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Showing 1161 - 1180 of 2012 items
By Yohanan Friedmann. 2022
Expectation of a redeemer is a widespread phenomenon across many civilizations. Classical Islamic traditions maintain that the mahdi will transform…
our world by making Islam the sole religion, and that he will do so in collaboration with Jesus, who will return as a Muslim and play a major role in this apocalyptic endeavour. While the messianic idea has been most often discussed in relation to Shi&‘i Islam, it is highly important in the Sunni branch as well. In this groundbreaking work, Yohanan Friedmann explores its roots in Sunni Islam, and studies four major mahdi claimants – Ibn Tumart, Sayyid Muhammad Jawnpuri, Muhammad Ahmad and Mirza Ghulam Ahmad – who made a considerable impact in the regions where they emerged. Focusing on their religious thought, and relating it to classical Muslim ideas on the apocalypse, he examines their movements and considers their achievements, failures and legacies – including the ways in which they prefigured some radical Islamic groups of modern times.By Jaan S. Islam, Adem Eryiğit. 2022
"Proto-Salafist" 14th-century theologian Ibn Taymiyya is recognized as the intellectual forefather of contemporary Salafism and Jihadism. This volume offers a…
unique approach to the study of Ibn Taymiyya, by offering an English translation of his fundamental political treatise, The Office of Islamic Government, and shorter collections from The Collected Fatwas and The Prophetic Way, and Islamic Governance in Reconciling between the Ruler and the Ruled. The volume not only sheds light on these primary sources through translation and annotation, but also offers a theoretical analysis of Ibn Taymiyya’s thought and how his legal views can be reconciled with current trends in Islamic political theory. The analysis provides an overview of Ibn Taymiyya’s geopolitical context, and includes an original study of his normative political thought. In examining the contemporary implications of Ibn Taymiyya’s political theology, the authors explore his doctrine of the Islamic state in the context of Islamic decolonial theory. Islam and the State in Ibn Taymiyya will appeal to academics in the fields of political science and religious studies, particularly within the field of Islamic history.A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org.Palimpsests of Themselves is an intervention in current…
discussions about the fate of philosophy in postclassical Islamic intellectual history. Asad Q. Ahmed uses as a case study the most advanced logic textbook of Muslim South Asia, The Ladder of the Sciences, presenting in English its first full translation and extended commentary. He offers detailed assessments of the technical contributions of the work, explores the social and institutional settings of the vast commentarial response it elicited, and develops a theory of the philosophical commentary that is internal to the tradition. These approaches to the commentarial text complicate presuppositions upon which questions of Islam’s intellectual decline are erected. As such, Ahmed offers a unique and powerful opportunity to understand the transmission of knowledge across the Islamic world.By Todd H. Green. 2015
This volume investigates the context of Western views of Islam and offers an introduction to the historical roots and contemporary…
anxiety regarding Islam within the Western world. Tracing the medieval legacy of religious polemics and violence, Green orients the reader to the complex history and issues in Western relations to Islam, from early and late modern colonial enterprises and theories of Orientalism, to the production of religious discourses of otherness and the clash of civilizations that proliferated in the era of 9/11 and the war on terror.By Sherman 'Abd Jackson, 'Uthman ibn al-Nabulusi. 2019
Patronage, power, and competition in the Sultan's court The Sword of Ambition opens a new window onto interreligious rivalry among…
elites in medieval Egypt. Written by the unemployed bureaucrat ?Uthman ibn Ibrahim al-Nabulusi (d. 660/1262), it contains a wealth of little-known historical anecdotes, unusual religious opinions, obscure and witty poetry, and humorous cultural satire. Leaving no rhetorical stone unturned, al-Nabulusi pours his deep knowledge of history, law, and literature into the work-addressed to the Ayyubid sultan-as he argues against the employment of Coptic and Jewish officials. Written at a time when much of the inter-communal animosity of the era was conditioned by fierce competition for scarce resources that were increasingly controlled by an ideologically committed Sunni Muslim state, The Sword of Ambition reminds us that "religious" conflict must always be considered in its broader historical perspective.Ibn al-'Arabī (d. 1240) was one of the towering figures of Islamic intellectual history, and among Sufis still bears the…
title of al-shaykh al-akbar, or "the greatest master." Ibn al-'Arabī and Islamic Intellectual Culture traces the history of the concept of "oneness of being" (wahdat al-wujūd) in the school of Ibn al- 'Arabī, in order to explore the relationship between mysticism and philosophy in Islamic intellectual life. It examines how the conceptual language used by early mystical writers became increasingly engaged over time with the broader Islamic intellectual culture, eventually becoming integrated with the latter’s common philosophical and theological vocabulary. It focuses on four successive generations of thinkers (Sadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī, Mu'ayyad al-Dīn al-Jandī, 'Abd al-Razzāq al-Kāshānī, and Dāwūd al-Qaysarī), and examines how these "philosopher-mystics" refined and developed the ideas of Ibn al-'Arabī. Through a close analysis of texts, the book clearly traces the crystallization of an influential school of thought in Islamic history and its place in the broader intellectual culture. Offering an exploration of the development of Sufi expression and thought, this book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Islamic thought, philosophy, and mysticism.By Yafia Katherine Randall. 2016
In Israel there are Jews and Muslims who practice Sufism together. The Sufi’ activities that they take part in together…
create pathways of engagement between two faith traditions in a geographical area beset by conflict. Sufism and Jewish Muslim Relations investigates this practice of Sufism among Jews and Muslims in Israel and examines their potential to contribute to peace in the area. It is an original approach to the study of reconciliation, situating the activities of groups that are not explicitly acting for peace within the wider context of grass-roots peace initiatives. The author conducted in-depth interviews with those practicing Sufism in Israel, and these are both collected in an appendix and used throughout the work to analyse the approaches of individuals to Sufism and the challenges they face. It finds that participants understand encounters between Muslim and Jewish mystics in the medieval Middle East as a common heritage to Jews and Muslims practising Sufism together today, and it explores how those of different faiths see no dissonance in the adoption of Sufi practices to pursue a path of spiritual progression. The first examination of the Derekh Avraham Jewish-Sūfī Order, this is a valuable resource for students and scholars of Sufi studies, as well as those interested in Jewish-Muslim relations.By Stipe Odak. 2023
This book opens a new research field in Balkan contextual theology. By embracing culturally rich traditions of the Western Balkans…
as its starting point, it explores their existential and theological bearings. Placed at the crossroads of civilizations and religions, this region has witnessed some of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. At the same time, it has produced unique textures of inter-cultural life. The volume addresses some of the most poignant phenomena endemic to the region, such as sevdalinka music, intimate forms of neighborhood, archetypes of ‘sacred warriors,’ the experience of democratic jet lag, collective melancholy, and intergenerational trauma. As the first book of this nature, it aims to encourage further development of contextual theological thinking in the region and promote its international reception.By Stephen J. Shoemaker. 2022
A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org.Creating the Qur’an presents the first systematic historical-critical…
study of the Qur’an’s origins, drawing on methods and perspectives commonly used to study other scriptural traditions. Demonstrating in detail that the Islamic tradition relates not a single attested account of the holy text’s formation, Stephen J. Shoemaker shows how the Qur’an preserves a surprisingly diverse array of memories regarding the text’s early history and its canonization. To this he adds perspectives from radiocarbon dating of manuscripts, the linguistic history of Arabic, the social and cultural history of late ancient Arabia, and the limitations of human memory and oral transmission, as well as various peculiarities of the Qur’anic text itself. Considering all the relevant data to present the most comprehensive and convincing examination of the origin and evolution of the Qur’an available, Shoemaker concludes that the canonical text of the Qur’an was most likely produced only around the turn of the eighth century.By Raymond Ibrahim. 2022
A riveting account of the lives and epic battles of eight Western defenders against violent Islamic jihad that sheds much-needed…
light on the enduring conflict with radical Islam.In Defenders of the West, the author of Sword and Scimitar follows up with vivid and dramatic profiles of eight extraordinary warriors—some saints, some sinners—who defended the Christian West against Islamic invasions. Discover the real Count Dracula, Spain&’s El Cid, England&’s Richard Lionheart, and many other historical figures, whose true and original claim to fame revolved around their defiant stance against jihadist aggression. With sixteen full color pages of photos and illustrations, Defenders of the West is an instructive and inspiring read. Whereas Sword and Scimitar revolved around decisive battles, Defenders of the West revolves around decisive men.Based on interview material, observations and content analysis, this book captures the everyday life structures of a cohort of Muslim/ex-Islamist…
female youth in Egypt who have joined or established new networks that share the common interest of doing ‘good’ to the society based on their religious worldviews, representing a broader societal movement. Female Youth in Contemporary Egypt posits that despite the fact that the 2011 Egyptian uprisings did not necessarily materialize with the political effects anticipated by some of its activists, it seems to have led to the formation of a new generation of active youth with a distinct worldview. Four broad and intertwined theoretical considerations have been taken into account. First, the book delineates the emergence and continuous development of post- (and sometimes non-) bourgeois public spheres in Arabo-Islamic contexts and conceptualizes multiple publics of overlapping Islamic structures rather than one Islamic public. Second, it offers an empirical as well as a conceptual understanding of the positioning of religion as public/private. Third, it presents a critique of Islamist thought conducive to the rise of post-Islamism; and fourth it offers a critique of feminist thought to throw light on novel forms of Muslim women's discourses and activism in line with post-Islamist worldviews. This book will be of interest to scholars in Middle Eastern Studies, women’s studies, and political studies.By Sarah Bowen Savant, Bruce Fudge, Christian Lange, Kambiz GhaneaBassiri. 2022
William A. Graham is an influential and pioneering scholar of Islamic Studies at Harvard University. This volume brings together 17 contributions…
to the study of the Qur’an and Islam, all influenced by his work Contributions to this collection, by his colleagues and students, treat many different aspects of Islamic scripture, from textual interpretation and hermeneutics to recitation and parallels with the Bible. Other chapters tackle in diverse ways the question of what it means to be "Islamic" and how such an identity may be constituted and maintained in history, thought, and learning. A final section reflects on the career of William Graham and the relation of scholarship to the undervalued tasks of academic administration, especially where the study of religion is concerned. This book will be of interest to readers of Islamic Studies, Qur’anic Studies, Islamic history, Religious Studies, scripture, exegesis, and history of the book. Given Graham’s role at the Harvard Divinity School, and the discussions of how he has shaped the study of religion, the volume should be of interest to readership across the study of religion as a whole.In Rage and Carnage in the Name of God, Abiodun Alao examines the emergence of a culture of religious violence…
in postindependence Nigeria, where Christianity, Islam, and traditional religions have all been associated with violence. He investigates the root causes and historical evolution of Nigeria’s religious violence, locating it in the forced coming together of disparate ethnic groups under colonial rule, which planted the seeds of discord that religion, elites, and domestic politics exploit. Alao discusses the histories of Christianity, Islam, and traditional religions in the territory that became Nigeria, the effects of colonization on the role of religion, the development of Islamic radicalization and its relation to Christian violence, the activities of Boko Haram, and how religious violence intermixes with politics and governance. In so doing, he uses religious violence as a way to more fully understand intergroup relations in contemporary Nigeria.By Léo-Paul Dana, Veland Ramadani, Baker Ahmad Alserhan, Jusuf Zeqiri. 2022
Marketing in the emerging Islamic markets is a challenging business function since international companies must contend with unfamiliar customs, cultural…
differences, and legal challenges. This book provides marketers who want to reach this emerging and very lucrative consumer base with essential, research-based insights on these aspects and how to deal with them. This book redefines marketing practice and conduct and challenges conventional marketing wisdom by introducing a religious-based ethical framework to the practice of marketing. The framework opens a whole new array of marketing opportunities and describes the behavior of the consumer, community, and companies using a different approach than conventional marketing thought.By Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee. 2014
With the passion and depth of feeling that belong to lovers, Sufi masters through the centuries have described the soul's…
journey toward union with God. This collection of sayings, dating from the ninth century to the present day, follows the stages of the journey, allowing the masters to beckon us along this ancient path.By Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee. 2002
Working with Oneness brings mysticism into the center of the marketplace, into the world of business and technology, and shows…
how we can work with it in everyday life. This book provides a blueprint for working consciously with this energy, which has the potential to heal the planet and revolutionize life more than we can imagine.By Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee. 2013
Love is a Fire is an introduction to the Sufi path of love, taking the reader into the passion and…
wisdom of this mystical tradition. The call of the heart and how it draws us back to divine union is one of mankind's greatest secrets, and for the Sufi this love is a fire that burns away all traces of separation. Love is a Fire is based on live talks and meetings with Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, who teaches how to live this burning. He describes the stages of the path of love on the soul's journey home. This is a book for anyone drawn to the fire of divine love.By Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee. 2012
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee portrays the awakening of the seeker to the bond of love that has existed within the human heart…
since the beginning of time. Drawing on sources both Sufi and Christian, he details the unfolding of this eternal love affair between the human seeker and the Divine Beloved. As it explains the tremendous importance of this mystical relationship not only to the lover but to the world, this book suggests that through the inner relationship with the Beloved the lover brings this higher consciousness into every day life and helps the world remember that it belongs to God.By Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee. 1999
The circle of divine love is always present within the heart. The journey of the mystic is to retrace this…
circle and so experience the oneness that is hidden within us. Continuing his work of providing a contemporary understanding of Sufism, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee draws us into this mystery of the soul. He describes the way of mystical prayer and of listening with the heart. He offers valuable insight into power and the spiritual life: how to use one's power to break free of restrictions and live the joy of one's divine nature. He explores the primordial question of why we so easily forget our origin in God. Finally, The Circle of Love takes us deep into the mystical secret of being lost in God, to the center of the circle where the lover merges into the Beloved, and the heart's deepest truth is revealed.This is the first study to compare the philosophical systems of secular scientific philosopher Mario Bunge (1919-2020), and Moroccan Islamic philosopher…
Taha Abd al-Rahman (b.1945). In their efforts to establish the philosophical underpinnings of an ideal modernity these two great thinkers speak to the same elements of the human condition, despite their opposing secular and religious worldviews. While the differences between Bunge’s critical-realist epistemology and materialist ontology on the one hand, and Taha’s spiritualist ontology and revelational-mystical epistemology on the other, are fundamental, there is remarkable common ground between their scientific and Islamic versions of humanism. Both call for an ethics of prosperity combined with social justice, and both criticize postmodernism and religious conservatism. The aspiration of this book is to serve as a model for future dialogue between holders of Western and Islamic worldviews, in mutual pursuit of modernity’s best-case scenario.