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The Crucifixion and the Qur'an: A Study in the History of Muslim Thought
By Todd Lawson. 2009
According to the majority of modern Muslims and Christians, the Qur'an denies the crucifixion of Jesus, and with it, one…
of the most sacred beliefs of Christianity. However, it is only mentioned in one verse and contrary to popular belief, its interpretation has been the subject of fierce debate among Muslims for centuries. This innovative work is the first book devoted to the issue, delving deeply into largely ignored Arabic sources, which suggest that the origins of the denial may lie within the Christian Church. Arranged along historical lines, and covering various Muslim schools of thought, from Sunni to Sufi, The Crucifixion and the Qur'an will fascinate anyone interested in Christian-Muslim relations. Todd Lawson is Associate Professor at the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto. He is the author of Reason and Inspiration in Islam: Theology, Philosophy and Mysticism in Muslim Thought.Ibn Sina's Remarks and Admonitions: Physics and Metaphysics
By Shams C. Inati. 2014
Al-Isharat wat-Tanbihat ( Remarks and Admonitions) is one of the most mature and comprehensive philosophical works of Ibn Sina (Avicenna,…
980--1037). Grounded in an exploration of logic (which Ibn Sina described as the gate to knowledge) and happiness (the ultimate human goal), the text illuminates the divine, the human being, and the nature of things through a wide-ranging discussion of topics. The sections of Physics and Metaphysics deal with the nature of bodies and souls as well as existence, creation, and knowledge. Especially important are Ibn Sina's views of God's knowledge of particulars, which generated much controversy in medieval Islamic and Christian philosophical and theological circles and provoked a strong rejection by eleventh-century philosopher al-Ghazali.This book provides the first annotated English translation of Physics and Metaphysics and edits the original Arabic text on which the translation is based where it is corrupt or incomprehensible. It begins with a detailed analysis of the text, followed by a translation of the three classes or groups of ideas in the Physics (On the Substance of Bodies; On the Directions and Their Primary and Secondary Bodies; and On the Terrestrial and Celestial Souls) and the four in the Metaphysics (On Existence and Its Causes; Creation Ex Nihilo and Immediate Creation; On Ends, on Their Principles, and on the Arrangement [of Existence]; and On Abstraction. The Metaphysics closes with a significant discussion of the concepts of providence, good, and evil, which Ibn Sina uses to introduce a theodicy.Researchers, faculty, and students in philosophy, theology, religion, and intellectual history will find in this work a useful and necessary source for understanding Ibn Sina's philosophical thought and more generally the medieval Islamic and Christian study of nature, the world beyond, psychology, God, and the concept of evil.The Holy City of Medina
By Harry Munt. 2014
This is the first book-length study of the emergence of Medina, in modern Saudi Arabia, as a widely venerated sacred…
space and holy city over the course of the first three Islamic centuries (the seventh to ninth centuries CE). This was a dynamic period that witnessed the evolution of many Islamic political, religious and legal doctrines, and the book situates Medina's emerging sanctity within the appropriate historical contexts. The book focuses on the roles played by the Prophet Muḥammad, by the Umayyad and early Abbasid caliphs and by Muslim legal scholars. It shows that Medina's emergence as a holy city, alongside Mecca and Jerusalem, as well as the development of many of the doctrines associated with its sanctity, was the result of gradual and contested processes and was intimately linked with important contemporary developments concerning the legitimation of political, religious and legal authority in the Islamic world.Inter Personal Relations: An Islamic Perspective
By Khurram Murad. 2005
War and Peace in the Life of the Prophet Muhammad
By Zakaria Bashier. 2006
By analyzing the Prophet's conduct in war and his measures for ensuring peace the misperception that Islam is inextricably linked…
with violence can be allayed. The major battles in the early history of Islam are studied in the wider context of Islamic teachings on war and peace, as are the Qur'anic verses which allow Muslims to wage war, if necessary.Witnesses unto Mankind
By Sayyid Abul Mawdudi, Khurshid Ahmad. 1986
Unless Muslims fulfil their covenant with Allah and become His witnesses unto mankind, as were all of His Messengers, they…
will continue to suffer ignominy and misrepresentation.Witnesses Unto Mankind: The Purpose and Duty of the Muslim Ummah is a new, edited and extended English version of Sayyid Mawdudi's Urdu Shahadat-i-Haqq, an address he delivered at a Jama'at-i-Islami conference in 1946.Interpersonal Relations
By Khurram Murad, Abdur Rashid Siddiqui. 2005
This book explains the Islamic code of conduct which should govern social relations. Based on the Qur'an and Hadith, it…
instructs extensively in developing such moral and social traits and behaviour patterns which invest our social life with peace, harmony, love and joy.Islamic Civilization
By Sayyid Abul Mawdudi, Syed Akif. 2013
Mawdudi argues that the true understanding of Islamic civilization is possible only by having access to the soul of that…
civilization and its underlying fundamental principles - belief in God, the angels, the Prophets, the Revealed Books and the Last Day - rather than to its manifestations in knowledge, literature, fine arts, social life or its system of governance.Islam: The Way of Revival
By Dilwar Hussain. 2003
In this refreshingly different book one can relish the works and ideas of numerous Muslim scholars and leaders of the…
20th century. The contributors include Muhammad Asad, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Hasan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, Khurshid Ahmad and Sayyid Abul A'la Mawdudi.This title is especially useful for those seeking to enhance their understanding of Islam through personal and group study.The Emergence of Modern Shi'ism: Islamic Reform in Iraq and Iran
By Zackery M. Heern. 2015
This book takes a fresh look at the foundations of modern Islam. Scholars often locate the origins of the modern…
Islamic world in European colonialism or Islamic reactions to European modernity. This study, however, focuses on the rise of Islamic movements indigenous to the Middle East, which developed in direct response to the collapse and decentralization of the Islamic gunpowder empires. Arguing that the Usuli movement, as well as Wahhabism and neo-Sufism, emerged in reaction to the disintegration and political decentralization of the Safavid, Ottoman, and Mughal empires, this book specifically highlights the emergence of Usuli Shi'ism in the 18th and 19th centuries. The long-term impact of the Usuli revival was that Shi'i clerics gained unprecedented social, political, and economic power in Iran and southern Iraq. Usuli clerics claimed authority to issue binding legal judgments, which, they argue, must be observed by all Shi'is. By the early 19th century, Usulism emerged as a popular, fiercely independent, transnational Islamic movement. The Usuli clerics have often operated at the heart of social and political developments in modern Iraq and Iran and today dominate the politics of the region.Crusade and Jihad: The Thousand-Year War Between the Muslim World and the Global North
By William R. Polk. 2018
Crusade and Jihad is the first book to encompass, in one volume, the entire history of the catastrophic encounter between…
the Global North—China, Russia, Europe, Britain, and America—and Muslim societies from Central Asia to West Africa. William R. Polk draws on more than half a century of experience as a historian, policy planner, diplomat, peace negotiator, and businessman to explain the deep hostilities between the Muslim world and the Global North and show how they grew over the centuries. Polk shows how Islam arose and spread across North Africa into Europe, climaxed in the vibrant and sophisticated caliphate of al-Andalus in medieval Spain, and was the bright light in a European Dark Age. Simultaneously, Islam spread from the Middle East into Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. But following the Mongol invasions, Islamic civilization entered a decline while Europe began its overseas expansion. Portuguese buccaneers dominated the Indian Ocean; the Dutch and the English established powerful corporations that turned India and Indonesia into colonies; Russian armies pushed down the Volga into Central Asia, destroying its city-states; and the Chinese Qing dynasty slaughtered an entire Central Asian people. Britain crushed local industry and drained off wealth throughout its vast colonies. Defeated at every turn, Muslims tried adopting Western dress, organizing Westernstyle armies, and embracing Western ideas. None of these efforts stopped the conquests. For Europe and Russia, the nineteenth century was an age of colonial expansion, but for the Muslim world it was an age of brutal and humiliating defeat. Millions were driven from their homes, starved, or killed, and their culture and religion came under a century-long assault. In the twentieth century, brutalized and and disorganized native societies, even after winning independence, fell victim to “post-imperial malaise,” typified by native tyrannies, corruption, and massive poverty. The result was a furious blowback. A sobering, scrupulous, and frank account of imperialism, colonialism, insurgency, and terrorism, Crusade and Jihad is history for anyone who wishes to understand the civilizational conflicts of today’s world.Animals in the Qur'an
By Sarra Tlili. 2012
The Islamic tradition has always held animals in high esteem, deserving the same level of consideration as humans. The Qur'an…
opines that 'there is not an animal in the earth nor a flying creature flying on two wings, but they are people like you'. This fascinating and highly original book examines the status and nature of animals as they are portrayed in the Qur'an and in adjacent exegetical works, in which animals are viewed as spiritual, moral, intelligent and accountable beings. In this way, the study presents a challenge to the prevalent view of man's superiority over animals and suggests new ways of interpreting the Qur'an. By placing the discussion within the context of other religions and their treatment of animals, the book also makes a persuasive case for animal rights from an Islamic perspective.Islam in Retrospect: Recovering the message
By Maher S. Mahmassani. 2014
Islamic Schools in Modern Turkey
By Iren Ozgur. 2012
In recent years, the Islamization of Turkish politics and public life has been the subject of much debate in Turkey…
and the West. This book makes an important contribution to those debates by focusing on a group of religious schools, known as Imam-Hatip schools, founded a year after the Turkish Republic, in 1924. At the outset, the main purpose of Imam-Hatip schools was to train religious functionaries. However, in the ensuing years, the curriculum, function, and social status of the schools have changed dramatically. Through ethnographic and textual analysis, the book explores how Imam-Hatip school education shapes the political socialization of the schools' students, those students' attitudes and behaviors, and the political and civic activities of their graduates. The book also examines the informal, but highly influential, modes of education, communication, and networking that appear in and around the schools. By mapping the schools' connections to Islamist politicians and civic leaders, the book sheds light on the significant, yet often overlooked, role that the schools and their communities play in Turkey's Islamization at the high political and grassroots levels. The book also provides comparative perspectives on Islamic movements by discussing the implementation of the Imam-Hatip school model in other countries, such as Pakistan and Afghanistan, which seek to reform their Islamic schools as a means to curb religious extremism.A Textbook of Hadith Studies
By Mohammad Hashim Kamali. 2005
A Textbook of Hadith Studies provides an academic introduction to the Hadith, or the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, which…
are second only to the Qur'an (Koran) in their authoritativeness within Islamic tradition. Suitable for university courses and all serious students of Islam, the topics surveyed include Hadith methodology, Hadith literature, the history of Hadith compilation and documentation, and the methods of Hadith criticism (al-jarh wa al-ta'dil) and classification.Mohammad Hashim Kamali, born in Afghanistan in 1944, was a professor of Islamic Law and Jurisprudence at the International Islamic University in Malaysia, and dean of the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC) from 1985-2007. He is currently chairman and CEO of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies, Malaysia. He is also on the international advisory boards of eleven academic journals published in Malaysia, the United States, Canada, Kuwait, India, Australia, and Pakistan. Professor Kamali has addressed over 120 national and international conferences, and has published sixteen books and over 110 academic articles. His books include The Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence, Freedom of Expression in Islam, and Islamic Commercial Law: An Analysis of Futures and Options.A Quietist Jihadi
By Joas Wagemakers. 2012
Since 9/11, the Jordanian Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi (b. West Bank, 1959) has emerged as one of the most important radical…
Muslim thinkers alive today. While al-Maqdisi may not be a household name in the West, his influence amongst like-minded Muslims stretches across the world from Jordan - where he lives today - to Southeast Asia. His writings and teachings on Salafi Islam have inspired terrorists from Europe to the Middle East, including Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, the former leader of al-Qa'ida in Iraq, and Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama Bin Laden's successor as the head of al-Qa'ida Central. This groundbreaking book, which is the first comprehensive assessment of al-Maqdisi, his life, ideology, and influence, is based on his extensive writings and those of other jihadis, as well as on interviews that the author conducted with (former) jihadis, including al-Maqdisi himself. It is a serious and intense work of scholarship that uses this considerable archive to explain and interpret al-Maqdisi's particular brand of Salafism. More broadly, the book offers an alternative, insider perspective on the rise of radical Islam, with a particular focus on Salafi opposition movements in Saudi Arabia and Jordan.Conversion and Apostasy in the Late Ottoman Empire
By Selim Deringil. 2012
In the nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire traditional religious structures crumbled as the empire itself began to fall apart. The state's answer…
to schism was regulation and control, administered in the form of a number of edicts in the early part of the century. It is against this background that different religious communities and individuals negotiated survival by converting to Islam when their political interests or their lives were at stake. As the century progressed, however, conversion was no longer sufficient to guarantee citizenship and property rights as the state became increasingly paranoid about its apostates and what it perceived as their 'denationalization'. The book tells the story of the struggle between the Ottoman State, the Great Powers and a multitude of evangelical organizations, shedding light on current flash-points in the Arab world and the Balkans, offering alternative perspectives on national and religious identity and the interconnection between the two.Children, Adults, and Shared Responsibilities
By Marcia J. Bunge. 2012
This collection of essays by Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars underscores the significance of sustained and serious ethical, interreligious and…
interdisciplinary reflection on children. Essays in the first half of the volume discuss fundamental beliefs and practices within the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam regarding children, adult obligations to them, and a child's own obligations to others. The second half of the volume focuses on selected contemporary challenges regarding children and faithful responses to them. Marcia J. Bunge brings together scholars from various disciplines and diverse strands within these three religious traditions, representing several views on essential questions about the nature and status of children and adult-child relationships and responsibilities. The volume not only contributes to intellectual inquiry regarding children in the specific areas of ethics, religious studies, children's rights and childhood studies, but also provides resources for child advocates, religious leaders and those engaged in interreligious dialogue.Structure and Qur'anic Interpretation
By Raymond Farrin. 2014
The Qur'an, Islam's holy book, is widely misunderstood because it is a difficult book to engage. The Qur'an is not…
written as a straightforward narrative like the Christian Gospels but is composed of discontinuous revelations that are often unclear in placing in an overall context. Structure and Qur'anic Interpretation, aimed both at readers familiar with the Qur'an and at those opening it for the first time, differs from other books on the Qur'an in that it reveals the text's fundamental symmetrical organization. Moreover, through readings of key Qur'an chapters, Farrin shows how structure serves as a guide to interpretation. Indeed, one finds that the Qur'an's structure again and again points to universal messages of an ethical nature, rather than to messages whose application may be limited to a specific context. In addition, the book makes a contribution to Qur'anic studies by highlighting literary evidence indicating that the Qur'an was compiled by one author (in all probability, the Prophet Muhammad) and not by an official committee.