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"Finally, we get to meet the first women of Islam. Thank you for this brave book." –Coleman Barks, author of Essential Rumi, and other books on the great Persian Language poet "Brilliant and illuminating . . . awesome in the depth of its research, the grace of its prose, and the beauty of its poetic voices." Alicia Ostriker, author, poet, and Professor Emerita of English at Rutgers University "Poet, historian and mystic, Tamam Kahn captures the voices and hearts of women you will never forget. I would gladly sit at these women's feet night after night to hear their stories. " -Elizabeth Cunningham, author of The Maeve Chronicles Untold demystifies the most influential women at the dawn of Islam: Prophet Muhammad's wives. They are presented in all their variety, among them, Khadija, a successful merchant and his only wife for twenty-five years; Umm Salama, who helped forge an important peace treaty; Rayhana and Safiyya, two Jewish captives; and there are others. This unusual book combines short biographies with meticulous research. The reader enters seventh century Arab culture and the first moments of what came to be a new religion. This book is powerful women's storytelling.
Fatima’s Touch is a bridge between our time and seventh century Islam. Here is the founding daughter and mother of millions in the Muslim world, whose story has barely been told in the West. What was the real position of women in Islam at the time of the Prophet? Words on her life, with its examples of affection, kindness and effectiveness in challenges, may serve as a hedge against fundamentalism.
Recent outbursts sparked by a viral video and controversial cartoons powerfully illustrate the passions and sensitivities that continue to surround the depiction of the seventh-century founder of Islam. The Lives of Muhammad delves into the many ways the Prophet’s life story has been told from the earliest days of Islam to the present, by both Muslims and non-Muslims. Emphasizing the major transformations since the nineteenth century, Kecia Ali shows that far from being mutually opposed, these various perspectives have become increasingly interdependent. Since the nineteenth century, two separate streams of writing, one hagiographic and the other polemical, have merged into a single, conte...
Nautilus Book Award Winner The first full biography of Mahaprajapati Gautami, the woman who raised the Buddha--examining her life through stories and canonical records. Mahaprajapati was the only mother the Buddha ever knew. His birth mother, Maya, died shortly after childbirth, and her sister Mahaprajapati took the infant to her breast, nurturing and raising him into adulthood. While there is a lot of ambiguity overall in the Buddha's biography, this detail remains consistent across all Buddhist traditions and literature. In this first full biography of Mahaprajapati, The Woman Who Raised the Buddha presents her life story, with attention to her early years as sister, queen, matriarch, and mother, as well as her later years as a nun. Drawing from story fragments and canonical records, Wendy Garling reveals just how exceptional Mahaprajapati's role was as leader of the first generation of Buddhist women, helping the Buddha establish an equal community of lay and monastic women and men. Mother to the Buddha, mother to early Buddhist women, mother to the Buddhist faith, Mahaprajapati's journey is finally presented as one interwoven with the founding of Buddhism.
About one thousand years ago, the great Indian pandit and yogi, Dipamkara Shrijnana (Atisha), was invited to Tibet to re-establish the Buddhadharma, which had been suppressed and corrupted for almost two centuries. One of Atisha's main accomplishments in Tibet was his writing of the seminal text, A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, in which he extracted the essence of all 84,000 teachings of the Buddha and organized them into a clear, step-like arrangement that makes it easy for any individual practitioner to understand and practice the Dharma. This genre of teachings is known as lam-rim, or steps of the path, and forms an essential part of every school of Tibetan Buddhism. In this book, H...
The Hand of Fatima traces the khamsa, or hand motif, across the Arab-Islamic world and beyond. It explores multifarious khamsas, from amulets to fine art, with a special focus on the hand symbol in Algeria, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, and Shiʿism.
Giving voice to the silenced inmates of the Willard State Mental Hospital, All My Bones Are Broken reveals the often ignored world that lies within insane asylums. Inspired by the contents of hundreds of suitcases found in the attic of an abandoned mental hospital, Laurel Marks follows the threads of the lost items back to their sources through medical documents, personal letters, historic interviews, and analytical research of The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases From a State Hospital Attic. With vivid illustrations by Alayna Tinney, All My Bones Are Broken traces the contents of each suitcase and takes us on a journey into the minds of a minority so often silenced. By reimagining the lives of the patients at Willard, an exploration of the razor thin line between lucid health and insanity begins.
As we evolve, so do our prayers; as our prayers evolve, so do we. This is the evolution of illumination, the collective voice of the soul of the world. How Do You Pray? was born from a vision in which Celeste Yacoboni was told to ask the world, "How Do You Pray?" She reached out to leading spiritual, shamanic, scientific teachers, guides, and activists and asked for their response. Culled from those responses is an original and deeply personal collection of essays. Talking intimately and candidly about how they pray, these personalities encourage the reader to contemplate the intention of prayer in their own life. This collection speaks to the reader's heart and asks What is your soul's expr...
Lifted is impeccably honest and rare. Kristy Hellum shares with us poetry that makes suffering almost seem worthwhile. Let yourself be staggered by a phrase. This is raw and important wisdom for a time of chaos. Her poetic encouragement for authentic grieving is brilliant, seductive, and aimed straight for the heart. May we all be so fortunate to be touched by poetry that makes us want to sing and dance, laugh and cry, all in the same moment.
Whether exploring the thorny issues of wives’ sexual duties, divorce, homosexuality, or sex outside marriage, discussions of sexual ethics and Islam often spark heated conflict rather than reasoned argument. In this updated and expanded edition of her ground-breaking work, feminist Muslim scholar Dr Kecia Ali asks how one can determine what makes sex lawful and ethical in the sight of God. Drawing on both revealed and interpretative Muslim texts, Ali critiques medieval and contemporary commentators alike to produce a balanced and comprehensive study of a subject both sensitive and urgent, making this an invaluable resource for students, scholars, and interested readers.