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. |
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