Muhammad and the Course of Islam

Muhammad and the Course of Islam PDF Author: H. M. Balyuzi
Publisher: George Ronald Pub Limited
ISBN: 9780853984788
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Book Description
A sympathetic account of a world religion whose adherents today number over 500 million, this book contains a full biography of the Prophet and a history of Islam from the years of His mission to the Nineteenth century.

The First Muslim

The First Muslim PDF Author: Lesley Hazleton
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1594487286
Category : Islam
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Muhammad's was a life of almost unparalleled historical importance; yet for all the iconic power of his name, the intensely dramatic story of the prophet of Islam is not well known. In The First Muslim, Lesley Hazleton brings him vibrantly to life. Drawing on early eyewitness sources and on history, politics, religion, and psychology, she renders him as a man in full, in all his complexity and vitality. Hazleton's account follows the arc of Muhammad's rise from powerlessness to power, from anonymity to renown, from insignificance to lasting significance. How did a child shunted to the margins end up revolutionizing his world? How did a merchant come to challenge the established order with a new vision of social justice? How did the pariah hounded out of Mecca turn exile into a new and victorious beginning? How did the outsider become the ultimate insider?

Muḥammad and the Course of Islám

Muḥammad and the Course of Islám PDF Author: H. M. Balyuzi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Islamic Empire
Languages : en
Pages : 457

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Book Description


Authority in Islam

Authority in Islam PDF Author: Hamid Dabashi
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351317105
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
From the origins of Muhammad's prophetic movement through the development of Islam's principal branches to the establishment of the Umayyad dynasty, the concept of authority has been central to Islamic civilization. By examining the nature, organization, and transformation of authority over time, Dabashi conveys both continuities and disruptions inherent in the development of a new political culture. It is this process, he argues, that accounts for the fundamental patterns of authority in Islam that ultimately shaped, in dialectical interaction with external historical factors, the course of Islamic civilization. The book begins by examining the principal characteristics of authority in pre-Islamic Arab society. Dabashi describes the imposition of the Muhammadan charismatic movement on pre-Islamic Arab culture, tracing the changes it introduced in the fabric of pre-Islamic Arabia. He examines the continuities and changes that followed, focusing on the concept of authority, and the formation of the Sunnite, Shiite, and Karajite branches of Islam as political expressions of deep cultural cleavages. For Dabashi, the formation of these branches was the inevitable outcome of the clash between pre-Islamic patterns of authority and those of the Muhammadan charismatic movement. In turn, they molded both the unity and the diversity of the emerging Islamic culture. Authority in Islam explains how this came to be. Dabashi employs Weber's concept of charismatic authority in describing Muhammad and his mode of authority as both a model and a point of departure. His purpose is not to offer critical verification or opposition to interpretation of historical events, but to suggest a new approach to the existing literature. The book is an important contribution to political sociology as well as the study of Islamic culture and civilization. Sociologists, political scientists, and Middle Eastern specialists will find this analysis of particular value.

Muhammad's Body

Muhammad's Body PDF Author: Michael Muhammad Knight
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469658925
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
Muhammad's Body introduces questions of embodiment and materiality to the study of the Prophet Muhammad. Analyzing classical Muslim literary representations of Muhammad's body as they emerge in Sunni hadith and sira from the eighth through the eleventh centuries CE, Michael Muhammad Knight argues that early Muslims' theories and imaginings about Muhammad's body contributed in significant ways to the construction of prophetic masculinity and authority. Knight approaches hadith and sira as important religiocultural and literary phenomena in their own right. In rich detail, he lays out the variety of ways that early believers imagined Muhammad's relationship to beneficent energy—baraka—and to its boundaries, effects, and limits. Drawing on insights from contemporary theory about the body, Knight shows how changing representations of the Prophet's body helped to legitimatize certain types of people or individuals as religious authorities, while marginalizing or delegitimizing others. For some Sunni Muslims, Knight concludes, claims of religious authority today remain connected to ideas about Muhammad's body.

Following Muhammad

Following Muhammad PDF Author: Carl W. Ernst
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807875805
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Avoiding the traps of sensational political exposes and specialized scholarly Orientalism, Carl Ernst introduces readers to the profound spiritual resources of Islam while clarifying diversity and debate within the tradition. Framing his argument in terms of religious studies, Ernst describes how Protestant definitions of religion and anti-Muslim prejudice have affected views of Islam in Europe and America. He also covers the contemporary importance of Islam in both its traditional settings and its new locations and provides a context for understanding extremist movements like fundamentalism. He concludes with an overview of critical debates on important contemporary issues such as gender and veiling, state politics, and science and religion.

Teach Yourself Islam

Teach Yourself Islam PDF Author: Nabil Abdus-Salam Haroun
Publisher: Al Manhal
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 513

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Book Description
This is a basic self-study course of Islam. Islam, the last of the messages of Allah, the Creator, to mankind, is a universal guidance to the human race everywhere, up to the end of time. Islamic teachings are embodied in the Holy Qur’an, the Word of Allah, revealed to the Seal of Messengers, Muhammad (peace be upon him). The Prophet’s teachings and life are considered to be a detailed interpretation and a human model for the message. This book features a comprehensive outline of the knowledge essential for every muslim. The outlines are essentially translated summaries of twelve Arabic textbooks. They cover a broad spectrum of Islamic knowledge, grouped in six parts: faith, sources, worship, conduct, law, and prophet's biography. Descriptor(s): ISLAMIC EDUCATION | FAITH | WORSHIP | MORALS | ISLAMIC LAW | BIOGRAPHY OF THE PROPHET

The Historical Muhammad

The Historical Muhammad PDF Author: Irving M. Zeitlin
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 0745639992
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 191

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Book Description
In his quest for the historical Muhammad, Zeitlin's chief aim is to catch glimpses of the birth of Islam and the role played by its extraordinary founder. Islam, as its Prophet came to conceive it, was a strict and absolute monotheism. How Muhammad had arrived at this view is not a problem for Muslims, who believe that the Prophet received a revelation from Allah or God, mediated by the Angel Gabriel. For scholars, however, interested in placing Muhammad in the historical context of the seventh-century Arabian Peninsula, the source of the Prophets inspiration is a significant question. It is apparent that the two earlier monotheisms, Judaism and Christianity, constituted an influential presence in the Hijaz, the region comprising Mecca and Medina. Indeed, Jewish communities were salient here, especially in Medina and other not-too-distant oases. Moreover, in addition to the presence of Jews and Christians, there existed a third category of individuals, the Hanifs, who, dissatisfied with their polytheistic beliefs, had developed monotheistic ideas. Zeitlin assesses the extent to which these various influences shaped the emergence of Islam and the development of the Prophets beliefs. He also seeks to understand how the process set in motion by Muhammad led, not long after his death, to the establishment of a world empire.

The Praiseworthy One

The Praiseworthy One PDF Author: Christiane Gruber
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253025265
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In the wake of controversies over printing or displaying images of the Prophet Muhammad, Christiane Gruber's aim is to bring back into scholarly and public discussion the 'lost' history of imagining the Prophet in Islamic cultures. By studying the various verbal and visual constructions of the Prophet's character and persona over the course of more than one thousand years, Gruber seeks to correct public misconceptions and restore to Islam its rich artistic heritage, illuminating the critical role Muhammad has played in Muslim constructions of self and community at different times and in various cultural contexts. The Praiseworthy One is an exploration of the Prophet Muhammad's significance in Muslim life and thought from the beginning of Islam to today. It pays particular attention to procedures of narration, veneration, and sacralization. Gruber stresses that a fruitful approach to extant textual and visual materials is one that emphasizes the harnessing of Muhammad's persona as a larger metaphor to explain both past and present historical events, to build and delineate a sense of community, and to help individuals conceive of and communicate with the realm of the sacred. The Praiseworthy One shows that Muhammad has served as a polyvalent symbol rather than a historical figure with fixed significance.

Muhammad

Muhammad PDF Author: Karen Armstrong
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062316834
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 153

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Book Description
The Man Who Inspired the World's Fastest-Growing Religion Muhammad presents a fascinating portrait of the founder of a religion that continues to change the course of world history. Muhammad's story is more relevant than ever because it offers crucial insight into the true origins of an increasingly radicalized Islam. Countering those who dismiss Islam as fanatical and violent, Armstrong offers a clear, accessible, and balanced portrait of the central figure of one of the world's great religions.