Book picks similar to
A Blessed Olive Tree: A Spiritual Journey in Twenty Short Stories by Zain Hashmi
islam
religion
short-stories
sufi
Meditation: 30 Days of Meditation - Fun Techniques for Beginners (Relaxation)
Inbar Shahar - 2013
You will learn basic meditation techniques, chakra meditation, mantra meditation, and variety of other types. By the end of the month, you should feel relaxed, focused, and re-energized. After 30 days, meditation should be a habit for you. As you continue to meditate, you and your life will benefit. Soon, you may even crave meditation.
The Man Who Planted Trees
Jean Giono - 1953
In the foothills of the French Alps the narrator meets a shepherd who has quietly taken on the task of planting one hundred acorns a day in an effort to reforest his desolate region. Not even two world wars can keep the shepherd from continuing his solitary work. Gradually, this gentle, persistent man's work comes to fruition: the region is transformed; life and hope return; the world is renewed.
As a Man Thinketh
James Allen - 1902
His words have helped millions for more than a century--and they continue to point the true way to a better life for a troubled humanity."Out of a clean heart comes a clean life and a clean body," James Allen writes. "Out of a defiled mind proceeds a defiled life and a corrupt body."Too many mortals strive to improve only their wordly position--and too few seek spiritual betterment. Such is the problem James Allen faced in his own time. The ideas he found in his inner-most heart after great searching guided him as they will guide you.
200 Golden Hadith
Abdul Malik Mujahid - 2013
Islam is based on two major sources: the Qur’an and the Sunnah, and the latter is available to us in the form of hadiths. The Prophet said, “Whoever comes to know one hadith of mine should spread it.” However, the Prophet also told us to be careful when spreading his hadiths so as not to alter any component of it, otherwise, “he can take his seat in the hellfire.”Within this book I have incorporated 200 small hadiths of the Prophet. The reason for choosing the smaller hadiths of the Prophets is so that the youth can easily become accustomed to the words of the Prophet. All the hadiths concern the important matters of the religion, which every person should have knowledge of. I have come to the realization that many youth from among the Muslims have not memorized even one hadith of the Prophet. For this reason I have chosen smaller hadiths so that they can be easily memorized by them and they can spread them to others. This way our relatives and our friends can memorize some words of the Prophet which will bring them benefit in the hereafter.This book has purposely not been organized into any specific categories. Experience through the years has taught me that this style of non-categorization is easier for the general masses who are not scholars or students of knowledge. I am also aware that many languages exists out there in which the hadiths of the Prophet have not yet been translated. This is why, Allah-willing, my intention is to have this small work translated into at least 30 different languages.
Etiquette with the Quran
Yahya ibn Sharaf al Nawawi - 2003
The topics this volume raises include: ritual cleanliness, opportune times for recitation, the etiquette that students have with their teachers (and that teachers must have with their students), and variety of other issues that every Muslim should know and frequently ask about.
Letters to a Young Muslim
Omar Saif Ghobash - 2017
Today's young Muslims will be tomorrow's leaders, and yet too many are vulnerable to extremist propaganda that seems omnipresent in our technological age. The burning question, Ghobash argues, is how moderate Muslims can unite to find a voice that is true to Islam while actively and productively engaging in the modern world. What does it mean to be a good Muslim?What is the concept of a good life? And is it acceptable to stand up and openly condemn those who take the Islamic faith and twist it to suit their own misguided political agendas? In taking a hard look at these seemingly simple questions, Ghobash encourages his sons to face issues others insist are not relevant, not applicable, or may even be Islamophobic. These letters serve as a clear-eyed inspiration for the next generation of Muslims to understand how to be faithful to their religion and still navigate through the complexities of today's world. They also reveal an intimate glimpse into a world many are unfamiliar with and offer to provide an understanding of the everyday struggles Muslims face around the globe."
Daily Readings from Your Best Life Now: 90 Devotions for Living at Your Full Potential
Joel Osteen - 2005
Now, in this devotional, Joel prepares readers to embrace the life God intends for them to enjoy. Joel's 90 days of motivational thoughts, inspirational messages, and helpful Scripture verses will strengthen readers' faith in God, in others, and in themselves. By applying these truths, they will be able to rise above obstacles and live in health, abundance, and victory.
Why I Wake Early
Mary Oliver - 2004
Each poem is imbued with the extraordinary perceptions of a poet who considers the everyday in our lives and the natural world around us and finds a multitude of reasons to wake early.
The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church
Gregory A. Boyd - 2006
It is called to look like a corporate Jesus, dying on the cross for those who crucified him, not a religious version of Caesar. It is called to manifest the kingdom of the cross in contrast to the kingdom of the sword. Whenever the church has succeeded in gaining what most American evangelicals are now trying to get – political power – it has been disastrous both for the church and the culture. Whenever the church picks up the sword, it lays down the cross. The present activity of the religious right is destroying the heart and soul of the evangelical church and destroying its unique witness to the world. The church is to have a political voice, but we are to have it the way Jesus had it: by manifesting an alternative to the political, “power over,” way of doing life. We are to transform the world by being willing to suffer for others – exercising “power under,” not by getting our way in society – exercising “power over.”
Great Women of Islam
Mahmood Ahmad Ghadanfar - 2001
There are good examples in the lifestyle of the Mothers of The Believers and women Companions especially for the Muslim women. It is necessary for all of us to study the Seerah of these noble and fortunate women. Besides the Mothers of The Believers, the compiler of the book has included the description of those sixteen women who had been given the good News of the Paradise in this world by the Prophet Muhammad (salallahu alayhi wasallam). Although the original book is in the Urdu language, the efforts of the translator have made it more beneficial for the readers.
The Four Horsemen: The Conversation That Sparked an Atheist Revolution
Christopher Hitchens - 2019
What followed was a rigorous, pathbreaking, and enthralling exchange, which has been viewed millions of times since it was first posted on YouTube. This is intellectual inquiry at its best: exhilarating, funny, and unpredictable, sincere and probing, reminding us just how varied and colorful the threads of modern atheism are. Here is the transcript of that conversation, in print for the first time, augmented by material from the living participants: Dawkins, Harris, and Dennett. These new essays, introduced by Stephen Fry, mark the evolution of their thinking and highlight particularly resonant aspects of this epic exchange. Each man contends with the most fundamental questions of human existence while challenging the others to articulate their own stance on God and religion, cultural criticism, spirituality, debate with people of faith, and the components of a truly ethical life.
What We Talk about When We Talk about God
Rob Bell - 2012
His new book, What We Talk About When We Talk About God, will continue down this path, helping us with the ultimate big-picture issue: how do we know God? Love Wins was a Sunday Times bestseller that created a media storm, launching Bell as a national religious voice who is reinvigorating what it means to be religious and a Christian today. He is one of the most influential voices in the Christian world, and now his new book, What We Talk About When We Talk About God, is poised to blow open the doors on how we understand God. Bell believes we need to drop our primitive, tribal views of God and instead understand the God who wants us to become who we were designed to be, a God who created a universe of quarks and quantum string dynamics, but who also gives meaning to why new-born babies and stories of heroes and sacrifice inspire in us a deep reverence. What We Talk About When We Talk About God will reveal that God is not in need of repair to catch him up with today's world so much as we need to discover the God who goes before us and beckons us forward. A book full of mystery, controversy, and reverence, What We Talk About When We Talk About God has fans and critics alike anxiously awaiting, and promises not to disappoint.
Uh-oh: Some Observations from Both Sides of the Refrigerator Door
Robert Fulghum - 1991
Yet most of us utter that sound every day. And have used it all our lives...Uh-oh is way up near the top of a list of small syllables with large meanings...Uh-oh...is a frame of mind. A philosophy. It says to expect the unexpected., and also expect to be able to deal with it as it happens most of the time. Uh-oh people seem not only to expect surprise, but they count on it, as if surprise were a dimension of vitality."These words from the opening of Uh-oh describe a special vitality that, in fact, infuses the writings of Robert Fulghum with the incomparable joie de vivre and sense of wonder that have made his books, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten and It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It, modern classic, translated into twenty-five languages.In this third volume, Fulghum explores a variety of subjects from both sides of the refrigerator door—from meatloaf to the Salvation Army Band, from fireflies to funerals, from hiccups to a watch without hands. One again, Fulghum celebrates everyday life in all its richness, subtly weaving a theme of balance throughout, balance between the mundane and the holy, between humor and grief, and between what is and what might be.
Ishmael
Daniel Quinn - 1992
He answers an ad in a local newspaper from a teacher looking for serious pupils, only to find himself alone in an abandoned office with a full-grown gorilla who is nibbling delicately on a slender branch. "You are the teacher?" he asks incredulously. "I am the teacher," the gorilla replies. Ishmael is a creature of immense wisdom and he has a story to tell, one that no other human being has ever heard. It is a story that extends backward and forward over the lifespan of the earth from the birth of time to a future there is still time save. Like all great teachers, Ishmael refuses to make the lesson easy; he demands the final illumination to come from within ourselves. Is it man's destiny to rule the world? Or is it a higher destiny possible for him-- one more wonderful than he has ever imagined?
The Dalai Lama's Cat
David Michie - 2012
Why should His Holiness not have a cat?‘If only she could speak,’ continued the actress. ‘I’m sure she’d have such wisdom to share.’And so the seed was planted . . . I began to think that perhaps the time had come for me to write a book of my own—a book that would convey some of the wisdom I’ve learned sitting not at the feet of the Dalai Lama but even closer, on his lap. A book that would tell my own tale . . . how I was rescued from a fate too grisly to contemplate to become the constant companion of a man who is not only one of the world’s greatest spiritual leaders and a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate but also a dab hand with a can opener.” Starving and pitiful, a mud-smeared kitten is rescued from the slums of New Delhi and transported to a life she could have never imagined. In a beautiful sanctuary overlooking the snow-capped Himalayas, she begins her new life as the Dalai Lama’s cat.Warmhearted, irreverent, and wise, this cat of many names opens a window to the inner sanctum of life in Dharamsala. A tiny spy observing the constant flow of private meetings between His Holiness and everyone from Hollywood celebrities to philanthropists to self-help authors, the Dalai Lama’s cat provides us with insights on how to find happiness and meaning in a busy, materialistic world. Her story will put a smile on the face of anyone who has been blessed by the kneading paws and bountiful purring of a cat.