People in Western societies have long been interested in their dreams and what they mean. However, few non-Muslims in the West are likely to seek interpretation of those dreams to help them make life-changing decisions. In the Islamic world the situation is quite different. Dreaming and the import of visions are here of enormous significance, to the degree that many Muslims believe that in their dreams they are receiving divine guidance: for example, on whether or not to accept a marriage proposal, or a new job opportunity. In her authoritative new book, Elizabeth Sirriyeh offers the first concerted history of the rise of dream interpretation in Islamic culture, from medieval times to the present. Central to the book is the figure of the Prophet Muhammad - seen to represent for Muslims the perfect dreamer, visionary and interpreter of dreams. Less benignly, dreams have been exploited in the propaganda of Islamic militants in Afghanistan, and in apocalyptic visions relating to the 9/11 attacks. This timely volume gives an important, fascinating and overlooked subject the exploration it has long deserved.

Fabos and Isotalo address the issue of forced migration and mobility in the Muslim world. Their work explores the tensions between Muslim religious conceptions of space and place and new policies of 'migration management' and secure borders.

This title includes an assessment of the influence and impact of the Islamic scholar and activist Fethullah Gulen, and those who are inspired by him, on contemporary Islam. This edited collection deals with the challenges and opportunities faced by Muslims and the wider society in Europe following the Madrid train bombings of 2003 and the London Transport attacks of 2007. The contributors explore the challenges to the concept and practice of civility in public life within a European context, and demonstrates the contributions that can be made in this regard by the thought and practice of the global movement associated with the Turkish Muslim scholar Fethullah Gulen. The importance and distinctiveness of teaching of Gulen and the practice of the movement is that it is rooted in a confident Turkish Islamic heritage while being fully engaged with modernity. It offers the possibility of a contextualised renewal of Islam for Muslims in Europe while being fully rooted in the teachings of the Qu'ran and the Sunnah of the Prophet. This volume is an important contribution to the study of the movement, which advocates the freedom of religion while making an Islamic contribution to the wider society based on a commitment to service of others.

The process of curriculum enhancement through various educational approaches aims to enhance quality assurance in the educational process itself. In Islamic education, traditional educational trends are enhanced by expanding the embodiment process on experiential learning to evaluate the achievement in creating outcomes that balance not only spirituality and morality but also quality of cognitive analytical performances. Global Perspectives on Teaching and Learning Paths in Islamic Education is a comprehensive scholarly book that provides broad coverage on integrating emerging trends and technologies for developing learning paths within Islamic education. Highlighting a wide range of topics such as digital ethics, psychology, and vocational education, this book is ideal for instructors, administrators, principals, curriculum designers, professionals, researchers, academicians, and students.

This book is about the history of the conflict between Shia sects, how different sects originated and what are the basic beliefs of world known Usuli Shia sect i.e. State religion of Iran, and how it differs from the True Shia religion. Usuli sect was founded only 10 centuries ago, and only 5 or 6 so-called Shia scholars accepted it in 4th and 5th Hijra century. After that for many centuries Shia scholars and public hated this man-made religion. Only few centuries ago Allama Hilli and his company propagated it again, and he was the first to call himself Ayatollah (which is forbidden in Islam). Baqir Behbahani used power and all other tactics to suppress the Shia religion and occupied shia institutions and mosques, so Usuli sect dominated. What are the true teachings of Shia Islam. The religion presented and practiced by Iranian government is not the Tru Shia Islam, infact they are the biggest enemies of Allah, Infallibles asws and Muslims.

This groundbreaking book offers in-depth analysis of the modern Islamic state, applying a quantitative measurement of how Muslim majority nations meet the definition. Content for the book was developed through extensive debate among a panel of distinguished Sunni and Shia Muslim scholars over seven years.

A major feature of the rise of Islamism in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and parts of the West is the rapid growth of a starkly repressive version of Islamic shari'a law, often fueled by funds and support from Saudi Arabia. The central purpose of Islamists, including terrorists, is to impose such law in all Muslim lands, and then throughout the world in a new Caliphate. Despite its importance, this worldwide growth of extreme shari'a is under-documented and little understood. By a comparative study over the last twenty-five years of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, Nigeria, Malaysia, and Indonesia, this book shows its terrible effects on human rights, especially the status of women and religious freedom, of Muslims as well as religious minorities, and on democracy itself. It also shows that such laws are a direct threat to the American interest of advancing democracy and human rights, that the United States lacks a policy for dealing with the spread of extreme shari'a, and concludes with policy recommendations for the United States regarding specific countries confronting extreme shari'a.

"This is a remarkable piece of scholarship that illuminates general and specific tendencies in Islamic education in South Thailand. Armed with an enormous amount of rich empirical detail and an elegant writing style, the author debunks the simplistic Orientalist conceptions of Wahhabi and Salafi influences on Islamic education in South Thailand. This work will be a state-of-the-art source for understanding the role of Islam and the ongoing conflict in this troubled region of Southeast Asia. The book is significant for those scholars who are attempting to understand Muslim communities in Southeast Asia, and also for those who want deep insights into Islamic education and its influence in any area of the Islamic world." - Raymond Scupin, Professor of Anthropology and International Studies Lindenwood University, USA "Few books address the sensitive issue of Islamic education with empathy as well as critical distance as Joseph C. Liow's Islam, Education, and Reform in Southern Thailand. He examines global networks of religious learning within a local Thai as well as regional Asian context by brilliantly revealing the intersections between religion, politics and modernity in an accessible and illuminating manner. Traditional educational institutions rarely receive such sensitive and balanced treatment. Liow's book is a tour de force and mandatory reading for policy-makers, academics and all of those interested in current affairs." - Ebrahim Moosa, Associate Professor of Islamic Studies, Department of Religion, Associate Director, Duke Islamic Studies Center (DISe, Duke University, USA "Islam, Education, and Reform in Southern Thailand is Joseph Chinyong Liow's critical attempt to map out the reflexive questioning, locations of authority, dynamics and contestations within the Muslim community over what constitutes Islamic knowledge and education. Through the optics of Islamic education in Southern Thailand, Liow manages to brilliantly portray the ways in which Muslim minority negotiate their lives in the local context of violence and the global context of crisis of modernity." - Chaiwat Satha-Anand, Senior Research Scholar, Thailand Research Fund, Author of The Life of this World: Negotiated Muslim Lives in Thai Society

Both the Quran and Bible purportedly hold the keys to creation, but when you examine both closely, only one of them holds up.

A closer examination of Muhammad's life and the Quran shows that both are opposed to all that God declares pure and holy. Join author John Tharp, who has traveled the world and studied these texts side by side, as he explores

why it's no accident that the Ten Commandments were omitted from the Quran; which facts show Muhammad's life and teachings are not pure and holy; how Islam's teachings contribute to a world full of turmoil.

Tharp also examines the secrets that Muslims don't share with people outside of their religion, as well as the future implications of the continuing conflict between Islam and Christianity.

Cross the boundaries that divide Christianity, Islam and, other world religions to determine how and why they are different and why these differences are important. You'll develop a deep understanding of how satanic deception breeds hostility against those who live a godly life in "The Quran."

From the early narratives of such colonial writers as Jonathan Edwards to the more recent conversion experiences of Jim Bakker, Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson, America is rich in both conversions and autobiographies. This volume provides a sourcebook for the study of American religious conversion narratives. It includes entries providing biographical, bibliographic, and critical commentary on thirty significant writers of conversion narratives. The subjects include writers of early colonial America, such as Mary Rowlandson and John Woolman, nineteenth-century women writers, such as Carry Nation and Ann Eliza Young, and writers from the twentieth-century social gospel movement, such as John Cogley and Dorothy Day. Chapters on subjects such as Jim Bakker give insight into the rise of televangelism. Finally, chapters on such writers as Frederick Douglass, Eldridge Cleaver, and Piri Thomas cover the conversion experiences of those who lived outside mainstream American culture.

The chapters are arranged alphabetically. Each one is divided into sections providing a short biography, discussing the narrative, covering criticism of the narrative, and a bibliography. The work concludes with a bibliographic essay and a full subject index.

This book is written with the objective of reasonably addressing the need of Muslim gays and lesbians for a life which involves intimacy, affection and companionship within the confines of a legal contract. Contemporary conservative Muslim leaders unreasonably promote false marriages with straight spouses, failing which they prescribe the "solution" of permanent celibacy as a "test." This book delves into an extensive scholarship on the same sources that conservative Muslim leaders draw on-the Qur'an, Hadith and jurisprudence. It is argued that the primary sources of Muslim knowledge addressed sexual acts between the same gender in the context of inhospitality, exploitation, coercion and disease, but not true same-sex unions; past Muslim scholarship is silent on the issue of sexual orientation and Muslim same-sex unions. The arguments of contemporary conservative Muslim leaders are deconstructed and the case for Muslim same-sex unions is made based on jurisprudential principles and thorough arguments from within the Muslim tradition.

Scholar, mystic and visionary, Ibn 'Alwan lived through the transition from Ayyubid to Rasulid rule in thirteenth-century Yemen. He was well known in his time for his critique of the ruling elites and their governance, and left behind a substantial body of writings on Islamic mysticism, theology, law and exegesis of the Qur'an. Here Muhammad Aziz presents a comprehensive portrait of Ibn 'Alwan, delineating the religious and political background in Yemen, the development of Sufi orders, the interplay between Sufi, Shi'i and Sunni traditions, and the impact of Ibn 'Alwan on the history of Sufism and Islam. The first study of Ibn 'Alwan in English, "Religion and Mysticism in Early Islam" is essential reading for all those interested in mysticism, early Islam, Sufism, and religion and history more generally.

This book systematically assesses the value systems of active Muslims around the globe. Based on a multivariate analysis of recent World Values Survey data, it sheds new light on Muslim opinions and values in countries such as Indonesia, Iran, Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey. Due to a lack of democratic traditions, sluggish economic growth, escalating religiously motivated violence, and dissatisfaction with ruling elites in many Muslim countries, the authors identify a crisis and return to conservative values in the Muslim world, including anti-Semitism, religious and sexual intolerance, and views on democracy and secularism, business and economic matters. Based on these observations, they offer recommendations for policymakers and civil societies in Muslim countries on how to move towards tolerance, greater democratization and more rapid economic growth.

This book provides vital references to peace, integration and human rights in Islam and how Muslims living in the West can integrate in Western society without compromising their faith. The scholar discusses historical background on Human rights and democracy that was introduction in Muslim-majority countries with key references from Islamic classical texts. The author presents examples from the life of Prophet Muhammad as a model for nurturing peace and harmony in a diverse world beckoning for a solution. The author explores the Constitition of Medina as the first constitution in human history; a mechanisms used by the Prophet to established peace, democracy, security, knowledge and learning, human rights and equality, and socio-political prosperity.

A comprehensive guide to three global religions that have established strong local communities in South Africa, this work is a valuable resource for scholars, students in religious studies, African studies, anthropology, and history. Beginning with a general introduction to the immigrant origins, minority status, and global connections of each tradition, the book proceeds to organize and generously annotate the literature according to religion. This volume, combined with two other annotated bibliographies, "African Traditional Religion in South Africa" and "Christianity in South Africa" (both Greenwood, 1997), will become the standard reference text for South African religions.

With special attention to historical and social conditions, this work examines the distinctively South African forms of these important minority religions in South Africa. In each section, an introductory essay identifies significant themes. The bibliography annotations that follow are concise yet detailed essays, written in an engaging and accessible style and supported by an exhaustive index. The book, therefore, provides a full and complex profile of three religious traditions that are firmly located in South African history and society.

In any field whether scientific, business, or social ethics plays a critical role in determining what is acceptable in a particular community and what is considered taboo. The source of these preconditions is often a complex interweaving of tradition and rational thought. Socio-Cybernetic Study of God and the World-System investigates morality in a socio-scientific worldview, examining the epistemology of existence in conjunction with Islamic monotheistic law to generate a world-system that governs action and reaction in the context of a variety of cognitive and social environments. Readers with backgrounds in finance and economics can utilize this book to construct a more thorough theoretical understanding of their societal and professional associations."

Tensions between the West and the Islamic world have reached an all-time high, fueled by caricatures and misunderstandings on both sides. In contrast, as Nevzat Soguk shows, actual histories reveal profound connections across Islamic and Western civilizations. Moving beyond the usual focus on Wahhabi fundamentalism, Soguk highlights the often-overlooked non-Arab forms of Islam in Turkey and in Indonesia, which holds the world's largest population of Muslims. He argues that Westerners tend to see only an extremist form of Islam, which obscures the political and cultural pluralism supported within majority-Islamic countries around the world. This book taps into the nexus of tension born of the fear and terror engendered by Wahabi movements on one hand and the promise of a tolerant, pluralist Islamic religiosity in Turkey and Indonesia on the other. It examines the multiple historical political and religious legacies in Turkey and Indonesia in light of the rapid globalization they are experiencing. By focusing on these two countries, the author fills a significant void on the diverse role Islam is poised to play in shaping regional and global political futures. Original, timely, and humane, this book will be essential reading for all those concerned about repairing Western-Islamic relations.

It is the first study which comprehensively, systematically and critically examines the role and usefulness of the concept of Maqasid al-Shari'a (higher Objectives of Islamic Law) in contemporary Muslim reformist thought in relation to number of specific issues pertaining to Islamic legal philosophy, law, ethics and the socio-political sphere.

The articles in this volume are dedicated to Professor Ahmad Mahdavi Damghani for the breadth and depth of his interests and his influence on those interests. They attest to the fact that his fervor and rigorously surgical attention to detail have found fertile ground in a wide variety of disciplines, including (among others) Persian literature and philology; Islamic history and historiography; Arabic literature and philology; and Islamic philosophy and jurisprudence. The volume has brought together some of the most respected scholars in the fields of Islamic studies and Islamic literatures, all his prior students, to contribute with articles that touch on the fields Professor Mahdavi Damghani has so permanently touched with his astonishing scholarship and attention to detail.

This book constitutes a journey into the obscure field of sectarian-guided discourses of radical Islamist groups. It provides new insights into the ideological mechanisms utilized by such organizations to incite sectarian conflicts and recruit local and foreign guardians to their alleged cause. This book examines diverse aspects and dimensions of the discourses of Sunni-based ISIS and Shia-based al-Hashd al-Shaabi and explores manipulative and ideological discursive strategies utilized by media outlets associated with these groups. It delves into linguistic and contextual activities, implicit and explicit messages within the discourses of various media outlets operating in the heart of the Middle East. It also scrutinizes and explains aspects of politicization, religionization and sectarianization within the media discourse of terrorist groups in the digital era.

Identities in Crisis in Iran aims at finding answers to the questions about the puzzling character of the Iranian identity. The contributors acknowledge that identity, especially when it is faced with fundamental tensions as in the case of Iran, is a phenomenon that is constantly developing via factors involving the private self and common social components. This book addresses the tension many Iranian people face that lie between the Persian culture and the Shi'a religion, women versus men, and culture versus traditions.