Description

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This book explores challenging and pertinent subjects in contemporary Islam, based on a close reading of select primary classical and secondary texts. Consisting of five thematic chapters, each devoted to a specific topic of Islamic thought, it examines the classical discussion of these topics in detail, locating them in their classical milieu while exploring to what extent they have retained conceptual and practical relevance throughout history. The first three chapters look at topics in jurisprudence: marasim al-dafn (burial rituals), rukhsa (concession/alleviation) and ihdad (mourning period for a widow). Each chapter begins with a brief contemporary personal reflection, underlining the topic's current relevance, before going on to explore how jurists debated the topic, how they disagreed and where they reached some sort of consensus. There follow two theological chapters which are more reflective in style. The first looks at the concepts of sirr (secret/secrecy) and alkhafa' (hiddenness), and the second explores wafa/wala (fidelity) and loyalty in the Qur'an and wider Islamic thought. Taken together, these explorations show how Muslim thinkers concerned themselves with all aspects of devotion and practice, and how these debates remain relevant today.