Carimokam adds his own informed commentary on the Qur’an. He uses phrases such as, “Over time, the Prophet’s tone becomes more militant” or “An appeal to nationalistic or tribal linguistic sentiments is implicit.” The author gives his opinion concerning traditions (and early commentators) when the texts read back into the history of Islam to complete a phenomenon or explain a particular practice. In contrast, Jewish and Christian apocryphal traditions, which were only 2 percent of the verses in the first 48 chapters now jump to 32 percent of the text or 540 verses. The total for these three categories is now about 25 percent of the text, down from more than 50 percent of the earlier chapters. In Chapter 3 concerning the Middle Meccan period of 613-614 CE, Carimokam notes concerning God’s judgment, hellfire, and pleasures of heaven, The content of the Qur’an also changes significantly…. Each section breaks down the number of verses dealing with the particular topic. He also adds his voice to the discussion. He incorporates the modern, Western scholarship of Watt, Wellhausen, Donner, and Lammens, and interacts with revisionist’s luminaries such as Wansbrough, Cook, and Crone. Carimokam brings the emic (insider) perspective, which includes scholars such as Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Kathir, and Al-Tabari from Islamic sources to modern commentators like Yusuf Ali.
He writes not from a dry, scholarly perspective, but instead engages the reader on every page.
His concern is for the historical accounts from which he can reconstruct what actually happened. Rather, Carimokam takes a serious, critical, dispassionate (i.e., non-polemical) search for knowledge, unconstrained by ecclesiastical institutional priorities. Nor does he take the revisionist’s perspective of an a priori that assumes the historical traditional position based on Islamic primary sources to be false and seeks to deconstruct Islamic history. Carimokam’s approach is not the traditional theological-historical perspective of some Western scholars, who confine their enquiries to Islamic literary sources and works from within the confines of traditional Muslim scholarship. Since significant portions of the Qu’ran, Sira (history of Muhammad), and Hadith (Traditions) are devoted to non-Muslims, a study like this is very significant in understanding the Qur’an and Islamic early history. Carimokam primarily addresses the question of Muhammad’s relationship with non-Muslims. Sahaja Carimokam’s (pseudonym) Muhammad and the People of the Book is the best book I have read in a long time. Reviewed by Roy Oksnevad, director of Muslim Ministries, Wheaton College. Muhammad and the People of the Book Sahaja Carimokam.
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