Islam and Literalism

by Robert Gleave
Islam and Literalism
Author: Robert Gleave
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2012-07-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0748631135
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In this reading of Islamic legal hermeneutics, Robert Gleave explores various competing notions of literal meaning, linked to both theological doctrine and historical developments, together with insights from modern semantic and pragmatic philosophers. Literal meaning is what a text means in itself, regardless of what its author intends to convey or the reader understands to be its message. As Islamic law is based on the central texts of Islam, the idea of a literal meaning that rules over human attempts to understand God's message has resulted in a series of debates amongst modern Muslim legal theorists.

Understanding the Koran

by Mateen Elass
Understanding the Koran
Author: Mateen Elass
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2009-08-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310298601
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Find out how the Koran resembles the Bible—and the drastic ways in which it differs. Understanding the Koran gives you an essential grasp of Islam's holy book: where it came from, what it teaches, how Muslims view it, and how the Allah of the Koran compares with the God of the Bible. Cherished as the final, perfect revelation of God's will by 1.2 billion Muslims worldwide, the Koran has become a part of American life. What do you know about the holy book that shapes the lives and views of your neighbors and a fifth of the world's population? Written by a pastor who was born to a Muslim father and raised in Saudi Arabia, Understanding the Koran gives you a fascinating, easy-to-understand overview that will show you: Why the background behind the Koran is important to understanding it. How the Koran came into existence. A summary of the main teachings of the Koran, including what it says about Jesus and the crucifixion. Similarities and differences between Muslim and Christian views of God. What the Koran teaches about Jihad and holy war. What the Koran teaches about heaven and hell and the final destinies of the human soul. Giving you an essential grasp of Islam's holy book, Understanding the Koran points you to the one thing that can draw your Muslim friends to Jesus—his love, demonstrated to them through you. Discussion questions make it possible to use this book in group studies.

Sufis, Salafis and Islamists

by Sadek Hamid
Sufis, Salafis and Islamists
Author: Sadek Hamid
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2016-03-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0857727109
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British Muslim activism has evolved constantly in recent decades. What have been its main groups and how do their leaders compete to attract followers? Which social and religious ideas from abroad are most influential? In this groundbreaking study, Sadek Hamid traces the evolution of Sufi, Salafi and Islamist activist groups in Britain, including The Young Muslims UK, Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Salafi JIMAS organisation and Traditional Islam Network. With reference to second-generation British Muslims especially, he explains how these groups gain and lose support, embrace and reject foreign ideologies, and succeed and fail to provide youth with compelling models of British Muslim identity. Analyzing historical and firsthand community research, Hamid gives a compelling account of the complexity that underlies reductionist media narratives of Islamic activism in Britain.

Claiming Abraham

by Michael Lodahl
Claiming Abraham
Author: Michael Lodahl
Publisher: Brazos Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2010-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1587432390
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Explores how Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other biblical characters are presented in the Qur'an to help Christians better understand Islam.

The Place of Tolerance in Islam

by Khaled Abou El Fadl
The Place of Tolerance in Islam
Author: Khaled Abou El Fadl
Publisher: Beacon Press
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2002-11-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0807096903
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Khaled Abou El Fadl, a prominent critic of Islamic puritanism, leads off this lively debate by arguing that Islam is a deeply tolerant religion. Injunctions to violence against nonbelievers stem from misreadings of the Qur'an, he claims, and even jihad, or so-called holy war, has no basis in Qur'anic text or Muslim theology but instead grew out of social and political conflict. Many of Abou El Fadl's respondents think differently. Some contend that his brand of Islam will only appeal to Westerners and students in "liberal divinity schools" and that serious religious dialogue in the Muslim world requires dramatic political reforms. Other respondents argue that theological debates are irrelevant and that our focus should be on Western sabotage of such reforms. Still others argue that calls for Islamic "tolerance" betray the Qur'anic injunction for Muslims to struggle against their oppressors. The debate underscores an enduring challenge posed by religious morality in a pluralistic age: how can we preserve deep religious conviction while participating in what Abou El Fadl calls "a collective enterprise of goodness" that cuts across confessional differences? With contributions from Tariq Ali, Milton Viorst, and John Esposito, and others.

The Atheist Muslim

by Ali A. Rizvi
The Atheist Muslim
Author: Ali A. Rizvi
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2016-11-22
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1250094445
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In much of the Muslim world, religion is the central foundation upon which family, community, morality, and identity are built. The inextricable embedment of religion in Muslim culture has forced a new generation of non-believing Muslims to face the heavy costs of abandoning their parents’ religion: disowned by their families, marginalized from their communities, imprisoned, or even sentenced to death by their governments. Struggling to reconcile the Muslim society he was living in as a scientist and physician and the religion he was being raised in, Ali A. Rizvi eventually loses his faith. Discovering that he is not alone, he moves to North America and promises to use his new freedom of speech to represent the voices that are usually quashed before reaching the mainstream media—the Atheist Muslim. In The Atheist Muslim, we follow Rizvi as he finds himself caught between two narrative voices he cannot relate to: extreme Islam and anti-Muslim bigotry in a post-9/11 world. The Atheist Muslim recounts the journey that allows Rizvi to criticize Islam—as one should be able to criticize any set of ideas—without demonizing his entire people. Emotionally and intellectually compelling, his personal story outlines the challenges of modern Islam and the factors that could help lead it toward a substantive, progressive reformation.

Reasoning with God

by Khaled Abou El Fadl
Reasoning with God
Author: Khaled Abou El Fadl
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 557
Release: 2014-10-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1442238445
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In light of recent concern over Shari’ah, such as proposed laws to prohibit it in the United States and conflict over the role it should play in the new Egyptian constitution, many people are confused about the meaning of Shari‘ah in Islam and its role in the world today. In Reasoning with God, renowned Islamic scholar Khaled Abou El Fadl explains not only what Shari‘ah really means, but also the way it can revitalize and reengage contemporary Islam. After a prologue that provides an essential overview of Shari‘ah, Abou El Fadl explores the moral trajectory of Islam in today’s world. Weaving powerful personal stories with broader global examples, he shows the ways that some interpretations of Islam today have undermined its potential in peace and love. Rather than simply outlining challenges, however, the author provides constructive suggestions about how Muslims can reengage the ethical tradition of their faith through Shari‘ah. As the world’s second largest religion, Islam remains an important force on the global stage. Reasoning with God takes readers—both Muslim and non-Muslim—beyond superficial understandings of Shari‘ah to a deeper understanding of its meaning and potential.

Islam and Modernity

by Muhammad Khalid Masud
Islam and Modernity
Author: Muhammad Khalid Masud
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2009-08-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 074863794X
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Recent events have focused attention on the perceived differences and tensions between the Muslim world and the modern West. As a major strand of Western public discourse has it, Islam appears resistant to internal development and remains inherently pre-modern. However Muslim societies have experienced most of the same structural changes that have impacted upon all societies: massive urbanisation, mass education, dramatically increased communication, the emergence of new types of institutions and associations, some measure of political mobilisation, and major transformations of the economy. These developments are accompanied by a wide range of social movements and by complex and varied religious and ideological debates. This textbook is a pioneering study providing an introduction to and overview of the debates and questions that have emerged regarding Islam and modernity. Key issues are selected to give readers an understanding of the complexity of the phenomenon from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. The various manifestations of modernity in Muslim life discussed include social change and the transformation of political and religious institutions, gender politics, changing legal regimes, devotional practices and forms of religious association, shifts in religious authority, and modern developments in Muslim religious thought.

Scripturalist Islam

by Robert Gleave
Scripturalist Islam
Author: Robert Gleave
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2007-10-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9047421620
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The Akhbārī School dominated the intellectual landscape of Imāmī Shiʿism between the Seventeenth and early Nineteenth Centuries. Its principal doctrines involved a reliance on scripture (primarily the sayings or akhbār of the Shiʿite Imams) and a rejection of the rational exegetical techniques which had become orthodox doctrine in Imāmī theology and law. However, the Akhbārīs were not simple literalists, as they are at times portrayed in secondary literature. They developed a complex theory of exegesis in which texts could be interpreted, whilst at the same time remaining doggedly committed to the ability of the revelatory texts to provide answers to theological and legal questions arising within the Shīʿī community. This book is the first in-depth study of the intellectual development and historical influence of the Akhbārī School.