Subjects – Page 4 – Islamic Literary Society

Politics

Virkama, A. (2017) Invisible Islam: Muslim student migrants’ everyday practices in French secular universities, 90-108

8 April 2022

Chapter review Reviewed by: Alaa Dean Alzalam Introduction The following paper critically reviews Virkama’s (2017) Invisible Islam: Muslim student migrants’ everyday practices in French secular universities. The chapter is taken from Aune and Stevenson’s compilation: Religion and Higher Education in Europe and North America (2017). The selected chapter has been chosen for its relevance to…

Read More Virkama, A. (2017) Invisible Islam: Muslim student migrants’ everyday practices in French secular universities, 90-108
History

Adanir’s (2006) Semi-autonomous provincial forces in the Balkans and Anatolia

7 March 2022

Reviewed by: Alaa Dean Alzalam The aim of this essay is to critically review Fikret Adanir’s (2006) chapter on Ottoman history which focuses on the ‘semi-autonomous provincial forces in the Balkans and Anatolia’. The critical review will be structured accordingly: introduction, discussion and conclusion. Firstly, the Introduction highlights Adanir’s overarching thesis, that the rise of…

Read More Adanir’s (2006) Semi-autonomous provincial forces in the Balkans and Anatolia
Poetries

The Leaf of the Neem Tree

12 February 2022

“In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful” Reviewed by: Abdul Hai Before starting the review of Jamal Mehmood’s The Leaf of the Neem Tree, I would like to share what Imaam Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya Al- Suli (d.947) stated in his biography of the poet Abu Tammam Ḥabib Ibn Aws …

Read More The Leaf of the Neem Tree
Islamic Sciences

Revisiting ‘Women Empowerment’ vis-à-vis Islam

3 February 2022

Title: Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and Empowerment of Women—A Prophetic Model of Emancipation of Women. Author: Zaira Ashraf Khan. Publication Details: New Delhi, India: Viva Books Pvt. Ltd., 2022. Pages: 124; ISBN: 978-93-93329-14-1; Paperback; Price: INR 595/- Reviewed by Dr Tauseef Ahmad Parray In his Islam in Historical Perspective, Alexander Knsyh (Routledge, 2017) has devoted a…

Read More Revisiting ‘Women Empowerment’ vis-à-vis Islam
Travel/Memoirs

Home-coming of the heart (1932-1992)

16 January 2022

Part II of The Road to Macca Vol. 2 of 2 Asad, Muhammad. Asad, Pola Hamida. Homecoming of the Heart. Pakistan. Pakistan Writers Cooperative Society 3685 pp. £29.99 (HB) ISBN 978-969-8460-41-9 Reviewed by Abdul Hai At this solemn hour in the history of India, when British and Indian statesmen are laying the foundations of…

Read More Home-coming of the heart (1932-1992)
Travel/Memoirs

The Road to Mecca

1 January 2022

Vol. 1 of 2 Asad, Muhammad. The Road to Mecca. USA. Fons Vitae. 375 pp. £7.63 (PB) ISBN 188-775-237-4 Reviewed by: Abdul Hai. Classic rihla (travel) literature like the journey of Ibn Battuta (1307-1369) or Marco Polo (1254-1324) is no doubt an exceptional narrative of events, experiences, and landscapes. The readers are fascinated by the…

Read More The Road to Mecca
Social Science/Philosophy

A Treasury of Ibn Taymiyyah

18 December 2021

Sheikh, Mustapha. A Treasury of Ibn Taymiyyah. Turkey. Kube Publishing, 2020. pp. x,177. £10.96 (Hardcover). ISBN: 9-781847741035 Reviewed by: Abdul Hai. If I had to swear standing between the corner of the Ka’bah and the spot of Ibrāhīm, I would swear that I have not laid my two eyes on anyone like him [Ibn Taymiyyah],…

Read More A Treasury of Ibn Taymiyyah
History

From Rebels to Rulers, Writing Legitimacy in the early Sokoto State

5 December 2021

“In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful” Naylor, Paul. From Rebels to Rulers, Writing Legitimacy in the early Sokoto State. Great Britain. James Currey, 2021. pp. xxii,199. £60.00 (Hardcover). ISBN: 978-1847012708. Reviewed by: Abdul Hai. “There is that great proverb — that until the lions have their historians, the history of…

Read More From Rebels to Rulers, Writing Legitimacy in the early Sokoto State
Biographies

Abu Hanifa: His Life, Legal Method and Legacy by Shaykh Akram Nadwi

12 November 2021

Reviewed by: Dr M Mansur AliCardiff University This very short, albeit highly erudite work of hagiography has been written by a scholar who has engaged with Abu Hanifa and his legacy for a very long time. By using only the most authentic reports found in the classical Islamic prosopographical collections, original Arabic and Urdu sources…

Read More Abu Hanifa: His Life, Legal Method and Legacy by Shaykh Akram Nadwi
Politics

Culture and Imperialism

29 October 2021

By Edward W. Saïd Reviewed by Abdul Hai “They weren’t like us and for that reason deserved to be ruled.” Edward Said Edward W. Said is a well-known Palestinian-American academic and literary critic. His book, Orientalism, published in 1978, was a ground-breaking study. Orientalism tries to understand how the colonisers studied and analysed their…

Read More Culture and Imperialism
History

Palestine. A Four Thousand Year History.

29 September 2021

“In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful” Palestine. A Four Thousand Year History. Prof: Nur Masalha Reviwed by Abdul Hai “If I don’t steal it, someone else will steal it.” Jacob. Israeli Settler. In the film The Kingdom of Heaven when Saladin, played by Ghassan Massoud, was asked by Balian…

Read More Palestine. A Four Thousand Year History.
Travel/Memoirs

In the Hands of the Taliban

22 August 2021

“[The Taliban soldiers] showing more courtesy than British police”. Yvonne Ridley. Reviewed by Abdul Hai Some may say the narrative by the British journalist Yvonne Ridley presented in “In the Hands of the Taliban” is merely a classical manifestation of Stockholm Syndrome. A superficial reading of the book may lead one to believe this claim…

Read More In the Hands of the Taliban