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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Non-Christian religions
The writer has logically and in a beautiful manner proved that
Quran Majeed is a balanced book, it is a miracle and proof of its
being a book of God. In this book, Shah Al-Abidi has given common
knowledge examples-of Urdu and Persian couplets, Bhagat Kabeers
dohas, Mian Muhammed Bakhsh's and Hazrat Shah Sultan Bahoos
philosophical poems and references from Maulana Roam, and put them
in relevant manner thus enhancing the beauty, interest and value. I
believe that lovers of Quran Kareem will find this book as a
beautiful and invaluable presentation. This represents an aspect of
Quran Majeed and the readers will find aiding strength to their
faith. I hope, this book will become known and ever lasting. I pray
to Almighty God that the writer, Mr. Akhter Moeed Shah Al-Abidi,
had ongoing service to Quran Majeed, its readers and humanity.
Abdul Khaliq Aawan Retired Director General, Pakistan Broadcasting
Corporation
One of the greatest works created by any culture and overwhelmingly
the most significant of all Tibetan Buddhist texts in the West, The
Tibetan Book of the Dead has had a number of distinguished
translations, but none encompassed the work in its entirety. Now,
in one of the year's most important publishing events, the entire
text has not only been made available in English but in a
translation of quite remarkable clarity and beauty.
With an introductory commentary by His Holiness The Dalai Lama,
who calls this translation "an extraordinary accomplishment
undertaken with great care over many years" this complete edition
faithfully presents the insights and intentions of the original
work. It includes one of the most detailed and compelling
descriptions of the after-death state in world literature,
exquisitely written practices that can transform our experience of
daily life, guidance on helping those who are dying, and an
inspirational perspective on coping with bereavement. Translated
with the close support of leading contemporary masters, including
HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, and learned scholars such as Khamtrul
Rinpoche and Zenkar Rinpoche, His Holiness the Dalai Lama says, "I
hope that the profound insights contained in this work will be a
source of inspiration and support to many interested people around
the world."
This book focuses on dealing with questions and concerns regarding
long-term and sustainable peaceful relations between Muslims and
non-Muslims, in both Muslim majority countries and also western
countries where Muslims live as minorities.The book is divided into
two sections. The first section discusses individual and community
relations, providing ample evidences for very important aspects in
this regard. Muslims in their treatment of non-Muslims, bas a rule,
are to ensure that all non-Muslims are secure in their lives and in
their belongings.The book further illustrates how Muslims are to
treat non-Muslims with piety and excellent social morality, and not
as second class citizens or inferior beings.The second section of
the book discusses the categories of abodes, making this work one
of geopolitical relevance. Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad
Tahir-ul-Qadri provides evidences and nuanced interpretations of
the concepts "The Abode of Islam, The Abode of Reconciliation, The
Abode of Treaty, The Abode of Peace, and The Abode of War." Clear
definitions of these categories are offered, along with how
different countries can and cannot be classified in each of these
categories.This book presents a high standard of Islamic
scholarship for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Members of diverse
communities may benefit by comparing their own viewpoints,
perspectives, understandings, and opinions with this important work
of an authentic scholarly standard.
Scholars have long been intrigued by the Buddha's defining action
(karma) as intention. This book explores systematically how
intention and agency were interpreted in all genres of early
Theravada thought. It offers a philosophical exploration of
intention and motivation as they are investigated in Buddhist moral
psychology. At stake is how we understand karma, the nature of
moral experience, and the possibilities for freedom. In contrast to
many studies that assimilate Buddhist moral thinking to Western
theories of ethics, the book attends to distinctively Buddhist ways
of systematizing and theorizing their own categories. Arguing that
meaning is a product of the explanatory systems used to explore it,
the book pays particular attention to genre and to the 5th-century
commentator Buddhaghosa's guidance on how to read Buddhist texts.
The book treats all branches of the Pali canon (the Tipitaka, that
is, the Suttas, the Abhidhamma, and the Vinaya), as well as
narrative sources (the Dhammapada and the Jataka commentaries). In
this sense it offers a comprehensive treatment of intention in the
canonical Theravada sources. But the book goes further than this by
focusing explicitly on the body of commentarial thought represented
by Buddhaghosa. His work is at the center of the book's
investigations, both insofar as he offers interpretative strategies
for reading canonical texts, but also as he advances particular
understandings of agency and moral psychology. The book offers the
first book-length study devoted to Buddhaghosa's thought on ethics
Islam teaches that marriage is "half of religion". Because it
fulfills so many basic needs of individuals and of society, it is
the cornerstone upon which the whole Muslim life is built. This
highly readable book takes the reader through the relevant passages
in the Qur'an and Hadith, and goes on to discuss the main social,
emotional and sexual problems that can afflict relationships,
suggesting many practical ways in which these can be resolved.
Carlos Castaneda takes the reader into the very heart of sorcery,
challenging both imagination and reason, shaking the very
foundations of our belief in what is "natural" and "logical."In
1961, a young anthropologist subjected himself to an extraordinary
apprenticeship with Yaqui Indian spiritual leader don Juan Matus to
bring back a fascinating glimpse of a Yaqui Indian's world of
"non-ordinary reality" and the difficult and dangerous road a man
must travel to become "a man of knowledge." Yet on the bring of
that world, challenging to all that we believe, he drew back. Then
in 1968, Carlos Castaneda returned to Mexico, to don Juan and his
hallucinogenic drugs, and to a world of experience no man from our
Western civilization had ever entered before.
Al-Minhaj al-Sawi is a milestone work, the first work of its kind
for many centuries. It is a compendium of Prophetic Hadiths,
categorised under a number of headings and compiled with clear
relevance to the lives and situation of Muslims in the modern age.
The work is authenticated by a rigorous and detailed process of
Takhreej - referencing each hadith to its sources - from a study of
over 300 authentic works of hadith. This work will be useful for
academics in many relevant fields, whether researching the basis of
orthodox Sunni belief and practice, or examining the contemporary
Muslim response to religious extremism. It is split into 2 volumes:
Prophetic Virtues and Miracles and Righteous Character and Social
Interactions. The second part Righteous Character and Social
Interactions presents sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad
concerning interactions with non-Muslims and non-Muslim
communities, his method of prayer and spiritual devotion, his
status and characteristics, and provides clarification of other
important issues of the age, such as Jihad, Khawarijism, and
Tassawuf.
Each one of us is responsible for all of humankind, and for the
environment in which we live. . . . We must seek to lessen the
suffering of others. Rather than working solely to acquire wealth,
we need to do something meaningful, something seriously directed
toward the welfare of humanity as a whole. To do this, you need to
recognize that the whole world is part of you. --from "How to Be
Compassionate"
The surest path to true happiness lies in being intimately
concerned with the welfare of others. Or, as His Holiness the Dalai
Lama would say, in "compassion."
In "How to Be Compassionate, "His Holiness reveals basic mistakes
of attitude that lead us to inner turmoil, and how we can correct
them to achieve a better tomorrow. He demonstrates precisely how
opening our hearts and minds to other people is the best way to
overcome the misguided ideas that are at the root of all our
problems. He shows us how compassion can be a continuous wellspring
of happiness in our own lives and how our newfound happiness can
extend outward from us in ever wider and wider circles.
As we become more compassionate human beings, our friends, family,
neighbors, loved ones--and even our enemies--will find themselves
less frequently in the thrall of destructive emotions like anger,
jealousy, and fear, prompting them to become more warmhearted,
kind, and harmonious forces within their own circles. With simple
language and startling clarity, His Holiness makes evident as never
before that the path to global harmony begins in the hearts of
individual women and men. Enlivened by personal anecdotes and
intimate accounts of the Dalai Lama's experiences as a student,
thinker, political leader, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, "How to
Be Compassionate "gives seekers of all faiths the keys to
overcoming anger, hatred, and selfishness-- the primary obstacles
to happiness--and to becoming agents of positive transformation in
our communities and the world at large.
In our age of globalisation and pandemic, how should we react to
the new Islamophobic movements now spreading in the West?
Everywhere the far right is on the march, with nationalist and
populist parties thriving on the back of popular anxieties about
Islam and the Muslim presence. Hijab and minaret bans, mosque
shootings, hostility to migrants and increasingly scornful media
stereotypes seem to endanger the prospects for friendly coexistence
and the calm uplifting of Muslim populations. In this series of
essays Abdal Hakim Murad dissects the rise of Islamophobia on the
basis of Muslim theological tradition. Although the proper response
to the current impasse is clearly indicated in Qur'an and Hadith,
some have lost the principle of trust in divine wisdom and are
responding with hatred, fearfulness or despair. Murad shows that a
compassion-based approach, rooted in an authentic theology of
divine power, could transform the current quagmire into a bright
landscape of great promise for Muslims and their neighbours.
In this book, the author, with his extensive knowledge of the Pali
canon (the earliest texts of Buddhism), argues that, in his
lifetime, the Buddha and his mission were regarded quite
differently to the manner in which they are presented today. Far
from being seen as one teaching a means of liberation for all to
follow, he was instead regarded - as is still the typical Indian
guru - as one imparting teachings only to those whom he deemed
capable of benefiting from them. In the story of initiation as
recorded in the "Nikayas" (discourses of the Buddha compiled by his
contemporaries immediately following his death), this book presents
evidence that makes it clear that salvation in early Buddhism
depended upon the saving intervention of the Buddha's grace and
that, contrary to the now commonly accepted view of Buddhism as a
rationalistic philosophy of self-endeavour, the picture that
emerges from a careful examination of the canonical texts is one of
Buddhism as a revealed religion in every sense of the term, and the
Buddha as every bit the divine guru. In considering the
relationship of Buddhism to the Brahmanic (Hindu) tradition, this
book shows that the Buddha was critical of the Brahmins solely on
the grounds that they no longer lived up to the social and
religious ideals associated with their predecessors, and that, if
the Buddha was a reformer, this was only so in the sense that he
advocated a return to the former conservatism of Vedic India.
Written in 1938, Composite Nationalism and Islam laid out in
systematic form the positions that the author had taken in speeches
and letters from the early 1920s on the question of nationalism as
well as other related issues of national importance. The book aimed
at opposing the divisive policy of Mohammad Ali Jinnah and the
Muslim League. It mainly deals with two aspects, i.e. the meaning
of the term qaum and how it is distinct from the term millat, and
secondly, the crucial distinction between these two words and their
true meanings in the holy Koran and the Hadith tradition. By
proposing composite nationalism, this important book strongly
argues that despite cultural, linguistic and religious differences,
the people of India are but one nation. According to the author,
any effort to divide Indians on the basis of religion, caste,
culture, ethnicity and language is a ploy of the ruling power.
In this publication new light is shed on the Qumran community, its
organisational structure, its ultra conservative way of life, and
how its leaders interpreted the books of the Old Testament by
compiling their own commentaries. Emphasis is also placed on
facilitating an understanding of references in the Gospels whilst
providing an insight into a community that existed parallel to the
New Testament community, and to which some of Jesus' followers
could have belonged.
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