Faith First

Faith First is based on a simple premise: Begin with faith, and the rest will follow. This comprehensive handbook emphasizes the centrality of awakening the heart from slumber and strengthening faith as the primary stepping stone in our journey to God.Dr. Magdy al-Hilali skillfully weaves verses of the Quran, hadiths, and quotes from classical works and contemporary scholars into an indispensable guide on faith and self-development. Readers will find this volume, translated and adapted by MAS Publishing, easy to navigate, relevant, and brimming with stories and practical tips.Part I explores foundational concepts in the relationship between heart and faith. Part II outlines eleven methods for growing faith in ourselves and the hearts of others, including fear, prayer, charity, loving the mosques, and good company. The crowning highlight of the book is a chapter on the Quran which introduces readers to the art of Quranic reflection and the ideal relationship between servants and the book of God.DR. MAGDY AL-HILALI has written more than thirty books in Arabic on spirituality, the Quran, and self-improvement. Millions of readers have benefitted from his personable writing style, practical emphasis, and meticulous research.

This is the biography of a contested memory, how it was born, grew, changed the world, and was changed by it. It's the story of the story of how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began. Joseph Smith, the church's founder, remembered that his first audible prayer, uttered in spring of 1820 when he was about fourteen, was answered with a vision of heavenly beings. Appearing to the boy in the woods near his parents' home in western New York State, they told Smith that he was forgiven and warned him that Christianity had gone astray. Smith created a rich and controversial historical record by narrating and documenting this event repeatedly. In First Vision, Steven C. Harper shows how Latter-day Saints (beginning with Joseph Smith) and others have remembered this experience and rendered it meaningful. When and why and how did Joseph Smith's first vision, as saints know the event, become their seminal story? What challenges did it face along the way? What changes did it undergo as a result? Can it possibly hold its privileged position against the tides of doubt and disbelief, memory studies, and source criticism-all in the information age? Steven C. Harper tells the story of how Latter-day Saints forgot and then remembered accounts of Smith's experience and how Smith's 1838 account was redacted and canonized. He explores the dissonance many saints experienced after discovering multiple accounts of Smith's experience. He describes how, for many, the dissonance has been resolved by a reshaped collective memory.

Introduces young readers to the fundamentals of the Catholic faith, including basic prayers, holidays, and concepts like forgiveness. On board pages.

Leads young people to study and apply principles of Catholic morality.

Fostering mutual understanding by viewing religion from an outsider perspective Depending on how one defines religion, there are at least thousands of religions in the world. Given such religious diversity, how can any one religion claim to know the truth? Nothing proposed so far has helped us settle which of these religions, if any, are true--until now. Author John W. Loftus, a former minister turned atheist, argues we would all be better off if we viewed any religion--including our own--from the informed skepticism of an outsider, a nonbeliever. For this reason he has devised "the outsider test for faith." He describes it as a variation on the Golden Rule: "Do unto your own faith what you do to other faiths." Essentially, this means applying the same skepticism to our own beliefs as we do to the beliefs of other faiths. Loftus notes that research from psychology, anthropology, sociology, and neuroscience goes a long way toward explaining why the human race has produced so many belief systems, why religion is culturally dependent, and how religion evolved in the first place. It's important that people understand these findings to escape the dangerous delusion that any one religion represents the only truth. At a time when the vast diversity of human belief systems is accessible to all, the outsider test for faith offers a rational means for fostering mutual understanding.

A collection of illustrated prayers for children to be thankful for all the things in their lives.