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There is no way to understand the Qur’an properly, or to elucidate as accurately as possible the meaning of its verses, without studying Qur’anic terminology and concepts. Taken together these sum up the universal truth of the Faith (the great moral code), not only animating the text and giving it incredible life, precision, and flexibility, but also enriching the communication of the Qur’anic message through their beautiful and comprehensive nature.
This study aims to provide a broad glossary of key Qur’anic terms and set forth these terms’ meanings, both semantically and linguistically, within their Qur’anic context. The format is organised in such a way as to facilitate ease of understanding, guidance the lay reader carefully and logically through the various nuances of usage and meaning. The meaning of a given Qur’anic term will vary depending on the manner and the context in which it is used, and on the issues and questions in relation to which reference is made to it, and just as a concept gives rise to a term, so also does the term and its usage act to shape the concept. These and other aspects of the Divine communication are mapped and explored, leaving us with a greater appreciation of the Qur’an’s depth and what makes it a linguistic and literary miracle.
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Divine oneness as the principle of beauty is perhaps quintessentially Islamic artistic expression and experience and what it celebrates. Why has Islamic art evolved as it has, what forms does it take, what is the logic underlying it? What message is the Muslim artist attempting to convey, what emotion is he seeking to evoke? This work views Islamic art as a subject of archaeological study and treats its evolution as part of the historical study of art in the broader sense. At the same time, it paves the way for an epistemological shift from viewing Islamic art as a material concept having to do with beautiful rarities and relics that have grown out of Islamic cultural and artistic creativity, to a theoretical concept associated with a vision, a principle, a theory and a method.
This theoretical concept provides the intellectual and cultural foundation for a critical philosophical science of Islamic artistic beauty to which we might refer as ‘the science of Islamic art,’ or ‘the Islamic aesthetic’ that evaluates visual artistic creations in terms of both beauty and practical usefulness. In the process the study also explores orientalist misconceptions, challenging some of the premises with which it has approached Islamic art, with judgement rooted in a cultural framework alien to the spiritual perspective of Islam.
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IIIT Books-In-Brief Series
In his passionate devotion to the task of inviting others to Islam, Muhammad al-Ghazali (1917-1996) presented Muslims with a powerful critique of themselves, not only in their endemic failure to project Islam in the best, most reasoned light, but also in their betrayal of the Qur'an's spiritual principles and the highest standards set by the Prophet Muhammad. This work analyzes al-Ghazali's critique of du'at (those inviting to Islam) and the practice of da'wah work itself (the call to Islam). It also examines his methodology, various proposed solutions, and the juristic responses to his perspective. The evolution of al-Ghazali's thought and the people and factors influencing him are key elements of the study. It is hard to conceive where the state of discourse on da'wah and Islamic reform would be without al-Ghazali's outstanding contributions. The powerful stand he took on the importance of education, the significant weight he gave to a free society, his promotion of a decent standard of living for the poor, the qualities of moral and personal excellence he appealed for, and his compassionate, impassioned role as an educator, all these preserve al-Ghazali's reputation, both in his own lifetime and for many generations to come, as one of the twentieth century's most important Muslim intellectual thinkers and reformers. His legacy is founded on a lifetime of service. -
Nouman Ali Khan
Revive Your Heart is a call for spiritual renewal and an invitation to have a conversation with one of the world’s most recognisable voices on Islam, Nouman Ali Khan. With his characteristically profound engagement with the language of the Qur’an, the author draws out moving lessons from the verses of Allah’s revelation to give the reader insights on how to reorient our lives for success in both this world and the next.
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Jamie Gilham
Loyal Enemies uncovers the history of the earliest British converts to Islam who lived their lives freely as Muslims on British soil, from the 1850s to the 1950s. Drawing on original archival research, it reveals that people from across the range of social classes defied convention by choosing Islam in this period.
Loyal Enemies is a book about the past, but its core themes – about faith and belief, identity, Empire, loyalties and discrimination – are still salient today.
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Musfir bin Ali al-Qahtani
Understanding Maqasid al-Shari’ah calls for the development of a juridical sense that is finely tuned to the higher objectives and purposes of Islamic rulings, the aims of which are the formulation of a new methodology in understanding the revealed texts and the reform of Muslim thought and its application.
What makes this volume so valuable is that the author applies the higher objectives to different areas of jurisprudence, such as in deriving and issuing religious rulings, and to important social issues present in Muslim societies, such as the role of Muslim women in society, extremism, jihad, commanding right and forbidding wrong and countering religious excessiveness.
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Bassam Saeh
This study illustrates why the Qur’an’s language is miraculous, unique, and evidence of its divine authority. It guides readers to appreciate the beauty of the Qur’an, to become more immersed in it, and have a clearer understanding of its structure and flow.
Devoting special attention to Surah al-Muddaththir (chapter 74) to underpin his analysis, Saeh thus brings the Revelation to life, to demonstrate that each surah has distinct features and characteristics that make it stand out uniquely within the design and sweep of the whole.