Reviews (11)

Your better off tossing your cash onto a lit stove
I think theres pretty much two themes in this book:

"Hey guys, we are just like you!!Please be our friends!"

Look, I was born and raised in America, and one thing these people (for the most part immigrants) fail to understand is that people here respect a person for being true to themselves.Its called being a man's man.Why do people insist on lying to the American public just out of fear that they won't be accepted?Hey there are things I beleive in that a lot Americans probably won't but it would be spineless of me to drop those beliefs just to impress other people. Come on....this isn't high school.There's a million different viewpoints in this country and thats part of what makes the American experience so great.Hey, to each his own right?I can respect it if it were a book about personal convictions, but it is trying to pass as a book related to broad Islamic acceptance of all these various viewpoints. Islam, though flexible in some respects, is very rigid in other respects (i.e. - killing civilians, homosexuality, alchahol, fornication, etc.)So what do these losers do?They attempt to change the religion (just like Osama tried) just to suit their own agenda. Islam is about GOD'S agenda and how a person who beleives should submit unconditionally to it.


Don't expect this to be a representation of the muslim community in America in general.This is just a small group of pathetic spineless, gutless, friendless people dying for acceptance. I impore the readers here to google an image of the author of this book and see for yourself.


2. "Hey, maybe we can convince people that homosexuality is permissable in Islam"

Get real. It seems that ever since September 11, Islam has been viciously attacked from all angles. Either its homosexual people trying to "reform" the religion so that it accepts homosexuality, or its terrorists finding loopholes to justify terrorism,or its the media making a quick buck off of the public paranoia over Islam.It just never ever ends with these people.




Save your hard-earned money, folks. Gas prices are going up everyday and its quite foolish to spend your money on a book that represents the thoughts of a few hundred muslims (out of the several million in America.

I would think that what the readers here really want to know is accurate, unbiased, unapolagetic information related to Islam and Terrorism.My recommendation:

"Unholy War:Terror in the name of Islam" (John Esposito)


In a nutshell, "I pity da fool" who buys this book.Adios.

progressive minds
i have been meaning to write a little "review" on this for the book lovers ever since i read it a while back. the book brings some intelligent, progressive muslim minds from all over the world-- or so it seems.

the subjects in the book -- from women's own interpretation on the qur'an to compassionate theology towards queer muslims and all in between -- are all, well, lets just say some of us have been waiting for them for so long :-)

i'm glad to have a book that i can now recommend to friends and family about progressive discussions in the muslim community.

in the mean time, i hope some of the non-Muslims who are dying to define us will just let us define who and what progressive muslim is... all by ourselves. thank you.

Reviews (3)

The perfect introduction to Islam
"Following Muhammad," the way Ernst sees it, is a book that fills a special niche. Although solid scholarship on Islam is available, it is often rendered inaccessible by impenetrable prose and circulated in very narrow academic circles through specialized journals. On the other hand, commercial publications approach the topic from the sensationalist angles and too often betray ideological attack agendas. What Ernst tries to do in "Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World" is to offer the lay reader a balanced, unimpeachably scholarly but thoroughly accessible, fair-minded but critical introduction to the religion of roughly one fifth of the world's population. By extension, the book sheds light on many of the references, and some of the misperceptions, that have become common currency in the rhetoric of the clash of civilizations.
If September 11 influenced the presentation of the book, it is "to highlight how we have constructed the notion of religion in recent history around the ideas of competition and confrontation, since all too often this modern world-imperial concept of religion is allowed to pass unexamined." For too many people, confrontation is the only way they have heard Islam described, he points out, and the culture of mass media today tends to create the notion that the present is the only time worth considering. Ernst therefore devotes the first part of the book to the interplay between religion and history across the ages, and traces the evolution of the long relationship between Islam and the West from the Middle Ages through colonial times to the present. Ernst, who is not Muslim, does not engage in apologetics on behalf of any religion, but rather tries to examine images and their reverse, or negative: each civilization tends to project on the perceived rival its own prejudices and motivations.
Another section of the book examines Islam in terms of the modern concept of religion and gives an overview of the fundamental sources for Muslims: the Quran or scripture, and the teachings of the prophet Muhammad. From this Ernst moves on to the concept of Islamic religious ethics deriving not only from these authoritative texts but also from philosophical inquiry, including the Greek tradition. In his exposition Ernst hopes to provide the reader with independent and appropriate tools to understand the contemporary, and often ill-informed and inflammatory, debate about Islam.
The book's outstanding readability lies in the choice of the interpretative essay as the basic form for each chapter. Despite, or perhaps because, of his stellar academic credentials, the author deliberately eschews the "blind them with science" approach many academics take to impress their ivory tower peers with the impenetrability of their prose. Footnotes and glossaries are kept to a minimum.
Tellingly, one of the goals Ernst sets for this book can seem deceptively modest, by his own admission: to restore full, three-dimensional human complexity to well over a billion people homogenized and caricaturized in the eyes of the West in a manner wholly unacceptable if it were applied to any other religion, race or ethnicity. The fact that this seemingly modest goal is considered so controversial reinforces the timeliness of this book.

Insightful, pluralistic engagement with contemporary Islam
Carl Ernst is widely considered one of the very leading scholars of Islam in the world today, and the excellent volume Following Muhammad:Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World is his learned, profound reflection on the situation of the Islam, Muslims, and the world at large today.

The book is beautifully illustrated by eight pictures and six luminous calligraphy pieces by the contemporary South Asian calligrapher, Rasheed Butt.

This timely volume should be recommended enthusiastically to anyone who wants to gain a nuanced and balanced understanding of the contested position of Islam in the modern world. It fully deserves to be recognized as the single best choice for academic courses dealing with Islam and Middle Eastern studies, in both the undergraduate and graduate levels.While one can not recommend it strongly enough to students and scholars of Islam, here is hoping that political scientists and historians of the Middle East and beyond, not to mention policy makers, will also avail themselves of it. Ernst's volume breaks new theoretical ground while remaining completely accessible to the intelligent lay reader.This is the rare work that only a scholar at the very zenith of his/her field can write, an even more daunting task given all the polemics about Islam today. There is no better, more profound place to begin-or end-a sophisticated discussion about contemporary Islam than Ernst's masterpiece.

Reviews (7)

Everyone should read this
By far the best scholarly and historical work amidst the increasing number of books on this topic.Particularly interesting is the discussion of how Muslim caliphs adopted the Persian custom of having huge imperial harems.Of course, this is one of the aspects of "Muslim" culture that really tantalized the early Orientalists, as discussed by Edward Said in his book on the subject.

Good history book
This is a good book for anyone to read who doesn't know much about Islam.The author gives several chapters of in-depth history of the rise of Islam.It is interesting to read--not dry and boring like a lot of other detailed history books.

Reviews (35)

"Fundamentalist" But Love This Book
Most people would categorize me as a "fundamentalist" Christian, but I love this book. It opened my eyes to the beauty that is in the Qur'an and helped me to see part of why so many people follow Islam. No doubt there is more that could be said about Islam than is found in this book, but I wasn't looking for a treatise on Islamic doctrine. I believe that if one wants to know what another religion teaches than it is better to go to those who follow that religion rather than those who oppose it.Otherwise there is too much danger of being exposed to a "strawman" argument.Having read most of this book and listened to the CD numerous times, I am still a Christian who has many disagreements with Islamic doctrine, but one with a better appreciation of the power of Islam.Frankly, the Qur'anic recitations on the CD are some of the most beautiful sounds I have ever heard and they bring tears to my eyes.

Great book
I read this book about a year ago and never imagined it could be controversial.The book is extremely objective and doesn't attempt to "convert" anyone or even insult other religions.There are parallels to Christianity, when it's helpful.
The controversy about it being "so positive"???Well, hmmm... I'll tell ya what- find a book at a *christian* book store that mentions the atrocity of the Christians crusades, that criticzes the christian's church's support for slavery and later for segregation, that details the Christian's church's support for the oppression of women.uh-huh... yea.Good luck with that one.Your criticms are about Islam being presented in a positive light and nothing more.And they are millions and millions of nonviolent muslims that agree with this positive assessment of Islam.Just not fundamentalist christians that are threatened by the idea that there might not be "one true religion."
The book is an introduction to the Qur'an (hence the title) and not the history of Islam.It's really not even an analysis of the Qur'an- it's just interpreting the verses so the ordinary person can understand them.

The best way to be introduced to the Qur'an
So many non-Muslims have the idea that the Qur'an is just a dry book of laws, with little or no poetic value.But most of the time, that's because they're reading it backwards!The traditional ordering of the Qur'an puts the earlier, shorter and more spiritual chapters towards end (near chapter 114). If you read from the beginning, you see the long legalist chapters first, and the effect is similar to opening the Bible at Leviticus or Deuteronomy and reading through the old Israelite legal codes.

Reviews (2)

Book review by Abdal-Hakim Murad
Farid Esack's
Qur'an, Liberation and Pluralism
Farid Esack. Qur'an, Liberation and Pluralism. Oxford: Oneworld, 1997. by
During the late 1980s, Farid Esack was one of the most conspicuous Muslim campaigners against apartheid in his native South Africa. His sermons and broadsides diffused by the Call to Islam association of which he was National Co-Ordinator until 1990 were warmly received, particularly by anti-racist sections of the Christian churches. Among Muslims, however, he remained a provocative and sharply controversial figure. Most mosques and Islamic organisations saw him as a dangerous gadfly, either because they were nervous about his support for the ANC, which they believed might launch Ugandan-style expulsions of South Africa's Asians, or because they were disturbed by his apparent co-option by Selly Oak-type Christians. Deprived of a substantial base of Muslim support, in the tense, dying years of the apartheid regime he found himself in the sparsely-populated veld which separated two laagers: the accommodationist or non-political movements (such as the Tablighi Jamat, or Ahmad Deedat's Islamic Propagation Centre), and advocates of armed resistance to the taghut of apartheid (Qibla, the Murabitun, and a confusion of others).
This rejection by South African Islam drove Esack further into the embrace of Christian activist movements, who paid for his studies and welcomed him on their platforms. But it is only with the publication of this book that the extent to which his views have reflected this Christian suhba has become clear. Esack is here proposing an iconoclastic revolution in Islamic methodology, the result being a set of Islamic ethics which dovetail precisely with liberal values. No unsightly survivals from the past are to be permitted: the Qur'anic ethic is, despite all appearances, a miraculous prefigurement of late twentieth-century Western ideals. Esack is here treading the path taken by earlier modernists, such as Ameer Ali, who a hundred years ago re-examined the Qur'an to discover in its pages the entire moral code of Victorian England.
Esack recognises that to defuse or bypass the apparently non-liberal and traditionalist thrust of Muslim scripture requires an elaborate new hermeneutic. (To kill the unsightly old furu for good, the old usul must be uprooted.) Hence much of the book attempts a scholarly reappraisal of tafsir (Quranic exegesis) and usul al-fiqh (jurisprudence). One recognises traces of a postmodern strategy in the hyperbolically close reading of the text, which then unravels, to be sewn back together with meanings 'read in' by the bold hermeneut.
Unfortunately, this project is marred by a worrying crop of academic solecisms, some quite glaring. Just a sample few of these will indicate the nature, if not the scale, of the problem. On page 95 a hadith describing all humanity as 'the family of God' is weirdly justified by attributing it to the neo-Wahhabi writer Nasir al-Albani's book Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Da'ifa, whose explicit intention is to list only hadiths which are spuriously attributed to the Prophet. On p.112 the bila kayf (immodal) interpretation of the anthropomorphic passages in the Qur'an is imputed to Ibn Hanbal (it is in fact a quintessentially Ash'ari doctrine). On page 270 we are told that the Ash'aris 'opposed rationalism and were supportive of notions of predestination', whereas this is in reality a good definition of the Hanbalism which the Ash'aris opposed: rationalism is prominent in the standard Ash'ari texts, as is their doctrine of Acquisition (kasb), which as Majid Fakhry has shown is a radical denial of Hanbalite/Mujbira notions of predestination. On page 276 a tafsir work is attributed to Ibn Arabi, whereas scholarship has known for several decades that this text is in fact by Afif al-Din al-Tilmasani. The use of dates is at times inconsistent and confusing: for instance, at the top of page 177, Shahrastani's death date is given as 1153, while at the bottom of the same page it becomes 548: the Gregorian and Hijra dates respectively, although the distinction is not indicated or explained, here or elsewhere.
The reader's confidence is further undermined when he learns of Esack's scepticism about the authenticity of the hadith literature. Ignoring the recent vindication of the hadith by Harald Motzki of Hamburg University, Esack plumps for a traditional scepticism a la Goldziher and Schacht, and announces that 'where I do cite a hadith in support of a particular opinion, it is not because I believe that it is authentically the word of Muhammad, although that may indeed be the case; I cite a hadith because it reflects the presence of, and support for, the idea among earlier Muslims.' By this manoeuvre, most scriptural material which obstructs Esack's theory of a liberal revelation is handily discarded. He does not, for instance, have to construct an exegesis to defuse such hadiths as 'Each Jew or Christian who hears of me, and then does not believe my message, shall be one of the inhabitants of the Fire.'
Even Christian or secular readers of his text will note that this involves Esack in a contradiction when he turns to his leading task: the adumbration of a new Qur'anic hermeneutic. This is because his radical deconstruction of the Qur'an relies heavily on locating it within its original context. The Pakistani scholar Fazlur Rahman suggested that the sacred text acquired its temporal colouring from its passage through the mind of the Prophet, and that the traditional situational exegesis (asbab al-nuzul) active upon each verse has a confining effect. The rules of the Qur'an cannot regularly transcend the coordinates in time and space which they immediately addressed. A hukm, to use the language of the jurists, is not normative and cannot transcend the archetypal illa or the sabab. And with the ratio of so many moral events today radically altered, Rahman and Esack demand that the content of the Qur'anic message must in many places be subject to suspension or fundamental reevaluation. Hence Esack writes (p.12): 'it is impossible to speak of an interpretation of the qur'anic text applicable to the whole world.' This opinion is hardly post-modern or even novel: it informed the jurisprudence of Najm al-Din al-Tufi and many Shi'a Ghulat in the middle ages, and is a recurrent modernist theme in our century. Mustafa al-Siba'i, for instance, used it to enable his vision of the Qur'an as a kind of Marxist manifesto. But Esack, by querying the hadith literature, has in fact closed this option against himself. The contexts of Qur'anic revelation are mediated entirely by the hadith. Sira is merely a hadith genre - and not the least precarious one; and if there is no Sira, there are no asbab al-nuzul. Having allowed Schacht to bake his cake, Esack cannot then unbake it in order to do exegesis.
Esack's tafsir, as he himself makes clear, is driven by praxis. It is not an abstract encounter with God and revelation that moves him to redefine the latter (and to some extent the former); it is his own turbulent experience of injustice in the world.
He borrows from the liberation theology of Gutierrez and others to suggest that old-fashioned scriptural readings which acquiesce in establishment tyranny must be displaced by a liberative exegesis that emphasises God's justice. This is a curious proposal, particularly since Shabbir Akhtar and others have already seen liberation theology as amounting in effect to an Islamization of Christianity. The New Testament urges us to 'resist not him that is evil', and enjoins believers to postpone restitution until the imminent Second Coming. Islam, by contrast, appears as intrinsically liberative, taking its cue from the patterns of the Sira. Kenneth Cragg has famously criticised Islam's alleged optimism about 'political religion' and the chances of reforming the deeply sinful structures of the world. But Esack is here working with the contrary stereotypes: we must inject the allegedly Christian paradigm of liberation into a static and accommodationist Islam, so as to render religion capable of changing structures, not just individual souls.
Esack's odd but interesting exercise in role reversal was inspired by his admirable willingness to cooperate with Christian opponents of apartheid. A prominent consequence of this has been his interrogation of what he takes to be traditional Sunni verdicts on the religious efficacy of the Religions of the Book. For him, the supersessory salvation history conceptualised in the kalam is not enough; he will only approve a doctrine which allows Christians and Jews, and others, to achieve salvation on their own terms. This obliges him to examine and attempt to defuse the numerous Qur'anic verses that appear to condemn pre-Muslim forms of religion, a task to which he brings to bear the theory developed in particular by Rashid Rida that iman and kufr do not denote what Cantwell Smith would describe as 'reified' faith and unbelief, but dispositions of the heart which can exist within any religious denomination. Tackling the verses one by one, as though they were a series of bombs, he disposes of some quite elegantly, but their sheer number appears finally to overwhelm him. He declines, for instance, even to attempt any defusing of a verse such as 'They commit kufr who say, "God is Jesus, the son of Mary".'

Esack's frankly exhausting (but not exhaustive) tour of the exclusivist verses of the Qur'an is generally oblivious to Muslim reflection on this celebrated issue. He notes briefly the contribution of Shah Wali Allah al-Dahlawi (in Arabic, ignoring Marcia Hermanson's English translation), but fails to cite from that author's principal work on the subject, al-Budur al-Bazigha, in which the Indian author develops a perfectly humane explication of how non-Muslims can be saved, even if they have been exposed to Islam and refused it. Neither is there any awareness of the dispute between Ash'ari theories of accountability being conditional upon receipt of revelation, and the Maturidi notion of universal access to fundamental metaphysical and moral truths irrespective of access to a scripture. Recent Western discussions of the theme, to the extent that they do not appear in Christian periodicals, are also ignored. Thus, for instance, Kevin Reinhart's important book Before Revelation merits no discussion whatsoever.
Even more puzzling is Esack's neglect of Western Muslim reflection on the theme of religious plurality. William Chittick's monograph Imaginal Worlds: Ibn Arabi and the Problem of Religious Diversity outlines, albeit with regrettable brevity, the Andalusian theosophist's appreciation of non-Muslim faith. Ibn Arabi's perspective predates Esack by eight hundred years, and yet is incomparably more nuanced, and has the indispensable merit of being rooted not in the transient hurly-burly of 'praxis', but in metaphysics and the direct knowledge of God. Ibn Arabi is only somewhat less controversial a figure than Esack, but this should not have deterred the bold South African pioneer from mining his works to discover that Islam has, after all, nurtured an authentically pluralistic theology of the Other.
Chittick himself stands in the tradition of Western Muslim theological writing that was launched by Rene Guenon (Abdal Wahid Yahya, d.1951), and which remains, in this reviewer's opinion, among the most fascinating pluralistic theologies in Islam or in any religion, despite its undoubted errors. It is surely an odd failing of Esack's book that he fails to mention the very existence of this prolifically-published school of thought, which could offer him a paradigm of toleration which spares him the labour and humiliation of weeding out unfashionable views from the Islamic scriptures to allow space for his own concept of 'what Allah must have meant'.
Esack's exuberant manifesto goes on to tackle a further issue. Accepting without discussion the liberal axiom that racism and 'sexism' are analogous forms of oppression, he demands the abolition of gender-related dimensions of Qur'anic legislation which conflict with modern liberal values. In the early 1990s, Nelson Mandela had promised the mainstream Muslim organisations that Muslim personal law would be introduced following the abolition of apartheid, allowing South Africa's Muslim community the right to be judged by Shari'a values in matters of inheritance and marriage law. Esack, however, led a determined protest against this move. In May 1995 he appeared before the relevant government sub-committee, and pleaded with the authorities to change their mind. Partially due to this, in October 1996, the final version of the country's constitution made it clear that there would be no room for Shari'a justice in the new South African state. Esack, predictably, was delighted.

Esack's campaign against the Shari'a is a manifestation of his apparent conviction that in every case where the ethos of the Qur'an appears to conflict with that of modern liberalism, then it is the Qur'an which must give way. Liberals who demand the abolition of Qur'anic guidance on inheritance, marriage, divorce, custodianship of minors, and indeed any other social issue, must be set in authority over the ijma of the Umma, past and present.
This approach has provoked huge controversy in South Africa, particularly in connection with Esack's advocacy of female imams in mosques. He cites with approval a remote Cape Province community where men and women take turns in leading the Friday prayers, and mocks the foolish 'conservatives' who have the temerity to reject this. At this stage of the book Esack does not even go through the motions of claiming a Qur'anic justification for his views. Neither can he be troubled to discuss the minority of classical scholars, such as Ibn Arabi (again), who have validated the imamship of women for male or mixed congregations, or their fiqh justifications. The medieval experience of, say, the Madrasa Saqlatuniya in Cairo, staffed entirely by women, and where women led other women in prayer, does not merit a mention, nor do bula preachers in Bosnia, or the Hausaland wan-taro. The recent discussion of the gender issue by Sachiko Murata, which is transforming the teaching of gender in Islamic studies departments in the United States, is passed over in silence. The sole and sufficient dalil is what he calls 'progressive' - the progress involved being not in the direction of the model exampled by the Companions, but towards the consensual values of the modern secular West.
This feminist issue recalls once again Esack's responsiveness to his Christian tutors, who have been anxious to direct Muslims along the lines recently followed by those liberal churches which ordain priestesses. The age-old European concern with securing the Europeanization of the earth - imperialism, to use a more frank expression - today relies on reshaping the parameters accepted by the Other: accession to Western values can only be guaranteed when non-Westerners think in Western terms. Among secular thinkers this is today a common transformation, but in Esack's case, his tutors have successfully secured a more interesting paradigm shift of a theological order. His book is written entirely in Christian theological language. It completely lacks the style and reverent tenor of Muslim reflection, with its characteristic indigenous terminology, and with the deployment of scriptures as sacred archetypes rather than as archaic problems. In fact, Esack is even less inclined to invoke God than are many Christian theologians, who at least manage to squeeze Him in parenthetically when they wish to make a poetic gesture, growing tired of their sterile intellectualizing. One wishes that his tutors had shared with him Anselm's distinction between soliloquy and allocution, between speaking about God and speaking with God. Muslim religious reflection traditionally attempts the latter; but Esack is more comfortable deriving affective resonance from sociological rhetoric ('liberation', 'tolerance', 'progress'), transposing 'God' to what becomes at best a minor and even dissonant key.
Christian missiology has long recognised the need to secure such a paradigm shift in Musl

You must read this one!
Unfortunately It is not often you are presented with a Muslim scholar who is as progressive, current and articulate as Dr. Farid Esack.

Everyonewho sincerely believes in the concept of "Progressive Islam" oreven is curious about the concept, as well as the practice, should readthis one.

Editorial Review

Reviews (9)

An Invaluable Book!!
What Mr. El Fadl has done in this book is nothing short of extraordinary.His project is to first explain to the reader how the Islamic jurisprudential system works: this is the system by which religious pronouncements were rated on a scale of reliability.He then proceeds to demonstrate that many of the current ethical pronouncements and fatwas issued by Islamic religious authorities (especially those concerning women's rights) do not meet Islam's criteria of reliability and rigor.El Fadl is not interested in denouncing Islam as heresy.He is a believer who is arguing only that those in positions of power in Islam must meet Islam's standards for reliability and rigor when making a pronouncement about a sacred text.The writing is lucid and vibrant and one does not need to have a scholarly understanding of Islam to appreciate the work El Fadl is doing at UCLA.

AtheistWorld.Com Book Review
This book leaves out much to be desired.
You are better off reading "Islam Exposed" by Solomon Tulbure ISBN: 1932303456

Reviews (22)

keep it in context
Hamid Algar is a passionate Sufi - and he has the right to be one. However it is important to understand that this book is merely his polemical attack against a group that criticizes the ideas of his own sect. The book is dismaly small, and full of stereotypical over-generalizations that are typically found in Western sources. As is typical with books about 'Wahhabis', it rarely quotes the works of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab directly.

Definitely not a scholarly work, but one which summarizes the anti-Wahhabist view of Wahhabism.

If you want to read this work, keep these points in mind, and also read Natana D. Bas's work Wahhabi Islam. That is more sympathetic, and has plenty of quotes from the writings of the founder.

Excellent Study
A very well written text about the history of Wahabism. It deconstructs its claims from a historical and doctrinal perspective. Excellent introduction to the topic. An important read for all orientals and middle-east lovers alike.

Editorial Review

Reviews (3)

Excellent selection of extracts from early Sufi texts
This volume, compiled and translated by Michael Sells, is really an excellent resource for those of us who are interested in early Sufism.Sells has compiled a very useful collection of extracts from early Sufiwritings.I was surprised to know that writings of Junaid apparently evenstill exist (and this book includes some of those writings)!

Aremarkable and very valuable book -- not only from a historicalperspective, but also for those wanting to increase their own spirituality. (For this purpose, I also recommend W. C. Chittick's book, "The SufiPath of Love," a collection of translations from Jalaluddin Rumi.)

Contradictions
After reading this book, I got interested and bought a few other books. I came across this statement from famous Ibn Ul-Arabi "If the believer understood the meaning of the saying 'the color of the water is the colorof the receptacle', he would admit the validity of all beliefs and he wouldrecognize God in every form and every object of faith." I thought ifhe relay meant this, then why bother writing so many books and trying toprove or disprove this or that belief. Ibn-Ularabi does this many times, hecriticizes many of his fellow theologians, philosophers, even other sufi's.If he really thinks all are right, why then bother by criticism, trying toprove so many are under "illusions" except him and a few likehim. Besides would Ibn-ulArabi tell us that "Satan worshipping"is also right? The second factor that is troubling to me is theauthenticity and objectivity of their"theophonic experiences". Ifone examines the content of their "experience" it quickly becomeclear that what they "witness" is nothing more than the"content" of their beliefs. Whatever they already believed in,they "witness" it. Not a single one them, as far as I know, hasclaimed that he /she "witnessed" a reality which made him realizea certain portion of his/her beliefs about this or that was wrong. Theirexperiences seem to be in perfect harmony with the " content" oftheir already established beliefs. If they believed that there are spheresin the heaven, then that is what they "see", if they believed incertain historical "facts" they also see it. If they believe insay in crucification, as Padre Pio, they also "see" it( though itmay or may not have really happened. If you are a Hindu mystic then youwill " see" say, reincarnation and how it happens, if you are aSufi or Christian mystic who doesn't believe in reincarnation then you"see" the opposite of the fellow Hindu, you "see" how"reincarnation" doesn't happen.So my guess is that, undercertain condition and practices, all the beliefs of a person turns into"Images/forms" and like a dream, a person experiences them. Butthese experiences are no more"objective" and reflective of"reality" out there, than the good old dreams we have.

Reviews (10)

Excellent, clear-eyed reasoning, and very humane.
This book was written by a man whose greatest committment appears to be NOT to a political party, his own self-interest, or some other more or less selfish and narrow agenda, but rather to seeing clearly, reasoning fairly, and calling a spade a spade. If you want to get the point of view of someone who is as non-brainwashed as possible, look no further. This man, at least, is sane.

It is interesting to note that he is also off the radar screens of the right-wing gang-bangers. Otherwise they would be here saying nothing and pulling the rating down.

A good man, a good book
Confronting Empire is a well-done piece of work. I see a great amount of sympathy on Eqbal's part, and his ideas are life affirming. He discusses Pakistani and Indian poetry as well as geopolitics, and focuses on many areas where conflict is prevalent. Ahmad is asked how he would define his politics. "Socialist and democratic. Those have been my two lasting commitments. By democratic, I mean genuine commitment to equality, freedom of association, critical thought, and the accountability of rulers to citizens. By socialism, I mean control of the wealth by people rather than by the state or by corporations." He holds Edward Said and Antonio Gramsci in high esteem. One of many good things about Ahmad, he is always hopeful.

Simple yet hard-hitting. A must read
I read this book in 3 hours on a long haul flight and then talked my neighbouring passenger into following suit. It's that good.

A stirring page turner with simple unawashed straight-talk about politics, religion, world order, even the vagaries of corporatization. Really, I hesitate to make this into a long intellectual review but you will find themes ranging from the opportunism of Gandhi, to the seeds of discord that US itself sowed in the middle east and south east asia (and what the future holds), to the after-effects of blatant commercialization on our social lives, to....Wait, what am I doing. There is no way you will regret the 11 dollars that go into this incredibly eye-opening insight, so stop wasting your time reading these reviews and just buy it!

Reviews (8)

I was almost brought to tears.....
As someone who is admittedly and shamefully, completely ignorant about the current socio-political situation in India, I was nevertheless nearly moved to tears at the heroism of how so many displaced villagers gathered up the courage to protest the outrages of being forced to abandon their homes due to pointless and environmentally-harmful "big dams"

I also felt great outrage over how unfairly Roy was being persecuted by her own government and courts for simply writing what she believes in.However, through her bravery, she never even contemplates leaving her country for greater personal (or economic)security but stays on to fight the good fight.Truly commendable person. And this is a powerful book surely not to be missed.

Fresh take on globalization
Arundhati Roy bristles at being called a "writer-activist" (too much like sofa-bed, she says), but the rest of us should be grateful that the author of "The God of Small Things" is taking on the establishment, here and in India.

Part of Mrs. Roy's greatness is that she is not colored by the partisan debates that influence the dialogue on issues such as globalization in America. She is an equal-opportunity critic, taking on Clinton and Bush. Although other authors pledge no allegiance to either side of the aisle, Roy has a fresh perspective, and has a take on globalization that I haven't found in works by American authors.

This book is set up as a collection (a rather random collection) of several essays. The first essay gives a wonderful perspective of globalization (ie. the expansion of American business interests) from a foreign perspective. She examines the impact of the global economic movement on the actual people being affected by it at the lowest level. She reveals the influence of the privatization of the electric industry through the eyes of India's poorest citizens.

The second essay goes in-depth into politics in India, primarily addressing the enormous number of dams being built in the country, and the impacts (economic, environmental, social) that they will have. Mrs. Roy explicitly recounts how Enron scammed the Indian government into building new power generators, and how this will cost India hundreds of millions per year while lining the pockets of American business interests.

Critics will say that "Power Politics" is devoid of hard facts and analysis, but there can be no doubt that this book is worth a read. She may lack the economic background of Stiglitz, but her passion and style, in addition to her ability to articulate the important issues in the globalization debate in a readable manner, will be appreciated by anyone with an interest in global economic expansion.

Editorial Review

Islam: Empire of Faith is the epic PBS documentary that charts the history of Islam from its beginnings in Mecca and Medina in the seventh century to the glory of the Ottoman Empire 1,000 years later.

The demonization of Islam by the West has a long history, stretching back to the First Crusade at the end of the 11th century. This documentary redresses the balance by showing the riches of Islamic culture and the vital role played by Islam in preserving and building upon ancient wisdom from East and West at a time when most of Europe was stumbling through the Dark Ages. Muslim physicians, mathematicians, and astronomers stretched the boundaries of human knowledge, and Muslim architects created some of the most beautiful buildings in the world.

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The Diversity of Islam
Fascinating account, and not just because I've met one of the authors.We who've lived in the Islamic world outside of the Middle East (e.g. in the Peace Corps in West Africa) recognize many of the issues Na'eem and Shamima raise, and which are so frustratingly absent from popular discourse on Islam.A pastor in my church recently visited Jordan, and I'll be proposing this book as a basis for study in a class I hope she'll agree to lead.

A journey of discovery not just for hajj .. but for life
A definate MUST READ.

Editorial Review

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Reviews (2)

Searched and searched
We looked for this CD for four months!We love this.It's like being in Heaven.

Editorial Review

Editorial Review