Islam Simplified: Understanding Islam Through Its Goals

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.

Writing on the pages of her journal, Nur, a teenage girl in Canada, charts the onset and advance of her mother’s cancer. Nur watches her mother’s body begin to shrink and her mood begin to darken. And when family and friends begin to encroach, Nur must face the prospect of her mother’s looming death.

No one denies that the modesty which is commanded by Islamic Law and by convention includes the decency and decorousness demanded of a woman, and the kind of behavior that will ensure that she is kept far away from situations of temptation and suspicion. Further more, there is no doubt that the greatest act of modesty that she can perform is to wear the hijab, which covers her face. It is the best thing with which she can adorn herself, because it protects her and keeps her far removed from temptation.