William A Graham, a leading international scholar in the field of Islamic Studies, gathers together his selected writings under three sections: 1.History and Interpretation of Islamic Religion; 2.The Qur'an as Scripture, and 3. Scripture in the History of Religion. Each section opens with a new introduction by Graham, and a bibliography of his works is included. Graham's work in Islamic studies focuses largely on the analysis and interpretation of the religious dimensions of ritual action, scriptural piety, textual authority/revelation, tradition, and major concepts, such as grace and transcendence. His work in the comparative history of religion has focused in particular on the 'problem' of scripture as a cross-cultural religious phenomenon that is more complex than simply 'sacred text'. This invaluable resource will be of primary interest to students of the Islamic tradition, especially as regards Qur'anic piety, Muslim 'ritual' practice, and fundamental structures of Islamic thought, and to students of the comparative history of religion, especially as regards the phenomenon of 'scripture' and its analogs.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

The terrorist attacks of September 11 have turned the world's attention to areas of the globe about which we know very little. Ahmed Rashid, who masterfully explained Afghanistan's Taliban regime in his previous book, here turns his skills as an investigative journalist to the five Central Asian republics adjacent to Afghanistan. Central Asia is coming to play a vital strategic role in the war on terrorism, but the region also poses new threats to global security.

The five Central Asian republics -- Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan -- were part of the Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991. Under Soviet rule, Islam was brutally suppressed, and that intolerance has continued under the post-Soviet regimes. Religious repression, political corruption, and the region's extreme poverty (unemployment rates exceed 80 percent in some areas) have created a fertile climate for militant Islamic fundamentalism. Often funded and trained by such organizations as Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda and the Taliban, guerrilla movements like the IMU (Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan) have recruited a staggering number of members across the region and threaten to topple the governments of all five nations. Based on groundbreaking research and numerous interviews, Jihad explains the roots of militant rage in Central Asia, describes the goals and activities of these militant organizations, and suggests ways in which this threat could be neutralized by diplomatic and economic intervention.

Rich in both cultural heritage and natural resources -- including massive oil reservoirs -- Central Asia remains desperately poor and frighteningly volatile. In tracing the history of Central Asiaand explaining the current political climate, Rashid demonstrates that it is a region we ignore at our peril.

'Discourses' brings together four books into one volume: the Book of Tawhid, the Book of Hubb, the Book of 'Amal and the Book of Safar. Each of these represents a series of dicourses on its respective subject, delivered by the shaykh in Cape Town, South Africa, between 2004 and 2008. The Book of Tawhid: A series of nine discourses on the Divine Unity and the rst of four books that use ayats from the Qur'an and commentary on them to illustrate the themes with which they deal. Its preface states: "It was only tting that we should begin the matter by extracting from the Qur'an itself the clear explications of Allah, glory be to Him, about Himself, that is, the knowledge of Tawhid." The Book of Hubb: The second in the series of four, The Book of Hubb, taking as its the starting-point of Allah's Words in the Qur'an, also draws on the works of Su s, such as Shaykh Nasirud-Din, the Chiraghi of Delhi, to delineate the Ten Stages of Love of the Divine. The Book of 'Amal: The Book of 'Amal activates the teachings of the rst and second books, Tawhid and Hubb. The topic is mu'amala, or behaviour. Shaykh Abdalqadir describes it as the foundation of the Deen, and, again drawing from the Qur'an, describes the essential nature of Nobility and Character over and above structuralism as the pivotal elements in the establishment of Islam. The Book of Safar: The last of the four books, The Book of Safar, examines the essential subject of travel, as it applies to the Path of Islam, in both its inward and outward meanings.

Exploring the most formidable human rights challenges facing the Middle East--the rights of women, minorities, migrant workers, those of various sexual orientations, and the rights of all people to engage in civil disobedience--this volume addresses the extent to which dynamics surrounding human rights conditions in the region conform to or diverge from such dynamics in other parts of the world. Offering wide-ranging and rich analyses, the contributors to this volume argue that for human rights to be effectively enforced, they must be locally justified and achieved. The 2011 Arab revolts demonstrate that the people of the region can shape the condition of human rights in their societies.

This volume provides an overview of the nature and scope of the concept of Sunna both in pre-modern and modern Islamic discussions. The main focus is on shedding more light on the context in which the term Sunna in the major works of Islamic law and legal theory across all of the major madhahib was employed during the first six centuries Hijri.

The articles selected for this volume explore emergent issues in the contemporary relationship between Islam and science and present studies of eight major voices in the discourse. Also included is a section on the operationalization of Islamic science in the modern world and a section on studies in traditional Islamic cosmology.

Since 1989, religious fundamentalism and exclusionary nationalism in Jammu and Kashmir have generated political and social turmoil and eroded the ethos and culture of Kashmir. These forces are responsible for the silencing of dissenters, economic deprivation, lack of infrastructure, mass displacements, political anarchy, and the repression of women. Women in Kashmir constantly grapple with both the devastating effects of Indian occupation and Pakistani infiltration and their own complicated histories. Nyla Ali Khan, the granddaughter of the first Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, gives an insider's analysis of the effects of nationalist, militant, and religious discourses and praxes on a gender-based hierarchy. This cross-disciplinary project shows the attempted relegation of Kashmiri women to the archives of memory and reveals the women's powerful and persistent endeavors to rise from the ashes of immolated identities.

Have you ever wondered why you lived through a difficult, life threatening, and heart-wrenching situation? Why did you survive the vehicle accident, shooting, fatal disease, financial devastation, abuse, neglect, overdose, domestic violence, or suicide attempt? Do you think your survival is in vain? Your suffering, survival, and strength are not in vain God has chosen you for a unique purpose. Your circumstance does not determine your identity; your God does. You are not what happened to you or what you did in your past. You can change and you can overcome. What once "harmed" you has now "armed" you. Let those circumstances which once harmed you now equip you with the essentials for your intended God-given purpose. Our faith is challenged and perfected in our trials. Our mission is manifested as we mend. Do you know the God of a second chance? I do The intent of your trials is not to pull you away, but to build a platform for Him to work through you to touch and change others. Understand you can allow your circumstances to do one of two things: destroy you or make you stronger. The Lord is asking you not to fear, but to have faith and trust in Him. God is calling you to rise up and turn your despair into destiny. Now is your time to Release, Restore and Rejoice

This book traces the development of Oman's inclusive agreements and highlights their importance for international negotiations, dealing with issues most relevant to humanity's own survival today, nuclear weapons or climate change. In Oman, a historical seafaring nation on the south-eastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, a culture of agreement that accommodates the interests of everyone has developed around the division of scarce water resources. Life in the arid inland of the Omani Hajar mountains would not have been possible without water. Irrigation channel (falaj) construction is extremely old and skilful therein. Local practices evolved around the division of water and land on the basis of fairness. The community would be best served by inclusion and the avoidance of conflict. A specific Islamic school called Ibadi arrived at Oman early on in the eighth century. Ibadi scholars conserved local practices. Consultation and mediation by sheikhs and the religious leader, Imam, became the law of the land. The Omanis were known as the People of Consultation, Ahl Al Shura. In time, the practice of inclusive agreements would extend far beyond the village level, affecting Omans foreign policy under Sultan Qaboos. Omans water diplomacy succeeded in uniting the contestants of the Middle East Peace Process in the 1990s to work together on common problems of water desalination.

The early years of the twenty-first century have been characterized by a sense of widespread anxiety and fear because of the violent activities of groups of terrorists who claim they act in the name of Islam. Their acts of terrorism, viewed by a majority in the Muslim world as crimes which must be subject to the law, are in tragic contrast to the efforts of many Muslim intellectuals who have been working for the past several decades to find common ground between people of all faiths based on the universality of humankind. This book aims to bring to the attention of non-Muslims, in particular, the range of views which Muslims in the Middle East and in South and Southeast Asia hold on six topics of importance to life in the twenty-first century. The topics have been addressed from the internal Muslim point of view to provide readers with a sense of the main debates within Islam on each of the issues. The topics addressed are: the new world order; globalization and modernity; banking and finance; the nation-state; the position of women; and law and knowledge. The chapters have been written by Muslims and non-Muslims, each of whom is an expert on the area about which they write. The chapters are presented in pairs which offer Middle Eastern (and in one case South Asian) points of view which are matched by Southeast Asian perspectives on each of the six topics. While the media is quick to report on the more violent expressions of Islam, including terrorism, the vigorous debates, which now characterize the intellectual discourse in Muslim communities, are rarely if ever reported. This book not only describes and analyses those debates but also reflects the views of many Muslims across the world, emphasizing the connections and contrasts between the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Islamic Psychology: The Basics is a jargon-free and accessible introduction that explores psychology from an Islamic perspective, and provides a foundation level overview of the fundamental principles and practices of Islamic psychology. The book introduces concepts, models, approaches, themes, and theories you need to know to study the mind, soul, and behaviour based on Islamic scripture. Offering an overview of Islamic psychology and what Islamic psychologists do, chapters address key topics including the history of the evolution of the science of the soul, and the psychology of human behaviour and experiences. Rassool examines the concepts of the Fitrah, the Nafs (Self), the Aql (Intellect), the Ruh (Soul) the Qalb (Heart), and the concept of Islamic healing and spiritual interventions. Other themes include the Qur'an and psychology, models and approaches in Islamic psychology, interpreting Islamic psychology for modern times, and the contemporary scope of the practice of Islamic psychology. Outlining the challenges and solutions of the development of Islamic psychology and potential future trends, and including features to aid learning, this is the ideal introductory book for students in Psychology, Islamic Psychology, and Islamic Studies, as well as professionals including counsellors and therapists, and anyone interested in psychology from an Islamic perspective. Dr. G.Hussein Rassool is a Professor of Islamic Psychology & Consultant at the Riphah Institute of Clinical and Professional Psychology/Centre for Islamic Psychology, Riphah International University.

"Trust is debating the Israel-Palestine conflict with a conservative Sunni barber holding a straight-razor to your throat." - Kamal al-Kanady An immigrant white Christian businessman from Canada writes about his experiences in a majority Islamic country in the Middle East. He is a family man, a management consultant, and one of those scholarly types that reads history books for entertainment. He has been learning, not just Arabic and business, but learning from Islam about how he would like to live as a Christian. This book is a call to humility and inclusion in Christian-Muslim dialogue. There are more than a billion of each faith on the planet now, and the relationship between the world's two largest faiths is too important to be left to the minority of priests and imams to sort out. Regular everyday Muslims and Christians need to be building bridges, investing in understanding, and approaching each other with a humble orthodoxy. Perhaps we could start by simply inviting each other over for tea.

Winner of the 2008 National Women's Studies Association Gloria Anzaldua prize!

"Imagining Arab Womanhood" examines orientalist images of Arab womanhood in the United States since the turn of the twentieth century, exploring, in particular, representations of belly dancers, harem girls, and veiled women. Through semiotic analysis, Jarmakani demonstrates that these images have functioned as nostalgic placeholders for pressing, yet unarticulated concerns about shifting spatial and temporal realities within the contexts of expansionism/modernization and imperialism/late capitalism. Calling these representations cultural mythologies, Jarmakani maps them onto dominant American narratives of power and progress, insisting on an analysis that understands them to be artifacts shaped by the interests of the American contexts in which they circulate. "Imagining Arab Womanhood" is a vital addition to conversations about representation, race, and gender.

This book is a theory-informed, comparative and historical exploration of the notion of the public sphere within Western and Islamic traditions. It situates the emergence of the modern public sphere in a wider historical and theoretical context than usually done in conventional analyses. The work traces cross-cutting genealogies spanning conventional borders between tradition and modernity, and in particular between the Western and the Islamic world. This approach unsettles received, evolutionary views of the public sphere as an exclusive legacy of Western political cultures. The public sphere is finally reconceived as a complex platform for the modern cultivation of culturally diverse, competing, yet intersecting discourses.

In "Peaceful Islamist Mobilization in the Muslim World: What Went Right, "Julie Chernov Hwang presents a compelling and innovative new theory and framework for examining for the variation in Islamist mobilization strategies in Muslim Asia and the Middle East. Based on extensive field research in Indonesia, Malaysia and Turkey, Hwang argues that states, through their policies, institutions, and capacities, can influence the mobilization strategies that Islamist groups choose, encouraging peaceful strategies, or sometimes, creating permissive conditions for violence. This book highlights the positive ways that states can influence Islamist group decision-making and answers the question--what went right?

The book uses an ethnographic approach to explore why the Tablighi Jamaat movement remains so successful in contemporary times. It shows that this success results from the positive image that it cultivates, and the systematic preaching activities of Tablighi Jamaat followers, and that the organisation's apolitical image, the public profile of the ijtema, the humbleness of Tablighi followers, and the attraction of belonging to the global Tablighi community all help to create a positive image of the Tablighi Jamaat among ordinary Muslims. The book also argues that the Tablighi Jamaat remains successful because of its ability to hold its followers within a Tablighi-guided life, which is perceived as protection against the Western lifestyle. Many elements of contemporary Western lifestyle are considered non-Islamic, and so by clearly defining what is Islamic and non-Islamic in modern society, the Tablighi Jamaat provides a way in which Muslims can live in the contemporary world, but remain good Muslims.

From modern pop culture to anti-Blackness, faith and family, politics, education, creativity and working life; this anthology gives visibly Muslim women a space to speak. SPOILER ALERT: We won't be answering the usual questions! Perceived as the visual representation of Islam, hijab-wearing Muslim women are nevertheless rarely afforded a platform on their own terms. Harangued by awkward questions, radical commentators sensationalising our existence, non-Muslims and non-hijabis making assumptions, men speaking on our behalf, or stereotypical norms being perpetuated by the same old faces, hijabis are tired. Cut from the Same Cloth? seeks to tip the balance back in our favour. Here, twenty-one women of all ages and races look beyond the tired tropes, exploring the breadth of our experience and spirituality. It's time we, as a society, stop with the hijab-splaining and make space for the women who know. Essays by Negla Abdalla, Zahra Adams, Sabeena Akhtar, Mariam Ansar, Fatima Ahdash, Shaista Aziz, Suma Din, Khadijah Elshayyal, Ruqaiya Haris, Raisa Hassan, Fatha Hassan, Sumaya Kassim, Rumana Lasker Dawood, Suhaiymah Manzoor Khan, Asha Mohamed, Sofia Rehman, Yvonne Ridley Aisha Rimi, Khadijah Rotimi, Sophie Williams, Hodan Yusuf.

This book provides an introduction to the vision of an economic system based completely on the Holy Qur'an-a system defined as a collection of institutions, representing rules of behavior, prescribed by Allah for humans, and the traditions of the Messenger. The authors argue that the main reason for the economic underperformance of Muslim countries and their economies has been non-compliance with the prescribed rules of behavior. Rule non-compliance has been chiefly due to the failure of Muslims to comprehend the Metaframework of the Qur'an and the Archetype Model of the Prophet Mohammad and interpret them in ways compatible with their own generation and time. Askari and Mirakhor believe these rules (institutions), properly adapted to prevailing conditions present what they consider as an ideal economic system.