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Engendering an intimate and deep relationship with God is at the heart of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This relationship manifests, among other things, in worshipping Him with sincerity, talking to (and about) Him, and being conscious of Him in every moment of life. For believers, God himself plays also an active role in pursuing this relationship by, for example, answering prayers and making the believer know and feel His uninterrupted presence. Many would consider this as common knowledge about the religions mentioned above. However, only few are aware that the meaning of the above differs significantly based on how one thinks that religious language works. Rather, it is taken for gran...
This book presents methods for dealing with conflict in family firms. The first part of the book defines conflict in general and then in the context of family businesses. It then identifies several approaches to dealing with conflict. As the author makes clear, conflict can negatively impact the performance of a family firm while unresolved conflict often results in unsuccessful transition to the next generation. Therefore, she presents a model that looks at the causes of conflict and ways of resolving it. The second part of the book presents case studies of conflicts in family business, examining such companies as Gucci and L'Oreal and applying the theory. This book will serves as a foundational text in managing disputes in family enterprises.
This volume brings together ten articles on contemporary Muslim thought written by authors from Europe and the Middle East, who are specialized in the fields of Islamic theology, Islamic studies and Political Sciences. The scope of the contributions is limited by two aspects: each contribution focuses either on the thought of a contemporaneous Muslim theologian, whose creative period came after 1950 or on a Muslim stream that is relevant today. Second, the contributions also consider the interdependence between theological debates and the larger context in which they take place. The issues addressed here are diverse in nature and the approaches adopted are various, but they are united in giving testimony to the continuing existence of plurality in Muslim theology. This volume will be especially useful for students and scholars of Islamic theology, Islamic studies, and contemporary Muslim thought, as well as the history of ideas.
Recent Arab intellectual debates are often described as revolving around Arab-Islamic cultural heritage (turāth) and the role that it ought to play in modern society. This debate is standardly characterized as a confrontation between traditionalists and modernists, the former idolizing an 'authentic' heritage, the latter blaming traditionalism for Arab society's inability to 'modernize'. This study argues that this standard narrative has become overly dominant, making it impossible for different perspectives to be either voiced or heard. It calls for a critical review of how we think about contemporary Arab thought through an analysis of the progressive-linear temporal structure underlying ...
A dead man hangs from the portal of St Paul Chapel in Damascus. He was a Muslim officer and he was murdered. But when Detective Barudi sets out to interrogate the man’s mysterious widow, the Secret Service takes the case away from him. Barudi continues to investigate clandestinely and discovers the murderer’s motive: it is a blood feud between the Mushtak and Shahin clans, reaching back to the beginnings of the 20th century. And, linked to it, a love story that can have no happy ending, for reconciliation has no place within the old tribal structures. Rafik Schami dazzling novel spans a century of Syrian history in which politics and religions continue to torment an entire people. Simultaneously, his poetic stories from three generations tell of the courage of lovers who risk death sooner than deny their passions. He has also written a heartfelt tribute to his hometown Damascus and a great and moving hymn to the power of love.
The Journeys of a Taymiyyan Sufi explores the life and teachings of ʿImād al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Wāsiṭī (d. 711/1311), a little-known Ḥanbalī Sufi master from the circle of Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328). The first part of this book follows al-Wāsiṭī’s physical journey in search of spiritual guidance through a critical study of his autobiographical writings. This provides unique insights into the Rifāʿiyya, the Shādhiliyya, and the school of Ibn ʿArabī, several manifestations of Sufism that he encountered as he travelled from Wāsiṭ to Baghdad, Alexandria, and Cairo. Part I closes with his final destination, Damascus, where his membership of Ibn Taymiyya’s circle and his role as a Sufi teacher is closely examined. The second part focuses on al-Wāsiṭī’s spiritual journey through a study of his Sufi writings, which convey the distinct type of traditionalist Sufism that he taught in early eighth/fourteenth-century Damascus. Besides providing an overview of the spiritual path unto God from beginning to end as he formulated it, this reveals an exceptional interplay between Sufi theory and traditionalist theology.
Rebellious Wives, Neglectful Husbands brings into conversation the distinct fields of tafs=ir (Qur'anic exegesis) studies and women's studies by exploring significant shifts in modern Qur'anic commentaries on the subject of women. Hadia Mubarak places three of the most influential, Sunni Qur'anic commentaries in the twentieth century- Tafs=ir al-Man=ar, F=i Zil=al al-Qur'an, and al-Tahr=ir wa'l-Tanw=ir - against the backdrop of broader historical, intellectual, and political developments in modern North Africa. Mubarak illustrates the ways in which colonialism, nationalism, and modernization set into motion new ways of engaging with the subject of women in the Qur'an. Focusing her analysis o...
This volume collects reflections on secularity from the Middle East and North Africa. To highlight proximate connections as well as resonances with debates elsewhere, it includes premodern contributions from the region as well as Jewish thought from Europe that have provided significant references for modern appropriations of secularity. The texts, for the most part previously untranslated, reflect commonalities within the region as well as its great diversity. Thus, while Islam is a common reference for most of our authors, the selections point to its varied invocations in the interest of differing political ends. Others write from a Christian or Jewish perspective, or subscribe to non-reli...
Dialogues for the Future provides a sneak peek at the long philosophic journey of the renowned Arab scholar Taha Abderrahmane. The author looks at different thorny issues such as traditions, philosophy, ethics, globalization, and logic through a local prism that is not directedly tainted by the Western epistemic and ontological worldview. While seemingly addressing audiences with a background in the philosophy of language and Islamic philosophy, Taha’s intellectual project tackles many questions that wider readerships might have about the Muslims’ and Arabs’ contribution to knowledge in the past and present. The translator’s introduction “on Dialogue, Ethics and Traditions” contextualizes Taha’s book within the plethora of his academic work, allowing English-speaking readers to engage with the open canvas of dialogue Taha has resiliently initiated.
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