Lady Umm Kulthum (s) was the fourth child born to Imam Ali (a) and Lady Fatima (s). She spent her life serving seven Infallibles, and witnessed crucial moments that changed the landscape of Islam forever: from her mother's sermon about Fadak, to the terrible calamities on the plains of Kerbala.Despite this, her name has been mentioned only occasionally in the books of history. Controversies over her existence and marriage to the second Caliph, Umar al-Khattab, have overshadowed dis...

Today there is more demand for information about the activities of the scholars than at any other time in the past; there is a growing desire to interact with and learn from religious scholars. Moreover, the degree of enthusiasm and anticipation communities demonstrate when either visiting or being visited by scholars, is quite profound. Many people, however, feel distanced from Muslim scholars due to barriers of geography and language. Moreover, whilst many Muslims have heard of various s...

More adventures from one of Canada’s premier editors and storytellersCanada is a country rich in stories, and few take as much joy as Douglas Gibson in discovering them. As one of the country’s leading editors and publishers for 40 years, he coaxed modern classics out of some of Canada’s finest minds, and then took to telling his own stories in his first memoir, Stories About Storytellers.Gibson turned his memoir into a one-man stage show that even...

The guru to the gurus at last shares his knowledge with the rest of us. Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman's seminal studies in behavioral psychology, behavioral economics, and happiness studies have influenced numerous other authors, including Steven Pinker and Malcolm Gladwell. In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman at last offers his own, first book for the general public. It is a lucid and enlightening summary of his life's work. It will change the way you think about thinki...

**“Pink’s ideas deserve a wide hearing. Corporate boards. . .could do well by kicking out their pay consultants for an hour and reading Pink’s conclusions instead.”—*ForbesThe New York Times* bestseller that gives readers paradigm-shattering ways to think about motivation from the author of When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing**Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That's a mistake, say...

A riveting, real-life equivalent of The Kite Runner—an astonishingly powerful and profoundly moving story of a young couple willing to risk everything for love that puts a human face on the ongoing debate about women's rights in the Muslim world.Zakia and Ali were from different tribes, but they grew up on neighboring farms in the hinterlands of Afghanistan. By the time they were young teenagers, Zakia, strikingly beautiful and fiercely opinionated, and Ali, shy and tender...

Humanitarians are required to be impartial, independent, professionally competent and focused only on preventing and alleviating human suffering. It can be hard living up to these principles when others do not share them, while persuading political and military authorities and non-state actors to let an agency assist on the ground requires savvy ethical skills. Getting first to a conflict or natural catastrophe is only the beginning, as aid workers are usually and immediately presented wit...

Shia Muslims form 15% of the global Muslim population.Yet, for the past fourteen centuries, Shias have been misunderstood and misrepresented, persecuted and dismissed as 'non-believers'.The word "Shia" appears in the Holy Qur'an and translates as "followers".Shia Muslims follow the tradition ordained by the Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW), who said in his last sermon:"I leave amongst you to two weighty things:* The book of Allah (SWT) - the Holy Qur'an in w...

The Muslim people must become acquainted with the fundamental ordinances of Islam. Ignorance exists on both sides, among the Sunnis and Shias alike, and it is as a result of this ignorance that clashes and enmity have arisen (Imam Khomeini). It is amazing to note that the majority of Muslims are ignorant of why they are either Sunnis or Shias. The issues between these two factions are definitely affecting the world peace today; so much that Muslims and nonMuslims know both factions as stau...

Based on two years of ethnographic research in the southern suburbs of Beirut, An Enchanted Modern demonstrates that Islam and modernity are not merely compatible, but actually go hand-in-hand. This eloquent ethnographic portrayal of an Islamic community articulates how an alternative modernity, and specifically an enchanted modernity, may be constructed by Shi'I Muslims who consider themselves simultaneously deeply modern, cosmopolitan, and pious.In this depiction of a Sh...

Islam is one of the world's great monotheistic religions. Islamic culture, spanning 1,500 years, has produced some of the finest achievements of humanity. Yet the religion followed by a fifth of humankind is too often seen in the West in terms of fundamentalism, bigotry and violence- a perception that couldn't be more wrong.Introducing Islam recounts the history of Islam from the birth of Prophet Muhammad in the 6th century to its status as a global culture...

I believe that we all have intriguing views of life - views that must be honored and that we must be happy to share with the world around us.It is for this reason that I produced this booklet, which serves as an introduction to Shi'a Muslims and what I understand of their view of the Islamic vision of life and human society. I have produced it in accordance with the teachings of their Imams and the contemporary writings of their prominent and renowned scholars, which Shi'a Muslims ...