How to Understand Islam


Book Description

How to Understand Islam looks at Muslim religious experience as it rises out of practices required by the law or followed out of devotion. The book examines Muslim belief, religious observance, ethics, and mystical literature. It also outlines the history of Islam from its first appearance.




How to Understand Islam


Book Description

With this latest volume, a well-established series turns to look at one of the major world faiths which exist alongside Christianity, and which from the beginning has constantly made its mark on political, cultural and religious history. How to Understand Islam looks at Muslim religious experience as it arises out of practices required by the law or followed simply out of devotion; it examines Muslim belief, religious observance and ethics alongside everyday piety and Islamic mystical literature. It also outlines the history of Islam from its first appearance and expansion, particularly its penetration of Africa, and shows how divisions arose within Islam and what they signify. Further chapters consider Christianity as Islam sees it, the tension between Islam and the modern Western view of the world, relations between Christians and Muslims, and the missionary activity of Islam. Like its companion volumes, How to Understand Islam has a good deal of original material to supplement the text, but in keeping with the subject, illustrations are few. Jacques Jomier is a Dominican with long experience of Islam in many parts of the world.




The Islam Book


Book Description

Learn about the history and traditions of the Islamic faith in The Islam Book. Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Islam in this overview guide to the subject, brilliant for novices looking to find out more and experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The Islam Book brings a fresh and vibrant take on the topic through eye-catching graphics and diagrams to immerse yourself in. This captivating book will broaden your understanding of Islam, with: - Images of Islamic art, architecture, calligraphy, and historical artifacts - Packed with facts, charts, timelines and graphs to help explain core concepts - A visual approach to big subjects with striking illustrations and graphics throughout - Straightforward text makes topics accessible for people at any level of understanding The Islam Book is a comprehensive guide essential to understanding the world's fastest-growing religion - aimed at self-educators after a trustworthy account and religious studies students wanting to gain an overview. Here you'll find clear factual writing offering insight into terms like Sharia law, the Caliphate, and jihad; Sunni and Shia divisions; and Sufi poetry and music. Your Islam Questions, Simply Explained This essential guide to Islam covers every aspect of the Muslim faith and its history - from the life of the Prophet Muhammad and the teachings of the Koran to Islam in the 21st century. If you thought it was difficult to learn about one of the world's major religions, The Islam Book presents key information in an easy to follow layout. Find out about modern issues such as fundamentalism, the work of peaceful traditionalists, modernizers, and women's rights campaigners, as well as the central tenets of Islam, such as prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage. The Big Ideas Series With millions of copies sold worldwide, The Islam Book is part of the award-winning Big Ideas series from DK. The series uses striking graphics along with engaging writing, making big topics easy to understand.




The Everything Understanding Islam Book


Book Description

Muslim convert Christine Huda Dodge possesses a unique foot-in-each-world perspective on Islam. With her comprehension of Islam and her understanding of the kinds of questions and issues that perplex Westerners, she is the perfect guide to: The life of Muhammad the Prophet The QurÆan and the Sunnah The five pillars of practice Muslim daily life Women and Islam This guide is ideal for casual readers and students alike. Authoritative, accessible, detailed, and celebratory, it covers everything from basic beliefs and practices to the Islamic influences on Western civilization.




What Everyone Should Know about Islam and Muslims


Book Description

A summary of the Islamic beliefs, ways of worship, qualities, values, morals, standards of conduct, and, in concrete practical terms, the Islamic way of life.




What Is Islam?


Book Description

A bold new conceptualization of Islam that reflects its contradictions and rich diversity What is Islam? How do we grasp a human and historical phenomenon characterized by such variety and contradiction? What is "Islamic" about Islamic philosophy or Islamic art? Should we speak of Islam or of islams? Should we distinguish the Islamic (the religious) from the Islamicate (the cultural)? Or should we abandon "Islamic" altogether as an analytical term? In What Is Islam?, Shahab Ahmed presents a bold new conceptualization of Islam that challenges dominant understandings grounded in the categories of "religion" and "culture" or those that privilege law and scripture. He argues that these modes of thinking obstruct us from understanding Islam, distorting it, diminishing it, and rendering it incoherent. What Is Islam? formulates a new conceptual language for analyzing Islam. It presents a new paradigm of how Muslims have historically understood divine revelation—one that enables us to understand how and why Muslims through history have embraced values such as exploration, ambiguity, aestheticization, polyvalence, and relativism, as well as practices such as figural art, music, and even wine drinking as Islamic. It also puts forward a new understanding of the historical constitution of Islamic law and its relationship to philosophical ethics and political theory. A book that is certain to provoke debate and significantly alter our understanding of Islam, What Is Islam? reveals how Muslims have historically conceived of and lived with Islam as norms and truths that are at once contradictory yet coherent.




Being Muslim


Book Description

A brief manual designed to help Muslims learn how to live and practice their faith. Different from theoretical treatments of Islam, this book gives readers practical and useful knowledge that can help them understand what it means to be Muslim.




A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam


Book Description

The book provides information on the evidence for the truth of Islam, some benefits of Islam, and general information on Islam.




Understanding Islam


Book Description

The concept of Jihad in Islam is misunderstood by a large number of people, who believe that the violent and oppressive actions of extremists as portrayed by some media is a representation of the teachings of Islam. In addition, numerous articles and books have been written in popular press that, through ignorance or prejudice, misconstrue verses of the Holy Quran and events from the life of the Holy Prophet(sa) of Islam to label such brutal actions, oppression and persecution as wholly Islamic. One such book came out in 2016 that presented the same age-old arguments against Islam and its concept of Jihad. This book Understanding Islam is a response to all such allegations against Jihad and presents the pristine beauty of Islam from the teachings of Holy Quran, the life of the Holy Prophet(sa) of Islam and the discourses of the Promised Messiah, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad(as) of Qadian. It has been written jointly by members of the Review of Religions Research Canada, a group that inspires the youth towards studying the sciences of the Holy Quran.




Speaking Qur'an


Book Description

An exploration of how Muslims in the United States have interpreted the Qur'an in ways that make it speak to their American realities In Speaking Qur'an: An American Scripture, Timur R. Yuskaev examines how Muslim Americans have been participating in their country's cultural, social, religious, and political life. Essential to this process, he shows, is how the Qur'an has become an evermore deeply American text that speaks to central issues in the lives of American Muslims through the spoken-word interpretations of Muslim preachers, scholars,and activists. Yuskaev illustrates this process with four major case studies that highlight dialogues between American Muslim public intellectuals and their audiences. First, through an examination of the work of Fazlur Rahman, he addresses the question of how the premodern Qur'an is translated across time into modern, American settings. Next the author contemplates the application of contemporary concepts of gender to renditions of the Qur'an alongside Amina Wadud's American Muslim discourses on justice.Then he demonstrates how the Qur'an becomes a text of redemption in W. D. Mohammed's oral interpretation of the Qur'an as speaking directly to the African American experience. Finally he shows how, before and after 9/11, Hamza Yusuf invoked the Qur'an as a guide to the political life of American Muslims. Set within the rapidly transforming contexts of the last half century, and central to the volume, are the issues of cultural translation and embodiment of sacred texts that Yuskaev explores by focusing on the Qur'an as a spoken scripture. The process of the Qur'an becoming an American sacred text, he argues, is ongoing. It comes to life when the Qur'an is spoken and embodied by its American faithful.