Book Club

Ramadan 2022 Book Club

Attend Book Club via Zoom here. Password: english

Monday April 25 at 7pm EST

This week, we will be discussing barriers to adoption within Islam, and the controversial workarounds that are employed to overcome these barriers.

We will also be continuing our discussion on the pressure to have children from last Book Club.

Approximate reading time: 15 minutes

Article 1:

https://www.al-islam.org/articles/adoption-islam-sayyid-muhammad-rizvi

Article 2:

Sections 1, 3, and 4

https://brill.com/view/journals/haww/20/1-2/article-p103_6.xml?language=en

Monday April 11 at 7pm EST

This week, we will be discussing the socially enforced pressure in the Muslim community to have children. What does this mean for those who choose differently, or for those who cannot?

Please note that one of the articles is about miscarriage. Please feel free to skip that one if that is a topic that is triggering for you!

Approximate video length: 15 minutes

Approximate reading time: 15 minutes

Article 1:

https://www.thecut.com/2015/05/i-was-a-proud-non-breeder-i-changed-my-mind.html

Article 2:

Miscarriages and Stillbirths: The Loss of a Baby in Muslim Communities

Ramadan 2021 Book Club

Week 4: Tuesday May 11 at 7pm EST

This week we will be continuing our discussion on gender inequity in Islamic divorce.

Reading time is approximately 15 minutes. Readings:

  • The Rights of Women in Islam by Shahid Mutahhari, Part Ten: Right of Divorce, sections: “Divorce 5” and “Judicial Divorce“: https://tinyurl.com/rnz4wpz8

Week 2: Monday April 26 at 7pm EST

This week we will be discussing gender inequity in Islamic divorce.

Reading time is approximately 20 minutes. Readings:

Week 1: Monday April 19 at 7pm EST

This week we will be discussing the concept of salvation of Non-Believers across 5 faith traditions: Shia and Sunni Islam, Judaism, Catholicism, and Evangelical Christianity.

Reading time is approximately 20 minutes. Readings:

March 25, 2021: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul by William Chittick

With academic courses either encouraging commercialism, or cultivating zealots, Chittick states that it is impossible to understand classical Islamic texts without the years of contemplative study that are anathema to the modern education system. Insisting upon a return to the ways of the ancient wisdom tradition, which saw the quest for knowledge of the soul, the world, and God as a unifying spiritual discipline, Chittick maintains that the study of Islamic texts cannot be treated separately from self-understanding.

February 25, 2021: Servants of Allah by Sylviane A. Diouf

Servants of Allah presents a history of African Muslim slaves, following them from Africa to the Americas. It details how, even while enslaved many Black Muslims managed to follow most of the precepts of their religion. Literate, urban, and well traveled, Black Muslims drew on their organization and the strength of their beliefs to play a major part in the most well known slave uprisings. Though Islam did not survive in the Americas in its orthodox form, its mark can be found in certain religions, traditions, and artistic creations of people of African descent.

But for all their accomplishments and contributions to the cultures of the African Diaspora, the Muslim slaves have been largely ignored. Servants of Allah is the first book to examine the role of Islam in the lives of both individual practitioners and in the American slave community as a whole, while also shedding light on the legacy of Islam in today’s American and Caribbean cultures.

Did You Know?

  • The literacy rate among West African Muslims was so high that proportionally there were more literate enslaved Africans than colonists in the Americas
  • The US imported the highest proportion of enslaved Muslims
  • In Brazil and Peru enslaved Muslims operated secret Qur’anic Schools that graduated their own Ulemma
  • Islamic-influenced West African music gave rise to the Blues”