contents

PREFACE

A NOTE ON PRESENTATION

INTRODUCTION

 

Part I: Foundations: From Darkness to Light

1 The Usuli Institute’s First Virtual Khutbah            

2 On Evaluating Moral Character, Trusting Intuition, and Cleaning Your Vessel   

3 On Reading and Testing the State of Your Faith   

4 Knowing the Strength of Your Inner Light

5 Parables of Light and Darkness      

 

Part II: On Love and Building a Relationship with God       

6 Your Existence is No Coincidence 

7 On Love and A Loving God in Islam         

8 The Prophet’s Prayer of Love        

9 The Lifeline of Prayer, Perseverance, and Patience           

 

Part III: Keeping Our Faith in the Modern-Day        

10 Thinking Islam Anew Away from the Lands of Despotism and Hypocrisy        

11 Recolonization, Racism, and the Role of Reason

12 Resisting the Colonization of Muslim Minds      

13 Liberation from Mythology and the Power of a White Jesus      

14 The Symbolic Caliphate and Returning the Gaze

 

Part IV: On Justice    

15 On the Definition of a Scholar     

16 The Higher Aspirations of Justice

17 The Theology of Despotism and Reflecting on the Coronavirus 

 

Part V: On Gratitude and Navigating Hardship        

18 When the World Goes Silent: Reflecting on Loss

19 What Do You Hear When the World Goes Silent?       

20 Trials of a Prophet Loved and the Mirror of the Coronavirus     

21 Perhaps You Will Turn to God: On the Coronavirus and God’s Love    

22 More on Virtual Khutbahs and the Personal Nature of a Pandemic        

 

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

SELECTED BIOGRAPHIES

FURTHER READING

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND ABOUT THE EDITOR