Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #315206 in Books
• Published on: 2000-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 242 pages

Customer Reviews

Read for Muslim theology - ignore everything else
"Struggling to Surrender" is, like many works, a book with a fantastic opening with a weak ending ruined when the author's bias comes in.

It can be easily said that this is a fine book for both the Muslim or non-Muslim to read. It opens with the story of Lang's journey from religious to doubtful to Muslim. It then moves into Lang's description of Islam, starting with the Muslim concepts of God, family, faith, and sacrifice. He quotes from the Qur'an and hadiths, and later on will use these sources to go into detailed answers of common misunderstandings regarding Islam.

Unfortunately, there are some faults.

For example, typical of a Christian convert to Islam, Lang has a misunderstanding regarding Christian history and theology. For example, on pages 83-84 he says that the name of the gospel writers were pseudonyms and no one knows the real authors, when historical Church officials such as Saint Ignatius, who lived at that time, can attest to the authorship of gospel writers such as Matthew or John. Furthermore, the statement that they were written in Greek, a language Jesus did not speak, is a misstatement: Matthew was believed to have been originally written in Hebrew, and while Aramaic was the local language of Palestine, Greek was the most commonly spoken language throughout the empire and most people were fluent in it - in fact, we are not aware if Jesus did speak Greek or if he didn't. Furthermore, one cannot say that the Greek used would be distant from the culture of the time as Lang does: many parts of the New Testament, such as all of John's work and 2 Peter, are written in a "localized" Greek, one that was "Semitized" by its Jewish speakers, much like Jewish speakers of English add or speak the language with a Hebrew slant. The Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament written before the time of Christ, is entirely influenced by the Semitic language. Most interesting is when Lang responds to Christian accusations that Mohammad did not understand the Trinity: "It may very well may be the case that the Prophet had little personal knowledge of these enigmatic tenets, but these conclusions are no more than interpretative conjectures that are very difficult to prove based on the Qur'an," (pg 206) later saying that the Qur'an refers to such things vaguely to be "open to a range of theological interpretations." (pg 207) Thus, Lang not only admits it might be possible Mohammad did not understand the trinity, but shrugs it off with the old straw man of the double negative, or, "You can't prove he DIDN'T understand!", which fails because the Christian evidence is poor discussion of the trinity in the Qur'an and hadiths whereas Lang presents little from either source to show Mohammad had a valid, educated opinion on it. Finally, Lang at times displays double standards: Christian doctrine is shrugged off as something agreed upon over the course of time (pg 213); what, then, are fatwas released by Muslim authorities over topics as minuscule as brushing your teeth?

Lang also goes down the cliche route of Muslim converts by beginning to attack Israel with falsehoods and distortions, which can be found in the book from pages 214-227. He tells wild stories of "Zionist firms" and "Zionist companies" buying Arab land through the 1910's and 1920's (actually, most of them were bought legally). Most telling, Lang skips the 1930's, during which massive persecution of Jews by the Muslim Grand Mufti took place, and Muslim guerrilla movements attacked both Jewish and British populations (this same Grand Mufti would later escape to Nazi Germany, support Hitler, and then return to the Middle East to support anti-Israeli and extremist Muslim movements). Most amusing is that Lang lists the Israeli-Arab Wars as happening in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, and 1982, and states that except for 1973 Israel was the aggressor in all of them. This ignores the fact that the Muslim nations attacked Israeli possessions in 1948 (which, incidentally, made up the land that Jewish individuals had purchased legally), as well as the fact the 1956 conflict took place with Britain and France and was in response to the seizing of the Suez Canal by Egypt. Unfortunately, it also means Lang buys into one of the oldest lies about Israel, one that even some ardent anti-Israelis won't believe: Israel started the 1967 war. This completely ignores the Arab build up towards conflict, the refusal by Egypt and Syria to negotiate with Israel, the Arab planning and training beforehand, as well as the Syrian and Egyptian attempts to make Jordan join the war.

My only other complaint would be the shoddy publishing by Amana Publications. There are various typos, and some misplaced pages: page 199-202 makes an encore appearance between pages 202 and 203.

"Struggling to Surrender" is a gem for anyone interested in Muslim theology and how the religion views various topics. I would indeed recommend it to any one who wants to understand how the Muslim mind thinks. However, I would advise reading it carefully, weeding through the mixture of sincere theology and distortion.

recommended reading
very enlightening and recognizable - this man has really searched the answers in a very honest way, honouring his inquisitive mind so as to be fully rewarded with the answers he ended up with

A Muslim Revert to Christ responds!
This is an interesting book. Lang is sincere, no doubt. I found the usual missionary work from Islam to be quite bold and strategic in scope. The Muslim may use Ahmad Deedat's (he died last year having suffered from a stroke after attacking Christ- May God have mercy on his soul) many effective books to confuse the Christian who may not have had a good chance to research difficult topics like the Trinity (a favorite subject for Muslims to attack using it as mathematical formula to refute Christianity!). Coming from Islam, I found the Lord in the Qoran itself. I too struggled for a long time but discovered that Jesus is the Spirit of Allah, His prophet and His Word. If Allah had created His Word and His Spirit then there was something wrong with divinity itself for God could never be without His Word and Spirit.-

This comes from the Qoran:

"[4:171] ...... Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) an apostle of Allah, and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a spirit proceeding from Him...".


Jesus saves. The Qoran is a revised Syriac apocryphal series of Ebionite and other heretical writings predating Islam. Even its title Qoran comes from Aramaic, which means Qorowo or sermon in a Church...

Say (0 Muhammad): "He is Allah, (the) One. Allah AsSamad (The Self-Sufficient Master, Whom all creatures need, He neither eats nor drinks). He begets not, nor was He begotten; and there is none co-equal or comparable unto Him." Ikhlaas 112: 1-4

AsSamad is a plurality from Hebrew and NOT Arabic. Here it is again God is one God is a Triune God.. Samado in Hebrew means a plurality usually 3.