This is not a book of final answers, but a map of a quest.For centuries, we've been told that science and faith are locked in eternal conflict. We have been taught to choose between the cold, hard data of cosmology and the ancient truths of revelation. But what if this conflict is an illusion?What if the Big Bang was first echoed not in a laboratory, but in a sacred verse? What if the secrets of the cosmos were inscribed in a celestial script, waiting to be read?Ahm...

"Two people, one city, different times; connected by a memoir. Can love exist in a city destined for decades of misery?"Adnan leads a weary existence as a bookshop owner in modern-day, war-torn Baghdad, where bombings, corruption and assault are everyday occurrences and the struggle to survive has suffocated the joy out of life for most. But when he begins to clean out his bookshop of forty years to leave his city in search of somewhere safer, he comes acr...

Introducing undergraduate students to Islamic law, this accessible textbook does not presume legal or technical knowledge. Drawing on a comparative approach, it encourages students to think through the issues of the application of Islamic law where Muslims live as a majority and where they live as a minority, including the USA, Saudia Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan.The book surveys the historical development as well as the contemporary contexts of Islamic law. In distilling the history of...

Pitfalls of Scholarship offers an array of reflections on higher education, its entanglements with humanity's pursuit of natural and social knowledge, and the impact national environments have upon it. This book considers the humanities, vocational, and scientific/technological sides of the university from the vantage-point of an Islamic studies scholar in twenty-first century American academia. Four discussions and a personal note make up the parts of these pages. The first discussion set...

"Wars, an embargo, and forbidden love in this once peaceful city..."With the drums of war just weeks away, Omar invites all those closest to his heart for lunch at his lavish villa overlooking the Tigris River of Baghdad. He can't help but smile at the faces that have graced his eventful life that spans from an interesting childhood, the two Gulf Wars, and the inhumane embargo that crippled the nation. Loved ones come together, probably for the last time, ...

"Matt Vol I" is the beginning of a short novella series."They murdered my wife two years ago...Tonight, you die.I am Matt, your nightmare!"On a quiet night like any other, Matt, a successful entrepreneur, returns home to his gorgeous villa, only to find his wife brutally murdered. A soft verdict against the culprits, a gang of violent teenagers, spins Matt's relatively calm and collected demeanor into something far mo...

**NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES AND NPRWINNER OF THE 2023 L.A. TIMES ART SEIDENBAUM AWARD“Stunning not only on account of the author’s talent, of which there is clearly plenty, but also in its humanity.” —New York Times Book Review (cover)Sent back to his birthplace—Lahore’s notorious red-light district—to hush up the murder of a girl, a man finds himself in an unexpected reckoning with his past.**Not since childhood h...

In the city of lights, Paris, the art capital of the world, how can one man stand above the rest?Ever since young Sebastian heard of his grandfather's chance meeting with the great Victor Hugo in 1877, he had been interested in literature, paintings, and poetry. Wandering around various libraries and museums at an early age only stirred that curiosity into an immense passion within him, a deep love and desire for art. After realizing his dream of opening a...

If you truly love Allah, you will die for him. Your death will mean much reward for you and your family in heaven. Only death will prove your love.It was the final test. A chance to win not only the love of Allah, but the love of her father―something she had never been able to earn. Esther took a deep breath and raised her hand in the air. At the age of eighteen, she had just volunteered to become a suicide bomber.Defying Jihad is the true...

"What if major events in modern history were planned decades ago?*What secrets lie within the walls of an ancient temple in Kyoto?"Suicidal Newspaper reporter John Teddy's miserable life is turned upside down when he uncovers a voice from the past--a voice that suspiciously knows far too much about the would-be future. John's natural curiosity to understand the hidden message takes him to places he never imagined seeing, and ongoin...

This astonishing true story presents an “affecting viewpoint on life in Syria before and in the midst of extreme violence” (Booklist), offering a deeply personal and unique perspective on one of the most devastating refugee crises of this century.Aeham Ahmad was born a second-generation refugee—the son of a blind violinist and carpenter who recognized Aeham’s talent and taught him how to play piano and love music from an early age. When his grandparents an...

To my earthly father, my only worth was through my death.But God saw me so differently that, at first, I could barely comprehend it.Esther Ahmad thought she knew the way to earn her Muslim father’s love. She raised her hand for the suicide mission, her martyrdom guaranteeing her family a place in heaven.But God had a different mission for Esther—a journey out of Pakistan, from despair to hope, from shame to purity, and from Allah’s wrath to a Father...