This is not an ordinary book by any standard, and simply going through its table of contents will tell you why. The author takes you on a journey to the 6th Century A.D. where events and incidents of this book started, meticulously detailing life in the Arabian Peninsula during the period of time that preceded the birth of the Prophet of Islam, Muhammed. Then he details the struggle of the Prophet and his followers to survive in the most hostile environment and among the most ruthless people. After that, he gives you an idea about unfortunate events that followed Muhammed's demise and how those who were the closest people to him during his lifetime betrayed him and his message thereafter, confiscating the estate of his only daughter, Fatima. A chapter about his wives is included as well in addition to one about the Holy Qur'an and why it is called a miracle. Many sayings of the Prophet of Islam on various subject-matters have been included, too, giving you an idea about how Muhammed thought and what he preached. A Glossary is finally added for the benefit of those who study or teach the Islamic faith either academically or out of curiosity. Perhaps the most interesting contents of this book are two very important pacts which Muhammed signed, one with the Jews of Medina, and another with the Christians of Najran, Yemen. These pacts shed light on the Prophet's tolerance and genuine desire for a peaceful coexistence between the Muslims on the one hand and followers of the Jewish and Christian faiths on the other.

"Harmonizing Similarities" is a study of the legal distinctions (al-furuq al-fiqhiyya) literature and its role in the development of the Islamic legal heritage. This book reconsiders how the public performance of Islamic law helped shape legal literature. It identifies the origins of this tradition in contemporaneous lexicographic and medical literature, both of which demonstrated the productive potential of drawing distinctions. Elias G. Saba demonstrates the implications of the legal furuq and how changes to this genre reflect shifts in the social consumption of Islamic legal knowledge. The interest in legal distinctions grew out of the performance of knowledge in formalized legal disputations. From here, legal distinctions incorporated elements of play through its interactions with the genre of legal riddles. As play, books of legal distinctions were supplements to performance in literary salons, study circles, and court performances; these books also served as mimetic objects, allowing the reader to participate in a session virtually. Saba underscores how social and intellectual practices helped shape the literary development of Islamic law and that literary elaboration became a main driver of dynamism in Islamic law. This monograph has been awarded the annual BRAIS - De Gruyter Prize in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World.

The Influence of Islamic Values on Management Practice is a cultural study examining how Islamic values influence management practice. Using Morocco as a case study, and with academic research and actual business managers working in this context, the book explores and explains how national characteristics, including Islam, shape management practice

A stunning, luxurious journal and planner with elegant gold foiling and ornate cover design - undated so you can use it any year. The perfect gift for Ramadan, for those wanting to get the most out of the holy month this year. Organise and focus your Ramadan with this 30-day planner, for tracking daily prayers, goals, fasting, reading of the Quran, and to-dos. With daily duas and free journaling space, you can reflect on your progress and end each day with gratitude. With this journal, you can: - Organise your life around the things that truly matter - Set, plan and track progress towards your goals - Reflect on what you learn and what you can do to continue your worship after Ramadan - Prepare and plan for Eid al-Fitr with your loved ones It's also undated, so it can be used any year. Motivating and practical, this journal is the perfect companion for a fulfilling and productive Ramadan.

This scholarly work focuses on the establishment in 1809 of the celebrated Sokoto caliphate in what is now Nigeria. The Sokoto caliphate may well have been the last complete re-establishment of Islam in its entirety, comprising all of its many and varied dimensions.

Islamic Psychology or ilm an-nafs (science of the soul) is an important introductory textbook drawing on the latest evidence in the sub-disciplines of psychology to provide a balanced and comprehensive view of human nature, behaviour and experience. Its foundation to develop theories about human nature is based upon the writings of the Qur'an, Sunna, Muslim scholars and contemporary research findings. Synthesising contemporary empirical psychology and Islamic psychology, this book is holistic in both nature and process and includes the physical, psychological, social and spiritual dimensions of human behaviour and experience. Through a broad and comprehensive scope, the book addresses three main areas: Context, perspectives and the clinical applications of applied psychology from an Islamic approach. This book is a core text on Islamic psychology for undergraduate and postgraduate students and those undertaking continuing professional development in Islamic psychology, psychotherapy and counselling. Beyond this, it is also a good supporting resource for teachers and lecturers in this field.

This book analyzes non-democratic legitimacy during the Arab Spring. During this historic event, monarchs and presidents were forced to defend their rule, whether through Islam, the cultural image of paternalism or the cash flow of welfare. Can Arab leaders still justify apolitical reigns? Are monarchies more respected than republicans or are they too under threat? The author traces the history of apolitical rule in the Arab world, from Islamic roots to the role of Arab leaders in merging religion with socio-economic benefits and cosmetic liberalization. Finally, analysis of speeches given by leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain in response to the Arab Spring are considered. When protesters took to the streets with their slogans, the regimes talked back. This work discusses the weight of their words and why some leaders survived unrest while others were overthrown.

Islam and violence appear to dominate global politics in the twenty-first century. This book examines dimensions of Islam and violence as part of wider debates about politics, history, faith, power, rebellion and struggle both within Muslims' realms and outside it. The author accounts for definitions of violence and terrorism with both historical and contemporary dimension. The book explores the motif of violence in its myriad aspects including debates about sacrifice, private and public violence, responses and reactions, as well as suicide and martyrdom.

"Will be welcomed by all interested in African history and anthropology. A valuable contribution and a rich mine of material."
"--Journal of African History"

In many parts of the African Muslim world, slavery still blights the landscape. What are the origins of this terrible institution? Why is it still practiced? How widespread is it and how does it differ from Western chattel slavery?

This book tells the story of how the enslavement of Africans by Berbers, Arabs, and other Africans became institutionalized and legitimized throughout Muslim Africa. A classic, pioneering study, first published in 1971 and extensively updated in this revised edition, Slavery in the History of Black Muslim Africa provides an expansive portrait of domestic slavery from the tenth to the nineteenth century in the context of the religious, social, and economic conditions of the African Islamic world.

Drawing on a host of accounts from contemporary observers such as Leo Africanus and Ibn Battuta, Fisher and Fisher describe the status and rights of slaves in Africa, and their various roles as currency, goods, eunuchs, soldiers, and statesmen, as well as the jarring historical interruption brought on by slave raiders and traders in West and North Africa.

When the Umayyads, the first Islamic dynasty, rose to power shortly after the death of the Prophet Muhammad (d. 632), the polity of which they assumed control had only recently expanded out of Arabia into the Roman eastern Mediterranean, Iraq and Iran. A century later, by the time of their downfall in 750, the last Umayyad caliphs governed the largest empire that the world had seen, stretching from Spain in the West to the Indus valley and Central Asia in the East. By then, their dynasty and the ruling circles around it had articulated with increasing clarity the public face of the new monotheistic religion of Islam, created major masterpieces of world art and architecture, some of which still stand today, and built a state apparatus that was crucial to ensuring the continuity of the Islamic polity. Within the vast lands under their control, the Umayyads and their allies ruled over a mosaic of peoples, languages and faiths, first among them Christianity, Judaism and the Ancient religion of Iran, Zoroastrianism. The Umayyad period is profoundly different from ours, yet it also resonates with modern concerns, from the origins of Islam to dynamics of cultural exchange. Editors Alain George and Andrew Marsham bring together a collection of essays that shed new light on this crucial period. Power, Patronage, and Memory in Early Islam elucidates the ways in which Umayyad elites fashioned and projected their self-image, and how these articulations, in turn, mirrored their own times. The authors, combining perspectives from different disciplines, present new material evidence, introduce fresh perspectives about key themes and monuments, and revisit the nature of the historical writing that shaped our knowledge of this period.

In this groundbreaking biography, Abdel Rahman Azzam narrates the life of Saladin, placing him in historical context against the backdrop of the 10th and 11th-century Sunni revival, a powerful sweeping intellectual renaissance that transformed every field of Islamic thought. Azzam contends that Saladin was not just the brilliant military commander of popular imagination but that his true greatness lay in his political and spiritual vision. He was an outsider whose life was filled with paradoxes. Famous for driving the crusaders out of Jerusalem, and for his bitter war of attrition with Richard the Lionheart, and fabled for his chivalry and generosity, he became the most powerful man in the Islamic empire, but died penniless, without enough money to line his coffin. This book tells his fascinating and complex story. The author covers Saladin's political rise, his consolidation of power in Egypt with the support of the advisers and military men that he relied on. Indeed one of the main aims of the biography is to introduce to the reader the men around Saladin and the vital religious, military, and administrative roles they played, thereby offering a three-dimensional quality to the man himself. In the early chapters of the biography, Azzam's aim is to peel away the myths surrounding Saladin and to set aside the legend so that the reader may gain a better understanding of the historical figure by placing him in his historical context. Subsequently the first two chapters focus more on the context of the Islamic world than on Saladin himself, setting it apart from other works on Saladin. The remaining chapters of the book deal with Saladin's victory at Hattin and the ensuing Third Crusade, and ending with his death in Damascus. In the final chapter the author gives an insightful assessment of Saladin, bringing the book full circle to the opening Prologue.

In recent years, the debate over science, reason, and religion has reached a peak (or a high plateau, depending on your perception of time scales) of intensity, breadth, and confrontational vigor. Hundreds of Web sites, blogs, and forums have sprung up, enabling the debate to rage day-to-day. But people will always want points of view to be encapsulated in portable form: books.

Faith in the Unseen is a contribution to the debate. Its author, Dr. Rashid Seyal, who is a consultant cardiologist with numerous books on cardiology and religion under his belt, approaches the debate on the "faith" side as a religious man (he is a Muslim) with a strong background in science. The title of his book places the emphasis on the key issue that stands between the scientific atheist side and the faith side: evidence, and the absence thereof. For fundamentalist believers, evidence (other than what is written in holy books) is simply not an issue. However, for the rational religious believer, it is a pivotal point and must be rationalized.

It is divided into substantial chapters, each dealing with a major subject of faith and/or reason, and each chapter is subdivided into sections, which discuss various detailed aspects or examples, including death, the afterlife, and the philosophy of life.

Bassam Tibi offers a radical solution to the problems faced by Islam in a rapidly changing and globalizing world. He argues 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. Tibi 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.

During the early modern period, Muslims in China began to embrace the Chinese characteristics of their heritage. Several scholar-teachers incorporated tenets from traditional Chinese education into their promotion of Islamic knowledge. As a result, some Sino-Muslims established an educational network which utilized an Islamic curriculum made up of Arabic, Persian, and Chinese works. The corpus of Chinese Islamic texts written in this system is collectively labeled the Han Kitab. Interpreting Islam in China explores the Sino-Islamic intellectual tradition through the works of some its brightest luminaries. Three prominent Sino-Muslim authors are used to illustrate transformations within this tradition, Wang Daiyu, Liu Zhi, and Ma Dexin. Kristian Petersen puts these scholars in dialogue and demonstrates the continuities and departures within this tradition. Through an analysis of their writings, he considers several questions: How malleable are religious categories and why are they variously interpreted across time? How do changing historical circumstances affect the interpretation of religious beliefs and practices? How do individuals navigate multiple sources of authority? How do practices inform belief? Overall, he shows that these authors presented an increasingly universalistic portrait of Islam through which Sino-Muslims were encouraged to participate within the global community of Muslims. The growing emphasis on performing the pilgrimage to Mecca, comprehensive knowledge of the Qur'an, and personal knowledge of Arabic stimulated communal engagement. Petersen demonstrates that the integration of Sino-Muslims within a growing global environment, where international travel and communication was increasingly possible, was accompanied by the rising self-awareness of a universally engaged Muslim community.

Christian-Muslim dialogue grows increasingly important, but little is known about individual Muslim dialogical thinkers. Born in Palestine in 1921, Ismail al-Faruqi was a leading figure in the development of conversation and debate across faiths in North America in the second half of the twentieth century, and was actively engaged in inter-faith study and dialogue. Al-Faruqi founded the Islamic Studies programme at Temple University, Pennsylvania where several distinguished Muslim intellectuals have taught, such as Seyyid Hossein Nasr, Mahmoud Ayoub and Hasan Hanafi. Along with Kenneth Cragg and Wilfred Cantwell Smith, al-Faruqi was an active participant in Muslim-Christian dialogues in the 1970s and the 1980s. Charles Fletcher here presents the first study dedicated to Ismail al-Faruqi's theory and practice of interfaith dialogue. Analysing al-Faruqi's sometimes provocative ideas on the comparative study of religion, dialogue and practical engagement, the author provides an illuminating study of the life and thought of this important scholar. Tracing the development of al-Faruqi's ideas and practice of inter-faith dialogue, Fletcher shows how Muslim intellectuals engaged in such attempts viewed their role as representatives of the worldwide Muslim community. With perceptive insights into the history of contemporary Muslim-Christian dialogue, this book will be invaluable for all those interested in inter-faith relations, comparative religious studies, North American Muslims and Islamic studies.

The face of Islam currently visible to the West bears the features of orthodoxy, fundamentalism, the so-called "new anti-Semitism," and political terrorism. Images of inter-ethnic bloodshed in Iraq, bellicose Iranian posturing, Al-Qaeda training camps, and zealot suicide bombers are the basic grammar of such perception. While not entirely untrue, this portrayal of Islam also emanates from the 'villain hunger' of the West, a hunger that has increased since the fall of the USSR. The false equation of 'Muslim' with 'Arab' has also created stereotypes and ambiguities. The fact is that most Muslims of the world are not Arab and many Arabs are not Muslims. Indeed the people, culture, traditions, and even religious practices of Islam are highly varied and complex. Its belief systems range from the austere Wahabbi rigidity to lyrical Sufi mysticism. Its cultural fabric includes the dark spots of suppression of women on the one hand and breathtakingly beautiful fibers of calligraphy, architecture, rug weaving, and romantic poetry on the other hand. Attempting to advance knowledge about Islam and to create the possibility of a dialogue between Islam and psychoanalysis, The Crescent and the Couch brings together a distinguished panel of Muslim and non-Muslim contributors from the fields of history, religion, anthropology, politics, and psychoanalysis. Together these authors highlight the world-changing contributions of prominent Muslim figures, and elucidate the encounter of Islam with Christianity, Judaism, and Hinduism. Moving on to matters of family, individual personality formation, human sexuality, and religious identity, they also address clinical issues that arise in the treatment of Muslim patients as well as the technical work of Muslim psychoanalysts. The book thus becomes a literary ambassador of sorts, bridging the conceptual gap between psychoanalytic theory on the one hand and Islamic conceptualizations of life on the other. It is a work of synthesis at its best and since bringing diverse thin

This is an updated and expanded 2015 edition of a classic text on Muslim thinking about war and peace. The new edition includes a new introduction and translations of selected revelatory excerpts from ISIS texts about the treatment of POWs, guidelines on the "management of barbarity," fatwas in opposition to ISIS, and other key topics.