from an alaqa, which can be translated as “leech” or “blood clot,” is supported with diagrams comparing the human embryo at this early stage to a leech, showing the two to be similar in shape. In the next stage, the embryo is described as mudgha, which A Brief Illustrated Guide translates as “chewed substance.” The mudgha-stage embryo—the somites of which “somewhat resemble teeth marks in a chewed substance”—is then compared to a photo of chewed bubble gum.7 With a succession of charts, diagrams, and testimonials from apparently non-Muslim scientists at secular Western universities, the Guide proceeds to argue that the Qur’n’s discussions of mountains, clouds, and the origins of the universe all display a divine knowledge to which human knowledge has only started to catch up.
In this pamphlet’s vision of Islam, the Qur’n looks to modern science for confirmation of its claims; the Qur’n derives its authority from non-Muslim obstetricians, biologists, geologists, and astronomers, institutions such as Georgetown University and Japan’s National Astronomical Observatory, and new scriptures such as Essentials of Anatomy and Physiology and Meteorology Today. As A Brief Illustrated Guide frames its argument, these experts, institutions, and texts give the Qur’n permission to say that it comes from God. For the power of such sources, the Qur’n’s heart becomes its discussion of embryos, mountains, and bodies of water. The most crucial objective in an introductory glance at the Qur’n, A Brief Illustrated Guide tells me, is achieved through diagrams of the human cardiovascular system and satellite photos of cumulonimbus clouds. What’s unclear in this section is how the Qur’n could have proven itself before anyone knew that something called “modern science” would someday confirm it. There’s a certain Islam that confronts me in these pages: an Islam that is presented as timeless and universal (and also a faithful and exact replication of what it had been in seventh-century Arabia) but could not have existed prior to the twentieth century.
Apart from scientific proof, the Guide tells me, the Qur’n is also indisputably divine because it challenges all doubters to produce a single chapter that can match the Qur’n in its “beauty, eloquence, splendor, wise legislation, true information, true prophecy, and other perfect attributes.”8 The Guide states that the challenge has not been met, though I am not sure how the contest would be measured. From there, we learn about Muammad’s coming as foretold in the Bible, a theme that in fact goes all the way back to our earliest sources on Muammad. Its placement here rests on the assumption that the non-Muslim reader of A Brief Illustrated Guide holds a deep investment in what the Bible says.
Other proofs in the “Evidence” section include verses in which the Qur’n accurately predicted future events, Muammad’s performance of miracles that were witnessed by many people, and the simplicity of Muammad’s life, which is presented as proof that he was not motivated by a desire for status, wealth, or power. The final proof of Islam’s truth is its “phenomenal growth,” as sources such as The New York Times, USA Today, and Hillary Clinton are quoted as affirming that Islam is the fastest-growing religion in America. “This phenomenon,” says the Guide, “indicates that Islam is truly a religion from God.”9
What strikes me throughout the “Evidence” pages is the treatment of humanity’s purpose and ultimate destiny as a math equation. Salafs are supposedly opposed to reason, but the pamphlet repeatedly claims that reason and empirical evidence demand our recognition of the Qur’n as a divine revelation. Whether or not these claims to reason are satisfying isn’t the question; what’s interesting here is that reason itself gets treated as valuable. The “scientific rationality” pitch occupies the first chapter and over half of the pamphlet’s content; by the end of it, the author has exhausted his energy and just slugs through the rest. The four-page “Benefits of Islam” chapter restates more or less the same benefit in four different ways: (1) Islam gets you into paradise; (2) Islam gets you out of hellfire; (3) Islam gets you happiness and peace; (4) Islam gets your sins forgiven. This approach once meshed with my own religiosity. If my experience of Islam is no longer compatible with something as straightforward as A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam, have I moved from Islam to something else?
The “General Information” section names Islam’s priorities. The pamphlet points out that “Muslims”—a categorization taken for granted as historically consistent, coherent, and full of descriptive power—produced “great advances” in a variety of sciences, because “Islam instructs man to use his powers of intelligence and observation.”10 It then tells me that in Islam, Jesus is really important, born of a virgin and performer of miracles; that Islam, “a religion of mercy,” forbids terrorism; that an Islamic state protects the rights and property of all citizens, Muslims and non-Muslims alike; that Islam opposes all forms of racism; and that Islam gives women the right to own and manage their money and bestows special honor upon mothers.
The woman pushing these pamphlets promised that there was a clear difference between “religion” and “culture,” but the Islam produced in A Brief Illustrated Guide could have been coherent only in a particular cultural moment. The cultureless, timeless, and pure Islam of this pamphlet necessarily created itself as a response to something outside it. So while the Guide’s claims of scientific proof for the Qur’n
