Fundamentals of Islam (P/B)

LET US BE MUSLIMS is a new edited English version of Sayyid Mawdudi’s Urdu Khutubat. It is no ordinary book, says Khurram Murad in his long Introduction, for it has stirred more hearts and impelled more lives to change their course than any of his more erudite works. In these Friday congregational addresses, Sayyid Mawdudi expounds such familiar themes as Iman, Islam, the Prayer, Fasting, Almsgiving, Pilgrimage and Jihad. But, in an unusually beautiful, powerfully reasoned, eloquent and passionate, and yet simple and lucid style,

“Sayyid Abul A’la Al-Mawdudui (1903-1979), one of the chief architects of contemporary Islamic resurgence, was the an outstanding Islamic thinker and writer of his time. He devoted his life to expound the meaning and message of Islam and to organise a collective movement to establish the Islamic Order. In this struggle, he had to pass through all kinds of sufferings.
Between 1948-67, he spent a total of five years in different prisons of Pakistan. In 1953, he was also sentenced to death by a Martial Law court for writing a ‘seditious’ pamphlet, this sentence being later commuted to life imprisonment. In 1941, he founded Jama’at-I Islami, of which he remained Amir, until 1972 and which is one of the most prominent Islamic movements of our day. He authored more than one hundred works on Islam, both scholarly and popular, and his writings have been translated into forty languages.”

This book analyses the principles and practices of philanthropy and distributive justice in Islam. It argues, with analyses and examples, that the accomplishment of purposive philanthropy, as commanded by the fundamental tenets of Islam, through the professionalization and rationalization of zakat management, modernization of awaqaf, etc. has the potential of optimizing justice in Muslim societies. The work draws on the Quran, Hadithe, other authentic literature, and also on official documents and publications of management agencies dealing with philanthropy in different Muslim countries/societies. The analyses are documented enough to be used as a text for the study of philanthropy in Islam in tertiary institutions nonetheless are simple enough to draw general readership and to be used by non-profit and international organizations worldwide in order to order to understand the principles and issues of philanthropy and distributive justice in Muslim societies.

In all the divine revelations there is a constant warning that wrongdoers may end up in Hell-fire, though Allah’s kindness and mercy are extended to many people. Reading about the Hell-fire enables one to know it, fear it, and try utmost to keep oneself away from it through correct beliefs and good deeds. The more one knows about Hell-fire, the more he or she strives to be saved from its reach. Relying on statements from the Holy Qur’an and the Hadith, this book enables the reader to have a realistic picture of Hell-fire’s torments. It may be enough to know that it is a raging fire, but detailed knowledge of it, as displayed in this book, will strengthen a person’s belief and eventually, Allah willing, make him or her seek for and remain steadfast on the path to salvation. This is an indispensable book for believers and non-believers alike. Hell-fire: Its Torments and Denizens is an abridged, summarized version of Siddiq Hasan Khan’s book about the Hell-fire.

New Directions in Islamic Education explores the relationship between pedagogy and the formation of religious identities within Islamic education settings that are based in minority and majority Muslim contexts. Based on empirical research, the book engages critically with the philosophical, theological and cultural dynamics that inform Muslim educational thought and practice. The book offers an integrated model of Islamic education that identifies the heart of the Islamic educational imagination as tarbiyah, a transformative process of becoming. Overall, this book seeks to ground the theory and practice of Islamic education within the experience of the educator and the learner, and it synthesises the spiritual foundations of Islam with the tradition of critical reflection within the classical Muslim educational heritage. This ground breaking and wide-ranging work should be of interest not only to Muslim educators and education specialists, but also to social scientists, theologians and policy makers.