The search for beauty in Islam: a conference of the books

Khaled Abou El Fadl

Rowman & Littlefield, Dec 30, 2005 - Religion - 407 pages

Khaled Abou El Fadl is a classically-trained Islamic jurist, an American lawyer and law professor, and one of the most important Islamic thinkers today. In this updated and expanded edition of The Search for Beauty in Islam, Abou El Fadl offers eye-opening and enlightening insights into the contemporary realities of the current state of Islam and the West. Through a "conference of the books," an imagined conference of Muslim intellects from centuries past, Abou El Fadl examines the ugliness that has come to plague Muslim realities and attempts to reclaim what he maintains is a core moral value in Islam-the value of beauty. Does Islamic law allow, or even call for, the gruesome acts of ugliness that have become so commonly associated with Islam today? Has Islam become a religion devoid of beauty, compassion and love? Based on actual cases, this book tackles different issues and problems in each chapter through a post-9/11 lens, discussing such topics as marriage, divorce, parental rights, the position of women, the veil, sexual abuse, wife-beating, terrorism, bigotry, morality, law, and the role of tradition. Abou El Fadl argues that the rekindling of the forgotten value of beauty is essential for Muslims today to take back what has been lost to the fundamentalist forces that have denigrated their religion.

What people are saying

Review: The Search for Beauty in Islam: A Conference of the Books

User Review  - Risman Mou - Goodreads

i don't know about that

Review: The Search for Beauty in Islam: A Conference of the Books

User Review  - Aly - Goodreads

Really makes you think about how the media has skewed Islam to suit it's own, as well as consumers, views.

Contents

• The Conference of Books The First Admission: 1
• The Nights Visitor: 5
• The Pirates of the Intellect: 8
• The Terror of Bigotry: 12
• The Civilization of the Book: 14
• The Interminable Conference: 18
• On Betrayal: 20
• A Prayer: 22
• Donkeys Carrying Books: 25
• To Murder the Soul: 28
• A One More Knowing: 31
• Women as an Awra: 33
• The Authoritative and the Authoritarian: 35
• On Obedience: 37
• To Suffer the Children: 40
• On Forms of Terror: 43
• DialaFatwa: 45
• On Knowledge: 47
• NYC Bombing: 50
• Umm Ahmad and the Judge: 52
• The Book Massacres: 54
• To Kill Parenthood: 56
• Killing Flies: 59
• Attending Juma: 61
• Burdens of a Generation: 63
• The Dialectics of an Apology: 65
• The Essential Individual: 68
• The Search for Beauty: 70
• Hegemony and Terrorism: 73
• Longing for Brotherhood: 76
• The Culture of the Mamnu: 78
• On Being in Love: 81
• Lecturing on the Ugly: 84
• A Night With the Qalam: 87
• A Homily for Ibn Rushd: 90
• The Sunna of the Beloved: 95
• Colonizing Women: 97
• The Page: 99
• My Friend: 102
• The Truth of Silence: 105
• On the Beating of Wives: 107
• The Beating of Wives Revisited: 114
• In Praise of the Marginal: 123
• A Love Song: 125
• Migrating to the Shaykhs: 127
• On Revising Bigotry: 132
• An Encounter With the Shaykh On the Delusions of the Fog: 137
• Finding the Shaykh: 141
• The Book of Suspended Judgment: 147
• Dreaming of the Prophet: 153
• Women as a Colony: 160
• In the Footsteps of the Beloved: 165
• The State Between Two States A Partnership With God: 168
• The Pearls of Beauty On ReFinding Our Lost Civilization: 176
• The Intellectual Refugee: 186
• When the Devil Speaks: 190
• Corrupting Gods Book: 193
• The Remembrance: 203
• The Scholars Road: 219
• Muhammad the Child: 229
• The Revelation: 231
• Shades of Divine Light: 233
• The Restorations of the Night: 235
• The Exorcisms of the Night: 237
• The Unity of Strangers: 240
• The Testimony: 242
• Searching for the House of God: 245
• Incoherence: 248
• A Breath from God: 251
• Derangements: 254
• A Leader Among Us: 257
• When God Asks the Child: 261
• Divine Threads: 263
• Embraced by the Beloved: 268
• The Shaykhas Endless Jihad: 270
• Banning the Conference: 275
• Waves and Rocks: 291
• The Lord of the Essence A Fatwa on Dogs: 309
• Thieves of the Dark: 324
• Quietus: 328
• Notes of the Night: 334
• Notes of the Transformation: 337
• The First Admission: 341
• Glossary of Terms: 348
• Selected Biographies: 370
• Index: 382
• About the Author: 400

About the author

\Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl is Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law where he teaches Islamic law, immigration, human rights, and international and national security law. He holds degrees from Yale University (B.A.), University of Pennsylvania Law School (J.D.) and Princeton University (M.A./Ph.D.). He serves on the Board of Directors of Human Rights Watch and was also appointed by President George W. Bush as a commissioner on the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. Author of numerous books and articles on Islamic law and Islam, his most recent work focuses on issues of authority, tolerance and democracy in Islam.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The search for beauty in Islam: a conference of the books
• Author: Khaled Abou El Fadl
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005
• ISBN: 074255094X, 9780742550940
• Length: 407 pages
• Subjects: Religion / Islam / General; Religion / Islam / Law; Religion / Islam / Rituals & Practice