Book picks similar to
The Conqueror of Hearts by Zulfiqar Ahmad


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The Submission


Amy Waldman - 2011
    Cool, eloquent, raising two fatherless children, Claire has emerged as the most visible of the widows who became a potent political force in the aftermath of the catastrophe. She longs for her husband, but she has found her mission: she sits on a jury charged with selecting a fitting memorial for the victims of the attack. Of the thousands of anonymous submissions that she and her fellow jurors examine, one transfixes Claire: a garden on whose walls the names of the dead are inscribed. But when the winning envelope is opened, they find the designer is Mohammad Khan - Mo - an enigmatic Muslim-American who, it seems, feels no need to represent anyone's beliefs except his own. When the design and its creator are leaked, a media firestorm erupts, and Claire finds herself trying to balance principles against emotions amid escalating tensions about the place of Islam in America.A remarkably bold and ambitious debut, The Submission is peopled with journalists, activists, mourners, and bureaucrats who struggle for advantage and fight for their ideals. In this deeply humane novel, the breadth of Amy Waldman's cast of characters is matched by her startling ability to conjure individual lives from their own points of view. A striking portrait of a city - and a country - fractured by old hatreds and new struggles, The Submission is a major novel by an important new talent.

Finding Nouf


Zoë Ferraris - 2007
    When sixteen-year-old Nouf goes missing, along with a truck and her favorite camel, her prominent family calls on Nayir al-Sharqi, a desert guide, to lead a search party. Ten days later, just as Nayir is about to give up in frustration, her body is discovered by anonymous desert travelers. But when the coroner’s office determines that Nouf died not of dehydration but from drowning, and her family seems suspiciously uninterested in getting at the truth, Nayir takes it upon himself to find out what really happened to her. This mission will push gentle, hulking, pious Nayir, a Palestinian orphan raised by his bachelor uncle, to delve into the secret life of a rich, protected teenage girl -- in one of the most rigidly gender-segregated of Middle Eastern societies. Initially horrified at the idea of a woman bold enough to bare her face and to work in public, Nayir soon realizes that if he wants to gain access to the hidden world of women, he will have to join forces with Katya Hijazi, a lab worker at the coroner’s office. Their partnership challenges Nayir, bringing him face to face with his desire for female companionship and the limitations imposed by his beliefs. It also ultimately leads them both to surprising revelations. Fast-paced and utterly transporting, Finding Nouf offers an intimate glimpse inside a closed society and a riveting literary mystery. First published as Night of the Mi'raj in the UK.

The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors


Dan Jones - 2017
    A band of elite warriors determined to fight to the death to protect Christianity’s holiest sites. A global financial network unaccountable to any government. A sinister plot founded on a web of lies.Jerusalem 1119. A small group of knights seeking a purpose in the violent aftermath of the First Crusade decides to set up a new order. These are the first Knights Templar, a band of elite warriors prepared to give their lives to protect Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. Over the next two hundred years, the Templars would become the most powerful religious order of the medieval world. Their legend has inspired fervent speculation ever since. In this groundbreaking narrative history, Dan Jones tells the true story of the Templars for the first time in a generation, drawing on extensive original sources to build a gripping account of these Christian holy warriors whose heroism and alleged depravity have been shrouded in myth. The Templars were protected by the pope and sworn to strict vows of celibacy. They fought the forces of Islam in hand-to-hand combat on the sun-baked hills where Jesus lived and died, finding their nemesis in Saladin, who vowed to drive all Christians from the lands of Islam. Experts at channeling money across borders, they established the medieval world’s largest and most innovative banking network and waged private wars against anyone who threatened their interests.Then, as they faced setbacks at the hands of the ruthless Mamluk sultan Baybars and were forced to retreat to their stronghold in Cyprus, a vindictive and cash-strapped King of France set his sights on their fortune. His administrators quietly mounted a damning case against the Templars, built on deliberate lies and false testimony. Then on Friday October 13, 1307, hundreds of brothers were arrested, imprisoned and tortured, and the order was disbanded amid lurid accusations of sexual misconduct and heresy. They were tried by the Pope in secret proceedings and their last master was brutally tortured and burned at the stake. But were they heretics or victims of a ruthlessly repressive state? Dan Jones goes back to the sources tobring their dramatic tale, so relevant to our own times, in a book that is at once authoritative and compulsively readable.

My Accidental Jihad


Krista Bremer - 2014
    Then, on a running trail in North Carolina, she met Ismail, sincere, passionate, kind, yet from a very different world. Raised a Muslim—one of eight siblings born in an impoverished fishing village in Libya—his faith informed his life. When she and Ismail made the decision to become a family, Krista embarked on a journey she never could have imagined, an accidental jihad: a quest for spiritual and intellectual growth that would open her mind, and more important, her heart.

Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up? 12 False Christs


Matthew R. Richard - 2017
    Like the Elvises who roam the streets of Vegas, these counterfeit christs look and sound like Jesus, but they couldn’t be further from the real deal.In Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up? 12 False Christs, author Matthew Richard exposes these false christs for what they are . . . mere impostors. Richard reveals to readers who the real Jesus of the Bible is, but also reveals to us twelve false christs who are embraced, loved, promoted, and revered, even by well-meaning Christians.“My hope is that readers will connect with the different stories in this book, but will do so in a way that they can see how people’s false theology and bad presuppositions lead to taking up false christs,” says Richard. “In other words, this book attempts to combine the art of story and the discipline of theology, so that the reader can see flesh-and-blood examples of how easy false theology can lead someone into idolatry.”

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time


Greg Mortenson - 2006
    Over the next decade he built fifty-five schools—especially for girls—that offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on earth. As it chronicles Mortenson’s quest, which has brought him into conflict with both enraged Islamists and uncomprehending Americans, Three Cups of Tea combines adventure with a celebration of the humanitarian spirit.

The Priest and the Medium


Suzanne R. Giesemann - 2009
    Anne Gehman gave her first spirit readings to her teddy bears at age five. Raised in the Mennonite tradition, she left home at age 14 to finish her schooling. A life-changing near-death experience led Anne to develop her natural gifts, including an uncanny ability to predict future events. She has gained international attention for her help in solving crimes, locating oil and missing persons, healing illnesses, and connecting family members with their loved ones in spirit. She has worked with top government agencies and officials, police departments, judges, and corporate CEOs. While remarkable for her spiritual gifts and experiences, Anne’s life is all the more fascinating due to an unusual twist: she is married to Wayne Knoll, Ph.D., a former Jesuit priest. A brilliant student devoted to his faith, Wayne also left home at 14 to join a Roman Catholic seminary. Even while pursuing his life’s dream as a professor of literature at Georgetown University, Wayne felt an emptiness that only a woman could fill. After more than a decade of religious training, he made the wrenching decision to leave the priesthood, not knowing if he would find the love he sought. The Priest and the Medium shares the remarkable story of two soul mates on parallel paths with divergent beliefs, yet united in their love for God and each other.

If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran


Carla Power - 2015
    A spirited, compelling read."-Azadeh Moaveni, author of Lipstick JihadIf the Oceans Were Ink is Carla Power's eye-opening story of how she and her longtime friend Sheikh Mohammad Akram Nadwi found a way to confront ugly stereotypes and persistent misperceptions that were cleaving their communities. Their friendship-between a secular American and a madrasa-trained sheikh-had always seemed unlikely, but now they were frustrated and bewildered by the battles being fought in their names. Both knew that a close look at the Quran would reveal a faith that preached peace and not mass murder; respect for women and not oppression. And so they embarked on a yearlong journey through the controversial text.A journalist who grew up in the Midwest and the Middle East, Power offers her unique vantage point on the Quran's most provocative verses as she debates with Akram at cafes, family gatherings, and packed lecture halls, conversations filled with both good humor and powerful insights. Their story takes them to madrasas in India and pilgrimage sites in Mecca, as they encounter politicians and jihadis, feminist activists and conservative scholars. Armed with a new understanding of each other's worldviews, Power and Akram offer eye-opening perspectives, destroy long-held myths, and reveal startling connections between worlds that have seemed hopelessly divided for far too long.

The Nightingale


Morgana Gallaway - 2009
    This riveting, illuminating debut novel tells the story of a young woman searching for freedom and fulfillment in war-torn Iraq.

Fazail-E-Amaal, Vol. 1


Muhammad Zakariya Kandhlawi - 2002
    It is a two-volume compilation of several books, primarily written by the Indian scholar Muhammad Zakariya Kandhlawi His title Shekul Hadees. An English translation of the title is The Virtues of Good Deeds.The text consists of selected verses of the Qur'an, Hadiths, commentary thereon, and other material. The book is a compilation of different previous books written by same author. It has been translated into English, Persian, Bengali, and many other languages. It is popular in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and among South Asian immigrants in the United States and UK. It is mainly used by the Tablighi Jamaat for taalim (teaching) purposes. Objective of which is to bring Ehtesaab (consider the rewards of good deeds before committing them) into ones life.This book provides basic information of Islam. It is credited with transforming lives of numerous people wordwide and bring serenity and peace in the hearts.It is said to be the most widely read book about Islam after Quran and the Sihah Sitta.Contents of Volume 1:- Hikayat-e-Sahabah (Stories of the Sahabah) - Fazail-e-Quran (Virtues of the Quran) - Fazail-e-Namaz (Virtues of Salah) - Fazail-e-Zikr (Virtues of Dhikr) - Fazail-e-Tabligh (Virtues of Tabligh) - Fazail-e-Ramadhan (Virtues of Ramadan) - Musalmano-ki-Maujudah-Pasti-ka-Wahid-Ilaj (Muslim Degeneration and its Only Remedy) by Ihtisham ul-Hasan KandhalviSome publishers append an additional book:Fazail-e-Durood (Virtues of Durood) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fazail-e...

Real Life Lesson From Quran


Muhammad Bilal Lakhani - 2006
    It will have succeeded in its effort if this book helps Muslims understand their religion better so that they become better Muslims. The lessons in this book are meant to be powerful words of advice to Muslims who find themselves at a certain situation in their lives, the direct words of advice from Allah are quoted by quoting the Qur’an, and provide with an interpretation and an explanation to make it easier for the modern day Muslim to understand and use this advice practically.

The Judas Goat: How to Deal With False Friendships, Betrayals, and the Temptation Not to Forgive


Perry Stone - 2013
    Perry Stone uses the intriguing example of a Judas goat to show you how to deal with the betrayal in a biblical way and find the strength to forgive.   A Judas goat is an actual goat that is raised with the sheep in the field; eating with them, sleeping with them, and generally gaining their trust. When the time comes to lead the sheep into the slaughterhouse, the sheep will follow the Judas goat into specially marked pens, the back of trucks, and in some instances into the slaughterhouse itself. The Judas Goat makes a strong correlation between this goat and the people in your lives who are operating with ulterior motives, helping you understand:   ·          The betraying strategy of potential Judas goats in your life ·          The three levels of relationships and whom you should let into your inner circle of trust ·          How to address false rumors and lies from those close to you ·          The critical danger of unforgiveness, and more!

The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq


Dunya Mikhail - 2018
    Mikhail extensively interviews these women—who’ve lost their families and loved ones, who’ve been sexually abused, psychologically tortured, and forced to manufacture chemical weapons—and as their tales unfold, an unlikely hero emerges: a beekeeper, who uses his knowledge of the local terrain, along with a wide network of transporters, helpers, and former cigarette smugglers, to bring these women, one by one, through the war-torn landscapes of Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, back into safety.In the face of inhuman suffering, this powerful work of nonfiction offers a counterpoint to Daesh’s genocidal extremism: hope, as ordinary people risk their own lives to save those of others.

The Dean's Watch


Elizabeth Goudge - 1960
    But the craggy, homely old Dean, lived locked in by shyness... when an obscure watchmaker, the timid, fearful little Isaac Peabody, a genius of a clockmaker, strikes up an unlikely friendship with the Dean. It leads to an unusual spiritual awakening in both men, and this unexpected friendship of these two men; also leads the Dean's remarkable awakening to the healing force of unselfish love; and the miracles wrought as he reached out to other human hearts to console them. It eventually reaches out to the entire community. And in the background there are Polly and her beloved Job, Bella and old Mrs Montague.

Ancient Paganism


Ken Johnson - 2009
    Quotes from the ancient church fathers, rabbis, and the Talmud detail the activities and beliefs of both Canaanite and New Testament era sorcery. This book explores how, according to biblical prophecy, this same sorcery will return before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to earth. These religious beliefs and practices will invade the end time church and become the basis for the religion of the Antichrist. Wicca, Druidism, Halloween, Yule, meditation, and occultic tools are discussed at length. This book is brought to you by Biblefacts Ministries, Biblefacts.org