The Satanic Verses?

Question

what was the salman rushdies satanic verses about

Answer 1

Rushdie is a great writer who deserved to be more widely read. In a way his media celebrity works against him, and people don't read the books, which is their loss.

Satanic verses is very much a treatment of the same moral issues as C.S.Lewis's Screwtape Letters. It studies the dichotomy between perceived good and evil, as opposed to what we have in the world, which is not so much good and evil, but people caught in the struggle between what they have to do, and what others think is good and evil.

Rushdie is serious medicine for all the people who think that any religion can guide them. He makes it clear that if you leave it up to some supposed 'higher authority' what you are actually doing is surrendering and abdicating to misappointed power.

Side Note: for this reader, Satanic Verses is far from his best work. I would suggest Midnight's Children is the masterwork.

Answer 2

In brief...

Two muslims are passengers caught in a terrorist hijack of their plane, which explodes. They survive but are reborn into different lives. There are a number of plotlines within the book and within that there are a number of dream sequences and real or imagined events which lead to significant questions about elements of their faith. This includes the supposed existence of the Satanic Verses.

The phrase Satanic Verses relates to the idea that early versions of the Qu'ran held additional content (later removed) that Satan tempted The Prophet to include, including concepts such as the worship of other deities. It was a matter of some debate for religious scholars but not much more than a footnote until Salman Rushdie's book.

I'm not widely considered an expert on Islam (or the works of Salman Rushdie) but as a brief synopsis I hope this helps.

Answer 3

When Salman Rushdies "Satanic Verses" book was published here in UK, we got people on TV beating their chests and burning copies of the book in public.

At first I just assumed that these book burners were a bunch of Nazis or members of the BNP. [The Nazis burn books, don't they?]

Later on, I came across a copy of the book in question in W.H.Smith. I mean it was a massive book, about the size of a doorstep and obviously a learned study which would attract scant attention for your average Joe.

The book itself seems to be about some verses which the Profit Mohammad is supposed to have written and which were removed from the Holy Koran. I am not up on Islam but this is probably basically what the argument is about. That the verses are evil and of the Devil and not fit for God's Holy Book.

Answer 4

The Satanic Verses is an expression coined by the historian Sir William Muir in reference to several verses allegedly interpolated into an early version of the Qur'ān and later expunged. The story of these verses can be read in, among other places, al-Wāqidī and al-Tabarī's recension of Ibn Ishaq's biography of Muhammad, the Sīrat Rasul Allah, believed to date 120-130 years after the death of Muhammad. The authenticity of the Satanic verses has been disputed by the earliest Muslim historians.

Answer 5

isn't it ironic that the Quran followers are the comparable those that killed and rioted as a results of fact Rushdie has the "nerve" to talk approximately Islam? I %. Satanic Verses! Merry Christmas

Answer 6

well ,mason7648 and univee are absolutely right,but i put it on this way:that is the real face of Islam.
respect for salman rushdi.

Answer 7

The truth of Islam

Apparently they disagree that suicide bombings,5 wives, dictoral leaders and a holy man called Ali taking a 6 year old wife and committing mass murder is immoral.

Funny eh?

Answer 8

I dunno...but I believe Rushdie was (or may still be) in hiding due to worldwide call for his death by certain moslems.

Answer 9

I'm not of the Islamic faith, but I don't think anyone should
have written what he did about the Koran or anyone else's
sacred text.....It's dumb acts like that which cause hatered
between different cultures and so many people to get hurt or killed...(What I understand is that he called the words in the
Koran...by that horrible title of his book). The truth is I never
read his book and I don't intend to!

Answer 10

quite a good read.
the funny bits were the best.