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Suriani Suratman

This monograph is about the portrayal of the Malays by the government, as found in the mainstream media in Singapore. The dominant feature of this portrayal is what the author describes as the ‘problematic Singapore Malays’. Two main characteristics emerged: that the Malays are “lagging behind” despite visible progress, and portrayal of their “doubtful loyalty”.

Through a survey of newspaper reports from the period of the 1960s to the 1990s, this paper argues that the sustained reproduction of ‘the problematic Malays’ occurs through (1) continuous identifying of new areas requiring attention, and (2) making comparisons of progress between ethnic groups at a given point of time instead of looking at longitudinal progress. Overall, it is a clear indication of the consistent gazing upon the Malays.

Michael Laffan
Excerpt:
“It was probably in Mecca that al-Sharqawi inducted two Jawis into the Sammani brotherhood, founded by the Medinese Muhammad Samman (1717-76). One of these Jawi initiates was the ecstatic Muhammad Nafis al-Banjari (1770-1820), the other was the more sober (and prolific) Da’ud al-Fatani (d. 1845).”
Also interesting to read that Singapore was such an important printing centre for the whole of the Malay World in the 19th century. Presses in the vicinity of Masjid Sultan were printing Qur’an, mawlid books, religious manuals such as the Safinah al-Najah, and even a Sufi manual for the Shattari brotherhood in 1877.

This map lays out the main events of the life of the Prophet Muhammad (S). Experience learning about the seerah like never before. First, construct the 40-piece jigsaw puzzle of the seerah map. Then follow the seerah timeline and locate the places mentioned for each event on the map using grid references.

Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller

“Sea Without Shore” is a manual for those travelling the path of Sufism. The book opens with narratives of five Sufis met by the author in Syria, Jordan, and Turkey whose lives exemplified the knowledge and practice of the Sufi path. The second part is a complete handbook of the method and rule of the Shadhili order of Sufism, transmitted to the author by his spiritual mentor, Sheikh ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Shaghouri – from devotions, dhikr and metaphysical doctrine, to how a Sufi lives, marries, and earns a living in the modern world. A third part treats wider theological questions such as other faiths and mysticisms, universalism and the finality of Islam, the promise of God to Jews and Christians, evolution and religion, and divine Wisdom and Justice in the face of human suffering. The book provides an indelible portrait of a vibrant mystical tradition spanning seven and a half centuries of endeavour to know Allah.

Yannis Toussulis

Contents:
The Sufi Mystique
Traditionalist Critique
Quests for the Hidden Hierarchy
Further Quests for the Hidden Source
The Earlier Way of Blame
The Middle Period of Malamati Activity
The Later Malamatiyya
Twentieth-Century Representatives
Seven Stations of Wisdom
Human Completeness
Risala Salihiyya of Pir Nur al-Arabi

Shaykh Muhammad Mahy Cisse

A wonderfully concise and comprehensive work on one of the most pivotal events in world history, the heavenly ascension (mi’raj) of the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.).

Monthly magazine published in the United Kingdom. Enquire for availability of current issues.

Magsie Hamilton Little

Life, Death and Hope in Afghanistan

London, July 7th 2005. The author, a student at the School of Oriental and African Studies, witnesses the carnage caused by a suicide bomber on a London bus. At a loss to reconcile the blind hatred behind the attacks with the Islamic world she has been studying, and despite the risks, she feels compelled to travel to the heart of where many see as the conflict between East and West, in a search for understanding. She buys a ticket and gets on a plane to Kabul. A single non-Muslim woman in Afghanistan faces many dangers; but Magsie also encounters the warmth and humanity of the Afghan people, in their desperate struggle to survive. It is they who give her a knowledge of Islamic faith and culture she could never have learnt at college and enable her to see a side of Afghan life seldom reported in the Western press.

Months later, back in London, life resumes as normal, before suddenly everything is turned upside down again. A desperate phone call from Kabul sends her rushing back to the country she has come to love – and plunges her into a terrifying nightmare. Alone and totally out of her depth, it is only now that the real journey can begin…