Islamic Literature

The W.W. Norton Company has developed something of a reputation for producing definitive anthologies; as a young undergraduate I vividly recall lugging around two hefty volumes of The Norton Anthology of English Literature over three tiring years. It was with some excitement then that I opened the Islam volume of the recently published Norton Anthology of World Religions. Could we expect the same canon-shaping selection of primary texts that capture, in this case, the lifeblood of Islamic literary production over 14 centuries condensed into a single, accessible, English-language volume? The answer, after some lengthy and very pleasant perusal, has transpired to be a resounding yes.

Presentation of a talk presented at the "Conference on Islamic manuscripts in the Horn of Africa" (18-19 March 2014, IES Addis Ababa), discussing the linguistic perspective and research questions related to the study of Arabic based Amharic manuscripts from Wälli.

"Pearls on a String" presents the arts of historical Islamic cultures by focusing on specific people and relationships among cultural tastemakers, especially painters, calligraphers, poets, and their patrons. Through a series of chapters, the book spotlights certain historical moments from across the Islamic world. Each chapter pivots around patrons and their social networks. These independent sections allow different voices and perspectives to emerge, enabling the reader to see that Islamic societies are not monolithic but made up of a tapestry of individuals with distinct and varying views.

The present work is a translation of al-Shahid al-Thani’s Munyat al-Murid fi Adab al-Mufid wa al-Mustafid. The original Arabic work, written in 954 AH/1547 CE, quickly established  itself as a core text in the Islamic seminaries, and it has long been an important source of reference for anyone interested in Islamic education and spiritual development.

Now available in English for the first time, this classic work will be a valuable addition to the core reading lists of courses on Islamic ethics and spirituality. The current edition also contains an insightful introduction consisting of a biography of the author, an overview of the body of his work, a survey of his predecessors’ views on education, a study of his ideas on education, and an examination of his methodology of education.

Edited by Mohammad Mehdi Baghi and Mohammed Ali Ismail, with an introduction by Mohammad Mehdi Baghi.

The vibrant tradition of West African Arabic poetry is dominated by the genre of madih, that is, poetry in praise of the Prophet Muhammad. This genre of poetry has been mostly ignored in Western scholarship and dismissed as mere ‘pious praise’ lacking any significant intellectual content. In Poetry in Praise of Prophetic Perfection, Dr Oludamini Ogunnaike challenges the misconceptions around West African madih poetry and addresses the scope and depth of this genre; he not only explores its rich lyrical nature and its foundations in the Qur’an, Hadith, pre-Islamic and early Islamic poetry, but also its inextricable link to Sufism and Sufi doctrines of cosmology, ontology and epistemology. Drawing on Sufi traditions and practices, the author expounds on the various ways in which West African madih poetry both describes and facilitates the ultimate fulfillment of the human potential, the Perfect Human (al-Insan al-Kamil) or the attainment of the Praiseworthy Station (al-Maqam al-Mahmud) of which the Prophet Muhammad is the highest example.

Poetry in Praise of Prophetic Perfection includes translations of numerous extracts from madih poetry (accompanied by the original Arabic); while the Appendix presents a selection of complete poems—the most popular and influential poems of this tradition. Poetry in Praise of Prophetic Perfection is an opportunity for readers to gain access and appreciation of a unique genre of spiritual Islamic poetry, and, given that it includes the original Arabic, also enables the recitation of the poetry for devotional purposes.

https://its.org.uk/catalogue/poetry-in-praise-of-prophetic-perfection/

Темчин С.Ю., Арабский «Танвир аль-микбас мин тафсир Ибн Аббас» как источник польского перевода Корана по рукописям литовских татар XVII–XX вв.: суры 1-я (Аль-Фатиха) и 36-я (Йа Син), in Krajewska M., Kulwicka-Kamińska J., Szulc A. (eds.), Święte księgi judaizmu, chrześcijaństwa i islamu w słowiańskim kręgu kulturowym, t. 1: Księgi wyznawców islamu. Kitabistyka, Toruń, 2016, s. 95–119.

Research on Islamic literature in Indonesia has mainly focused on nonfiction books which articulate discourses on Islamic thought. Less attention has been paid to literary works which present Islamic discourses whereas studying such literary works is important to understand the contentious development of Islamic thought in Indonesia. This article presents the results of research on a best-sellingIndonesian novel, 99 Cahaya di Langit Eropa (99 Lights in the Sky of Europe), which is written by Hanum Salsabila Rais and her husband Rangga Almahendra. Heuristics and hermeneutics are used as the methods for reading and analyzing the novel. Based on his analysis, the author found that the novel expresses a moderate understanding of Islam, characterized among others by its non-apologetic view of the Islamic past, that is, the failures and successes of the Muslims in the past should be equally recognized. The novel also expresses an understanding of the concept of jihad as a struggle for realizing the common good that should be conducted on the principles of peace, brotherhood, and humanity.

The Science of نحو

Definition, Purpose and Subject Matter

نحو is the science of classical Arabic which deals with how to identify the grammatical positioning of the three parts of speech; إسم, فعل and حرف by recognizing the changes which occur at their end.  In addition to this, it discusses how to connect the parts of speech with one another and make meaningful sentences.

The purpose ofنحو is to guard one from making errors when articulating and understanding the language of the Arabs.  From the various sciences associated with the Arabic language, نحو is by far the most important.

All discussions inنحو are centered upon words, phrases, and sentences.

Para sejarawan berbeda pendapat tentang asal usul pendiri kerajaan ini dan dia terbagi kepada dua kelompok. Pertama, bahwa asal usul orang Turki Usmani dari suku Kayi yang berasal dari Asia Tengah, sejarawan yang menyatakan ini adalah Syafiq A. Mughini. Kedua, orang-orang Turki Usmani berasal dari kabilah al-Ghais, yang mendiami daerah Turkistan dengan pemimpinnya bernama Sulaiman (Firdaus, 2000).

With an appendix by Rian Thum and David Brophy.

The story of the Sufi saint Khwaja Muhammad Sharif is one of the best-loved hagiographies from East Turkistan (present-day Xinjiang, China), where the saint’s shrine remains a place of pilgrimage and devotion to this day. The Khwaja’s narrative recounts his adventures as he travels from Central Asia to Hindustan, Mecca, and back again, guided by saintly spirits and working miracles at every turn. He saves Muslims from shipwreck, gains powerful disciples, wages holy war, and ends his days as a beloved Sufi master. Jeff Eden’s introduction and notes offer insights into the text and its interpretation, and his translation marks the first time that a complete East Turkistani hagiography has been made available to readers in English. The appendix, by Rian Thum and David Brophy, reveals the intricate liaison between Muhammad Sharif’s shrine complex, its elite patrons, and the present hagiography. A classic of its genre, the Life of Muhammad Sharif provides both an accessible introduction to Central Asian Sufi literature and a compelling mystical allegory on the attainment of spiritual perfection.

In the society in which Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was born, poetry was the hallmark of artistic achievement. The influence that the poets exerted is perhaps comparable to what the media moguls do today. Even though there were poets who were opposed to his
message and sought to deride him through their poetic composition, the Prophet did not inhibit poetry. He encouraged poets among his companions to dedicate their literary talents to higher purposes. Accepting literature as a means to promote what is good and prevent what is evil, the Prophet motivated them to make its best use.

Poems from the Straight Path reflects, chronicles and tries to make sense of Joel Hayward's conversion to Islam after two decades as a fish-out-of-water Unitarian within trinitarian Christianity. The realization that the God to whom he prayed was one, not three, and that Islam was the way for him to worship the God of Abraham, Noah, Moses and Jesus prompted a life-transforming journey that led Hayward, at almost forty, finally to bow his face to the ground before God for the first time. Despite being religious for twenty years he had never bowed as a man should; as low to the earth as the human spine will allow.

The process of learning Islam is more profoundly complex and confusing, yet stimulating and satisfying, than for those who were raised in Islamic families or communities can possibly imagine. Everything needs to be learned. But first everything needs to be unlearned. Hayward's journey of exploration, transformation and illumination forms the beating heart of this moving collection of poetry. Yet his poems deal not only with his own conversion and other spiritual experiences, but, more importantly, also with the everyday challenges and hopes of western Muslims who wrestle to understand their gone-astray society and its encroaching pressures. This is a timely and important work that reveals the struggle and profound insights of someone bridging cultures and faith traditions.

Muslim societies, and especially Muslim women, have often received fetishized attention in (neo-)Orientalist literature. However, opening up spaces for the voices of Muslim women especially those wearing the hijab is long overdue. Therefore,
the representation of diasporic Muslim women and their multiple identities in Leila Aboulela’s Minaret and Shelina Janmohamed’s Love in a Headscarf is of paramount importance. These two texts show how, face to face with possibilities and pitfalls of diaspora, Muslim women negotiate and prioritize Islamic identity in the metropolis. While immigrant Muslim men are racked with somewhat unacknowledged exilic anxieties, the challenge and possibility of Muslim women largely concern gender and religion. For a group of Muslim women, the West facilitates a critical interrogation of their feeling of identity vacillation and creates a useful framework for thinking about their religious observances, which eventually helps them conceptualize and articulate their sense of belonging. For many others, it provides
a third space in which they can confidently engage in a reinterpretation of the Islamic texts and thus reclaim an identity which liberates them from culturally enacted practices of their countries of origin.

Abstract: As regards Islam and poetry (for that matter, literature as a whole), there exists some misunderstanding which is most commonly made by two mutually opposing groups: commentators with negative notion about Islam who state that it is a restrictive religion with no room for creativity; and devout Muslims with somewhat puritan tendency who believe that all sorts of entertainment production and consumption including poetry are prohibited in Islam. Interestingly, both the groups use similar kinds of Qur’anic and Hadith texts to pass their verdicts on the subject. This article revisits some of those revealed texts and provides the author’s thoughts on the
debate on Islam and poetry. It also identifies types of literature which Islam approves and some other literary productions which Islam discourages.

Yunus bir şiirinde ilâhî aşk için ''sevü'' kelimesini kullanır. O bu konuda; (Emre 1997, II: 245) diyerek bu dünyaya, mücadele ve kavga etmek için gelmediğini, tam tersine ilâhî aşkı ve sevgiyi bulmak için geldiğini söyler. Ona göre ilâhî aşkı gönüllerde oluşturan insan, Allah'a ulaşan insandır. Çünkü Yunus'a göre ilâhî aşk gönüllerde oluşur.

1 ‫ص‬ ‫اﻟﻨﻘﺪ،‬ ‫و‬ ‫اﻷدب‬ ‫ﰲ‬ ‫إﺳﻼﻣﻲ‬ ‫ﻣﺬﻫﺐ‬ ‫ﳓﻮ‬ ‫اﻟﺒﺎﺷﺎ،‬ ‫أﻓﺖ‬ ‫ر‬ ‫ﻋﺒﺪاﻟﺮﲪﻦ‬ ‫اﻧﻈﺮ‬ 21 -81 . -182 ، 204 -213 ، 372 -380 . 17 ‫ص‬ ‫اﳌﻼﻳﻮي،‬ ‫اﻹﺳﻼﻣﻲ‬ ‫اﻷدب‬ ‫آﻓﺎق‬ ‫أﲪﺪ،‬ ‫ﺑﻨﺖ‬ ‫رﲪﺔ‬ 163 . 18 ‫ص‬ ‫ﻧﻔﺴﻪ،‬ ‫اﳌﺮﺟﻊ‬ 104 -105 . 42 ‫ص‬ ‫اﻟﺼﻐﲑ،‬ ‫اﳉﺎﻣﻊ‬ 342 . 43 ‫اﻵﻳﺔ‬ ‫اﻟﻘﻠﻢ،‬ : 1 . ‫اﻹ‬ ‫رﺳﺎﻟﺔ‬ ‫ﻧﺸﺮ‬ ‫ﻣﻦ‬ ‫اﻹﺳﻼﻣﻲ‬ ‫اﻷدب‬ ‫وﻗﻴ‬ ‫ﺳﻼم‬ ‫اﻟﻌ‬ ‫ﰲ‬ ‫اﻟﻌﻠﻴﺎ‬ ‫وﻣﺜﻠﻪ‬ ‫ﻤﻪ‬ ‫أﲨﻊ‬ ‫ﺎﱂ‬ .

This research raised three stories in The Book of The Thousand Nights and One
Night Volume 1 which contained The Tale of King Shahryar and of His Brother,
King Shahzama, The Fable of The Ass, The Bull and The Husbandman dan The
Tale of The Woman Cut in Pieces, The Three Apples and The Negro which is
translated into English form by Powys Mathers. The analysis conducted on the
intrinsic elements included plot, characters and characterization, setting of place
and condition, theme, and its relation to the classical Islamic literature. This
research used a descriptive method of analysis and the intrinsic approach. The
end of the research of this research is to explain the intrinsic elements in the story
so interrelated to build the story and its relation to the classical Islamic literature.
Keywords: Intrinsic, the tale, plot, character, setting, theme.

Beholding Beauty: Sa'di of Shiraz and the Aesthetics of Desire in Medieval Persian Poetry - Introduction (pp. i - 42).
Beholding Beauty explores the relationship between sexuality, politics, and spirituality in the lyrics of Saʿdi Shirazi (d. 1292 CE), one of the most revered masters of classical Persian literature. Relying on a variety of sources, including unstudied manuscripts, Domenico Ingenito presents the so-called “inimitable smoothness” of Saʿdi’s lyric style as a serene yet multifaceted window into the uncanny beauty of the world, the human body, and the realm of the unseen.

The book constitutes the first attempt to study Sa‘di’s lyric meditations on beauty in the context of the major artistic, scientific and intellectual trends of his time. By charting unexplored connections between Islamic philosophy and mysticism, obscene verses and courtly ideals of love, Ingenito approaches Sa‘di’s literary genius from the perspective of sacred homoeroticism and the psychology of performative lyricism in their historical context.

Abstrak

Penelitian ini mengangkat sebuah novel kontemporer bergenre memoir yang berjudul Reading Lolita In Tehran karya Azar Nafisi yang diterbitkan pada tahun 2003. Analisis dilakukan terhadap unsur – unsur intrinsik yang meliputi tema, alur, tokoh dan perwatakan, latar, sudut pandang, gaya bahasa, dan amanat yang terkandung di dalam cerita serta kaitannya dengan sastra islam kontemporer. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode deskriptif analisis dan pendekatan intrinsik. Hasil akhir dari penelitian ini adalah menjelaskan unsur – unsur intirinsik dalam cerita tersebut sehingga saling berkaitan satu sama lain untuk membangun cerita tersebut secara utuh serta kaitannya dengan sastra Islam kontemporer.


Abstract

This research raised a contemporary memoir novel titled Reading Lolita In Tehran by Azar Nafisi which was published in 2003. The analysis is conducted on the intrinsic elements included theme, plot, character and characterization, setting, point of view, figurative language, and message which is contained in the story and also its relation to the contemporary Islamic literature. This research used a descriptive method of analysis and the intrinsic approach. The final result of the research of this research is to explain the intrinsic elements in the story so interrelated in one another to build the story and its relation to the contemporary Islamic literature.

Masa kekhalifahan Abbasiyah merupakan masa kekhalifahan terlama pada masa sejarah muslim klasik, yakni dari tahun 750-1258 M. Masa Kekhalifahan Abbasiyah dianggap sebagai masa keemasan islam (the golden age) baik dalam bidang politik, agama, ekonomi, sosial, budaya, dan segala bidang lainnya mengalami kemajuan pesat daripada masa-masa sebelumnya. Salah satunya adalah di bidang sastra. Berbeda dengan pada masa Bani Umayyah yang hanya mengenal dunia syair sebagai titik puncak dari berkesenian ini dikarenakan pula Bani Umayyah adalah bani yang sangat resisten terhadap pengaruh selain Arab, maka pada zaman Abbasiyah inilah prosa berkembang subur. Mulai dari novel, buku-buku sastra, riwayat, hikayat, dan drama.
Bermunculanlah para sastrawan yang ahli di bidang seni bahasa ini baik puisi maupun prosa. Wilayah kajian sastra tidak hanya puisi dan prosa tetapi sudah meluas dalam bidang karya tulis lainnya. Sastrawan pada masa ini dianggap sebagai gudangnya ilmu pengetahuan (Rusmana, 2011).

This book is a manual for researchers, authors, scholars, and others interested in Islamic literature, ‎culture, and civilization. It is an attempt to clarify terms, phrases, words, and concepts whose meanings ‎have become distorted due to faulty translations and transliterations.‎

Unlike literary, religious, or philosophical approaches to the definition of love, this article attempts to bring attention to the importance of the semantic analysis for understanding love and the beloved in the Arabic language. It argues that mapping out the etymology of the ḥ-b-b root, the semantic network established by its antonyms and synonyms, and the resulting hierarchy offers significant insights into the cognitive and emotional content of the notions of “love” and “beloved” in Arabic. One of this study’s findings is that the semantic field of “love” is a spectrum with two edges, both of which have several levels. Furthermore, Arabic treats love as a phenomenon with fourteen complex stages, starting with inclination, leading to growth and proliferation, and ending with losing one’s mind or sacrificing oneself for the sake of the beloved. It is worth noting that the ratio between the morphological derivations of “lover” and “beloved” is five to four, possibly because love is an active emotion taken wholeheartedly and thus mostly on the side of the lover, not the beloved. Just as love resembles the attraction between electric charges, on the “hatred” spectrum the central idea of the “love” antonyms is the repulsion between one person and another. Hate behaves in the opposite direction: the anti-love semantic field starts with mere disinterest towards the other, then moves to stronger negative feelings, and finally the strongest words shift to active intentions to harm the hated one. The common idea in this spectrum is that love leads to multiplying existence while hate ends with annihilation.

This study is a preliminary attempt to chart out the manifold ways Ottomans envisioned and imagined the Euro-Christian world during early modern times. Through the study of a selection of various sources ranging from pseudo-historiographic warrior epics to lyric poetry, the main objective will be to expose the multivocality and ambivalence of Ottoman texts dealing – exclusively or partially - with the Western cosmos. By a careful analysis of the narratological structure of specific Ottoman works, the degree to which Euro-Christians had permeated the minds (and souls) of Ottoman-Muslims will be evaluated. The examination of recurrent stock images, stereotypes, and depictions of Euro-Christians will hint at the ways Ottomans constructed and articulated a discourse of alterity based on the juxtaposition of a (pure and ideal) Self against a (reprehensible and threatening) Other. Simultaneously, instances where these seemingly unflinching and fixed boundaries were questioned, challenged, or overlooked will be located and contextualized. All in all, the aim will be to open a vista to the complex and colorful representational world of early modern Ottomans.

Drawing extensively on the testimony of the Persian historians of the seventh-eighth hijri centuries (corresponding to the thirteen-fourteenth centuries of the Christian era), this article sketches a detailed picture of several personalities involved in founding the nascent Ismaili state centred at Alamut in the fifth/eleventh century. This background sets the stage for analyzing a new manuscript source documenting Ismaili history and thought of this period, Khwaja Qasim Tushtari's "Recognizing God" (Ma'rifat-i Khuday ta'ala). After outlining and amending previous scholarship on this author and surveying the text's extant manuscript and lithographic sources, the article analyzes the historical references, focusing on the figure of Sharaf al-Din Muhammad, and examining the evolution of the Ismaili leadership structure. It argues for a likely date of composition between 525/1131 and 533/1139, making Tushtari's "Recognizing God" one of the oldest Ismaili texts from Alamut still in existence.

Note: E.J. Brill ranked this as "most cited" article and Academia.edu as among the top 5% of all articles.

Teachers struggle to find ways to bring Islam into their literature and social studies classes. This session explores ways to study the Autobiography of Malcolm X, the Autobiography of ‘Umar ibn Said, the short story “the Sultana’s Dream,” and the Narrative of Job ben Solomon. The goals and objectives of this approach would include facilitating the students with the development of ways to approach literature and social issues from an Islamic point of view.

The application of literary criticism based on Western secular ideology is currently synonymous with the modern literary environment. It has also caught the attention of literary critics, including Muslim scholars to apply them in the work of criticism by ignoring the ideas and criticism based on Islamic science. Nevertheless, Islam does not run out of ideas in terms of methods and principles of its own criticism, even it is much better compared to related ideas derived from the West. Hence, this study aims to review the related literatures to the Islamic approach which is used to criticize literature. This study used a qualitative approach through the design of content analysis as a major source of data collection. Further, the process of analyzing the data is done through a descriptive analysis by dividing the three key issues as the main topic of discussion. The study found that Islam is not left behind in the form of ideas and criticism which is interesting and unique, but in reality it is still plagued by a number of issues and problems that hinder the empowerment of the literary criticism ideas.

ABSTRAK Konsep taklif adalah sebuah konsep yang diasaskan oleh Mohd Affandi Hassan iaitu seorang penggiat dalam lapangan kesusasteraan di tanah air. Konsep ini juga merupakan antara gagasan sastera Islam yang muncul terkemudian selepas berlakunya polemik sastera Islam antara Shahnon Ahmad dan Kassim Ahmad serta teori Takmilah hasil cetusan daripada Shafie Abu Bakar. Ia bertunjangkan kepada kritikan yang berpaksikan kepada tiga elemen asas yang membangunkan konsep ini iaitu manusia sebagai khalifah Allah s.w.t, ilmu yang benar dan makna yang murni yang terangkum dalamnya hasil daripada pendekatan baru yang dibawa oleh Affandi dalam dunia kritikan sastera iaitu gagasan Persuratan Baru. Justeru itu, kajian ini bertujuan untuk melihat sejauh mana novel Ketika Cinta Bertasbih ini hasil karangan Habiburrahman El-Shirazy, seorang penulis muda dari Indonesia menepati ukuran dan kriteria yang ditetapkan dalam konsep taklif ini. Kajian ini mengaplikasikan metodologi analisis dokumen dengan menjadikan novel ini sebagai korpus kajian utama disamping buku-buku yang berkaitan dengan konsep taklif ini seperti Pendidikan Estetika daripada Pendekatan Tauhid sebagai sumber primer bagi kajian ini. Dapatan bagi kajian ini menunjukkan bahawa pengarang novel iaitu Habiburrahman telah mengaplikasikan konsep ini secara tidak langsung dalam karyanya dengan menitikberatkan konsep penggunaan ilmu yang berdasarkan kepada elemen akidah, penggunaan Al-Qur'an dan Hadith, penggemblengan watak protagonis serta pengabaian terhadap babak berbau seks disamping menyerlahkan kesedaran beliau sebagai manusia yang mempunyai taklifan dan tanggungjawab dalam mengislamisasikan karya sastera sebagai produk dakwah yang utama kepada masyarakat. PENGENALAN

This contains the following materials from my completed (2018) dissertation:
Title Page
Copyright
Acknowledgments
Table of Contents
Introduction
This is copyrighted material meant for review and citation purposes only and not for distribution or republication. All rights reserved.
*Updated with full text and optimization for screen reading technology.

KIMIĀ-YE SAʿĀDAT (Alchemy of happiness), a composition (taṣnif) of Abu Ḥāmed Moḥammad Ḡazāli (q.v.; 450-505/1058-1111), a scholar of the Sha ʿite school of law and a prominent Persian thinker of medieval Islam. The Kimiā-ye saʿādat was written during Ḡazāli's Khorasan period, after his return from his wanderings to his native Ṭus (see ḠAZĀLI i. BIOGRAPHY), and completed between 495-99/1102-6. The Kimiā-ye saʿādat was one of Ḡazāli's works composed in Persian during the period of the Saljuq sultanate, when Persian was the o cial language of its vast empire and was gradually becoming a lingua franca for Muslim scholars.