Islam (general) & Orthodox Sufism

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of God: A Biography, an erudite, hugely informative portrait of the God of Islam, the world's second largest, fastest-growing, and perhaps most tragically misunderstood religion.

Rabia al-Adawiyya is a figure of myth. Certainly a woman by this name was born in Basra, Iraq, in the eighth century, but her life remains recorded only in legends, stories, poems and hagiographies.

Muslims are required to pray five times a day, but for too many

of us these are little more than physical movements devoid of any

spirit or divine connection? In contrast, the Prophet characterised prayer as the spiritual ascent

(mi'raj) of the believer. In a modern world of constant distraction,

Daisy Khan has spent her adult life, as the executive director of the Womens Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE), trying to educate and empower Muslim women.

According to Muhammad, “God is beautiful and He loves beauty.” Yet, Islam is rarely associated with beauty, and today, a politicized Islam dominates many perceptions.