I continue to be surprised by how little Western readers know about Islam, the world’s second largest and fastest growing religion. The Prophet Mohammad (570 – 632 AD) created Islam in 22 years, 620 – 632 AD. As the author acknowledges, Mohammad (may he rest in peace) was illiterate if one believes the Hadith. According to the Hadith, the Prophet spoke (we Christians call it preaching) and his followers wrote down his words or memorized them. These written documents are called fragments. Eighteen years after Mohammad’s death, the third caliph (successor to the Prophet),Uthman, collected all the still existing fragments and the people with memory and had his scribes copy the stories (verses). None of the fragments or stories memorized had specific dates, so, the scribes did there best to combine them into chapters know as surahs. When finished, the scribes assembled the verses into 114 surahs (chapters) which became the Qur’an. Some of the fragments had been lost, some of the persons with memories had been killed, thus the Qur’an is not a complete representation of the Prophet’s recitations. When the scribes completed their work Uthman ordered all the fragments destroyed. Now, the question was how order the surahs into a document we know as the Qur’an. It was decided to order them by the number of verses each surah contained (longest to shortest. This means the Quran has no timeline. The Ninth Surah is considered to be the last words of Mohammad. And the fifth verse, known as the Verse of the Sword, is the Prophet’s order to his Muslims, “And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and wait for them at every place of ambush. …” As the author states, this verse is used to radicalize Muslims to violence.
The author uses this as the backdrop for his story. The protagonists find a scroll that is identified as a lost fragment. A fragment that corrects the verse of the sword (9:5) and greatly reduces its value to the radicals. And like any fanatic, the radicals attempt to destroy the fragment. A very interesting plot indeed.
I will skip over the other aspects (character development, action, etc.) of the book since other reviewer have addressed them. What I found interesting was the author stating what is obvious while being labeled Islamophobic. “When almost every terrorist attack on the planet is perpetrated by followers of one religion, and the vast majority of the adherents to that religion remain silent, perhaps that silence speaks volumes about the problems within their set of beliefs.” I developed this theme in my novels.
The author also says, “Islam was still stuck in the twelfth century. Once producing leaders in scholarly pursuits, it had stagnated and never progressed, turning in on itself in a cycle of hate and violence that eventually would lead to either its own destruction or that of everyone else.”
At this point the story can go in one of two directions. Mr. Kennedy chose the politically correct path while I chose the other. One minor correction for those interested in Islam. Radical Muslims argue that Christians are polytheists because Jesus is considered the son of God and Mary is also worshiped. Allah is the One God and has no son. So, this being the case, only Jews are not polytheists.
The Templar’s Relic will challenge beliefs and make the reader think. And this is good.
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Top reviews from other countries
Kindle Customer
Templars Relic
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 26, 2023
Author, David Adams
A great action adventure.
Reviewed in Australia on August 22, 2018
Santosh Namby Chandran
Not the quality of writing I expected
Reviewed in India on August 6, 2015