This book focuses on women’s important contribution to Sufism by analyzing the lives and seminal contributions of six mystic Sufi women to Islamic spirituality.To help reverse the sidelining of Sufi women in the recorded academic literature, the author has selected a representative sample of figures from diverse Islamic dynasties with varying backgrounds, social status, and devotional contributions. Taking a historical approach attentive to specific political contexts, readers will...

This book explores the way in which the study and practice of love creates a common ground for different faiths and different traditions within the same faith. For the contributors, “common ground” in this context is not a minimal core of belief or a lowest common denominator of faith, but a space or area in which to live together, consider together the meaning of the love to which various faiths witness, and work together to enable human flourishing. Such a space, the contributors believe...

An investigation of the spiritual encounter between a twentieth-century Dominican friar and an eleventh-century Afghani Sufi master.This book explores the profound spiritual encounter between Serge de Beaurecueil (1917–2005), a twentieth-century French Dominican friar and Christian mystic, and the eleventh-century Ḥanbalī Sufi master Khwāja 'Abdullāh Anṣārī of Herāt (1006–1089). De Beaurecueil lived much of his Christian discipleship in Cairo and Afghanistan, where...

*Ten years on from 9/11, much of the Muslim faith remains largely unknown and misunderstood in the West.*While there have been a number of successful books on the topic of Islamic history - from Karen Armstrong's Islam: A Brief History to Bernard Lewis's The Crises of Islam - there is surprisingly no book for a popular audience about Islam as a religion, let alone one by an author from an Islamic background.*No God But God fills that gap, addressi...

One of the world's foremost commentators on religious affairs on the history (and destiny) of the world's most misunderstood religion.In the public mind, Islam is a religion of extremes: it is the world's fastest growing faith; more than three-quarters of the world's refugees are Islamic; it has produced government by authoritarian monarchies in Saudi Arabia and ultra-republicans in Iran. Whether we are reading about civil war in Algeria or Afghanistan, the struggl...

The world's leading Islamicist offers a concise introduction to this rich and diverse tradition of 1.2 billion adherents.In this informative and clear introduction to the world of Islam, Seyyed Hossein Nasr explores the following topics in depth:•What Is Islam?•The Doctrines and Beliefs of Islam•Islamic Practices and Institutions•The History of Islam•Schools of Islamic Thought•Islam in the Contemporary World•I...

The classic introduction to the philosophies, practices, and history of Sufism, the mystical tradition of IslamThe Sufis are as diverse as the countries in which they've flourished—from Morocco to India to China—and as varied as their distinctive forms of art, music, poetry, and dance. They are said to represent the mystical heart of Islam, yet the term Sufism is notoriously difficult to define, as it means different things to different people both within and outsi...

According to the Qur’an, God created two parallel species, man and the jinn, the former from clay and the latter from fire. Beliefs regarding the jinn are deeply integrated into Muslim culture and religion, and have a constant presence in legends, myths, poetry, and literature. In Islam, Arabs, and the Intelligent World of the Jinn, Amira El-Zein explores the integral role these mythological figures play, revealing that the concept of jinn is fundamental to understanding Muslim culture and...

Avoiding the traps of sensational political exposes and specialized scholarly Orientalism, Carl Ernst introduces readers to the profound spiritual resources of Islam while clarifying diversity and debate within the tradition. Framing his argument in terms of religious studies, Ernst describes how Protestant definitions of religion and anti-Muslim prejudice have affected views of Islam in Europe and America. He also covers the contemporary importance of Islam in both its traditional setting...

This eye-opening, insightful exploration of Sufism, the spiritual tradition that has supported Islam for more than a thousand years, shows why it offers a promising foundation for reconciliation between the Western and Muslim worlds.Many Americans today identify Islam with maniacal hatred of the West. The Other Islam transforms this image and opens the way to finding common ground in our troubled times. Sufism, a blend of the mystical and rational tendenci...

The religious thinkers, political leaders, law-makers, writers and philosophers of the early Muslim world helped to shape the 1,400-year-long development of todays secondlargest world religion. But who were these people? What do we know of their lives, and the ways in which they influenced their societies?Chase F. Robinson draws on the long tradition in Muslim scholarship of commemorating in writing the biographies of notable figures, but weaves these ambitious lives together to cr...

The dictionary focuses primarily on the 19th and 20th centuries, stressing topics of most interest to Westerners. What emerges is a highly informative look at the religious, political, and social spheres of the modern Islamic world. Naturally, readers will find many entries on topics of intense current interest, such as terrorism and the Taliban, Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, the PLO and HAMAS. But the coverage goes well beyond recent headlines. There are biographical profiles, ranging fro...