New Releases

Lessons from Surah al-Kahf

Yasir Qadhi 2020. Pp. 148. HB $33.31, PB. $15.95, Kindle $8.49 Kube Publishing Ltd., Leicestershire, U.K. W hen the meanings of the Quran’s many parables are unwrapped and understood, they offer wisdom and guidance.

Muslims are advised to read Surah Kahf at least once a week. Qadhi explains why and what readers gain from this particularly thought-provoking chapter by analyzing the lines, stories and symbols associated with the People of the Cave, Prophet Musa’s (‘alayhi as salam) encounter with Khidr, the two men and their gardens, and Gog and Magog.

Qadhi strives to help readers obtain a glimpse of the Quran’s profound meaning. The chapter concludes with, “Say: ‘If the sea were to become ink to record the words of my Lord, indeed the sea would all be used up before the words of my Lord are exhausted…’” (Q. 18:109).

Estate Planning for the Muslim Client

By Yaser Ali and Ahmed Shaikh 2019. Pp. 324. PB. Members $79.95, Non-members $89.95, Section member $69.95 American Bar Association, Chicago, Ill. I slamic law provides a non-discretionary system of rules that governs the distribution of a Muslim’s estate. Designing such an estate plan presents unique challenges and opportunities.

This book provides insights, information and practical planning solutions for Muslims who wish to be Sharia-compliant while recognizing the practicalities of daily American life. The authors highlight various planning strategies and identify the most common issues: meeting Muslim clients and understanding Islam’s pillars, ethical, legal and public policy issues; estate planning while still alive; planning for incapacity and death; disposition of property after death; drafting estate-planning documents (sample forms included); planning for individuals and assets abroad, and more.

Islamic Finance: Principles and Practice (3rd ed.)

Hans Visser 2020. Pp. 269. HB $135.00 Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., Cheltenham, Glos., U.K. I n his third — and extensively updated — edition,

Visser investigates the ideas and concepts that drive and shape Islamic finance. He correctly informs readers that this system cannot be understood without a basic knowledge of Islamic ethical and legal thought.

Visser reviews the products, institutions and markets offered by Islamic finance; critically discusses the “ethical superiority” arguments made by its advocates; and offers ways to adapt fiscal and monetary policy to Islamic financial institutions.

This book should be a welcome addition for economics and finance students seeking alternatives to conventional finance; students of Islamic finance and Islamic studies; and bankers, journalists and politicians who want to learn about Islamic finance and financial institutions.

Healing Politics: A Doctor’s Journey into the Heart of Our Political Epidemic

Abdul El-Sayed 2020. Pp. 352. HB. $27.00, Kindle $9.99, AudioCD $19.88 Abrams Press, New York, N.Y. A child of immigrants, El-Sayed grew up feeling a responsibility to help others. He rose through securing a Rhodes Scholarship, earning two advanced degrees and landing a tenure-track position at Columbia University. At 30, he became the nation’s youngest city health official, tasked with rebuilding Detroit’s health department after years of austerity policies.

But he found himself disillusioned: He could heal the sick and build healthier and safer communities, but neither of those addressed the social and economic conditions causing the various illnesses in the first place. So he left health for politics, in which he has a solid academic background — he won the William Jennings Bryan Prize for Political Science — running for governor of Michigan (unsuccessfully) and earning the support of progressive champions like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I.-Vt.).

While relating his life as a young idealist, the author offers personal stories and fascinating forays into history and science. Combining his unique perspective with epidemiology, El-Sayed diagnoses an underlying epidemic that afflicts the country — an epidemic of insecurity. And to heal the rifts that this epidemic has created, he presents a new direction for the progressive movement.

Defending Muhammad in Modernity

SherAli Tareen 2019. Pp. 506. HB. $125.00, PB. $35.00, Kindle $16.99 University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, Ind. T areen offers a comprehensive and theoretically engaged study of the Barelvi-Deobandi polemic. These two normative orientations/reform movements, which began in Britishoccupied South Asia almost two centuries ago, still haunt the religious sensibilities of postcolonial South Asian Muslims and the region’s diaspora communities.

The author argues that this polemic was animated by “competing political theologies” that articulated contrasting visions of the normative relationship among divine sovereignty, prophetic charisma and everyday life.

Based on his reading of previously unexplored Arabic, Persian and Urdu print and manuscript sources spanning the late-18th and the whole 19th century, this book intervenes in and integrates the often-disparate fields of religious studies, Islamic studies, South Asian studies, critical secularism studies and political theology.

Demystifying Shariah: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It’s Not Taking Over Our Country

Sumbul Ali-Karamali 2020. Pp. 240. HB $22.95, Kindle $13.99 Beacon Press, Boston, Mass. M uslim American legal expert Ali-Karamali’s direct counterpoint to the fear mongering about Shariah analyzes the reality while eliminating the common stereotypes and assumptions.

She argues that propagandists use scare tactics and deliberate misinformation to depict Shariah as a draconian and oppressive Islamic law that all Muslims must obey. Al-Karamali points out that this would be almost funny if it weren’t so terrifyingly wrong — as puzzling as if Americans suddenly began protesting the Martians’ occupation of Earth.

She explains that Shariah is not one set of punitive rules or even law as we perceive it — rigid and enforceable — but religious rules and recommendations that provide guidance via its accessible, engaging narrative style, its various meanings, how it developed and how Shariah-based legal systems have operated for over 1,400 years.

By describing the key lies and misunderstandings associated with it, she seeks to explain why they are nonsensical; to introduce readers on its basic principles, goals and general development; and to answer many questions.

She presents her book as a defense against stereotypes and provides a relatable discussion of Sharia.

Signs on the Earth: Islam, Modernity and the Climate Crisis

Fazlun Khalid 2019. Pp. 256. HB $30.78, PB $18.95, Kindle $15.95 Kube Publishing Ltd., Leicestershire, U.K. K halid offers a major study of environmentalism and Islam in practice and theory, along with an historical overview that sets out future challenges, including reformulating the Islamic legal tradition to take the ecological dimension seriously.

He argues that the world’s more than one billion Muslims have the potential to reinvigorate the desire for environmental change in a community that is ignored at the planet’s peril. In arguing that modernity, consumerism and industrialization need to be rethought, along with his appeal to reconnect humanity with creation in the divine order, this book could transform a generation.

Khalid seeks action from those whose primary orientation is toward Islam.

Ibn Battuta: The Journey of a Medieval Muslim

Edoardo Albert 2019. Pp. 80+illus. PB. $9.95 Kube Publishing Ltd., Leicestershire, U.K. I bn Battuta, an extraordinary traveler, visited lands that now form about 40 contemporary countries and traveled roughly 75,000 miles on foot, camel, horse, wagon, boat and even a sled between 1325 and 1354.

His travels took him to nearly every part of the Muslim world at that time — from Morocco to Makka, through Persia and Iraq, down Africa’s west coast, into Russia and then on to India and even China — opens a fascinating window on the reality of the fourteenth-century world.

This concise book brings to life the rich and diverse world that produced Ibn Battuta via illustrations, photographs and maps. ih

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