Based at the University of Tasmania, Samuel Green through the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical students (AFES) has a national ministry engaging in conversation and debate with Muslim people. In his recent newsletter Samuel mentions his blog devoted to reading the Qur’an. It is quite fascinating to read the Qur’an through Samuel’s Christian eyes. Highly commended. Thank you, Samuel.
In his AFES newsletter he wrote,
Last year I finished reading the 9 volumes of the Hadith of Bakhari. This took several years but was an important task as Bukhari is second to the Qur’an. I took extensive notes and now have a much greater knowledge of Islam and the quotes I need. Therefore this year I am reading the Qur’an again and understanding it much better. I plan to know the Qur’an better than the people I debate.
Samuel also communicated that,
- He meets weekly with 7 students; a Muslim, a convert from Islam to Christianity, and Christians from Australian or Egypt to disciple them,
- Engaging with Islam course, in its second edition, should be available in November. More information is available here,
- He has many debates this year on excellent subjects, in particular in Tasmania on July 28 and 30,
- He will be visiting Papua New Guinea, as the church leaders have requested he visit and teach them about Islam. Malaysia are spending lots of money to send people into the South Pacific to Islamize it,
- He is writing several Evangelistic Booklets and trying to organise Arabic and Indonesian Bibles for Christians to give their Muslim friends, and lastly
- He will be running and speaking at the mid-year conference (The topic is the Kingdom of God) on July 5-9. This conference is open to all University Students.
Samples of Samuel’s debates are available at, Abdullah Kunde vs. Samuel Green: “The Preservation of the Bible & Qur’an” Part One and Part Two.
Don’t know why he had to waste time/years reading Hadith—All he had to do was pick up a Quran translation with Commentary(Tafsir), the two more or less accepted by the mainstream are Yusuf Ali (with commentary) and M. Asad with commentary (available for free on the internet). Some readers consider M. Asad a bit harsh/enthusiastic about the “people of the book” because he was Jewish convert himself.—but if one is aware of this bias—his research in his commentary regarding interpretations is interesting.
Commentary(tafsir) combines history, sunnah and hadith as well as semantics to understand, expalin Quran
I wouldn’t consider it wasting time. Samuel says the Hadith has enriched his reading of the Qur’an. If it has helped him to work in this field in any way, it’s not wasting time. He is a thorough man, with good intentions. Any expert in a field will read the most popular and important documents. A commentary may not have been sufficient (but not unhelpful) for Samuel to be credible in his research, for example, the commitment Samuel has to this task has led him to learn on his own to read and write Arabic.
That all being said, in the conversations I have had with Sam he seems aware of much historical information too, and is a diligent researcher.
I am encouraged by my brother’s work for the salvation of Muslims.
The reason I read the hadith of Bukhari is that Islam is not built on the Qur’an alone but on the Qur’an and Sunnah. The Sunnah (practices of Muhammad) are not even mentioned in the Qur’an yet are essential for Muslims to follow. The Sunnah comes from the Hadith. Therefore to engage with Islam you must at least look at the Qur’an and Hadith. Islam does not have a doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture in the way Christians do.