Journey Through Ten Thousand Veils


Book Description

Born in a Jewish family, Maryam Kabeer was led to live in India and Nepal, and in monasteries in Europe, and then guided to embrace Islam at the hands of an ancient Sufi Master a few minutes away from the tomb of the Prophet Abraham. She then was guided to study intensively with Sufi Masters around the world. Her journey to the holy places and people of the earth, led her finally to Africa and the deep truth that all lives are totally interconnected and united with our own. This book is a significant and revealing social commentary, also dispelling many other myths and stereotypes such as the proposition, often fostered by the media, that women are inevitably oppressed in Islam. On the contrary, it is by entering into the heart of Islam that the author was liberated, elevated, empowered, and guided to realize the true purpose of her existence.




A Journey Through Ten Thousand Veils


Book Description

A Journey Through Ten Thousand Veils is an in-depth account of the journey of the soul on the path of return to its Lord. Sheikha Maryam Kabeer was guided on her journey of profound transformation and illumination to meet and be guided by Awakened Spiritual Masters on the path of awakening, leading to the realization of the deep truth that all lives are interconnected by the Grace and in the Presence of the One Exalted Creator of them all. Born into a liberal Jewish family in Hollywood, she was guided to Berkeley, and then to Afghanistan, India, Nepal, and monasteries in Europe, ultimately to embrace Islam in Hebron (El Khalil), near Jerusalem. In following the example of Abraham (a.s.), Father of all the monotheistic religions, and while praying in the blessed Masjid al Aqsa, in which the spirits of all the Prophets (as) are assembled in eternal prayer and unity, in her spiritual practice, she was guided to penetrate the myth that there must be conflict between the descendants of the great servant of God, who was sent by the Creator, as were all the Prophets (as) to guide humanity to His Path of Truth. This book is a significant and revealing social and spiritual commentary, which dispels, as well, many other myths and stereotypes, such as the proposition that women are oppressed in Islam. On the contrary, it is by entering into the heart of Islam, guided by the Divine Light transmitted through great Spiritual Masters, that she was liberated, elevated, and blessed to serve the Creator and His creation with ever deeper sincerity and illumined faith.Travel with her on her epic journey in order to gain the knowledge that may also set you free.




The Oxford Handbook of American Islam


Book Description

In this volume 30 of the field's top scholars examine historical and contemporary aspects of American Islam, and explore the meaning of religious identity in the context of race, ethnicity, gender, and politics.




Sufism East and West


Book Description

In Sufism East and West, the contributors investigate the redirection and dynamics of Sufism in the modern era, specifically from the perspective of global cross-cultural exchange. Edited by Jamal Malik and Saeed Zarrabi-Zadeh, the book explores the role of mystical Islam in the complex interchange and fluidity in the resonance spaces of “East” and “West.” The volume challenges the enduring Orientalist binary coding of East-versus-West and argues instead for a more mutual process of cultural plaiting and shared tradition. By highlighting amendments, adaptations and expansions of Sufi semantics during the last centuries, it also questions the persistent perception of Sufism in its post-classical epoch as a corrupt imitation of the legacy of the great Sufis of the past.




The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion


Book Description

The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion offers a comprehensive exploration of the dynamics of religious conversion, which for centuries has profoundly shaped societies, cultures, and individuals throughout the world. Scholars from a wide array of religions and disciplines interpret both the varieties of conversion experiences and the processes that inform this personal and communal phenomenon. This volume examines the experiences of individuals and communities who change religions, those who experience an intensification of their religion of origin, and those who encounter new religions through colonial intrusion, missionary work, and charismatic and revitalization movements. The thirty-two innovative essays provide overviews of the history of particular religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, indigenous religions, and new religious movements. The essays also offer a wide range of disciplinary perspectives-psychological, sociological, anthropological, legal, political, feminist, and geographical-on methods and theories deployed in understanding conversion, and insight into various forms of deconversion.




A Thousand Farewells


Book Description

A Thousand Farewells is the heartfelt and personal chronicle of a journalist who has devoted her career to covering one of the world’s most volatile regions. In 1976, Nahlah Ayed’s family gave up a comfortable life in Winnipeg for the squalor of a Palestinian refugee camp in Amman, Jordan. The transition was jarring but it was during this unsettling period that Ayed first closely observed the people whose heritage she shared. She had to become accustomed to rudimentary housing and crowded streets, unfamiliar social customs, and the prevailing mood of loss and mourning. But it was hearing the family’s stories of exile and displacement that profoundly affected her. The family returned to Canada when Ayed was thirteen, and the Middle East and its problems receded for many years. But the First Gulf War and the events of 9/11 reignited her interest. And as an Arabic-speaking journalist, she was soon reporting from the region full time, covering its dangerous conflicts and trying to make sense of the wars and upheavals that have affected its people and sent so many of them seeking a better life elsewhere. In A Thousand Farewells, Ayed vividly describes the myriad ways in which ordinary Arabs have coped with oppression and loss. From her own early days witnessing protests in Amman to watching the amazing Arab Spring uprisings in Egypt and Libya, Ayed offers nuanced and insightful analysis. Throughout, she focuses on the people whose lives have been so dramatically affected.




The Moslem World


Book Description




A Journey to the End of the Millennium


Book Description

The year is 999 A.D. Christians in Europe are preparing themselves for the arrival of the Messiah at the millennium and religious fervour is in the air. Sailing from the North African port of Tangier to a small, distant town called Paris are a Jewish merchant, Ben Attar, his two beloved wives and his Arab partner, Abu Lutfi. They have come for a meeting with their third partner the widower, Raphael Abulafia who has been forced to turn his back on their previous trading partnership because of his new wife's distrust of the dual marriage of Ben Attar. The latter turns this annual trading voyage into a personal quest to legitimise his second wife, restore his honour and, equally important, to show others the richness and humanity in his way of life. A confrontation ensues between people of different cultures whose ways of living and loving are so different, and yet who are of the same religion, believe in the same God and in the same morality. Thus we enter a profound human drama whose moral conflicts of fidelity and desire resonate deeply with our times. A. B. Yehoshua has imaginatively recreated a medieval world with its merchant trade in great depth and sensuous detail. His evocation of one man's love is lyrical, erotic even, and A Journey to the End of the Millennium will rank with the best of Yehoshua's work.




Sufism in America


Book Description

Sufism in America sheds light on spiritual, mystical Islam in America. The Sufi path focuses on developing a personal relationship with God, doing what is beautiful in the sight of God, and struggling against the lower self to reach loving submission. Up to this point, very little has been written about the Sufi orders in America and those who participate in them. This study focuses on the Alami Tariqa in Waterport, New York, which was started in the 1970s by a shaykh from the Balkans. The Alami Tariqa strives to uphold sharia while adapting to the Western setting. Its membership is diverse, consisting mostly of American-born participants from Christian and Jewish backgrounds, in addition to a few Muslim immigrants from South Asia. This study explores how this order has acculturated to the American setting, why individuals choose to join the tariqa, and what it means to pursue spiritual goals in a modern, Western society. Conclusions are drawn from interviews, a survey, and observations of teachings, plus the author’s experience working with this community for over ten years. The book interweaves personal stories and insider views with academic insight to provide a compelling and detailed picture of Sufism as a living and dynamic tradition in America.




American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 29:3


Book Description

The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences (AJISS), established in 1984, is a quarterly, double blind peer-reviewed and interdisciplinary journal, published by the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), and distributed worldwide. The journal showcases a wide variety of scholarly research on all facets of Islam and the Muslim world including subjects such as anthropology, history, philosophy and metaphysics, politics, psychology, religious law, and traditional Islam.