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In the period following the Mongol invasion, we witness the primacy of the belief in the soteriological necessity of the imamate and, in particular, of the current Imam. While this conviction was basic to Shi'ism, previous elaborations of the imamate had generally given a place to the Imam's political role and his right to rule the Muslim polity. In documents spanning the entire period, 250 years after Alamut's fall to the Mongols, we find an emphasis on the absolute and uncompromising necessity for a present (hadir) and living (mawjud) Imam, the manifest guide who could lead believers to a recognition of God. The Imam is the speaking Quran, the talisman by which the treasury of creation's spiritual meaning can be opened. In Ismaili thought, to come in contact with the Imam of one's time is the aim of every seeker of truth.

This chapter explores a particular application of the well-accepted view that effective leaders both understand and help shape their institution’s culture. Language and religious symbols make a vital difference in developing a vision of society. This chapter analyzes three cases in which leaders acted to transform public culture towards inclusion vis-à-vis America’s religious diversity: William and Mary President Gene Nichol and his decision about the Wren cross; Keith Ellison, a U.S. Muslim congressman, and his swearing-in using a Quran; and former U.S. President Bill Clinton and his statements on religion in public schools and on religion in the federal workplace. These cases suggest that good leadership requires facing the dilemmas that religious symbols can create, and then transforming them into opportunities to expand American public culture. Each case sheds light on what leaders should and should not do to shape the culture.

This chapter examines scriptural sources in an attempt to understand what they tell us about the role of the Universe, creation, and the human and social contexts in the elaboration of Islamic law and jurisprudence. It analyzes revelations in the Quran that refer to the created Universe, elements of Nature, and the “signs” that pervade it. It is shown that inference in scripture follows exactly the same logic as seen with the scholars of fundamentals (al-usûliyyûn), from ash-Shâfi'î to ash-Shâtibî, about establishing links between texts, expressive contexts, and, more broadly, social and human environments: the search for the effective cause (al-'illah), the explanatory principle of an observation, a sign from the real endowed with meaning. All this echoes the research carried out in the human sciences about observing constants in the behavior of men and societies.

This book examines why tribal genealogies continue to be a central facet of modern Saudi identity despite the erosion of kinship ties resulting from almost 300 years of religious conditioning, and despite the unprecedented material transformation of Saudi society in the oil age. It considers what accounts for the compulsion to affirm tribal belonging in modern Saudi Arabia by focusing on verse 49:13 of the Quran and the multiple contexts in which it is embedded in the kingdom. More specifically, the book asks why this verse is interpreted by so many Saudis as a license to assert their particularist tribal identities, while its ostensibly equalizing final clause is dismissed as an afterthought. It also explores the politicization of the Arabian oral culture by documenting the life and work of the Arabian genealogist and historian Hamad al-Jāsir.

This chapter opens the dossiers on Jesus and Muhammad. The sources on each are, as it turns out, essentially literary: historical biographies composed by the followers of the two holy men, principally the four canonical Gospels for Jesus and the Sira or Life by Ibn Ishaq for Muhammad. But there is more. In Jesus’ case, there are, possibly, the non-canonical Gospels, and the era of his lifetime in Palestine is covered by the near-contemporary writings of Josephus and the Essenes of Qumran who provide essential background. For Muhammad, there are his own words in the Quran and the thousands of “reports” of his words and deeds that lie embedded in later Muslim writings.

This chapter reviews the efforts that have been made to catch the authentic voice of the two men. As for Muhammad, it is generally conceded that, whatever their origin and however edited, it is his words that lie before us in the Quran. Jesus,’ on the other hand, have now to be extracted from the Gospels. But early on, perhaps before the Gospels, Jesus’ sayings were, like Muhammad’s, collected in the sayings source now called “Q.” To what end? The Quran reveals Muhammad as a mantic poet, a singer of new tales, but Q seems to shows us a Jesus who is (merely?) an itinerant rural preacher.

The chapter explores Muhammad’s message as it unfolds in the Quran. It had come to him directly from God, he said, through the agency of an angel. It too has an eschatological focus and is familiarly Biblical: Muhammad presents himself as a prophet — the last, in fact — in the Biblical tradition. The heart of the message is an appeal to embrace a pristine monotheism, the “religion of Abraham,” and a call to ethical reform. Muhammad’s message, like Jesus’ “Good News,” provoked opposition, a hometown hostility that plotted, and nearly achieved, his death.

This chapter traces what might be called the “Second Act” in the lives of the two religious figures: the historical circumstances of Jesus’ last days in Jerusalem and the plot against his life, his Last Supper, arrest, trial, execution and burial. Muhammad escaped his own execution by a flight/migration (hijra) to oasis Medina where he becomes, by invitation, the head of the polity there. A prophet became an aggressive general and a skilled statesman for the ten years before his death from natural causes.

This chapter examines the problem of the God and the angels' ṣallāt for Muhammad described in Sūrah 33:56 of the Qurān. Specifically, it addresses the question of whether God, whose transcendence Islam describes as inconceivable, and who cannot be limited, really “prays for” the Prophet, one of his own creatures. It argues that two elements support and ratify, rather than undermine, a literal interpretation of Sūrah 33:56—“God prays for the Prophet”— which is the phrase's most obvious and at the same time its deepest meaning. The first is one of the most essential metaphysical qualities of God (ṣifāt Allāh) as defined by Islam—his self-sufficiency, embodied in the names of al-qayyūm (the self-subsisting) and al-ghanī (the self-sufficing). Second is his reciprocal relationship to the cultic life of Islam, both directly and as mediated by the Prophet.

This chapter describes the story of Rina Tarafder, who grew up in a Muslim family and thinks her exposure to religion was quite wholesome. Rina just wanted to explore Islam. She was once told that there are seven different levels of understanding of the Quran. Rina's Islam is totally different to anyone else's she knows, and she feels that that is not a bad thing. She stated, ‘Well, the 10 years or so when I engaged with the hijab, and the journey I had, I wouldn't have missed it for the world. It was one of the most enriching experiences of my life and made me who I am today. And I would hate to think people would be deprived of that opportunity’.

The chapter analyzes teaching traditions among Muslim women in Bosnia and how Islamic knowledge is transmitted, embedded in practices such as prayers, Quran recitation, singing and teaching. A case is provided of some Sarajevo women’s recitation gathering (mukabela) at the end of Ramadan which included instructive speech of some length. A young preacher (vaiza) made use of the common genre elements for a Muslim sermon and moved with confidence between comments on the Quran, paraphrases of narratives from the hadith and moral stories set in the present. The vaiza’s legitimacy to speak in the mosque was based on her formal education, reputation of personal piety and knowledge of local prayer and song traditions. Hence the audience accepted the preacher’s authority to give ethical guidance and included her interpretations of contemporary Muslim life with their conceptions of national heritage.

African-American Muslims strongly believe that embracing Islamic worship and principles can help oppressed people from the lower classes triumph over instances of economic and social injustice. The Quran is believed to serve not only as a source of divine inspiration but also as a practical guide for taking on issues of deficiencies in inferior jobs, substandard housing facilities, and unequal education that usually bring about suppression and violence. As a liberation theology, Islam supposedly examines ethical conduct in the context of specific ideals that aim to surpass the status quo. Because Islam is a “simple religion”, it is believed that although one may attempt to integrate Islam into his or her life, he or she may not surpass material poverty and is at risk of human error.

The imported Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam, founded during the same period as the emergence of Noble Drew Ali’s Moorish Science Temple, was established by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in 1888. Because Ahmad believed that he was destined by the Holy Quran to be the “Promised Messiah” and “redeemer”, he was able to introduce contemporary evangelical measures into the Islamic dawa through inscribing the nature of Christian missions to the Indian culture. Brought about by Ahmad’s attempt to translate the doctrines of the Quran, the Ahmadiyya Movement was perceived to be unconventionally modern in terms of cultural and religious pluralism. Aside from introducing Maulana Muhammad Ali’s translation of the Quran, this chapter looks into the missions of sheiks and missionaries and how these were carried out.

Walter, an African American whose family stayed in East Texas, was always seen as a paradigm of ingenuity and industry. The tales tell of Walter’s journey in becoming a Muslim, practicing and teaching the faith, and even changing his name and adopting the beliefs of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam. According to the knowledge that circulated among his family, Wali Akram — Walter’s newly found persona — memorized and took to heart a large part of the scriptures to comply with the tradition of Muslim hafis. In doing so, he was able to provide an account about testaments from both the Bible and the Holy Quran. This chapter contains a narrative about Wali Akram’s quest in fulfilling his mission as an African American Muslim.

This chapter portrays the setting of a Muslim community located in West Valley and how a narrative caused David Duffy — who was born to a devout Baptist family — to shift religions and be converted to Islam. This narrative was mainly about Muhammad Ezaldeen and how he gave much emphasis to the Islamic concept of hijra and how this serves as the key to debunking political and religious autonomy through rekindling the awareness of the new Muslims regarding their African or Hamitic identities. These people were able to form their own self-sufficient community that reflected Ghandi’s principles. The chapter also provides an account regarding the period after Ghandi’s death in 1995 that brought about significant events in Jabul Arabiyya which led Ezaldeen to interrogate God and, in turn, resort to the Quran and the Sunna for answers.

Shuiab Abdur Raheem was a Sunni Muslim who lived and worked as a night clerk at the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York. Although he was active in terms of participating in Muslim practices and he had a relatively good job, he preferred to leave his work as soon as he could because problems arose regarding his identity as an orthodox Muslim. Shuiab was well aware of how to distinguish between the Nation of Islam or the “Black Muslims” and orthodox Islam, which attempts to adopt the scriptures and the teachings attributed to the Holy Quran while also considering the life of Prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullah.