As one of the world's most loved poets, Rumi's poems are celebrated for their message of love and their beauty, but too often they are stripped of their mystical and spiritual meanings. The Gift of Rumi offers a new reading of Rumi, contextualising his work against the broader backdrop of Islamic mysticism and adding a richness and authenticity that is lacking in many Westernized conceptions of his work. Author Emily O'Dell has studied Sufism both academically, in her work and research at Harvard, Columbia, and the American University of Beirut, and in practice, learning from a Mevlevi master and his whirling dervishes. She weaves this expertise throughout The Gift of Rumi, sharing a new vision of Rumi's classic work. At the heart of Rumi's mystical poetry is the "religion of love" which transcends all religions. Through his majestic verses of ecstasy and longing, Rumi invites us into the religion of the heart and guides us to our own loving inner essence. The Gifts of Rumi gives us a key to experiencing this profound and powerful invitation, allowing readers to meet the master in a new way.

First revealed by a Tibetan monk in the 14th century, Bardo Thodol ("Great Liberation upon Hearing in the Intermediate State") - known more commonly as The Tibetan Book of the Dead - describes the experience of human consciousness in the bardo, the interval between death and the next rebirth in the cycle of death and rebirth. The teachings are designed to help the dying regain clarity of awareness at the moment of death, and by doing so achieve enlightened liberation. Popular throughout the world since the 1960s and overwhelmingly the best-known Buddhist text in the West, this classic translation by Kazi Dawa Samdup is divided into 21 chapters, with sections on the chikhai bardo, or the clear light seen at the moment of death; choenyid bardo, or karmic apparitions; the wisdom of peaceful deities, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas; the 58 flame-enhaloed, wrathful, blood-drinking deities; the judgement of those who the dying has known in life through the "mirror of karma"; and the process of rebirth. The text also includes chapters on the signs of death and rituals to undertake for the dying. Presented in a high-quality Chinese-bound format with accompanying illustrations, The Tibetan Book of the Dead is an ideal resource of ancient wisdom for anyone interested in Tibetan Buddhist notions of death and the path to enlightenment.

This book examines the relationship between divine in/activity and human agency in the five books of the Megilloth-the books of Ruth, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, and Esther. As works of literature dating to the early Second Temple period (ca. 6th-3rd centuries BCE), these books and the implicit interpretation of these particular themes reflect the diverse cultural and theological dynamics of the time. Megan Fullerton Strollo contends that the themes themselves as well as the correlation between them should be interpreted as implicit theology insofar as they represent reflective interpretation of earlier theological traditions. With regard to divine in/activity, she argues that the Megilloth presents a certain level of skepticism or critical analysis of the Deity. From doubt to protest, the books of the Megilloth grapple with received traditions of divine providence and present experiences of absence, abandonment, and distance. As a correlative to divine in/activity, human agency is presented as consequential. In addition, the portrayal of human agency serves as a theological response insofar as the books advance the theme through specific references to and reevaluations of earlier theocentric traditions.

In Twelver Shi'a Islam, the wait for the return of the Twelfth Imam, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Mahdi, at the end of time, overshadowed the value of actively seeking martyrdom. However, what is the place of martyrdom in Twelver Shi'ism today? This book shows that the Islamic revolution in Iran resulted in the marriage of Shi'i messianism and extreme political activism, changing the mindset of the Shi'a worldwide. Suddenly, each drop of martyrs' blood brought the return of al-Mahdi one step closer, and the Islamic Republic of Iran supposedly became the prelude to the foretold world revolution of al-Mahdi. Adel Hashemi traces the unexplored area of Shi'i discourse on martyrdom from the 1979 revolution-when the Islamic Republic's leaders cultivated the culture of martyrdom to topple the Shah's regime-to the dramatic shift in the understanding of martyrdom today. Also included are the reaction to the Syrian crisis, the region's war with ISIS and other Salafi groups, and the renewed commitment to the defense of shrines. This book shows the striking shifts in the meaning of martyrdom in Shi'ism, revealing the real relevance of the concept to the present-day Muslim world.

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 first part Prophetic Virtues and Miracles will prove invaluable to readers who wish to understand, in the light of the most authenticated and sourced classical Islamic materials, the responsibilities of Muslims in modern age, and the rights of others, and will provide clarity in relation to the Prophet Muhammad's virtues and life, his methods of worship and spiritual practice and other aspects of his Sunnah.

This book examines the role of tradition and discursive knowledge transmission on the formation of the 'ulama', the learned scholarly class in Islam, and their approach to the articulation of the Islamic disciplines. This book argues that a useful framework for evaluating the intellectual contributions of post-classical scholars such as Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Dardir involves preserving, upholding, and maintaining the Islamic tradition, including the intellectual "sub-traditions" that came to define it.

Tuan Guru – founder of South Africa’s first mosque and madrasah – had been in his grave for half a century. The Cape Muslim population had exploded in size, but was sliding into decline. Many of the imams, lacking education, had become ignorant and entitled. There was unending conflict in the community, which was fought out in the Cape High Court.

In the same year, a group of concerned community elders made a call for a teacher to be sent to the Cape from Istanbul. No-one knows who these people were, but it was their intervention that saw the arrival of Shaykh Abu-Bakr Effendi, an Ottoman scholar, in early 1863.

Welcomed by those keen to learn, he faced abuse from a coterie of imams who felt threatened by him. Sadly, it is their malcontent that has so jaundiced his story for over 140 years. In this well-researched biography, Shafiq Morton reveals for the first time the true story of Shaykh Abu-Bakr Effendi, one of the stand-out historical figures in the growth of Islam at the foot of Africa.