Islam And The Fate Of Others

Can non-Muslims be saved? And can those who are damned to Hell ever be redeemed? In Islam and the Fate of Others, Mohammad Hassan Khalil examines the writings of influential medieval and modern Muslim scholars on the controversial and consequential question of non-Muslim salvation. This is an illuminating study of four of the most prominent figures in the history of Islam: Ghazali, Ibn 'Arabi, Ibn Taymiyya, and Rashid Rida. Khalil demonstrates that though these paradigmatic figures tended to affirm the superiority of the Islamic message, they also envisioned a God of mercy and justice and a Paradise populated by Muslims and non-Muslims. Islam and the Fate of Others reveals that these theologians' interpretations of the Qur'an and hadith corpus-from optimistic depictions of Judgment Day to notions of a temporal Hell and salvation for all-challenge widespread assumptions about Islamic scripture and thought. Along the way, Khalil examines the writings of many other important writers, such as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Mulla Sadra, Shah Wali Allah of Delhi, Muhammad Ali of Lahore, James Robson, Sayyid Qutb, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Farid Esack, Reza Shah-Kazemi, T. J. Winter, and Muhammad Legenhausen. Islam and the Fate of Others is both timely and overdue.

Introduction: grappling with the salvation question / Mohammad Hassan Khalil -- Failures of practice or failures of faith: are non-Muslims subject to the sharia? / A. Kevin Reinhart -- "No salvation outside Islam": Muslim modernists, democratic politics, and Islamic theological exclusivism / Mohammad Fadel -- The ambiguity of the Qur'anic command / William C. Chittick -- Beyond polemics and pluralism: the universal message of the Qur'an / Reza Shah-Kazemi -- The path of Allah or the paths of Allah? Revisiting classical and medieval Sunni approaches to the salvation of others / Yasir Qadhi -- Realism and the real: Islamic theology and the problem of alternative expressions of God / Tim Winter -- Non-reductive pluralism and religious dialogue / Muhammad Legenhausen -- Oneself as the saved other? the ethics and soteriology of difference in two Muslim thinkers / Sajjad Rizvi -- The portrayal of Jews and the possibilities for their salvation in the Qur'an / Farid Esack -- Embracing relationality and theological tensions: Muslima theology, religious diversity, and fate / Jerusha Lamptey -- The food of the damned / David M. Freidenreich -- Acts of salvation: agency, others, and prayer beyond the grave in Islam / Marcia Hermansen -- Citizen Ahmad among the believers: salvation contextualized in Indonesia and Egypt / Bruce B. Lawrence

Introduction: grappling with the salvation question / Mohammad Hassan Khalil -- Failures of practice or failures of faith: are non-Muslims subject to the sharia? / A. Kevin Reinhart -- "No salvation outside Islam": Muslim modernists, democratic politics, and Islamic theological exclusivism / Mohammad Fadel -- The ambiguity of the Qur'anic command / William C. Chittick -- Beyond polemics and pluralism: the universal message of the Qur'an / Reza Shah-Kazemi -- The path of Allah or the paths of Allah? Revisiting classical and medieval Sunni approaches to the salvation of others / Yasir Qadhi -- Realism and the real: Islamic theology and the problem of alternative expressions of God / Tim Winter -- Non-reductive pluralism and religious dialogue / Muhammad Legenhausen -- Oneself as the saved other? the ethics and soteriology of difference in two Muslim thinkers / Sajjad Rizvi -- The portrayal of Jews and the possibilities for their salvation in the Qur'an / Farid Esack -- Embracing relationality and theological tensions: Muslima theology, religious diversity, and fate / Jerusha Lamptey -- The food of the damned / David M. Freidenreich -- Acts of salvation: agency, others, and prayer beyond the grave in Islam / Marcia Hermansen -- Citizen Ahmad among the believers: salvation contextualized in Indonesia and Egypt / Bruce B. Lawrence

Since at least the attacks of September 11, 2001, one of the most pressing political questions of the age has been whether Islam is hostile to religious freedom. Daniel Philpott examines conditions on the ground in forty-seven Muslim-majority countries today and offers an honest, clear-eyed answer to this urgent question. It is not, however, a simple answer. From a satellite view, the Muslim world looks unfree. But, Philpott shows, the truth is much more complex. Some one-fourth of Muslim-majority countries are in fact religiously free. Of the other countries, about forty percent are governed not by Islamists but by a hostile secularism imported from the West, while the other sixty percent are Islamist. The picture that emerges is both honest and hopeful. Yes, most Muslim-majority countries are lacking in religious freedom. But, Philpott argues, the Islamic tradition carries within it "seeds of freedom," and he offers guidance for how to cultivate those seeds in order to expand religious freedom in the Muslim world and the world at large. It is an urgent project. Religious freedom promotes goods like democracy and the advancement of women that are lacking in the Muslim-majority world and reduces ills like civil war, terrorism, and violence. Further, religious freedom is simply a matter of justice--not an exclusively Western value, but rather a universal right rooted in human nature. Its realization is critical to the aspirations of religious minorities and dissenters in Muslim countries, to Muslims living in non-Muslim countries or under secular dictatorships, and to relations between the West and the Muslim world. In this thoughtful book, Philpott seeks to establish a constructive middle ground in a fiery and long-lasting debate over Islam.

An extension of the book "Then I was Guided" by the same author, with the purpose of elaborating with further evidence on the truthfulness of Shia beliefs.

This book offers a new approach to the vexing question of how to write the early history of Islam. The first part discusses the nature of the Muslim and non-Muslim source material for the seventh- and eighth-century Middle East and argues that by lessening the divide between these two traditions, which has largely been erected by modern scholarship, we can come to a better appreciation of this crucial period. The second part gives a detailed survey of sources and an analysis of some 120 non-Muslim texts, all of which provide information about the first century and a half of Islam (roughly A.D. 620-780). The third part furnishes examples, according to the approach suggested in the first part and with the material presented in the second part, how one might write the history of this time. The fourth part takes the form of excurses on various topics, such as the process of Islamization, the phenomenon of conversion to Islam, the development of techniques for determining the direction of prayer, and the conquest of Egypt. Because this work views Islamic history with the aid of non-Muslim texts and assesses the latter in the light of Muslim writings, it will be essential reading for historians of Islam, Christianity, Judaism, or Zoroastrianism--indeed, for all those with an interest in cultures of the eastern Mediterranean in its traditional phase from Late Antiquity to medieval times.

In much of the Muslim world, religion is the central foundation upon which family, community, morality, and identity are built. The inextricable embedment of religion in Muslim culture has forced a new generation of non-believing Muslims to face the heavy costs of abandoning their parents’ religion: disowned by their families, marginalized from their communities, imprisoned, or even sentenced to death by their governments. Struggling to reconcile the Muslim society he was living in as a scientist and physician and the religion he was being raised in, Ali A. Rizvi eventually loses his faith. Discovering that he is not alone, he moves to North America and promises to use his new freedom of speech to represent the voices that are usually quashed before reaching the mainstream media—the Atheist Muslim. In The Atheist Muslim, we follow Rizvi as he finds himself caught between two narrative voices he cannot relate to: extreme Islam and anti-Muslim bigotry in a post-9/11 world. The Atheist Muslim recounts the journey that allows Rizvi to criticize Islam—as one should be able to criticize any set of ideas—without demonizing his entire people. Emotionally and intellectually compelling, his personal story outlines the challenges of modern Islam and the factors that could help lead it toward a substantive, progressive reformation.

An up-close and up-to-date look at an often misunderstood faith This completely revised and updated guide explores the tenets of the Qu’ran (a.k.a. Koran), examines the history of the religion and its relationship to Christianity and Judaism, and features an expanded section on the true story behind “jihad.” It explores Islamic views on war and terrorism, including the Muslim perspective on the tragic events of September 11, and the subsequent U.S. presence in both Afghanistan and Iraq. • Excellent sales for the first edition • Islam is the fastest growing religion in America, with more than six million devoted followers • Features an expanded section on women in Islam, including their status within the Taliban, and the Islamic practice of polygamy