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Within western political, media and academic discourses, Muslim communities are predominantly seen through the prism of their Islamic religiosities, yet there exist within diasporic communities unique and complex secularisms. Drawing on detailed interview and ethnographic material gathered in the UK, this book examines the ways in which a form of secularism - `non-Islamiosity' - amongst members of the Iranian diaspora shapes ideas and practices of diasporic community and identity, as well as wid...

Throughout your existence, there are angels in your presence. But it's your actions that cause those angels to either praise you or disgrace you. Through this book, we will explore the actions that invite these blessed unseen beings to pray upon you, and carry your name and mention to the One who created us all.

Revive Your Heart is a call for spiritual renewal and an invitation to have a conversation with one of the world s most recognizable voices on Islam, Nouman Ali Khan. This collection of essays is disarmingly simple, yet it challenges us to change. To revise our actions, our assumptions and our beliefs so we can be transformed from within, as well as externally. It aims to help modern Muslims maintain a spiritual connection with Allah and to address the challenges facing believers today: the disu...

This book explores the diversity and dynamism of Islam in Southeast Asia through the concept of adab, or beautiful behavior. Amid the complexity of Islamic civilization, adab provides Muslims with a shared sense of sacred history, identity, and morality. In the context of Islamic ethics, adab defines the rules of personal and public etiquette: good manners, proper conduct, civility and humaneness. Featuring the interdisciplinary research of nine prominent scholars of Islam, the book offers n...

Jalaluddin Rumi has become one of the most widely read poets in our time. This collection of verse is drawn from Rumi's masterwork the Mathnawi, often referred to as the Qur'an in the Persian tongue. The Mathnawi comprises six volumes of rhymed verse drawing on favorite stories from the Qur'an, tales of Sufi saints and masters, the sayings of Muhammed, folklore, and popular humor. Throughout its intricate tales, Rumi scatters precious gems of wisdom. Like jewels, his words seem to catch the ligh...

Following the 1979 revolution, the Iranian government set out to Islamize society. Muslim piety had to be visible, in personal appearance and in action. Iranians were told to pray, fast, and attend mosques to be true Muslims. The revolution turned questions of what it means to be a true Muslim into a matter of public debate, taken up widely outside the exclusive realm of male clerics and intellectuals. Say What Your Longing Heart Desires offers an elegant ethnography of these debates among a gr...

Jihad, a word popularly translated by the media as 'holy war', provides the ideological underpinnings to violent extremists, while at the same time informs the average westerner that Islam is a religion that advocates violence and barbarism. And yet the famous saying of the Prophet Muhammad, while returning from battle, "We have returned from the lesser jihad to the greater jihad" has ensured that to the majority of Muslims around the world, jihad primarily refers to the inner struggle against...

Western feminists have in the past singled out the veiling of women as a potent symbol of women's oppression under Islam. Daphne Grace explores the far more complex and contested role of veiling over the last 120 years. Looking at the ways in which the veil is used in literature, and its representations in writing from the East and the West, she shows how veiling has come to stand for both oppression and resistance. Grace asks why, at the start of the new millennium, veiling seems more popular t...