The Search for Beauty in Islam

Khaled Abou El Fadl is a classically-trained Islamic jurist, an American lawyer and law professor, and one of the most important Islamic thinkers today. In this updated and expanded edition of The Search for Beauty in Islam, Abou El Fadl offers eye-opening and enlightening insights into the contemporary realities of the current state of Islam and the West. Through a "conference of the books," an imagined conference of Muslim intellects from centuries past, Abou El Fadl examines the ugliness that has come to plague Muslim realities and attempts to reclaim what he maintains is a core moral value in Islam-the value of beauty. Does Islamic law allow, or even call for, the gruesome acts of ugliness that have become so commonly associated with Islam today? Has Islam become a religion devoid of beauty, compassion and love? Based on actual cases, this book tackles different issues and problems in each chapter through a post-9/11 lens, discussing such topics as marriage, divorce, parental rights, the position of women, the veil, sexual abuse, wife-beating, terrorism, bigotry, morality, law, and the role of tradition. Abou El Fadl argues that the rekindling of the forgotten value of beauty is essential for Muslims today to take back what has been lost to the fundamentalist forces that have denigrated their religion.

ISBN 074255094X   Pages 432 ISBN13 9780742550940 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher Rowman & Littlefield   Weight (grammes) 744 Imprint Rowman & Littlefield   Published in Lanham, MD Format Paperback   Height (mm) 256 Publication date 05 Dec 2005   Width (mm) 178 Library of Congress 2005018902   Spine width (mm) 23 DEWEY 297.2   Academic level Undergraduate DEWEY edition DC21

1		The conference of books : the first admission		1
2		The night's visitor		5
3		The pirates of the intellect		8
4		The terror of bigotry		12
5		The civilization of the book		14
6		The interminable conference		18
7		On betrayal		20
8		A prayer		22
9		Donkeys carrying books		25
10		To murder the soul		28
11		A one more knowing		31
12		Women as an 'Awra		33
13		The authoritative and the authoritarian		35
14		On obedience		37
15		To suffer the children		40
16		On forms of terror		43
17		Dial-a-fatwa		45
18		On knowledge		47
19		NYC bombing		50
20		Umm Ahmad and the judge		52
21		The book massacres		54
22		To kill parenthood		56
23		Killing flies		59
24		Attending Jum'a		61
25		Burdens of a generation		63
26		The dialectics of an apology		65
27		The essential individual		68
28		The search for beauty		70
		More...

El Fadl attempts to offer interpretations that are humanistic and accommodating to modern values, yet simultaneously challenging for traditionalist scholars and preachers. -- An-Chi Hoh Dianu The Library Quarterly This highly original book is in part a dialogue with Muslim scholars in the past, and, in part, a hymn to an enthralling vision that 'beauty' is to bring life to the truth of the Prophet. The dialogue shows the enormous breadth of [the author's] reading in classic works of learning by Muslims, and his vision suggests a new spiritual esthetic, which is both inspiring and challenging. -- Roy Parviz Mottahedeh Khaled Abou El Fadl is emerging as a major Muslim voice for the twenty-first century. Conference of the Books is an excellent introduction to the ideas, insights, and reflections of this important scholar of Islam and Islamic law, author, and poet. -- John L. Esposito Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl, the most important scholar writing on Islamic jurisprudence and its development in the American context today, sets a high standard here for legal discourse and practice among North American Muslims. -- Karen Leonard Each independent essay may be read in any order, but collectively they illustrate richness and diversity. -- Charles C. Kolb

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