Analysing Muslim Traditions

Since its inception, the study of ad th conducted by scholars trained in the Western academic tradition has been marked by sharp methodological debates. A focal issue is the origin and development of traditions on the advent of Islam. Scholars' verdicts on these traditions have ranged from late fabrications without any historical value for the time concerning which the narrations purport to give information to early, accurately transmitted texts that allow one to reconstruct Islamic origins . Starting from previous contributions to the debate, the studies collected in this volume show that, by careful analysis of their texts and chains of transmission, the history of Muslim traditions can be reconstructed with a high degree of probability and their historicity assessed afresh.

Since its inception, the study of Ḥadīth conducted by scholars trained in the Western academic tradition has been marked by sharp methodological debates. A focal issue is the origin and development of traditions on the advent of Islam. Scholars' verdicts on these traditions have ranged from "late fabrications without any historical value for the time concerning which the narrations purport to give information" to "early, accurately transmitted texts that allow one to reconstruct Islamic origins". Starting from previous contributions to the debate, the studies collected in this volume show that, by careful analysis of their texts and chains of transmission, the history of Muslim traditions can be reconstructed with a high degree of probability and their historicity assessed afresh.

“Islamic Culture: A Study of Cultural Anthropology,” illustrates Islamic culture from an anthropological point of view. It shows that Islam as a way of life relates to all cultural aspects based upon the tradition of its Prophet, Mohammad. For the ?rst time, this study shows that the Prophet of Islam is the founder of Islamic culture and this culture is not an inherited concept but based upon a revelation received from God.

During the early modern period, Muslims in China began to embrace the Chinese characteristics of their heritage. Several scholar-teachers incorporated tenets from traditional Chinese education into their promotion of Islamic knowledge. As a result, some Sino-Muslims established an educational network which utilized an Islamic curriculum made up of Arabic, Persian, and Chinese works. The corpus of Chinese Islamic texts written in this system is collectively labeled the Han Kitab. Interpreting Islam in China explores the Sino-Islamic intellectual tradition through the works of some its brightest luminaries. Three prominent Sino-Muslim authors are used to illustrate transformations within this tradition, Wang Daiyu, Liu Zhi, and Ma Dexin. Kristian Petersen puts these scholars in dialogue and demonstrates the continuities and departures within this tradition. Through an analysis of their writings, he considers several questions: How malleable are religious categories and why are they variously interpreted across time? How do changing historical circumstances affect the interpretation of religious beliefs and practices? How do individuals navigate multiple sources of authority? How do practices inform belief? Overall, he shows that these authors presented an increasingly universalistic portrait of Islam through which Sino-Muslims were encouraged to participate within the global community of Muslims. The growing emphasis on performing the pilgrimage to Mecca, comprehensive knowledge of the Qur'an, and personal knowledge of Arabic stimulated communal engagement. Petersen demonstrates that the integration of Sino-Muslims within a growing global environment, where international travel and communication was increasingly possible, was accompanied by the rising self-awareness of a universally engaged Muslim community.

This important work is a source-critical study of a group of traditions (aḥādīth) found in Ibn Isḥāq's Biography (Sīra) of the prophet Muḥammad, widely considered one of the most important early historical texts on the Prophet's life. Through a meticulous isnād-cum-matn analysis, the author reveals that Ibn Isḥāq relied on Muḥammad b. Abī Muḥammad, a hitherto undocumented source of his. Important new light is also shed on problems with Ibn Hishām's recension of Ibn Isḥāq's Sīra.

Islamic foundations (waqf, pl. awqāf) have been an integral part of Yemeni society both for managing private wealth and as a legal frame for charity and public infrastructure. This book focuses on four socially grounded fields of legal knowledge: fiqh, codification, individual waqf cases, and everyday waqf-related knowledge. It combines textual analysis with ethnography and seeks to understand how Islamic law is approached, used, produced, and validated in selected topics of waqf law where there are tensions between ideals and pragmatic rules. The study analyses central Zaydī fiqh works such as the Sharḥ al-azhār cluster, imamic decrees, fatwās, and waqf documents, mostly from Zaydī, northern Yemen. For the Arabic edition, please see here.

The Reverend Edward Sell believed that much written about Islam was either 'plain ignorant prejudice, ' or 'from an ideal standpoint, ' so he set out to set the record straight about this much misunderstood and sometimes feared religion. Sell spent fifteen years of his life in the Muslim section of India, completely immersed in Islamic culture, and this title is one of three books that he wrote of his experience and knowledge gained there. Although originally published in 1880, it is as current as if released last week, because the tenets of Islam haven't changed much in the past 1900+ years, and if you ever had any questions about the people you are hearing so much about in the news, this is the perfect book for you - and every politician - to read. Reverend Sell fully explains the different sects within this religion, their practices, and their main differences. Reading this book will give one a good idea of what the conflicts between 'them' and 'us' is really based on.

This book is about an actual journey into the heart of the Islamic world, Saudi Arabia. It tells of the discoveries and revelations about the history of the Middle East, Islam, and Muslims. The book's main proposition is connecting the dots between the early Islamic State at the time of the prophet Muhammad and modern-day terrorism and radicalism.The author presents new findings about the true history of Islam. The findings are about the theology of Islam, the language of the Quran, the history of radical Islam, and the social life of Muslims. The book presents an unprecedented analysis of the Quran and an empirical study of the psychological effect of the language of the Quran; there is also a historical and a sociological approach to understand Islam that has never been attempted before. In addition, the book exposes the goals and plans of terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, Taliban, ISIL, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and the Muslim Brotherhood and their followers who want to take over the world, spread Islamic Sharia law, and destroy human civilization. The book also explores the beauty of literature and how it can defeat Islamic radicalism, and how literature can be used to change the rigid mindset of some radicals. In addition, the book shows how peaceful Muslims become victims to those extremists and terrorists. The book also exonerates those moderate peaceful Muslims from any crimes committed by radicals and extremists. It is hoped that radical Muslims would show little humbleness and some humility after they know what their religion is about and learn the truth of the Quran. This book is a rational analysis of the past and present of the Middle East and Islam, the authenticity of the Quran, the life of Muslims under Sharia law, and the control of the clergy over the lives of Muslims, but it warns of the lurking danger of radical Islam that might jeopardize human civilization if it is not stopped immediately. The author of this book, Sami Benjamin, was born in Iraq in 1949. He was raised as a Muslim in a Baghdad neighborhood. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1985, escaping Saddam's regime. Currently, he works in a publishing company in London since 2012. The author lives with his wife in a London suburb. He has three children and six grand children. The author had the privilege of the friendship of Mr. Samir Amin Kumar Abdel Latif of the Indian Publishing House in India who helped the author publish this book. The publisher, Samir Amin Kumar Abdel Latif, is an Indian national and was born in 1954 in Hyderabad, India; he lives in India and continues to reveal the truth about the Quran.

Western perceptions of the East have been shaped by and large within the framework Western social sciences have drawn. The dress sewn for the Western context did not fit the Muslim world and social movements therein; however, social analysts work on the same model in their efforts to understand the East. The Gulen movement, which flourished first in the "East" but now spread across a hundred countries, is not immune from such a bias. This book on the Gulen movement is an effort to deconstruct this bias and the author points to a need for a comprehensive look on Muslim social movements. The author scholarly treats the Gulen movement in cultural, sociological, and religious standpoints, while laying out the main concepts he finds relevant with the movement's far-reaching spread across the world. As concisely phrased in the title, the Gulen case is an interesting encounter of the "tradition" and "modernity" both in the person of Fethullah Gulen and in the education and dialogue initiatives of the movement. The author sees in Gulen an embodiment of wisdom that peacefully harmonizes the benefits of the modern age and the heritage of a long past. Book jacket.