Islam has permeated Chinese civilization as a religion and lifestyle for centuries. This volume offers a summary of key developments concerning scholarship on Islam in China and presents a record of research on this topic. The first part of the book is a narrative introduction to the history of Islam in China, the coexistence of Chinese and Muslim cultures, and contemporary issues. The second part of the work is a listing of more than four hundred sources of information on the topic. Entries are grouped in ten categories, and each entry includes a descriptive annotation. An appendix lists journals devoted to research in this field, and the volume concludes with author, title, and subject indexes.

Explores the historical origins of Syria's religious sects and their dominance of the Syrian social scene. It identifies their distinct beliefs and relates how the actions of the religious authorities and political entrepreneurs acting on behalf of their sects expose them to sectarian violence, culminating in the dissolution of the nation-state.

This volume is centred around the theme of veiling in Islam and provides multifarious aspects of the discussion regarding veiling of Muslim women, especially in the West. The issue of veiling has been intensively debated in Western society and has implications for religious liberty, inter-communal relationships and cultural interaction. Islam and the Veil seeks to generate open and objective discussion of this highly important, though controversial, subject, with contributions from distinguished scholars and academics, including female practitioners of Islam. This subject has inflamed passions and generated heated debate in the media in recent years, particularly in the West. This book aims to look at the historical background, theological and social factors underlying the veiling of women in Islam. Such discussion will provide the reader with a well-balanced and unbiased analysis of this important aspect of Islamic practice.

Honorable Mention for the 2008 Clifford Geertz Prize in the Anthropology of Religion!The roots of contemporary Islamic militancy in Southeast Asia lie in the sixteenth century, when Christian Europeans first tried to dominate Indian Ocean trade. Through a detailed analysis of sacred scriptures, epic narratives and oral histories from the region, this book shows how Southeast Asian Muslims combined cosmopolitan Islamic models of knowledge and authority with local Austronesian models of divine kingship to first resist and then to appropriate Dutch colonial models of rational bureaucracy. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, these models continue to shape regional responses to contemporary trends such as the rise of global Islamism.

This book is a sociological study of Muslim youth culture in two global cities in the Asia Pacific: Singapore and Sydney. Comparing young Muslims' participation in and reflections on various elements of popular culture, this study illuminates the range of attitudes and strategies they adopt to reconcile popular youth culture with piety.

This book explores "A Common Word Between Us and You," a high-level ongoing Christian-Muslim dialogue process. The Common Word process was commenced by leading Islamic scholars and intellectuals as outreach in response to the Pope's much criticized Regensburg address of 2007, and brings to the fore, in the interest of developing a meaningful peace, how the Islamic and Christian communities representing well over half of the world's population might agree on love of God and love of neighbor as common beliefs.

This book studies the absolute reality of the Qur'an, which is signified by the struggle of truth against falsehood in the framework of monotheistic unity of knowledge and the unified world-system induced by the consilience of knowledge. In such a framework the absolute reality reveals itself not by religious dogmatism. Rather, the methodology precisely comprises its distinctive parts. These are namely the 'primal ontology' as the foundational explained axiom of monotheistic unity; the 'secondary ontologies' as explanatory replications of the law of unity in the particulars of the world-system; 'epistemology' as the operational model; and 'phenomenology' as the structural nature of events induced by the monotheistic law, that is by knowledge emanating from the law. The imminent methodology remains the unique explanatory reference of all events that take place, advance, and change in continuity across continuums of knowledge, space, and time.

This volume explores the dominant types of relationships between Muslim minorities and states in different parts of the world, the challenges each side faces, and the cases and reasons for exemplary integration, religious tolerance, and freedom of expression. By bringing together diverse case studies from Europe, Africa, and Asia, this book offers insight into the nature of state engagement with Muslim communities and Muslim community responses towards the state, in turn. This collection offers readers the opportunity to learn more about what drives government policy on Muslim minority communities, Muslim community policies and responses in turn, and where common ground lies in building religious tolerance, greater community cohesion and enhancing Muslim community-state relations.

Combining recent research with 20 years' experience in Indonesia, Lukens-Bull looks closely at debates about institutions of Islamic higher education as they transform from being exclusively religious in nature into full universities. Islamic institutions of higher education are critical to understanding the Indonesian Islamic community both for the ways in which they define orthodoxy and act as culture brokers to the wider Islamic community, as well for their cultural brokerage with Western philosophy and scholarship. Not only are the institutions and their faculty and staff important participants in the discourse about the future, they are subjects of it as well. The changes these institutions are undergoing and the questions such changes generate provide a window into the future of Indonesia as it is being created.

Bassam Tibi offers a radical solution to the problems faced by Islam in a rapidly changing and globalizing world. He proposes a depoliticization of the faith and the introduction of reforms to embrace secular democracy, pluralism, civil society and individual human rights. The alternative to this is the impasse of fundamentalism. The pivotal argument is that Islam is being torn between the pressure for cultural innovation and a defensive move towards the politicization of its symbols for non-religious ends.

This book outlines the principal motivations, opportunities and barriers to Muslim women's political participation in France and francophone Belgium. Easat-Daas draws on in-depth comparative contextual analysis along with semi-structured interview material with women from France and Belgium who self-identify as Muslim and are active in a variety of modes of political participation, such European Parliamentarians, Senators, councilwomen, trade-union activists and those engaged in grass-roots political movements. This provides an alternative framing of Muslim women, removed from the tired and often exaggerated stereotypes that portray them as passive objects or sources of threat, instead highlighting their remarkable resilience and consistent determination. Through exploring the intersecting fault lines of racial, Islamophobic and gendered struggles of Muslim women in these two cases, this book also sheds new light on the role of 'European Islam', political opportunity structures, secularism and Muslim women's dress.

This book by renowned scholar and recognised authority on Islam, Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, is a discourse on the legal position of celebrating the Mawlid al-Nabi (birthday of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)) within Islam. Most notably, the author has comprehensively compiled evidences from the authentic source texts and classical authorities to prove not only the permissibility of celebrating the Mawlid al-Nabi within the bounds of the Shari'a (Islamic Law) but also that it is divinely ordained and was a Sunna (practice) of the Prophet himself. The author presents unique and compelling arguments showing why celebrating Mawlid al-Nabi is not only an act of righteousness, but a need of our time. Tackling the various criticisms of this act head on, he specifically addresses the issue of why the first generation of Muslims did not celebrate the Mawlid, and clarifies that labelling the Mawlid as an bid'ah (innovation) betrays a fundamental and serious flaw in the understand of the Islamic concept of bid'ah.

Entrance
Introduction to Worship in Islam
Allah, the creator of the world could have made us believe and forced us to worship Him but He wants us to worship Him by our free will. He created this sense of freedom in our minds. He loves the people who out of their own free will chose to believe and worship Him. It feels as if we are choosing but actually He is choosing. The fortunate are the chosen ones They are granted the wisdom to be aware of Him and worship Him. Only when we identify our creator we may identify ourselves and our destiny. Where do we fit in His grand scheme of things.
The book is an introduction to Islam for new Muslims. Non-Muslims may certainly benefit from it because here we have collected all the basic information about the practice and the spirit of Islam. Our effort is to inspire without euphoria. Here we present the simple facts of Islam. We focused on providing information in enough detail to be useful. Yet we kept an inspirational tone to encourage further study. We tried to narrate in an interesting course rather than cut and dry facts. We added several short stories to give an inside feel for the spirit of Islam. We took guidance from other books. Particularly, the old books and presented the information in a similar way.
The stories from old time of ignorance may be sad. The real tragedy of ignorance is our own era. What we have become even after enormous knowledge He has given us. Human feelings do not change with technical progress. In past, life was difficult and easy in different ways as compare to life of today. We can still feel the same hunger, pain, and suffering. We can still experience injustice, corruption, and consequent upheavals.
The book is about recognizing Him and knowing our own place with respect to Him. He wants us to worship Him, making our best effort to please Him. The knowledge of religion is like any other knowledge you have to struggle to learn it. Yet, this knowledge is very different than the knowledge of other worldly sciences. The true religion is not invented or discovered by hearsay, calculation, or observation. He designed the knowledge of religion to be delivered by His selected Prophets. He granted them knowledge of unseen what is beyond this world. He sent them to show us what we can never learn by research and development. He delivered His message in a real life drama. The whole lives of the prophets are examples for us. He prepared the scene before they were born. He protected them, trained them, and brought them to full power. He let them deliver the message, loud and clear. He did it not just once but many times to prove to us that without His corrective message we will soon get corrupted.
In this enormous theater of time and space, our life span is just a moment. His message is directed towards us as a nation and also as an individual. He is directly calling you. He knows you, He loves you. He promised if you walk towards Him, He will run towards you. He knows, you recall Him and one day you shall return to submit. He waited for you for a million years. He can wait for another million but He selected this moment to be your turn on the stage.
You may enter now
May Allah (SWT) accept your worship and enter you in His protection. Ameen
Sohail

The meanings and contexts of Shari'a are the subject of both curiosity and misunderstanding by non-Muslims. Shari'a is sometimes crudely characterized by outsiders as a punitive legal system operating broadly outside, and separate from, national laws and customs. This groundbreaking book shows that Shari'a and its 'fiqh' (laws set forward by various Islamic legal schools) comprise a far more nuanced matrix of interpretations than is often assumed to be the case. Far from being monolithic or impervious to change from without, Muslim legal tradition has - since its beginnings in the early Islamic period - placed an emphasis on equity and non-adversarial conflict-resolution. Mohamed Keshavjee examines both Sunni and Shi'a applications of Islamic law, demonstrating how political, cultural and other factors have influenced the practice of fiqh and Shari'a in the West. Exploring in particular the modern development of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), the author shows that this process can revitalize some of the essential principles that underlie Muslim teachings and jurisprudence, delivering not only formal remedies but also perceived justice, even to non-Muslims.

This book narrates the battles, conquests and diplomatic activities of the early Muslim fighters in Syria and Iraq vis-a-vis their Byzantine and Sasansian counterparts. It is the first English translation of one of the earliest Arabic sources on the early Muslim expansion entitled Futuh al-Sham (The Conquests of Syria). The translation is based on the Arabic original composed by a Muslim author, Muhammad al-Azdi, who died in the late 8th or early 9th century C.E. A scientific introduction to al-Azdi's work is also included, covering the life of the author, the textual tradition of the work as well as a short summary of the text's train of thought. The source narrates the major historical events during the early Muslim conquests in a region that covers today's Lebanon, Israel, Palestinian Territories, Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Iraq in the 7th century C.E. Among these events are the major battles against the Byzantines, such as the Battles of Ajnadayn and al-Yarmuk, the conquests of important cities, including Damascus, Jerusalem and Caesarea, and the diplomatic initiatives between the Byzantines and the early Muslims. The narrative abounds with history and Islamic theological content. As the first translation into a European language, this volume will be of interest to a wide range of readership, including (Muslim and Christian) theologians, historians, Islamicists, Byzantinists, Syrologists and (Arabic) linguists.

Lincoln, Rumi, Shams and Rabi'a in one volume? How is that possible? While three are Sufis, even Rumi and Shams are separated by a gulf of 400 years from Rabi'a. As for Rabi'a, she was at different times in her life, an orphan, a slave and a prostitute. And Lincoln? On top of another 500 years, the great statesman belongs to an entirely different civilization and religion. Where's the connection? "To the spiritual seeker, " Kehl and Walker contend,"The connection ... is unmistakable. Christ said "I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me." Sincere aspirants on the Spiritual Path recognize Masters; it can be no other way, as they are striving after the same reality." Lincoln, Rumi and Rabi'a are "linked by their unwavering pursuit of Spiritual Truth through Self Knowledge." The proof will be in the reading: In these three remarkable drama produced and performed during the fall and summer months of 2010 and 2011 the authors encourage readers to "search out the connections-rather than notice any supposed differences." 192 pages.

"Almost daily, armed thugs call for a 'holy war' against everyone who disagrees with them. More and more young men wear beards and robes as political badges. Militant preachers proclaim that women who fail to wear the veil are 'waging war against God'. "But this Islam of intolerance and violence is not the religion of my father and grandfather. It is not the Islam that inspires more than a billion people around the world to pray, to fast, to give to the poor, to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. My Islam is a religion of tolerance and brotherhood."--Sa'id al-'Ashmawy "A welcome addition to the discourse on Islamic fundamentalism and its efforts to politicize Islam."--Aljadid "Offers a coherent testimonial to al-'Ashmawy's insight and bravery. . . . The translation is highly readable."--Choice "Helps to build a more balanced and accurate awareness of the full spectrum of Muslim thought. . . . An important contribution."--John O. Voll, Georgetown University One of the Islamic world's leading voices in the struggle against extremism, Sa'id al-'Ashmawy was trained as a specialist in Islamic law and comparative law at Cairo University and served as judge, chief prosecutor, chief justice of the High Criminal Court, chief justice of the High Court for Security of State as well as chief justice of the High Court Assizes in Egypt. The author of 15 books on Islam and the law, he has been consistently critical of Islamic extremism and opposes the very notion of an Islamic state, on both scriptural and historical grounds. Facing death threats for apostasy since 1979 and under continuous government protection since 1980, he articulates an opposition to the ideology and practice of Islamic extremists in Egypt that has applicability throughout the Middle East and North Africa. This volume conveys the range of his reformist message from the similarities of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, to the dangers of politicizing Islamic religion, to the place of Islamic law in contemporary politics and society. Contents Introducting Muhammad Sa'id al-'Ashmawy to an English-language Audience, by Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban Part I. Islam, Judaism, Christianity: One Religion, One Vision, Many Paths The Development of Religion A Framework for the Coexistence of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: Common Thread of Salvation Part II. Islamic Religion and Politics The Relationship between Religion and Politics The Caliphate Government in Islamic History The Call for an Islamic Government The Call for an Islamic Constitution in the State of Egypt Part III. Islamic Law and Contemporary Politics and Society The Interpretation of Texts in Egyptian Law and Islam Islamic Jurisprudence Taxes, Zakat, and Sadaqa The Veil in Egyptian Law and Islam Militant Doctrine in Islam Jihad or Holy War in Islam Reforming Islam and Law Islamic Law and Human Rights Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, professor of anthropology at Rhode Island College, is the author of six books, including Islamic Society in Practice (UPF, 1994) and Islamic Law and Society in the Sudan.