan is a fellow at the University of Southern California’s Center on Public Diplomacy and Middle East Analyst for CBS News. He is also a featured blogger for Anderson Cooper 360. Reza Aslan has degrees in Religions from Santa Clara University, Harvard University, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, as well as a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa, where he was named the Truman Capote Fellow in Fiction. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities, and the Pacific Council on International Policy. He serves on the board of directors for the Ploughshares Fund, which gives grants for peace and security issues, Abraham’s Vision, an interfaith peace organization, PEN USA and Levantine Cultural Center.