Unmasking Indian Secularism by HasanSuroor, 2022, Rupa Publications Download

Unmasking Indian Secularism by HasanSuroor, 2022, Rupa Publications
Was the rationale behind choosing secularism as a state policy correct? Was a western concept suited to a deeply religious Indian society, was secularism destined to fail? In a bold attempt to help break the impasse in Hindu–Muslim relation, this book brings a much-needed perspective to a polarized debate on conflicting notions of secularism. It calls for de-hyphenating the so-called ‘Muslim Question’ (place of Muslims in a Hindu-majority India) from the wider debate on secularism and advocates a new Hindu–Muslim deal based around the centuries-old common cultural heritage skirting religious differences. In a refreshing break from liberal orthodoxy, the book explores the idea of a secular Hindu state which will recognize Hinduism as the official religion but guarantee equal rights to all its citizens, irrespective of their faith: a version of Britain’s secular Christian state. An incisive analysis of why secularism failed and the rise of majoritarian Hindu nationalism, it underlines the urgent need for a new road map to restore communal harmony before it’s too late for course correction.

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Making Place for Muslims in Contemporary India by KalyaniDevaki Menon,2022, Harper Collins India
Making Place for Muslims in Contemporary India looks at how religion provides an arena to make place and challenge the majoritarian, exclusionary and introverted tendencies of contemporary India.
Places do not simply exist. They are made and remade by the acts of individuals and communities at particular historical moments. In India today, the place for Muslims is shrinking as the revanchist Hindu Right increasingly realizes its vision of a Hindu nation. Religion enables Muslims to re-envision India as a different kind of place, one to which they unquestionably belong. Analyzing the religious narratives, practices and constructions of religious subjectivity of diverse groups of Muslims in Old Delhi, KalyaniDevaki Menon reveals the ways in which Muslims variously contest the insular and singular understanding of nation that dominate the sociopolitical landscape of the country and make place for themselves.

DevakiMenon shows how religion is concerned not just with the divine and transcendental but also with the anxieties and aspirations of people living amid violence, exclusion and differential citizenship. Ultimately, Making Place for Muslims in Contemporary India allows us to understand religious acts, narratives and constructions of self and belonging as material forces, as forms of the political that can make room for individuals, communities and alternative imaginings in a world besieged by increasingly xenophobic understandings of nation and place.

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Islam and New Directions in World Literature by (ed.)Sarah R.Bin Tyeer,2022,Edinburgh University Press
Brings forth the Islamicate as an aesthetic and critical force in World Literature

  • Disrupts the one-way traffic in the field of World Literature studies by regarding Islam as both an alternative and a critical force behind creative processes
  • Understands Islam as a driving creative force and situates its contribution in the development, past and present, of world imaginaries
  • Covers a variety of global locations to discuss the Islamicate as developed in Western European, Turkic, Indo-Persian, Middle-Eastern, African Indonesian and Chinese literatures
  • Examines a diversity of genres including fiction and poetry, but also philosophy, and oral literature

Since its advent, Islam has been a representational force to be reckoned with, cross-pollinating world literatures in Africa, Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean and the Americas. Yet, scholarship on Islam in world literatures has been sparse despite its significant presence. This book understands Islamic literary and cultural heritages as dynamic forces, constantly enriched and enlivened by various humanistic traditions in multiple languages, spanning the lives of individuals and societies throughout history. It is also designed to incorporate a variety of themes, influences, ramifications and representations of Islam in world literatures in classical and contemporary contexts.

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Shi’ite Legal Theory by (ed.)Kumail Rajani&Robert Gleave

Treats the strands of Shi’ite legal theory as a family of legal traditions, providing illustrative examples with editions of previously unpublished works

  • Examines for the first time in English an integrated analysis of Shiite traditions and legal theories, including the validity of personal juristic reasoning (ijtihād), linguistic interpretations, the role of certainty in the deduction of law and the legal authority of the imāms
  • Covers Shiʿi uṣūl, which has received little attention in scholarly discussions of Islamic legal theory
  • Focuses not only on the less-neglected Twelver uṣūl but also on Ismaʿili and Zaydi uṣūl traditions
  • Presents texts from a range of regions (Yemen, Iraq and Safavid Persia) and written across a broad time period (from the 5th/11th century to the 13th/18th century)
  • Incorporation of Zaydi, Ismaʿili and Twelver legal traditions in a single analytical framework

Alongside the individual rules of God’s law (sharīʿa), there has been a vibrant history of more philosophical or theoretical discussions in Islamic thought. Where does God’s law come from? How are God’s rules to be discovered for situations not covered in the revealed sources? Who, within the Muslim community, can make a valid pronouncement on the content of the sharīʿa? The answers to these questions have been debated and discussed by Muslim scholars in the genre of literature called uṣūl al-fiqh, glossed in English language secondary literature as “Islamic legal theory”. This volume contains editions and commentaries of hitherto un-edited manuscripts from the various strands of the Shiʿite tradition of Islamic thought (Zaydi, Ismaʿili and Twelver). A careful side-by-side reading of these texts and commentaries will help identify themes peculiar to the Shiʿite “family” of legal theories. The distinctive Shiʿite contribution to the history of uṣūl al-fiqh has not received the attention it deserves in contemporary scholarship; this volume forms part of wider attempt to bring the richness and diversity of Shiʿite uṣūl to the wider field.

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Smart Teenage Muslimah:An Inspirational Guide for Muslim Girls by Farhat Amin,2023, Independently Published

The teenage years are a time to dream big and gain confidence as a Muslimah. So why are teenage girls encouraged to be self-absorbed, materialistic and promiscuous?
The myth is peddled that you will be happier if you’re less religious. But are the ideas society expects you to embrace good for your mental health and well-being? Concepts such as self-objectification, rampant consumerism and secularism.

I want you to know that being a Muslim is the best thing in the world. You are truly blessed! Don’t listen to anyone who tells you otherwise.
Smart Teenage Muslimah is a thought-provoking guide for Muslim girls. In the book, you will:

  • Discover guidance from our sacred texts to achieve peace of mind
  • Understand the purpose of your life
  • Learn what Islam has to say about puberty and sex
  • Get the facts about LGBTQIA+, feminism and gender identity

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