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."

    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.

    Contrasting modern, secular society with religion and tradition in general and with Islam in particular, Gai Eaton clarifies the essential need for spirituality, religion and values based on eternal principles. The main ideas behind Remembering God are that religion is not an isolated part of human life which can be disregarded at will and without consequences; that a total rejection of the past cannot be the basis for the future and that a true link with Heaven modifies all the decisions and actions of society. The continuity and harmony of the religious perspective contrasted with the dislocation and alienation of modern society is the theme that runs throughout the book, touching on religion in principle: metaphysics, knowledge of the div! ine and of oneself, supplication, the necessity for purifying the ego; and on the application of religion to society: politics, architecture, the environment and gender relations, Charles Le Gai Eaton illustrates the subtle harmony of a religious perspective and its abiity to transform both the individual and society.

    This work, originally written in Arabic, represents a synthesis of the Islamic intellectual disciplines authoritative in the 18th century. In order to argue for the rational, ethical, and spiritual basis for the implementation of the hadith injunctions of the Prophet Muhammad, Sh?h Wal? All?h develops a cohesive schema of the metaphysical, psychological, and social knowledge of his time. This work provides an extensive and detailed picture of Muslim theology and interpretive strategies on the eve of the modern period and is still evoked by numerous contemporary Islamic movements.

    Modern media are replete with alarm over jihad, underage marriage and the threat of amputation or stoning under Shariah law. Sometimes rumor, sometimes based in fact and often misunderstood, the tenets of Islamic law and dogma were not set in the religion’s founding moments. They were developed over centuries by the clerical class of Muslim scholars.Misquoting Muhammad takes the reader back in time through Islamic civilization and traces how and why such controversies developed, offering an inside view into how key and controversial aspects of Islam took shape. From the protests of the Arab Spring to Istanbul at the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and from the ochre red walls of Delhi’s great mosques to the trade routes of Islam’s Indian Ocean world, Misquoting Muhammad lays out how Muslim intellectuals have sought to balance reason and revelation, weigh science and religion, and negotiate the eternal truths of scripture amid shifting values.

    The first lecture, "Man and Islam", analyzes the creation of man according to Islamic doctrine and present man as God's vicegerent on earth as is described in the Holy Qur'an. In the second lecture, Shari'ati discusses the differences world-views of numerous regions and philosophies. The third lecture concerns the "Extraction and Refinement of Cultural Resources." In the fourth work, "Modern man and His Prisons," Shari'ati states that there are four constraints under which man is bound. Man can become a rue human being only after he has released himself from the yoke of these constraints. The fifth lecture in this series deals with Shari'ati addressing the question of the intellectual and categorizing him into three types. In the next lecture entitled "Ideology," Shari'ati explains the meaning of ideology as well as philosophy, and expounds on the question that those who relate to them. In the last lecture, Shari'ati addresses the question, "If we believe we a true free-thinking intellectuals, what must be our relationship with the society and what path should we follow?" In these seven brief lectures, Shari'ati brings an enlightening perspective to the study of Islamic ideology, its world-view, man's constraints, and the responsibility of the free-thinker towards the construction of a new society.

    Join him on an existential, spiritual and rational journey that articulates powerful arguments for the existence of God, the Qur'an, the Prophethood of Muhammad and why we must know, love and worship God. He addresses academic and popular objections while showing how contemporary atheism is based on false assumptions about reality, which leads to incoherent answers to life's important questions.Does hope, happiness and human value make sense without the Divine? Do we have an ultimate purpose? Can we have consciousness and rational minds without God? Did the universe come from nothing? Does evil and suffering negate Divine mercy? Has scientific progress led to the denial of God? Are revelation and prophethood myths? Is God worthy of our worship? If you want to know how the Islamic intellectual and spiritual tradition answers these questions then this is the book for you.Hamza Andreas Tzortzis's new book presents a much needed comprehensive account of Islamic theism that draws upon Western and Islamic thought.

    He argues that these modes of thinking obstruct us from understanding Islam, distorting it, diminishing it, and rendering it incoherent.What Is Islam? formulates a new conceptual language for analyzing Islam. It presents a new paradigm of how Muslims have historically understood divine revelation—one that enables us to understand how and why Muslims through history have embraced values such as exploration, ambiguity, aestheticization, polyvalence, and relativism, as well as practices such as figural art, music, and even wine drinking as Islamic. It also puts forward a new understanding of the historical constitution of Islamic law and its relationship to philosophical ethics and political theory.A book that is certain to provoke debate and significantly alter our understanding of Islam, What Is Islam? reveals how Muslims have historically conceived of and lived with Islam as norms and truths that are at once contradictory yet coherent.

    Some modern thinkers view it as the first work dealing with the social sciences of sociology, demography, and cultural history. The Muqaddimah also deals with Islamic theology, historiography, the philosophy of history, economics, political theory, and ecology. It has also been described as an early representative of social Darwinism.

    Thoughtful and inspiring, it offers a rare vision of hope that will redefine what we think about our neighbors, our future, and ourselves.In this timely, provocative, and uplifting journey, the bestselling author of Walking the Bible searches for the man at the heart of the world's three monotheistic religions -- and today's deadliest conflicts.At a moment when the world is asking, "Can the religions get along?" one figure stands out as the shared ancestor of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. One man holds the key to our deepest fears -- and our possible reconciliation. Abraham.Bruce Feiler set out on a personal quest to better understand our common patriarch. Traveling in war zones, climbing through caves and ancient shrines, and sitting down with the world's leading religious minds, Feiler uncovers fascinating, little-known details of the man who defines faith for half the world.Both immediate and timeless, Abraham is a powerful, universal story, the first-ever interfaith portrait of the man God chose to be his partner. Thoughtful and inspiring, it offers a rare vision of hope that will redefine what we think about our neighbors, our future, and ourselves.

    This blessed book is not like others that simply contain sections, chapters and themes, but it consists of the elevated thoughts that Allah, Exalted be He, bestows upon some of His servants as He wills. So whenever any of these scattered pearls of wisdom occurred to the Imam, he would immediately record them. I am sure that he did not sit down and write this book in one or two weeks, but surely it was developed over a long period of time. Whenever something came to his mind, he would record it, and whenever he learnt a lesson or anything crucial in his life, he would illuminate the lines of his page with the ink of his pen.

    The Creed Of Imam Al Tahawi;' Hamza Yusuf Arabic-English, Hb, 167Pp, Zaytuna Institute, Shaykh Abdullah Bin Bayyah/ Bio Imam Abu Hanifah/Abu Y

    Who Speaks for Islam? is about this silenced majority. This book is the product of the Gallup World Poll’s massive, multiyear research study. As part of this groundbreaking project, Gallup conducted tens of thousands of interviews with residents of more than 35 nations that are predominantly Muslim or have significant Muslim populations. Gallup posed questions that are on the minds of millions: Is Islam to blame for terrorism? Why is there so much anti-Americanism in the Muslim world? Who are the extremists? Where are the moderates? What do Muslim women really want? Grounded in Gallup World Poll data, not in contentious rhetoric, Who Speaks for Islam? brings data-driven evidence — the voices of a billion Muslims, not those of individual “experts” or “extremists”— to one of the most heated and consequential debates of our time.

    She then focuses on those Arab societies that played a key role in elaborating the dominant Islamic discourses about women and gender: Arabia during the period in which Islam was founded; Iraq during the classical age, when the prescriptive core of legal and religious discourse on women was formulated; and Egypt during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when exposure to Western societies led to dramatic social change and to the emergence of new discourses on women. Throughout, Ahmed not only considers the Islamic texts in which central ideologies about women and gender developed or were debated but also places this discourse in its social and historical context. Her book is thus a fascinating survey of Islamic debates and ideologies about women and the historical circumstances of their position in society, the first such discussion using the analytic tools of contemporary gender studies.

    He convincingly conveys the unique appeal and gifts of each of the traditions and reveals their hold on the human heart and imagination.