In this ground-breaking, lucid, and carefully constructed work, feminist Muslim scholar Dr Kecia Ali asks how one can determine what makes sex lawful and ethical in the sight of God.Drawing on both revealed and interpretative Muslim texts, Ali critiques medieval and contemporary commentators alike to produce a balanced and comprehensive study of a subject both sensitive and urgent, making this an invaluable resource for students, scholars, and interested readers.

    One day he would arrive on my North London doorstep, fall madly in love with me and ask me to marry him. Then he would convert to Islam and become a devoted Muslim.Shelina is keeping a very surprising secret under her headscarf - she wants to fall in love and find her faith. Torn between the Buxom Aunties, romantic comedies and mosque Imams, she decides to follow the arranged-marriage route to finding Mr Right, Muslim-style. Shelina's captivating journey begins as a search for the one, but along the way she also discovers herself and her faith.

    This is a topic-by-topic study about the science of Hadith written to fulfil the needs of modern college students whose medium of instruction is mainly in English.

    While there are many answers to the question of “what went wrong” in the Muslim world, no one has decisively answered why it went wrong. Until now.In this eye-opening new book, foreign policy expert Robert R. Reilly uncovers the root of our contemporary crisis: a pivotal struggle waged within the Muslim world nearly a millennium ago. In a heated battle over the role of reason, the side of irrationality won. The deformed theology that resulted, Reilly reveals, produced the spiritual pathology of Islamism, and a deeply dysfunctional culture.Terrorism—from 9/11, to London, Madrid, and Mumbai, to the Christmas 2009 attempted airline bombing—is the most obvious manifestation of this crisis. But Reilly shows that the pathology extends much further. The Closing of the Muslim Mind solves such puzzles as: ·        why peace is so elusive in the Middle East·        why the Arab world stands near the bottom of every measure of human development·        why scientific inquiry is nearly dead in the Islamic world·        why Spain translates more books in a single year than the entire Arab world has in the past thousand years·        why some people in Saudi Arabia still refuse to believe man has been to the moon·        why Muslim media frequently present natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina as God’s direct retribution Delving deeper than previous polemics and simplistic analyses, The Closing of the Muslim Mind provides the answers the West has so desperately needed in confronting the Islamist crisis.WHAT THEY ARE SAYING"The lack of liberty within Islam is a huge problem. Robert Reilly’s The Closing of the Muslim Mind shows that a millennium ago Muslims debated whether minds should be free to explore the world—and freedom lost. The intellectual history he offers helps to explain why Muslim countries fell behind Christian-based ones in scientific inquiry, economic development, and technology. Reilly provides astonishing statistics . . . [and] also points out how theology prefigures politics." —World Magazine  "As Robert R. Reilly points out in The Closing of the Muslim Mind . . . the Islamic conception of God as pure will, unbound by reason and unknowable through the visible world, rendered any search for cause and effect in nature irrelevant to Muslim societies over centuries, resulting in slipshod, dependent cultures. Reilly notes, for example, that Pakistan, a nation which views science as automatically impious given its view that an arbitrary God did not imprint upon nature a rational order worth investigating, produces almost no patents." —American Spectator "What happened to moderate Islam and what sort of hope we may have for it in the future is the subject of Robert Reilly’s brilliant and groundbreaking new book. The Closing of the Muslim Mind is a page-turner that reads almost like an intellectual detective novel...One thing Reilly’s account makes clear: Only when we move beyond the common platitudes of our contemporary political discussion and begin to deal with Islam as it really is — rather than the fiction that it is the equivalent of our Western culture dressed up in a burqa — will we be able to help make progress in that direction." — National Review Online

    SIRAH TEXTBOOKDiscover how complex forces shaped the Prophet's life. Each segment of the Sirah is presented in a refreshingly succinct and high yield approach that guarantees mastery of the most authoritative sources of the Prophetic biography.QUR’ANIC VERSESExperience the Qur'an unfold, with 400+ verses that are chronologically woven into an authentic narrative of Prophet Muhammad’s life (pbuh).FIGURES & VISUAL AIDESRetain critical details with the help of 90+ original figures (maps, family trees, and infographics) that simplify complex material and boost retention. COMMENTARY POINTSExamine the very best commentaries on important and challenging topics by a diverse array of respected scholars and authors including Hamza Yusuf, Tariq Ramadan, Karen Armstrong, Adil Salahi, and Reza Aslan.GLOSSARY OF NAMESConnect the dots with an extensive glossary of 400+ entries that highlight each individual, their relationship with others, and the role they played.SIRAH TIMELINEMemorize the Sirah timeline in 10 minutes by gaining access to an innovative system that bypasses years of rote memorization.

    And it has the power to help ignite a revolution and blow apart the structures of ignorance and politicized indoctrination that too often still imprison the Muslim mind.Part memoir, part passionate call for liberty, reason and doing work that matters, My Isl@m tells the tale of how the internet opened the eyes and heart of a once fearful young Muslim to a world beyond the dogmatism of his upbringing, and recounts his transformation into a defiant digital activist.In his honest, provocative, and courageous debut, Nasr–a popular Afro-Arab Sudanese blogger–steps out from behind the curtain of anonymity and emerges as a voice of a new generation of tech-savvy liberal Muslims.Set in war-ravaged Sudan, oil-rich Qatar, multi-cultural Malaysia, the United States, Turkey and the new frontiers of cyberspace, My Isl@m is a fascinating prelude to the Arab Spring and a disarming and uplifting tale of doubt, soul-searching, Islam, and finding freedom in the Middle East and the rest of the Muslim world.A poignant, honest, and uplifting memoir of how blogging and the internet opened the eyes and heart of one young Muslim man to a world beyond his religious fundamentalist upbringing.

    Since its inception, the power of the Quran has derived not only from its message, but also from the inimitable literary style and rhetorical impact that the Arabic scripture has on its audiences. Divine Speech: Exploring the Quran as Literature attempts to make some of the most recent Arabic and European-language scholarship on its literary features accessible to a wider, English-speaking audience. These features include its language and word choice, its use of figures of speech and other rhetorical devices, its manner of narrating parables and stories, and the structure, coherence, and the order of its "chapters"-aspects that typically remain mysterious to readers of English translations of the text. Divine Speech furnishes its readers with a better appreciation of the Quran from a literary perspective, and in the process stimulates interest in, and provides tools and resources for, further study of the scripture.

    It dispels the ambiguities surrounding the Shari'ah, serving as an essential reference work for the Muslims of this age. It clarifies the Lawful (halal) and why it is lawful, and prohibited (haram) and why it is prohibited, referring to the Qur'an and the Sunnah. It answers many of the questions which Muslims face today. In a very simple way, the book delves into the authentic references in Islamic jurisprudence and fiqh to extract judgements of interest to contemporary Muslims on matters of worship, business dealings, marriage and divorce, food and drink, dress and adornment, patterns of behavior, individual and group relations, family and social ethics, habits and social customs. Referring to authentic texts, it carifies that "Permissibility, is the rule in everything, unless it is otherwise specified in matters that adversely affect individuals or groups." It also stipulates that "Allah is the only authority who has the right to legislate for the lawful and the prohibited."

    In books that have inspired millions throughout the world, he has pioneered work towards a new dialogue between cultures. Following bestselling volumes on Christianity and Judaism, here he turns his attention to Islam. Providing a masterful overview of Islam's 1,400-year history, Kung examines its fundamental beliefs and practices, outlines the major schools of thought, and surveys the positions of Islam on the urgent questions of the day. Deft, assured, and comprehensive, this is the only objective introduction to Islam by a renowned Christian theologian.

    While their commonality is faith and citizenship, their voices and their messages are very different. Readers of I Speak for Myself are presented with a kaleidoscope of stories, artfully woven together around the central idea of limitlessness and individuality. A common theme linking these intimate self-portraits will be the way each woman uniquely defies labeling, simply by defining for herself what it means to be American and Muslim and female. Each personal story is a contribution to the larger narrative of life stories and life work of a new generation of Muslim women.There are approximately six million Muslims living in the United States and over one billion around the world. While the events of 9/11 certainly engaged Americans with the religion of Islam, many enduring stereotypes continue to belittle the Muslim American experience; this often leads to a monolithic interpretation of Islam. Such a treatment is especially inappropriate when reflecting on the Muslim American identity, which is by far one of the most culturally, ethnically, and socially diverse of any in the Islamic world. Women of the Muslim community in America could be described as both patriots and practitioners (of faith). Their experiences call for a body of literature that reflects how they celebrate and live Islam in distinctive ways.In the wake of the current rising tide of Islamophobia (see Time Magazine, Aug. 30, 2010), I Speak for Myself is a must read for Americans seeking understanding of Islam from young women who were all born in the USA.

    The Bezels of Wisdom was written during the author's later years and was intended to be a synthesis of his spiritual doctrine. Bezel means a setting in which a gem, engraved with one's name, is set to make a seal ring. The setting in which Ibn Al-'Arabi has placed his spiritual wisdom are the lives of the prophets. It was in Damascus that he had the vision that prompted him to write this book. He describes it in his preface: "I saw the Apostle of God in a visitation…He had in his hand a book and he said to me, 'This is the book of the bezels of Wisdom; take it and bring it to men that they might benefit from it.'"The book portrays the wisdom of love through Abraham, of the unseen through Job, of light through Joseph, of intimacy through Elias and so on. Ibn Al-'Arabi invites us in these pages to explore the inner spiritual meanings of the Quran, its heartful meanings. In one of his poems he stated, "Love is the creed I hold: wherever turns His camels, Love is still my creed and faith."

    Continuing global violence in the name of Islam reflects the deepest fears by certain Muslim factions of Western political, cultural, and economic encroachment. The solution to the current antagonism requires finding common ground upon which to build mutual respect and understanding. Who better to offer such an analysis than an American imam, someone with a foot in each world and the tools to examine the common roots of both Western and Muslim cultures; someone to explain to the non-Islamic West not just what went wrong with Islam, but what's right with Islam.Focused on finding solutions, not on determining fault, this is ultimately a hopeful, inspiring book. What's Right with Islam systematically lays out the reasons for the current dissonance between these cultures and offers a foundation and plan for improved relations. Wide-ranging in scope, What's Right with Islam elaborates in satisfying detail a vision for a Muslim world that can eventually embrace its own distinctive forms of democracy and capitalism, aspiring to a new Cordoba - a time when Jews, Christians, Muslims, and all other faith traditions will live together in peace and prosperity.

    Here he presents ancient Sufi teaching stories rooted in the Islamic tradition. With common sense and insightful wit, he addresses questions and problems of contemporary life and awakens our attention to the often overlooked moments that give importance and meaning to our lives. Through the re-telling of classical stories and his own commentary, a pattern unfolds that helps to distinguish knowledge from information, reality from imagination, and makes what seems to lie beyond our perception - understanding and brief - accessible. Our spiritual potential as human beings is realised in "When You Hear Hoofbeats Think of a Zebra".

    So if you, Observant of Allaah, wish to cure your hear then it is upon you to be truthful with regards to seeking refuge with Allaah and putting your trust in Him, to pray a great deal of supererogatory prayers, to perform the actions of obedience to Allaah frequently, to pray the night prayer while the people are sleeping, and to treat your heart by making it continuously stick to the remembrances and by befriending only the righteous? and to frequently recite the Quraan. And Allaah will indeed allow all of this to be preserved by him.

    This book, appearing in English for the first time, contains the very essence of Sufism, giving a Sufi explanation of how the outward practises of Islam—prayer, fasting, almsgiving and pilgrimage—contain a wealth of inner dimension which must be discovered and enjoyed if external actions are to be performed in a manner pleasing to God. When this is achieved the soul finds true peace and the spiritual life becomes complete.