Book Reviews

The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam
from the Extremists

Khaled Abou El Fadl
New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005. 310 pages.

Written creeds, which always come much later than the original revelation,
invariably seek to define theological “orthodoxy” over and against the per-
ceived heresies of competing sects. Thus, in Islam, the Fiqh Akbar I stood
against the Kharajites, the Wasiyat Abu Hanifah against the Qadarites and
the first Mu`tazilites, and the Fiqh Akbar II against the later Mu`tazilites.
Later on, such theological treatises as al-Ash`ari’s Al-Ibanah and `Abd al-
Qahir al-Baghdadi’s Kitab Usul al-Din appeared.

In The Great Theft, Khaled Abou El Fadl revives this tradition by stat-
ing that in the wake of numerous “acts of ugliness” committed by Muslims,
the ummah has reached a grave theological crossroads. Muslims are now
divided along a spectrum between two extremes. Fundamentally, this schism
is one between “moderates” (the extreme being defined by those most will-
ing to reinterpret the Islamic tradition in the light of contemporary realities)
and “puritans,” who, on the basis of a selective reading of Islam’s strictest
school of law (Hanbali), claim that 90 percent of human affairs are already
covered by God’s law (the Shari`ah). At the heart of these diametrically
opposed worldviews, he claims, is a theological decision regarding creation
and the Shari`ah’s meaning.

Significantly, the book’s first part is devoted to an analysis of the pres-
ent crisis. In the first chapter (“Islam Torn between Extremism and
Moderation”), Abou El Fadl describes the split that divides the Islamic com-
munity and helpfully defines the terms moderate (as opposed to modernist,
progressive, or reformist) and puritan (not fundamentalist, militant, extrem-
ist, radical, or jihadist). From the beginning, he lays aside the common
Muslim objections in the face of suicide bombings or beheadings: “the prob-
lem is with Muslims, not Islam per se.” Unfortunately, he argues, all sides
claim that they are following the precepts of Islam. What is needed is a crit-



ical look at doctrine – how one understands and articulates the basic tenets
of the Islamic faith in the light of present realities, whether sociopolitical or
intellectual.

The second chapter explores “the roots of the problem.” In the wake of
western colonialism, the postcolonial period has been characterized by the
crumbling of the authority structures that held the Islamic abode together for
centuries. The jurists of the various legal schools provided the needed stabil-
ity in often shifting and uncertain political times via their ability to define
religious orthodoxy, offer support to fair-minded regimes, and occasionally
call for rebellion against autocratic rulers or foreign invaders. Today, notes
Abou El Fadl, the fact that engineers, doctors, and even those with little for-
mal education pontificate on issues of Islamic law is but one sign of a
Muslim society in complete disarray. 

This leads him to devote the next two chapters to a detailed examination
of Wahhabism’s historical and doctrinal backdrop in the eighteenth century,
its military and political defeat, its resurrection thanks to the British in the
1920s, and its gradual takeover of Salafism – this time due to rising Saudi
oil revenues in the 1970s. For him, it is a tragedy that an extremist theology
and legal philosophy (that normally would have been sidelined and termi-
nated by the moderate majority in the nineteenth century) should be
bankrolled by a state and take over the ummah to such an extent that Islam’s
reputation has been seriously tarnished in the eyes of most non-Muslims.

Part Two, then, represents the author’s constructive proposal: how to
reclaim Islam (as it was intended to be) from the puritans. The fifth chapter
is the creed: “What All Muslims Agree Upon.” After this comes the heart of
his argument: “God and the Purpose of Creation” (chapter 6). For puritans,
the ethical values of mercy, compassion, and justice are already contained in
the law. Only scrupulous observation of the law’s minutiae will curry the
favor of a God who will mathematically sum up the good deeds, subtract the
bad ones, and give His verdict on the Day of Judgment. In contrast, moder-
ates see creation as establishing a trust between God and humanity. Owing
to their gift of rationality, people are empowered to be God’s viceroys on
Earth and are entrusted with civilizing it according to the “Divine attributes
of justice, mercy, compassion, goodness, and beauty” (p. 129).

For Abou El Fadl, a classically trained religious scholar (`Œlim), this
interpretation has profound implications for how one approaches Islamic
law (chapter 7: “The Nature of Law and Morality”). This God-given burden
placed on humanity to establish godliness, civilize Earth, and resist corrup-
tion therein implies a necessary distinction between the Shari`ah, “the Way

Book Reviews 97



of Truth and Justice as it exists in God’s mind” (p. 150), and fiqh, the falli-
ble and tentative human effort to apply those ethical qualities within chang-
ing human contexts. For puritans, the Shari`ah becomes their own selective
packaging of past fiqhi rulings in order to form a watertight legal code. 

In contrast, moderates see the details of law as flowing out of “the eth-
ical and moral objectives of the Qur’an” (p. 156). The hermeneutical key is
found in the primacy of the ethical principles, which trump even the spe-
cific rulings found in the Qur’an and the authentic Sunnah. The last five
chapters lay out the implications of this perspective in one’s approach to his-
tory (chapter 8), democracy and human rights (chapter 9), relationships to
non-Muslims and pluralism (chapter 10), “Jihad, Warfare, and Terrorism”
(chapter 11), and “The Nature and Role of Women” (chapter 12).

In this book, Abou El Fadl continues in a more popular vein the argu-
ments of his previous books. But nowhere else has he summed up his theo-
logical argument so systematically and defined the current Islamic schism so
poignantly. For non-Muslims, this may be the best window yet into the the-
ological ferment now dividing the Muslim community. For Muslim readers,
it may be a historic call to rethink their “creed” and take sides.

David L. Johnston
Research Affiliate, Religious Studies Department

Yale University, New Haven, CT

98 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 22:4