Religion continues to shape social structures, individual outlooks, and personal identities across societies and generations. For some, faith provides answers to the unknown, a source of peace, purpose, and hope. Others approach it through disciplined observance and deep commitment, while many simply carry the religious identity into which they were born. But what happens when inherited answers no longer quiet the questions?Moral Dissonance examines the Qur'anic framework ...

Fourteen centuries of Islamic thought have produced a legacy of interpretive readings of the Qu'ran written almost entirely by men. Now, with Qu'ran and Woman, Amina Wadud provides a first interpretive reading by a woman, a reading which validates the female voice in the Qu'ran and brings it out of the shadows. Muslim progressives have long argued that it is not the religion but patriarchal interpretation and implementation of the Qu'ran that have kept women oppressed. For many, the way to...

Recent events have focused attention on Islam, the often- misunderstood faith of one billion people. Westerners are showing a new curiosity about Islam and other religions, in part, perhaps, because religion is arguably the single most important and volatile factor in geopolitics today. Islam needs to be understood on its own terms, apart from extreme expressions, John Kaltner argues. This revised and expanded edition of a trusted text offers updated information about Islam in an accessibl...

Does Islam call for the oppression of women? The subjugation of women in many Muslim countries is often used as evidence of this, while many Muslims read the Qur'an in ways that seem to justify sexual oppression and inequality. In this paradigm-shifting book, Asma Barlas argues that, far from supporting male privilege, the Qur'an actually affirms the complete equality of the sexes. Offering a historical analysis of religious authority and knowledge, Barlas shows how, for centuries, Muslims...

Islam: The Key Concepts is a clear and concise guide to the religion and culture of Islam. Kecia Ali and Oliver Leaman explore this highly topical subject focusing on key issues including: the Qur’an, faith, theology, gender, fundamentalism, martyrdom, Jihad, Islam in America, Islam in Europe and Islamic Law.This is the ideal study resource and includes: a comprehensive introduction, an alphabetical list of relevant terms (fully cross-referenced), a short bibliographical g...

This book is an attempt to explore why Muslims are in conflict with themselves, and why Muslims have been living in an isolation and intellectual vacuum. This book is an attempt to find out why Islam, as embodied in the Mushaf, calls for a sharply different set of norms than those adopted by the majority of Muslims. To search for answers, the book uses, as much as possible, two sources: the first is critical reasoning, and the second is the Mushaf. In sharp contrast to the vast majority of...

Stories about gendered social relations permeate the Qur'an, and nearly three hundred verses involve specific women or girls. The Qur'an features these figures in accounts of human origins, in stories of the founding and destruction of nations, in narratives of conquest, in episodes of romantic attraction, and in incidents of family devotion and strife. Overall, stories involving women and girls weave together theology and ethics to reinforce central Qur'anic ideas regarding submission to ...

Over the course of six sections, this rich reference book explores the various areas of Qur’anic studies:its language,the history of its documentation,its many disciplines,the methods of interpretation,its inimitability,and finally, as a work of art.The themes explored also include the impact of the Qur’an on Islamic civilisation, as well as the various classical sub-disciplines of Qur’anic studies, including th...

For anyone, non-Muslim or Muslim, who wants to know how to approach, read, and understand the text of the Qur'an, How to Read the Qur'an offers a compact introduction and reader’s guide. Using a chronological reading of the text according to the conclusions of modern scholarship, Carl W. Ernst offers a nontheological approach that treats the Qur'an as a historical text that unfolded over time, in dialogue with its audience, during the career of the Prophet Muhammad.

A rigorous study of the problem of evil in Islamic theologyLike their Jewish and Christian co-religionists, Muslims have grappled with how God, who is perfectly good, compassionate, merciful, powerful, and wise permits intense and profuse evil and suffering in the world. At its core, Islamic Theology and the Problem of Evil explores four different problems of evil: human disability, animal suffering, evolutionary natural selection, and Hell. Each study argu...

A RUSA 2007 Outstanding Reference TitleThe Qur'an is the source of inspiration for one of the world's major religions, followed today by over a billion people. It plays a central role in Islam and ever since it appeared fourteen hundred years ago has been the subject of intense debate. Some of this has been carried out by Muslims and some by those hostile or indifferent to Islam, producing a very wide range of views.Authored by forty-three international experts, the objecti...

Reading the Qur’an in the Twenty-First Century considers the development of Qur’anic interpretation and highlights modern debates around new approaches to interpretation. It explores how Muslims from various theological, legal, socio-political and philosophical backgrounds think about the meaning and relevance of the Qur’an, and how their ideas apply in the contemporary world. The book:reflects on one of the most dominant approaches to interpretation in the pre-moder...