Islam As Devotion

How is it that Islam is so feared and misunderstood among Christians? Is there any possibility of an open dialogue between Muslims and Christians that will lead to a greater understanding of both? Ralf K. Wüstenberg explores these and other questions in an in-depth investigation of Islam, using as his guide the teachings of the revered Muslim scholar, Al-Ghazali, and placing them in dialogue with those of the protestant theologian and Reformer, John Calvin. The journey of discovery offered in this book is of long-lasting value to both Christians and Muslims as they seek to find common ground in understanding the most important and basic tenets of each other’s faith.

A new history of Islamic practice told through the aesthetic reception of medieval religious objects.

First Published in 1983, Salvation of the Soul and Islamic Devotion demonstrates that salvation is a central concept of the religion of Islam, even though its meaning, causes and results according to Islam may differ from what is taught by Christianity and other world religions. The first chapter of the book presents the Islamic doctrine of salvation as set forth in the Quran and prophetic tradition. The meaning of salvation is explored, and the means to it on both human and divine sides are considered with special emphasis upon Islamic devotions. The remaining eight chapters deal with both obligatory and supererogatory devotions prescribed by Islam, concentrating on the methods of their correct performance, on which salvation is largely dependent. The material used in this book has been derived entirely from the original Islamic sources written in Arabic. Efforts are made to make the book useful to both Muslim and non-Muslim readers of English interested in the Islamic theory of salvation and acts of devotion.

This study is about a popular manifestation of Islamic devotion that embraces a pluralist setting, keeping itself in a dynamic dialogue with non-Muslim practices. With evidence from various public devotional narratives and ritual practices, the author argues that even universal understanding of living Islam remains incomplete if we do not consider this locally produced pluralised devotional setting that surrounds it. He seeks to address various aspects of local and localised Islam through an examination of Gugudu's local and popular transformation of normative Islam, giving particular focus to the various devotional rituals that blend Muslim and Hindu practices in the public event of Muharram.

In Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity, Thomas Sizgorich seeks to understand why and how violent expressions of religious devotion became central to the self-understandings of both Christian and Muslim communities between the fourth and ninth centuries. Sizgorich argues that the cultivation of violent martyrdom as a path to holiness was in no way particular to Islam; rather, it emerged from a matrix put into place by the Christians of late antiquity. Paying close attention to the role of memory and narrative in the formation of individual and communal selves, Sizgorich identifies a common pool of late ancient narrative forms upon which both Christian and Muslim communities drew. In the process of recollecting the past, Sizgorich explains, Christian and Muslim communities alike elaborated iterations of Christianity or Islam that demanded of each believer a willingness to endure or inflict violence on God's behalf and thereby created militant local pieties that claimed to represent the one "real" Christianity or the only "pure" form of Islam. These militant communities used a shared system of signs, symbols, and stories, stories in which the faithful manifested their purity in conflict with the imperial powers of the world.

First Published in 1983, Salvation of the Soul and Islamic Devotion demonstrates that salvation is a central concept of the religion of Islam, even though its meaning, causes and results according to Islam may differ from what is taught by Christianity and other world religions. The first chapter of the book presents the Islamic doctrine of salvation as set forth in the Quran and prophetic tradition. The meaning of salvation is explored, and the means to it on both human and divine sides are considered with special emphasis upon Islamic devotions. The remaining eight chapters deal with both obligatory and supererogatory devotions prescribed by Islam, concentrating on the methods of their correct performance, on which salvation is largely dependent. The material used in this book has been derived entirely from the original Islamic sources written in Arabic. Efforts are made to make the book useful to both Muslim and non-Muslim readers of English interested in the Islamic theory of salvation and acts of devotion.

How do Muslims who grew up after September 11 balance their love for hip-hop with their devotion to Islam? How do they live the piety and modesty called for by their faith while celebrating an art form defined, in part, by overt sexuality, violence, and profanity? In Representing Islam, Kamaludeen Mohamed Nasir explores the tension between Islam and the global popularity of hip-hop, including attempts by the hip-hop ummah, or community, to draw from the struggles of African Americans in order to articulate the human rights abuses Muslims face. Nasir explores state management of hip-hop culture and how Muslim hip-hoppers are attempting to "Islamize" the genre's performance and jargon to bring the music more in line with religious requirements, which are perhaps even more fraught for female artists who struggle with who has the right to speak for Muslim women. Nasir also investigates the vibrant underground hip-hop culture that exists online. For fans living in conservative countries, social media offers an opportunity to explore and discuss hip-hop when more traditional avenues have been closed. Representing Islam considers the complex and multifaceted rise of hip-hop on a global stage and, in doing so, asks broader questions about how Islam is represented in this global community.