Towards A Fiqh For Minorities: Some Basic Reflections

This is the first book in Forensic Psychiatry that focuses on the application of psychiatry to legal issues connected to Islamic jurisprudence. It gives contemporary psychiatry in any Islamic country a broad spectrum of tools to work with, enabling the utilization of options specific to particular societal and cultural norms. This book will appeal to both the general as well as the academic reader.

Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi, who died in 1888, had sought an answer to the challenge posed by modernisation and change to Islamic law, by introducing maslahah, which forms the basis of his philosophy of Islamic law. In a fascinating way, the author leads us step by step to what he considers the true import of Shatibi’s views concerning jurisprudence.

Preservation of health (hifz al-sihhah) is the most important branch of Islamic medicine since it is primarily concerned with the prevention of illness rather than cure. This book represents one of the few attempts to introduce the role of Islamic medicine, although Chapter One provides information about a historical background of the preservation of helath in Islam, its aim is to provide fresh ant timely overview of the major aspects of legal, ritual and spiritual structures of teh Islamic law (shariah). These include the laws related to Ibadah, Islamic family laws, foods and drinks as well as environmental laws, for maintaning and preserving human health. Findings indicated that prevention of any diseases from Islamic medical law presentive cannot attain any real success unless it emanates from an Islamic fundamental teaching, namely: the pillars of Islam. Iman and observance of the Islamic rituals such as Salah, zakah, Sawm and Hajj, have played an important role in shaping the attitude, behavior and model personality of the Muslim, in boosting the spiritual motivation or attitude change, and in disseminating the message of prevention. This indicates that bodily and spiritual health goes hand in hand and that pyscho-spritual balance and health is a primary consideration whereas physical health is a secondary one.

Remembrance and Prayer: The Way of Prophet Muhammad, was one of the first works of Shaykh al Ghazali’s to be translated into English. The book describes in vivid prose how the Prophet, upon him be peace, used to remember Allah and pray to Him. Not only are the exquisitely beautiful, deeply moving and penetrating words of the Prophet given in the English translation, but in the original Arabic as well, thus allowing those desirous of memorizing Arabic access to the original texts. The intimate relationship with Allah, which was the hallmark of the Prophet’s life, becomes clear and vivid. The book’s contents are immensely relevant. to the life and concerns of modern man, whose life has been made barren by the present secularist machinery.