A few new books added to our sidebar items.
One is on mystical poetry and symbolism in Islamic literatures, by Annemarie Schimmel.
Another is a theoretical framework for understanding some of the issues plaguing Muslim majority societies. It covers a wide-range of disciplines including religion, economics and history.
The newest one is a discussion of the stories of Joseph/Yusuf found in the Hebrew Bible and in the Qur’an.
salam,
i read a. majid’s book, probably in a hurry though, but i confess i didnt really see how he could translate what he was talking about into any sort of “islamic” program (i dont mean religiously viable, necessarily, but just, well, realistically viable). it seemed like too much terminology without much translation.
i miss the daily show. but granted, prohibition didnt work, nonetheless — what should muslims do re: the gay marriage movement? should they do anything? and it is a bit naive to say the constitution ONLY enshrined morality in the prohibition. one can read the bill of rights as a book of ethics. how to treat people, how to practice justice, what an individual is worth, etc. it just didnt work in the case of the prohibition, i think…
I agree that Majid is fairly abstract. I don’t think it attempts to put forward an action plan of any practical sort. However, his work is extremely thought provoking in terms of understanding what some of the issues facing the Muslim ummah are and where their roots are. It personally helped me understand, more synthetically, the economic, social and political forces, internally and externally, affecting us and being affected by us. It was a much more comprehensive book, and one that gives Muslims agency, than others I have read.