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Rusmir Mahmutcehajic

Anyone who has ever read any book by Bosnian academic Mahmutcehajic knows that the beauty of his prose always brings one back to the Real. His writing – be it about Bosnian War, architecture, urban planning, tolerance, nationalism, democracy, mosques, coffee – has the quality of remembrance.

‘God is always present; it is we who are in constant danger of being absent. Similarly, God is always infinitely close to us, but we are always infinitely remote from Him. Our actions, whether in silence, speech or gesture, are beautiful and good to the extent that we are conscious of the presence of God in them as Beautiful and Good. Without such consciousness, all our acts, whether in silence, speech or gesture, are in vain no matter how they may seem to us. Once we cease approaching everything “In the Name of God the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful”, concluding with “Praise belongs to God”, they cease to connect us to God, and if they do not connect us with Him, then they connect us with something else. But there is no god but Him.’

“This book investigates the relationship between knowledge of the cosmos and knowledge of the self. Conclusions are drawn regarding ignorance as a source of corruption, expulsion, and murder on the basis of the case of the Stolac čaršija, how it came into existence, how it developed as a reflection of the inner life of its people, and the destruction it suffered during the 20th century. Our original dignity cannot be restored until the relationship between knowledge of the cosmos and knowledge of the self is recognized within a discourse of the eternal principle of all existence. This is so because there is nothing in the world whose being is not in some way for us. Unless we discover that purpose, we cannot find ourselves.”

Wardah’s Pick for the Best Book of 2011

Contents:
The Garden
The Town
The Mihrab
From Left to Right
The Call
The Hour
The Guest
The Market-Square
The Book
“Recite!”
The Scales
The House
Doors and Windows
The Labyrinth
The Valley and the Mount
Earth and Heaven
The Tree
Oblivion and Recollection

Michelle Khan

Recommended for girls aged 8 and above, this story is about a Muslim girl attending an all-girls’ school where the environment is decidedly ‘Western’ – actresses, fashion items and make-up. But she comes into her own when she had to come up with a school presentation on her hijab-wearing mother for International Women’s Day. The Hijab Boutique, is a quick read with a deep and resounding message.

Habib Ali bin Isa bin Abdulkader Alhaddad

Contents
The Sick – Manners and Conduct in Visiting
When Death Approaches
Preparing the Deceased Before the Bath
Funeral Prayers
Death and Burial
Visiting the Grave
The Living May Help the Dead
First Night in the Grave
The Soul’s Journey After Death

Published in Singapore

Mourid Barghouti

Barred from his homeland after the 1967 Six-Day War, the poet Mourid Barghouti spent thirty years in exile, shuttling among the world’s cities, yet secure in none of them; separated from his family for years at a time; never certain whether he was a visitor, a refugee, a citizen, or a guest. As he returns home for the first time since the Israeli occupation, Barghouti crosses a wooden bridge over the Jordan River into Ramallah and is unable to recognize the city of his youth. Sifting through memories of the old Palestine as they come up against what he now encounters in this mere “idea of Palestine,” he discovers what it means to be deprived not only of a homeland but of “the habitual place and status of a person.” A tour de force of memory and reflection, lamentation and resilience, I Saw Ramallah is a deeply humane book, essential to any balanced understanding of today’s Middle East.

Winner of the prestigious Naguib Mahfouz Medal.

This translation by the Islamic Texts Society is the 36th chapter of ‘The Revival of the Religious Sciences’ (Ihya’ Ulum al-Din). This chapter is in the last of the four sections of the Ihya, the section dealing with the virtues or what is conducive to salvation.

This work is of radical importance to the history of Sufism and the arguments that al-Ghazali sets out in it form the basis of the development of whole schools of Sufi theory and practice of mystical love, including the extensive Sufi poetry of Mevlana Rumi and Hafiz. The text starts by elucidating the love of God for humanity and the love of man for God, and proceeds to discuss the deepening of this love to include different degrees of longing, intimacy and contentment.

An Annotated Transliteration together with a Translation and an Introduction of His Exposition on the Fundamental Aspects of Sufi Doctrines

Translated by Muhammad Zainiy Uthman, professor at the Center for Advanced Studies on Islam, Science and Civilisation (CASIS), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

The Lata’if al–Asrar li–Ahl Allah al–Atyar (Spiritual Subtleties for the Swiftly Ascending People of God) is a major work of Nur al–Din al–Raniri (died 1658 A.D.), the Shaykh al–Islam of Acheh, Sumatra. It was written at the behest of Sultan Iskandar Thani of Acheh in 1050 A.H./1640 A.D. Two manuscripts (dated 1248 A.H. and 1263 A.H.) found in Terengganu were used to produce an annotated transliteration from the Jawi into Romanized Malay, a translation into English and an introduction. The current work spans 884 pages.

A key text of the Malay World, the Lata’if was written to elucidate the fundamental aspects of Sufi doctrines. It is meant as an introduction to more advanced works for the novice on the path and a reminder for the adept.

Mystical Poems of Aishah al-Bauniyah
Aishah al-Bauniyah (d. 923/1517) was one of the greatest women scholars in Islamic history. A mystic and prolific poet and writer, Aishah composed more works in Arabic than any other woman prior to the 20th century.  Often, she expressed her great devotion to God and His Prophet, and spoke of love and longing on the mystical quest.
She also alluded to her extensive education and mystical training, and her  own particular life experiences, which are often reflected in her verse. Her many writings were read and copied by later generations of admirers who  preserved her substantial literary and mystical legacies.

The selection of poems from this volume, edited and translated into English here for the first time, recount Aishah al-Bauniyah remarkable story of devotion and mystical illumination.

In 922 AD during the Abbasid Caliphate, an Arab Muslim envoy from Baghdad named Ibn Fadlan encountered a party of Viking traders on the upper reaches of the Volga River. In his subsequent report on his mission he gave a meticulous and astonishingly objective description of Vikings, as well as the only eyewitness account ever written of a Viking ship cremation.

Between the ninth and fourteenth centuries, Arab travellers such as Ibn Fadlan journeyed widely and frequently into the far north, crossing territories that now include Russia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Their fascinating accounts describe how the numerous tribes and peoples they encountered traded furs, paid tribute and waged wars. This accessible new translation by Paul Lunde offers an illuminating insight into the world of the Arab geographers, and the medieval lands of the far north.

With David Barsamian

“Said believed that the intellectual must insist on truth and justice, and give utterance not to mere fashion and passing fads but to real ideas and values, which cannot be articulated from a position of power…” from the introduction by Nubar Hovsepian

Contents
Politics and Culture of Palestinian Exile
Orientalism Revisited
Culture and Imperialism
The Israel/PLO Accord: A Critical Assessment
Palestine: Betrayal of History

Jean Kilbourne

Many advertisements these days make us feel as if we have an intimate, even passionate relationship with a product. But as Kilbourne points out in this fascinating and shocking expose, the dreamlike promise of advertising always leaves us hungry for more. We can never be satisfied, because the products we love cannot love us back. – blurb

“Cumulatively they create a climate of cynicism and alienation that is poisonous to relationships. Many people end up feeling romantic about material objects yet deeply cynical about other human beings. In a society in which one of two marriages ends in divorce, we are offered constancy through our products. As one ad says, “Some people need only one man. Or one woman. Or one watch.” Okay, so we can’t be monogamous – at least we can be faithful to our watches. Because of the pervasiveness of this kind of advertising, we learn from childhood that it is safer to make a commitment to a product than to a person, far easier to be loyal to a brand.”