What is Islam?
 The Essential Koran
by Thomas Cleary
Description
Finally the riches of Islam are offered accessibly to the West in this
annotated translation of the heart of the Koran's spiritual wisdom. With the rise of Islam
in the world arena, the Essential Koran is an indispensable aid to understanding the
religion of nearly one billion people. Cleary's work clearly reveals the depths of Islamic
spirituality.
Thomas Cleary is the preeminent translator of classic Eastern texts, including The
Essential tao, The Essential Confucius, The Secret of t he Golden Flower, and the
best-selling The Art of War.
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 Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources
by Martin Lings
Description
Martin Lings' Life of Muhammad, unlike any other, is based on Arabic
sources of the eighth and ninth centuries (of which some important passages are translated
here for the first time). It owes its freshness and directness of approach to the words of
the men and women who heard Muhammad (PBUH) speak and witnessed the events of his life.
With an unusual gift for narrative, Lings has adopted a style that reflects both the
simplicity and grandeur of the story he tells. The result is a book that will be
appreciated and enjoyed by already familiar with Muhammad's (PBUH) life as well as those
approaching it for the first time.
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 Islam and the Destiny of Man
by Charles Gai Eaton
Description
New, revised edition in paperback for first time.New introduction, first
chapter and index. (First edition in hardcover 1985)
A new revised edition in paperback for the first time in the UK, of a highly successful
book. Islam and the Destiny of Man is a wide-ranging study of the religion of Islam from a
unique point of view. The author was brought up as an agnostic and embraced Islam at an
early age after writing a book (commissioned by T.S.Eliot) on Eastern religions and their
influence upon western thinkers. The aim of this book is to explain what it means to be a
Muslim, a member of a community which embraces a quarter of the world's population and to
describe the forces which have shaped their hearts and minds.
After considering the historic confrontation between Islam and Christendom and analyzing
the differences between the three Abrahamic faiths - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - the
author describes the two poles of Muslim belief in terms of 'Truth' and 'Mercy'. In the
second part of the book he explains the significance of the Qur'an and tells the story of
the life of the Prophet Muhammad (May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and of
the Caliphate. Lastly, the author considers the Muslim view of man's destiny, the social
structure of Islam, its culture and inner meaning of Islamic teachings concerning the
Hereafter.
Throughout the book the author is concerned not simply with Islam in isolation, but with
the very nature of religious faith, its spiritual and intellectual foundations and the
light it casts upon the mysteries and paradoxes of the human condition.
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 The Meaning of The Holy Qur'an:
Arabic/English
by Abdulllah Yusuf Ali
It has been more than half a century since the first
appearance of 'Abdullah Yusuf 'Ali's superlative work, The Holy Qur’an: Text,
Translation and Commentary. Since that time, there have been innumerable reprinting and
millions of copies distributed throughout the world. It is, by far, the best known, most
studied, and most respected English translation of the Qur'an. It was the first monumental
and authoritative work of its kind and it subsequently inspired many...
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 PORT IN A STORM: A Fiqh Solution to the Qibla of North America
by Nuh Ha Mim Keller
Description
This book settles the question of the physical direction of Mecca from
North America in the first thirty pages, after which it presents to readers for the first
time the 1998 Fatwa of al-Azhar on the North American qibla. From this point of departure,
the author surveys such major contemporary issues as the relation between religion and
science, the Sacred and the profane, scholars and engineers, ijtihad and taqlid. Combining
traditional Islamic law, a clear exposition of the complex geographical issues, and the
author’s own meetings and correspondence with twenty-three contemporary scholars from
seven Muslim lands, the book is a journey of discovery not only for Western Muslims, but
everyone interested in Sacred Law in a modern world.
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 Motherhood In Islam
by Alia Schleifer
Description
This excellent book deals, as the title would indicate, with the role
mothers have, according to Islamic teachings and principles. Discussed topics include the
perspective of the child towards the mother (reverence for and good treatment of the
mother, inheritance, just behaviour and the limits to obedience), the perspective of the
mother towards the child (characteristics of the mother, pregnancy, childbirth, nursing,
rearing, limits, moderation and the exercise of religious duty). Also detailed is the
situation of mother and father in cases of divorce (financial and nursing
responsibilities, child custody), and with an ending discussing the Muslimah as Believer,
Wife, and Mother. A worthwhile read, especially for Muslim mothers in the western world.
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 The
Way of Abu Madyan
by Translated and Edited by Vincent J. Cornell
Description
This book presents several "firsts." It is the first English
translation of works attributed to Abu Madyan, a seminal figure of Sufism in Muslim Spain
and North Africa. The Arabic text accompanying the English translation also represents the
first scholarly edition of these works in the original language. Previous Arabic editions
of Abu Madyan’s poems and aphorisms appeared only in the form of uncritical
devotional literature. Nearly all of the texts contained in this book were taken from
manuscript copies found in North Africa and Europe.
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 The Name and the Named
by Shaykh Tosun Bayrak al-Jerrahi al-Halveti
Description
In the Islamic Sufi tradition, it is said, "Qualify
yourself with the qualities of God." Compiled from classical Arabic and Turkish texts
of Al-Ghazali, Ibn Arabi, Djili, and Abdul Qadir Jilani, among others, these are the
divine attributes by which God manifests Himself in the world and by which He completes
the spiritual life of man.
In this volume, Tosun
Bayrak, a shaykh of the Jerrahi order based in Istanbul, explains how to use these
Names for the transformation of the soul--"to see that the human being is the
microcosm of the macrocosm where God's attributes are reflected." Sheikh Tosun
describes the barrier, "they know the Name, but not the Named." How can one come
to love God--without knowing Him? The Sheikh answers that we do so through knowing His
Divine Qualities in our own selves. "To assume the angelic character which is innate
but hidden in the human being, we have to choose from Divine Attributes as we can, and try
to live our daily lives according to them. Then, God willing, this effort will help our
imitation become real."
The Name and the Named presents these
attributes which combine in various proportions to create the universe we see before us,
but these names are all contained in the Name, or word Allah. Therefore, when one repeats
this Name, one participates in stating the entire manifested creation. Also included are
the 201 traditional names or qualities of the Prophet Muhammad.
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 Early Sufi Women
by As-Sulami/Rkia Elaroui Cornell
Description
Early Sufi Women is the earliest known work in Islam
devoted entirely to women's spirituality. Written by the Persian Sufi Abü 'Abd
ar-Rahman as-Sulami (d. 1021), this long-lost work provides portraits of eighty Sufi
women who lived in the central Islamic lands between the eighth and eleventh centuries C.
E. As spiritual masters and exemplars of Islamic piety, they served as respected teachers
and guides in the same way as did Muslim men, often surpassing men in their understanding
of Sufi doctrine, the Qur'an, and Islamic spirituality. Whether they were scholars, poets,
founders of Sufi schools, or individual mystics and ascetics, they embodied a wisdom that
could not be hidden.
This important
addition to the growing body of literature examining the historical presence of women in
Islam is the first translation into English of a rare study of eighty-two Sufi women by
the tenth-century Iranian scholar as-Sulami. The author was known primarily for his
studies on Sufi chivalry and the malamitiyya (the Sufi order following "the
way of blame," of which his father was a member), as well as a biographical
compendium of the lives of one hundred Sufi men. Originally believed to be an appendix to
that work, these brief life-stories of Sufi women are now thought to form an independent
work, one which scholars long feared lost--with only references in other sources--until a
manuscript was found in a university library in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1991. An
Arabic edition was published in 1993. This edition contains the original Arabic as well as
Rkia Elaroui Cornell's translation, along with her extensive footnotes and introduction,
which put the work into the context of as-Sulami's life and times and Sufism in general.
Cornell has included as an appendix her translation of a similar study of Sufi women,
written some two hundred years later by Ibn al-Jawzi.
This book will be welcomed by all
scholars working on the early history of Islam, especially those interested in gender
issues. Not only does it provide a careful translation of one of the earliest collections
of anecdotes about saintly women, it also provides an historical analysis of the role of
women in Sulami's time and copious footnotes filled with information on the early
personalities and technical discussions of Sufism.
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 Al-Ghazali's Deliverance from Error
by Imam Al-Ghazali/RJ McCarthy
Description
One of the most remarkable documents to have come down from
classical Islamic civilization, this autobiography of the most influential thinker of
medieval Islam (1058-1111) describes his education and his intellectual crisis, which left
him so paralyzed by doubt that he was forced to resign the most distinguished academic
appointment. His faith returned after years of wandering and seeking, during which he
achieved direct knowledge of God in the form of the illuminative experience of the Sufis.
Among his most outstanding contributions to Muslim intellectual life were masterly
defenses of Islamic orthodoxy, mysticism, and law, against the attacks of those who
advocated purely legalistic, or entirely esoteric, readings of the religion. He hence
articulated the Islam of the middle way, in balance between the extremes of the letter and
the spirit. As such, his works have become a manifesto for modern Muslims struggling
against extremist and hence heterodox readings of the faith.
The volume also
contains extensive translations from other key works of Ghazali. One is the Definitive
Criterion (Faysal al-Tafriqa), which shows the generous, inclusive nature of Islam
and the difficulties involved in excluding any individual from it. This is followed by a
tract against the Ismaili sect, and writings on conforming the character to the divine,
and on the 'Wonders of the Heart', an important Sufi tract about the nature and function
of the soul.
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 Islam, A Sacred Law - What Every Muslim Should Know
About Shariah
by Feisal Abdul Rauf
Description
The aim of this book is to introduce the
English reader to usul al-fiqh, the general
principles of Islamic jurisprudence. Written in
non-specialist, easily comprehensible language, it summarizes the philosophy of Islamic
law underlying and common to the Islamic schools of jurisprudence.
Its
objective is twofold: one is to show the modern Muslim that the underlying dynamics of
most of the issues thought to be new and contemporary have in fact been discussed and
addressed by Islamic thinkers and jurists from the earliest times in Islamic history. The
second objective is to help modern Muslims bring this understanding to bear upon their
real life problems and concerns, so they can follow and examine legal arguments presented
for their worthiness, and separate what is essential and central to their faith from that
which is nonessential and peripheral.
English-speaking
Muslims are challenged today in dealing with real life issues. Concerns such as how to
deal with modern systems of finance when making major purchases, medical ethics on issues
from abortion to treating the terminally ill, and how to appropriately dress, are among
the issues modern Muslims seek to examine in light of the teachings of Islam. Most current
books on Islamic law are addressed to the scholar, not the lay reader. This book is
written in non-specialist language. Its objective is to take non-specialist readers beyond
the list of do’s and don’ts into a summary of the philosophy of Islamic law
underlying them
and all the traditional “schools” of law. By making these principles more
transparent, modern Muslims can more lucidly implement them in their attempts to come to
terms with proffered solutions to their challenges.
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 Doors of the Kingdom
by Haajar Gouverneur
Description
This impressive volume contains photographs by Haajar
Gouverneur of a magnificent variety of doors found throughout the four regions of the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. These photographs were exhibited at the Nahda Society's Heritage
Center in Riyadh in 1995. Each photograph is accompanied by a beautiful calligraphic
presentation of a hadith or Quranic passage by the renown calligrapher Mohamad Zakariya.
The book is bilingual.
In Islam the significance of the door is evident as a metaphor for the entrance. Written
passages refer to its many levels of meaning for both the Qur'an and the Hadith, the
recorded sayings of the Prophet Muhammad.
The greatest doors in the Kingdom are those which open onto the Sacred Precincts-the door
to the Ka'bah in Makkah, and the doors to the Mosque in al Madinah where the Prophet is
buried. These magnificent entrances belong to the Muslim world.
The Kingdom is unique in that it contains the full range of doorways, from the Heavenly to
the Human. The doors to the Sacred Sanctuaries symbolize entrance into peace and a higher
state of being. Besides these celestial doors which refer to the Gates of Paradise, we
present the doors of this world, from the homes of both the rich and the poor, with the
hope of offering a sense of our heritage-its faith, culture, craft, and calligraphy.
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 Letters of a Sufi Master
by Shaykh ad-Darqawi
Description
This precious translation of selections from the letters of
Shaikh ad-Darqawi, the founder of a major branch of the Shadhiliyyah
Order in North Africa in the 13th/19th century, belongs to a class of Sufi literature that
has not as yet received enough attention outside of the Islamic world.
Each letter is a precious gem of wisdom, an indispensable key to open certain doors which
stand before every traveler upon the Path. Almost all the letters concern the method and
the operative aspects of the Way based on the central techniques of the invocation or dhikr.
In this domain they must be considered among the most direct instructions given on Sufic
method to be found in all Sufi literature, where generally masters have preferred to refer
to the actual spiritual techniques through allusion. Occasionally, however, fundamental
facets of Sufi doctrine are also discussed.
"The sickness that is afflicting your heart is one of those things which strike men
whom God loves, for 'of all men the most sorely tried are the Prophets, after them the
saints, then those who resemble them, closely or remotely.' So do not be downcast, since
this happens most often to men full of sincerity and love, to cause them to go forward
towards their Lord. By this suffering their hearts are purified and transformed into pure
substance. Lacking such encounters with reality, nobody would reach the knowledge of God,
far from it, for 'if there were no arenas for souls, the runners would not be able to run
their course' as it is said in Ibn 'Ata-Illah's Hikam, in which he also says: 'In
the variety of signs and changing states I came to recognize Thine intention in regard to
me, that of showing me all things, so that there might be nothing in which I would not
know Thee.' In the same sense, the initiates have said: 'It is in times of upheaval that
men stand out from amongst men.' In the Koran it is said : Do the people then reckon that
they will be left in peace because they say 'we believe,' and that they will not be tried?
(XXIX,1)."
In making available these letters in English, Titus Burckhardt has
rendered a service to those seeking spiritual instruction. He has also enriched Sufi
literature in Western languages and made available one more document of extraordinary
power and beauty belonging to the recent past.
"During his early years in Morocco, Titus Burckhardt immersed himself in the Arabic
language and assimilated the classics of Sufism in their original form. In later years,
through his translations, he was to share these treasures with a wider public. One of his
most important works of translation was of the spiritual letters of the renowned
18th-century Moroccan Shaikh Mulay al-'Arabi ad-Darqawi. These letters
manifest a deep and lively insight into timeless metaphysical truths and, at the same
time, are a precious document of practical spiritual counsel."
--William Stoddart
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 Islam in Tibet & Tibetan Caravans
by Abdul Wahid Radhu
Description
This book is the most complete and definitive work on the subject of Islam
in Tibet to date. It will be of interest to both scholars in the field and general readers
interested in the Islamic community at large, as well as those interested in Buddhist and
Muslim spirituality. It features numerous photographs of the present Muslim community in
Lhasa today, as well as photographs from the past.
Included in its entirety is Tibetan Caravans by Abdul Wahid Radhu, describing his
family’s centuries-old trading business between India, Central Asia and Tibet –
focusing especially on the fascinating interplay between the traditional cultures of Islam
and Buddhism. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has written a preface for this captivating,
illustrated narrative. The renowned authority on Buddhism, Marco Pallis, a dear friend of
the author, has written an introduction to this work.
This unique account provides us not only with a taste of traditional human life before the
incursions of the modern world, but also enters us into a first-hand experience of life
within a totally sacred society. What is most precious is that we see this through the
lens of Abdul Wahid Radhu - a man of great spiritual depth who had a direct knowledge of
Sufism. We come to see that special place where those participating in the spiritual life
of two very different traditions recognize one another at a level behind external forms.
Radhu’s relationship with the Dalai Lama’s family is described, as well as the
arrival of the Chinese and his own escape. He was privy to the plans made for the Dalai
Lama’s departure through his friendship with His Holiness’ brother. We also see
Henrich Harrer’s life from an additional perspective.
Islam in Tibet opens with a fascinating scholarly essay, "Islam in the Tibetan
Cultural Sphere," by Professor José Cabézon. This is followed with a much needed
clarification, "Buddhist and Islamic Viewpoints of Ultimate Reality," by Dr.
William Stoddart.
"On the significant (but little recognized) presence of Islam in Tibet, this is the
best book that has appeared."
—Huston Smith, Author of The World’s Religions
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