AWLIYA of ALLAH (The Friends of God)

  

Also see : 

 QADIRIYA 
 
CHISTIYA 
 
NAQSHBANDIYA 
 
SUHRAWARDIYA 
 
SUFISM IN PAKISTAN 
 
SUFISM IN INDIA
 AL-QUSHAYRI 
 
AL-HUJWERI 
 
AL-GHAZALI 
 
GHAWTH AL-A'ZAM  FARID AL-DIN ATTAR 
 
MU'IN AL-DIN CHISTI 
 
IBN AL-ARABI  
 
RUMI 
 
AL-HADDAD 
 
IMAM AHMAD RAZA 
 
ABDUL ALEEM SIDDIQUI 

  

Page Last Updated : 15th October 2009 

  

 FREINDS OF GOD : Islamic Images of Piety, Commitment, & Servanthood

  Paperback - 368 pages, 6 x 9 inches, 30 b/w photographs                                               by John Renard

Description : Prophets, saints, martyrs, sages, and seers--one of the richest repositories of lore about such exemplary religious figures belongs to the world's approximately 1.3 billion Muslims. Illuminating some of the most delightful tales in world religious literature, this engaging book is the first truly global overview of Islamic hagiography. John Renard tells of the characters beyond the Qur'an and Hadith, whose stories of piety and service to God and humanity have captured hearts and minds for nearly fourteen hundred years. Renard's thematic approach to the major characters, narratives, social and cultural contexts, and theoretical concepts of this remarkable treasury of tales, based on material ranging from the eighth to the twentieth centuries and from countries ranging from Morocco to Malaysia, provides insight into the ways in which these stories have functioned in the lives of Muslims from diverse cultural, social, economic, and political backgrounds. The book also serves as a useful and evocative tool for approaching the vast geographical and chronological sweep of Islamic civilisation.

Contents :

List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction: An Overview of Islamic Hagiography

I. STAGES IN THE LIVES OF GOD'S FRIENDS
1. Beginnings Both Humble and Spectacular
2.Conversion and Asceticism on the Road to Sanctity
3. Dreams and Visions, Visitors and Voices: God in Touch with His Friends
4. Miracles and Marvels: God Working through His Friends
5. Mere Mortals: Friends and the Human Condition

II. FRIENDS OF GOD IN CONTEXT 
6. Friends and Their People: Society and Service to Communities
7. Founding Friends: Authority, Institutions, and the Economics of Intentional Community
8. Where God's Friends Walked: Revered Sites and Ritual Settings
9. Friends in Our World

III. FRIENDS IN THEORY: UNDERSTANDING THE STORIES 
10. Literary Dimensions: Genre, Function, and Hermeneutics
11. Theological Dimensions: Hagiography, Faith, and Controversy

Notes
Index

 
Review : 
"I know of no other work in Western scholarship and pedagogy of Islamic studies with the scope and depth of Friends of God. Renard does not only provide well organised, richly detailed, absorbing, and delightful coverage of the best known literature on Muslim saints and sainthood, but he also brings the reader into modern and contemporary contexts where the subject continues to be of considerable personal and communal spiritual importance. This book is new and urgently needed in today's world, whether in the university or across the global landscape of adult reflection on Islam and Muslims. "--- Frederick Mathewson Denny, author of An Introduction to Islam and Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado, at Boulder

  

 
Our Price £18.95                  INCLUSIVE OF UK DELIVERY

 

The A to Z of SUFISM                                                              by John Renard

Paperback XLV + 351 = 396 Total pages

 
With more than 3,000 entries and cross-references on the history, main figures, institutions, theory, and literary works associated with Islam's mystical tradition, Sufism, this dictionary brings together in one volume, extensive historical information that helps put contemporary events into a historical context.

Additional features include:  

· chronology of all major figures and events  

· introductory essay  

· glossary of 400 Arabic, Berber, Chinese, Persian, and Turkish terms  

· comprehensive bibliography  

Ideal for libraries, as well as students and scholars of religion.  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Renard is professor in the Department of Theological Studies at Saint Louis University, where he has taught Islamic studies, history of religion, and comparative theology since 1978. 

 
Our Price £26.95           INCLUSIVE OF UK DELIVERY           

Tales of Gods Freinds - Islamic Hagiography in Translation    
Paperback - 432 pages                                                                                by John Renard

  

This remarkable collection gathers a breathtakingly diverse selection of primary texts from the vast repertoire of Islamic stories about holy men and women—also known as Friends of God—who were exemplary for their piety, intimacy with God, and service to their fellow human beings.

  

Translated from seventeen languages by more than two dozen scholars of Islamic studies, these texts come from the Middle East, North and sub-Saharan Africa, Central and South Asia, and China and Southeast Asia. Historically, they begin with the eighth century and include samples from medieval, early modern, and modern Muslim societies.

  

Expertly edited and introduced by John Renard, Tales of God's Friends serves as a companion volume to Renard's Friends of God: Islamic Images of Piety, Commitment, and Servanthood.

Review: "The works of Islamic mysticism are a crucial genre of Islamic piety, and the lives of the awliya (friends of God) have been and continue to be a crucial way in which the theoretical insights of Sufism are embodied and communicated to a wider audience. Traditionally, these genres would be deciphered by a living Sufi master. Here John Renard acts as our Sufi guide, transporting us to the marvelous world of Islamic piety."—Omid Safi, Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Northern Carolina

 
Our Price £19.95                 INCLUSIVE OF UK DELIVERY

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