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With an enlightening combination of real-world advice and relatable examples, this guide introduces communication skills that can facilitate the development of long-lasting business relationships and, in turn, increase sales results exponentially. Following an examination of the three critical elements of the entrepreneurial conversation, the narrative details how to think, speak, and listen like a successful entrepreneur.

The Maqāṣid al-Shariʿah (higher intents and purposes of Islamic Law) have been either directly stated in the Qur’an and the Sunnah or inferred from these by a number of scholars. All of these address the raison d’être of the Shari’ah which, as recognized by almost all the jurists, is to serve the interests of all human beings and to save them from harm.

Are western Muslims an endangered species, or are they the future of Islam? The accelerated adaptation and change western Muslims are pushed to make in order just to survive has galvanized them into a serious effort of rethinking and reflection. This has, in turn, moved the worldwide debate on Islamic reform into a new higher gear.

IIIT Books-In-Brief Series is a valuable collection of the Institute’s key publications written in condensed form to give listeners a core under-standing of the main contents of the original. Our established, age-old notions of knowledge have ceased to be meaningful in postnormal times. What we define as true knowledge, and the ways in which we create it, have changed radically. The emergence of ‘Big Data’ and Artificial Intelligence, as well as ‘fake news’, ‘alternative facts’, ‘deep fake’, and ‘post-truth’ have changed the nature of knowledge production.

This paper not only addresses the intellectual crisis in the Muslim world as manifested in the present state of Muslim thought, knowledge, education, and civilization—a crisis which is directly responsible for the Muslim world’s social, economic, and political problems—but it also presents compelling and thought-provoking ideas for an alternative cultural strategy likely to alleviate the Ummah’s malaise and benefit humanity at large.

Considering that the accepted juridical sources of Islam are valid for all times and places, Ijtihad may be described as a creative but disciplined intellectual effort to derive legal rulings from those sources while taking into consideration the variables imposed by the fluctuating circumstances of Muslim society.

This work traces the evolution of Qur’anic exegesis, from the time of the Prophet, the Companions, the Successors, the early mufassirun (exegetes) with independent tafsir works, to the present day. In doing so, it addresses some major issues including to what extent has tafsir been influenced by differing theological traditions (classical, mystical sufi, persian), political and sectarian interests etc. and how interpretation has differed in some cases, mainly pertaining to juridical, theological, historical, and linguistic issues.

The history of Islamic thought is marked by a continuous tradition of internal revitalisation and reform embedded in the principles of islah, and tajdid. The ultimate purpose has been to bring existing realities and social change in line with the transcendant and universal standard of the Qur’an and Sunnah through a process of restoration and reform.

Advanced in this paper is a Qur’anic perspective on thinking, rationality, and critical reason, which in its critical and goal-oriented dimensions provides a set of guidelines that ensures its purity and purpose from negative reductionist influences. The guidelines so provided are also rich in advancing a spiritual dimension with the understanding that thinking which is not informed by morality and faith can lose its direction and purpose, and can even become harmful to human welfare.

Understanding Maqasid al-Shariah calls for the development of a juridical sense that is finely tuned to the higher objectives and purposes of Islamic rulings, the aims of which are the formulation of a new methodology in understanding the revealed texts and the reform of Muslim thought and its application. The author draws attention to the importance of understanding various levels of maqasid, including distinguishing between primary aims (al-maqasid al-asliyyah) and secondary aims (al-maqasid al-tabi'ah).

The higher purposes, or maqasid, of Shariah are applied and actualized (taf`il) through their means (wasa’il). This audiobook begins with the definition and meaning of maqasid and proceeds to ascertain three discernible tendencies regarding their scope: reductionist, expansionist, and the moderate approach of wasatiyyah/i’tidal.

Born and raised in remote Broken Hill, Trevor Barry left school after year ten to work in the mines. Years later, a single glimpse of Saturn through a colleague's telescope knocked Trevor's world completely off its axis, turning his whole life upside down. With his newfound passion and armed with decades of outback know-how, Trevor set about building an observatory in his backyard using bits and pieces from his shed, a second-hand washing machine motor, rainwater tank parts and an old catamaran wire.

The contemporary postnormal world is posing for Muslims ever strange ethical, financial, and medical dilemmas for which modern jurists are expected to provide a suitable theological response. Yet even with an encyclopedic knowledge of Islamic law, the task facing them is daunting. In the real world this level of complexity has led to chaos in fatwa issuance with many scholars voicing concern at the direction to which things are moving and calling for the process to be regulated.

There can be no doubt that the essence of Islamic civilization is Islam; or that the essence of Islam is tawhid, the act of affirming Allah to be the One, absolute, transcendent Creator, Lord and Master of all that is. These two fundamental premises are self-evident. They have never been in doubt by those belonging to this civilization or participating in it. Only in recent times have missionaries, Orientalists, and other interpreters of Islam subjected these premises to doubt.

The Quran speaks of living with each other on a footing of love, kindness, mercy and mutual consultation between husband and wife. It also addresses those times when the atmosphere is strained. This paper examines the issue of marital discord with a deep sensitivity to the perspective of women. Criticizing an approach to the Quran that is misogynistic rather than emancipatory the paper moves the debate forward by introducing an alternative interpretation of the Qur'anic text dealing with the issue of marital discord.

A six-year-old boy named Kainoa believes he is a secret agent, Agent K. His hideout is a cool tree house near a creek where he plans his adventures. Together with his pet turtle, Sheldon, his iguana, Iggy, and Zumbowyia, the bravest frog in Willow Creek, they set out to find the Golden Acorn that went missing.... or stolen. Without the Golden Acorn the forest will lose its magic!!

Approaching the Discipline of International Relations attempts to present an Islamic paradigm of International Relations, whilst studying and critiquing the knowledge-power nexus of current and historical discourse in International Relations. It explores the historical development of dominant paradigms intrinsic to the discipline of IR as studied from a Eurocentric, Western perspective, and questions their efficacy in relation to the socio-economic-religious realities and context of the Muslim world.