On Being a Muslim: Finding a Religious Path in the World Today

by Farid Esack

Overview

A personal account of Muslim life in the modern world and the trials it raises

Funny, challenging, controversial, passionate and unforgiving, this is an unprecedented personal account of a Muslim's life in the modern world. A perceptive ground-breaking account of modern Islam, there is a great deal to be learnt from this book by anyone interested in the burning social and spiritual issues of the day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780744575
Publisher:	Oneworld Publications
Publication date:	10/01/2013
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	679 KB

About the Author

Dr Farid Esack has an international reputation as a Muslim scholar, speaker and human rights activist. He has lectured widely on religion and Islamic studies and also served as a Commissioner for Gender Equality with Nelson Mandela's government. He has authored numerous Islamic books and is currently the Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies at Harvard Divinity School.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ix

Introduction 1

1 On Being with Allah 9

Can Allah be Supremely Indifferent? 11

Between Allah and a Neurotic Self 17

Allah: More than an Ideological Appendage 20

Words and Works for a Window 23

More to the Rituals than Motions? 27

Don't Forget to Marinate the Meat! 30

Ramadan: When Boats are Safe in the Harbour 33

2 On Being with Myself 38

Freedom Isn't Free 40

Dying by the Inches 45

And the Truth Shall Set You Free 51

Who Says I'm not Important? 54

Life! Life! (Or is it 'Wife! Wife!'?) 58

3 On Being with You 63

Beyond the Masks 64

Why Two Ears and One Mouth? 67

Why Does He Take so Long with the Meat? 72

To Dump or Not to Dump? 75

Though Poverty Became their Lot 78

My Brother's Flesh on the Menu? 82

4 On Being a Social Being 87

Revelation or Revolution? 89

The Reader's Digest Islam 93

Who's in Charge Around Here? 98

On Building Burdens 102

Wanna Have Some Power? 106

5 On Being with the Gendered Other 111

On Mandela and Women 113

The Gender Jihad 118

It's Just a Dark Blob Out There 122

The Fall of Man 126

Calling all Married Couples! 130

The Courage to be Mad 133

6 On the Self in a World of Otherness 137

Knock, Knock - It's the Malboet (and He's Knocking for Me!) 139

Go Slowly With the Mud! 142

On Ants and Elephants 147

Long Live Mrs Batista! 149

Access to our Waterholes? 152

The Jews! Watch Our For the Jews! 156

7 On Being a New South African Muslim 162

On the Brink of Freedom? 164

Tell Us About Your Glasses 168

Switch Off If You Get Turned on! 172

Crime Out There? Or in Here? 176

On Murdering Murderers 181

Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers? 184

Conclusion189

Notes 198

Select Bibliography 203

Index 205

Editorial Reviews

"This book will help overcome the stereotype that Islam is incompatible with notions of religious and gender freedom. Recommended for general readers and all student levels."

Choice