{"product_id":"what-is-islam-the-importance-of-being-islamic-9780691178318","title":"What Is Islam?: The Importance of Being Islamic","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA bold new conceptualization of Islam that reflects its contradictions and rich diversity\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhat is Islam? How do we grasp a human and historical phenomenon characterized by such variety and contradiction? What is \"Islamic\" about Islamic philosophy or Islamic art? Should we speak of Islam or of islams? Should we distinguish the Islamic (the religious) from the Islamicate (the cultural)? Or should we abandon \"Islamic\" altogether as an analytical term? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eWhat Is Islam?\u003c\/i\u003e, Shahab Ahmed presents a bold new conceptualization of Islam that challenges dominant understandings grounded in the categories of \"religion\" and \"culture\" or those that privilege law and scripture. He argues that these modes of thinking obstruct us from understanding Islam, distorting it, diminishing it, and rendering it incoherent. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhat Is Islam?\u003c\/i\u003e formulates a new conceptual language for analyzing Islam. It presents a new paradigm of how Muslims have historically understood divine revelation--one that enables us to understand how and why Muslims through history have embraced values such as exploration, ambiguity, aestheticization, polyvalence, and relativism, as well as practices such as figural art, music, and even wine drinking as Islamic. It also puts forward a new understanding of the historical constitution of Islamic law and its relationship to philosophical ethics and political theory. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA book that is certain to provoke debate and significantly alter our understanding of Islam, \u003ci\u003eWhat Is Islam?\u003c\/i\u003e reveals how Muslims have historically conceived of and lived with Islam as norms and truths that are at once contradictory yet coherent.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShahab Ahmed (1966-2015) was postdoctoral associate in the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50460732588306,"sku":"9780691178318","price":31.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_1f5e18bd-279a-4689-ab4a-2ca51acc3dfd.jpg?v=1737123174","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/what-is-islam-the-importance-of-being-islamic-9780691178318","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}