Approaching the Sunnah: Comprehension and Controversy
Author : Yusuf al Qaradawy
Hardback : ISBN: 1-56564-419-0 $ 26.95
Paperback : ISBN: 1-56564-418-2 $16.95
Size/pages : (6x9) / 234 p.
The Sunnah still provides the stable moral framework – the grammar – that enables Muslims, by formal rules and inward sense, to know right from wrong. However, separation from the mainstream of life puts the Sunnah in danger of becoming rigid – an archaism. Addressing that danger, this book explains how the Sunnah can function as the grammar of a living, adaptive language, capable of guiding (and not shying from) the mainstream. The first chapter sets out the qualities that characterize authentic application of the Sunnah: universality, coherence (so that different spheres of human responsibility are not split), compassionate realism, moderation, and humility.
The second explains standards and procedures for determining the Sunnah in the fields of jurisprudence and moral instruction. The third chapter illustrates through detailed examples common errors in understanding the Sunnah – reading hadiths singly without sufficient context, confusing legal and moral injunctions, means and ends, figurative and literal meanings…–and it proposes remedies for these errors.
Epistemological Bias: In the Physical & Social Sciences
Author : Abdelwahab M. Elmessiri
Hardback : ISBN: 1-56564-417-4 $ 25.00
Paperback : ISBN: 1-56564-416-6 $17.95
Size/pages : (6x9) / 328 p.
The question of bias in methodology and terminology is a problem that faces researchers east, west, north and south; however, it faces Third World intellectuals with special keenness. For although they write in a cultural environment that has its own specific conceptual and cultural paradigms, they nevertheless encounter a foreign paradigm which attempts to impose itself upon their society and upon their very imagination and thoughts. When the term “developmental psychology” for instance is used in the West Arab scholars also say “developmental psychology”, when “applied psychology” is mentioned they hurry to use the same term etc. Why not establish a new science with its own mechanisms, methodologies and points of reference to deal with epistemological biases and open up the gate of ijtihad with respect to them?
This collection of papers aims to discover some of the biases latent in our terminology, methodologies, research tools, and conceptual principles, and to propose alternative ones marked by a greater degree of independence and neutrality. This is not to belittle the human value of the West’s creative contributions but to emphasize the danger of making it the ultimate point of reference and then trying to continuously play “catch up” with it.
Al Tawhid: Its Implications for Thought and Life
Author : Ismail Raji al Faruqi
Paperback : ISBN: 0-912463-80-5 $8.95
Size/pages : (6x9) / 237 p.
This book touches upon a broad spectrum of subjects, drawing elements from history, comparative religion, anthropology, philosophy, ethics, epistemology, archaeology, and other disciplines. As such, the concept of tawhid is rich in the depth of its erudition, abundant in its perception, and direct in its implications for life and thought.
Civilization and Society
Author : Syed Sajjad Husain
Publisher : Bangladesh Institute of Islamic Thought
Paperback : $20.00
Size/pages : (6x9) / 314 p.
The range covered by the contents of this book is fairly wide; history, sociology, literature and politics. All have come in for comment and will go a long way to demonstrate that Muslims in Bangladesh are fully conscious of their place in the wider community of Muslims.
Contemplation: An Islamic Psychospiritual Study
Author : Malik Badri / with an Introduction by Shaykh Yusuf al Qaradawi
Translator : Abdul-Wahid Lu’lu’a
Hardback : ISBN: 1-56564-273-2 $29.95
Paperback : ISBN: 1-56564-267-8 $13.95
Size/pages : (6x9) / 136 p.
Combining the rich traditional Islamic wisdom with contemporary knowledge, the author advances a unique approach to the understanding of the human psyche and the self that gives a central position to meditation and contemplation as forms of worship in Islam.
Crisis in the Muslim Mind
Author : AbdulHamid A. AbuSulayman
Translator :Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo
Paperback : ISBN: 1-56564-138-8 $12.00
Size/pages : (6x9) / 160 p.
If anything is self-evident across the Muslim world today it is that the Ummah is badly in need of reform. “Crisis in the Muslim Mind” examines the intellectual and historical roots of the malaise that has encompassed the Ummah and threatens to efface its identity. This important work is designed to familiarize educated and concerned Muslims with the nature of the crisis confronting them, and to suggest the steps necessary to overcome it.
Economic Doctrines of Islam: A Study in the Doctrines of Islam and their Implications for Poverty, Employment and Economic Growth
Author : Irfan Ul Haq
Hardback : ISBN: 1-65654-217-1 $ 20.00
Paperback : ISBN: 1-65654-218-X $ 12.00
Size/pages : (6x9) / 293 p.
This book examines the primary sources of Islam to extract and formalize from them the Islamic economic doctrines as well as the sociopolitical framework which guides the development of society. In particular, emphasis is placed on the problems of poverty, unemployment and lack of human resource development.
Although written for students of social science and economics and students of Islam, Economic Doctrines of Islam nevertheless addresses itself to all such individuals who are interested in seeking divine guidance in the realm of ethical social and economic development of human societies at large.
Forensic Psychiatry in Islamic Jurisprudence
Author : Kutaiba S. Chaleby
Hardback : ISBN: 1-56564-277-5 $ 25.00
Paperback : ISBN: 1-56564-276-7 $ 15.00
Size/pages : (6x9) / 220 p.
This is the first book in Forensic Psychiatry that focuses on the application of psychiatry to legal issues connected with Islamic jurisprudence. Holding a unique position amongst the world’s religions in its containment of every aspect of human existence, it is openly natural for Islam to govern both the spiritual and legislative aspects of life.
This work will appeal to both the general as well as the academic reader drawing important and wide-ranging conclusions relevant for many individuals and societies in the Islamic world.
Ibn Ashur: Treatise on Maqasid Al-Shariah
Author : Muhammad Al-Tahir Ibn Ashour
Hardback : ISBN: 1-56564-423-9 $ 35.00
Paperback : ISBN: 1-56564-422-0 $ 25.00
Size/pages : (6x9) / 518 p.
Shaikh Muhammad al-Tahir ibn Ashur is the most renowned Zaytuna Imam and one of the great Islamic scholars of the 20th century. The publication of this translation of Shaikh Ibn Ashur’s Treatise on Maqasid al-Shari’ah is a breakthrough in studies on Islamic law in the English language. In this book, Ibn Ashur proposed Maqasid as a methodology for the renewal of the theory of Islamic law, which has not undergone any serious development since the era of the great imams. Ibn Ashur – quite courageously – also addressed the sensitive topic of the intents/Maqasid of Prophet Muhammad (SAAS) behind his actions and decisions.
He introduced criteria to differentiate between the Prophetic traditions that were meant to be part of Islamic law and the Prophetic actions/ sayings that were meant to be for the sake of specific purposes such as political leadership, court judgment, friendly advice, and conflict resolution. But Ibn Ashur’s most significant contribution in this book has been the development of new Maqasid by coining new, contemporary, terminology that were never formulated in traditional usul al-fiqh. For example, Ibn Ashur developed the theory of the ‘preservation of lineage’ into ‘the preservation of the family system’, the ‘protection of true belief’ into ‘freedom of beliefs’, etc. He also introduced the concepts of ‘orderliness’, ‘natural disposition’, ‘freedom’, ‘rights’, ‘civility’, and ‘equality’ as Maqasid in their own right, and upon which the whole Islamic law is based. This development opens great opportunities for Islamic law to address current and real challenges for Muslim societies and Muslim minorities.