In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful Islam at the Crossroads Reviewed by Abdul Hai The Saudi writer Ibrahim Al-Buleihi is deeply convinced of the political, social, scientific, and anthropological achievements of the Western world, considering it a “civilisation par excellence.” His admiration for Western civilisation is so profound that he…
Reviewed by Abdul Hai “They are successful because they left their religion and we are backward because we left our Religion”. Jamal-uddin Al-Afghani I arrived in Cairo just after the Maghrib prayer during one of my remarkable journeys to Egypt. Upon arrival, I took a taxi with my friend, who had been waiting to receive…
Reviewed by Abdul Hai “O Amir!! When did you start enslaving people, when their mothers gave birth to them free?” Umar ibn Khattab (RA) “We missed the bus for industrial revolution, true but we missed the bus because the British Empire threw us under its wheels”. Dr Shashi Tharoor In a world often hostile to religion, particularly Islam, discussing Islam’s intellectual contributions…
Review by Abdul Hai Writing a historical biography of any significant figure is always challenging, particularly when it concerns a figure like Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal. Several challenges arise when an author from outside the tradition attempts to craft a biography of someone whose religious beliefs they do not share. These challenges, no matter how…
Reviewed Abdul Hai It is believed that there is both blessing and wisdom in reading about the lives of the pious. Furthermore, even for those who are sinful, there is hope in loving and learning about the pious, as it may lead to receiving their intercession, a sentiment eloquently expressed in the couplets of Imam…
Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence by James Lovelock Reviewed by Amirah Chati James Lovelock- inventor, environmentalist and futurist- was no stranger to controversy in his century-long life. His final book, ‘Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence’, published three years before his death, outlines a significant new hypothesis for a world he would not live to…
A Global and Historical Comparison AHMET T. KURU, San Diego State University Reviewed by Noor Mohammed Edward Said sagaciously mentions in his seminal work on Orientalism that economics, politics and sociology in the modern academy are ideological sciences, and, went on to unequivocally state that, “No one has ever devised a method for detaching the…
Reviewed by Abdul Hai While I hold a dissenting view regarding the assertions presented in Samuel Huntington’s “Clash of Civilisations,” I find the title itself to be thought-provoking and a significant observation by the author. My perspective aligns with the notion of a Clash of Civilisations, as previously articulated in other discussions. It suffices to…
De Puerto Rico To Islam With Love: A Collection of Poetry About Identity and Faith By Wendy Díaz Reviewed by Hamzah Vargas “A New Minority Makes Itself Known: Hispanic Muslims” reported the New York Times in December of 2001 not long after the September 11 attacks began the ‘War on Terror’, an era in which…
By John Gray. Reviewed by Dr. Safaruk Z. Chowdhury, John Gray is one of the eminent British philosophers and public intellectuals writing today. His academic interests have been in politics, cultural studies and analytic philosophy. A keen historian of ideas, Gray’s numerous works have been praised for being innovative, challenging and prophetic. Born to a…
Reviewed or something else Abdul Hai “In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.” Poem from Guantanamo. The Detainees speak The claim that the modern world has progressed and humanity has become civilized would be difficult for me to accept. How can I rationalise such a claim when places like Guantanamo still…
Shapers of Islam in Southeast Asia Prof Khairudin Aljunied. Reviewed Abdul Hai Malik ibn Anas (711 CE -795 CE), a distinguished jurist and founder of the Maliki school of jurisprudence, made a perceptive statement affirming that the reformation of the later portion of the Muslim nation, known as the Ummah, can only be achieved through…
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