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Books on Theology and Philosophy: Recommended by Dr. Abou El Fadl


Note: [Republished from the Scholar of the House website] The books listed below were selected by Dr. Abou El Fadl from a comprehensive bibliography of Islamic Studies books compiled by Professor Patrick O'Donnell, published in 2003. Books published after 2003 are not included. [Go to the complete comprehensive bibliography by Professor O'Donnell.] 

 

Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced designations were determined by Dr. Abou El Fadl. Placement of a book within this section was determined by Professor O'Donnell.

 

BACK TO RECOMMENDED READING LISTS SUMMARY

BEGINNER:

 

Arkoun, Mohammed. The Unthought in Contemporary Islamic Thought. London: Saqi/The Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2002.

Chittick, William C. The Heart of Islamic Philosophy: The Quest for Self-Knowledge in the Teachings of Afdal al-Din Kashani. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Druart, Therese-Anne, ed. Arabic Philosophy and the West: Continuity and Interaction. Washington, DC: Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University, 1988.

Fitzgerald, Michael Abdurrahman and Moulat Youssef Slitine, trans. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya: The Invocation of God. Cambridge, UK: The Islamic Texts Society, 2000.

al-Ghazālī, Abū Hāmid Muhammad (Richard Joseph McCarthy, trans.). Deliverance from Error--Five Key Texts, Including His Spiritual Autobiography, al-Munqidh min al-Dalal. Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae, 2nd ed., 2000.

al-Ghazālī (T.J. Winter, trans.). Al-Ghazālī on Disciplining the Soul & on Breaking the Two Desires: Books XII and XIII of the Revival of the Religious Sciences. Cambridge, UK: The Islamic Texts Society, 1995.

al-Ghazālī, Abū Hāmid Muhammad (David B. Burrell, trans.). On Faith in Divine Unity and Trust in Divine Providence. Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae, 2001.

al-Ghazālī, Abū Hāmid Muhammad (Michael E. Marmura, trans.). The Incoherence of the Philosophers. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2000.

al-Ghazālī (Asaad F. Shaker, trans.). Al-Ghazālī on Intention, Sincerity and Truthfulness: Book XXXVII of the Revival of the Religious Sciences. Cambridge, UK: The Islamic Texts Society, forthcoming.

al-Ghazālī (Kojiro Nakamura, trans.). Al-Ghazālī on Invocations and Supplications: Book IX of the Revival of the Religious Sciences. Cambridge, UK: The Islamic Texts Society, 1990.

al-Ghazālī, Abū Hāmid Muhammad (Muhammad Abul Quasem, trans.). The Jewels of the Qur?ān.London: Kegan Paul Int?l., 1984.

al-Ghazālī (Denys Johnson-Davies, trans.). Al-Ghazālī on the Manners Relating to Eating: Book XI of the Revival of the Religious Sciences. Cambridge, UK: The Islamic Texts Society, 2000.

al-Ghazālī (David B. Burrell and Nazih Daher, trans.). Al-Ghazālī on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God. Cambridge, UK: The Islamic Texts Society, 1992.

al-Ghazālī (Henry T. Littlejohn, trans.). Al-Ghazālī on Patience and Thankfulness: Book XXXIII of the Revival of the Religious Sciences. Cambridge, UK: The Islamic Texts Society, forthcoming.

al-Ghazālī (Asaad F. Shaker, trans.). Al-Ghazālī on Poverty and Abstinence: Book XXXIV of the Revival of the Religious Sciences. Cambridge, UK: The Islamic Texts Society, 2002.

Al-Ghazālī (T.J. Winter, trans.). Al-Ghazālī on the Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife: Book XL of the Revival of the Religious Sciences. Cambridge, UK: The Islamic Texts Society, 1989.

Hourani, Albert. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age: 1798-1939. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Hourani, George F., ed. Essays on Islamic Philosophy and Science. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1975.

Hourani, George F. Islamic Rationalism: The Ethics of 'Abd al-Jabbār. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1971.

Hourani, George F. Reason and Tradition in Islamic Ethics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

Kelsay, John. Islam and War: The Gulf War and Beyond?A Study in Comparative Ethics. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1993.

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993.

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. The Islamic Intellectual Tradition in Persia. London: Curzon Press, 1997.

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. The Philosophy of Mullā Sadrā. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1975.

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, et al., eds. The Philosophy of Seyyed Hossein Nasr. La Salle, IL: Open Court, 2000.

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Religion and the Order of Nature. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Sadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī and his Transcendent Theosophy. Tehran: Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy, 1978.

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Three Muslim Sages: Avicenna, Suhrawardi, Ibn ?Arabi. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1964.

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein and Mehdi Amin Razavi, eds. An Anthology of Philosophy in Persia. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein and Oliver Leaman, eds. History of Islamic Philosophy. London: Routledge, 1996.

Peters, Rudolph. Jihad in Classical and Modern Islam: A Reader. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publ., 1996.

 

INTERMEDIATE:

 

Abrahamov, Binyamin, ed. Islamic Theology: Traditionalism and Rationalism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1998.

Aminrazavi, Mehdi. Suhrawardi and the School of Illumination. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 1997.

Arnaldez, Roger. Averroes: A Rationalist in Islam. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2000.

Averroes (George F. Hourani, trans.). Averroes: On the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy.London: Luzac & Co., 1961.

Averroes (Erwin Rosenthal, trans. and ed.). Commentary on Plato's ?Republic?. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1956.

Averroes (Ibrahim Najjar, trans.). Faith and Reason in Islam: Averroes? Exposition of Religious Arguments. Oxford, England: Oneworld, 2001.

Bakar, Osman. The History and Philosophy of Islamic Science. Cambridge, UK: The Islamic Texts Society, 1999.

Baljon, J.M.S. The Reforms and Religious Ideas of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1949.

Bayrak (al-Jerrahi al-Halveti), Shaykh Tosun. The Name and the Named: The Divine Attributes of God. Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae, 2001.

Bell, Joseph N. Love Theory in Later Hanbalite Islam. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1978.

Bello, Iysa A. The Medieval Islamic Controversy between Philosophy and Orthodoxy: Ijmā?and Ta?wīl in the Conflict between al-Ghazzālī and Ibn Rushd. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1989.

Brown, Daniel. Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Burrell, David B. Knowing the Unknowable God: Ibn-Sina, Maimonides, Aquinas. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986.

Conrad, Lawrence I., ed. The World of Ibn Tufayl: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Hayy ibn Yaqzan. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996.

Cook, Michael. Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Corbin, Henry (W.R. Trask, trans.). Avicenna and the Visionary Recital. New York: Pantheon Books, 1960.

Corbin, Henry (Liadain Sherrard, trans.). History of Islamic Philosophy. London: Kegan Paul, 1993.

Corbin, Henry. The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism. New Lebanon, NY: Omega Publ., 1994 ed.

Corbin, Henry. Temple and Contemplation (Islamic Texts and Contexts). New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.

Daftary, Farhad, ed. Intellectual Traditions in Islam. London: I.B. Tauris, 2000.

Fakhry, Majid. Ethical Theories in Islam. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1991.

Fakhry, Majid. A History of Islamic Philosophy. London: Longman, 2nd ed., 1983.

Fakhry, Majid. Islamic Occasionalism and its Critique by Averroes and Aquinas. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1958.

Fakhry, Majid. Philosophy, Dogma, and the Impact of Greek Thought in Islam. Aldershot: Ashgate/Variorum, 1994.

Fakhry, Majid. A Short Introduction to Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Mysticism. Oxford, England: Oneworld, 1997.

Goodman, Lenn E. Avicenna. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Hallaq, Wael B., trans. Ibn Taymiyya against the Greek Logicians. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1993.

Iqbal, Muhammad. The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1932.

Izutsu, Toshihiko. Concept of Belief in Islamic Theology. Salem, NH: Ayer Co. Publ., 1980.

Knysh, Alexander D. Ibn ?Arabi and the Later Islamic Tradition: The Making of a Polemical Image in Medieval Islam. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1998.

Kraemer, Joel L. Philosophy in the Renaissance of Islam: Abū Sulaymān al-Sijistānī and his Circle.Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1986.

Lawrence, Bruce B., ed. The Rose and the Rock: Mystical and Rational Elements in the Intellectual History of South Asian Islam. Durham, NC: Duke University Comparative Program in Comparative Studies on Southern Asia, 1979.

Leaman, Oliver. Averroes and His Philosophy. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1997.

Leaman, Oliver. A Brief Introduction to Islamic Philosophy. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1999.

Leaman, Oliver. An Introduction to Classical Islamic Philosophy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2nd ed., 2001.

Marmura, Michael E., ed. Islamic Theology and Philosophy: Studies in Honor of George F. Hourani.Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1984.

Martin, Richard C. and Mark R. Woodward (with Dwi S. Atmaja). Defenders of Reason in Islam: Mu?tazilism from Medieval School to Modern Symbol. Oxford, UK: Oneworld, 1997.

Mitha, Farouk. Al-Ghazālī and the Ismailis: A Debate on Reason and Authority in Medieval Islam.London: I.B. Tauris, 2002.

Morewedge, Parviz. Essays in Islamic Philosophy, Theology, and Mysticism. Binghamton, NY: Global Publ., Binghamton University, State University of New York, 1997.

Morewedge, Parviz. The Mystical Philosophy of Avicenna. Binghamton, NY: Global Publ., Binghamton University, State University of New York, 2001.

Morewedge, Parviz, ed. Islamic Philosophical Theology. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1979.

Morewedge, Parviz, ed. Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism. New York: Caravan, 1981.

Morewedge, Parviz, ed. Neoplatonism and Islamic Thought. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1992.

Rahman, Fazlur. The Philosophy of Mullā Sadrā (Sadr al-Din al-Shirazi). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1975.

Rahman, Fazlur. Prophecy in Islam. London: Allen & Unwin, 1958.

Raschid, M.S. Iqbal's Concept of God. London: Kegan Paul Int?l., 1981.

Reinhart, A. Kevin. Before Revelation: The Boundaries of Muslim Moral Thought. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995.

Schimmel, Annemarie. Deciphering the Signs of God: A Phenomenological Approach to Islam.Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1994.

Suhrawardī, Shihāb al-Dīn Yahyā (Hossein Ziai, trans.). The Book of Radiance: Partaw-Nāma. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publ., 1998.

Suhrawardī. The Philosophy of Illumination (Hiqmat al-ishrāq). John Walbridge and Hossein Ziai, trans., commentary, etc. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1999.

Wahba, Mourad and Mona Abousenna, eds. Averroes and the Enlightenment. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1996.

Ha?iri Yazdi, Mehdi. The Principles of Epistemology in Islamic Philosophy: Knowledge by Presence.Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1992.

 

ADVANCED:

 

Abed, Shukri. Aristotelian Logic and the Arabic Language in Alfarabi. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1991.

Butterworth, Charles, ed. Averroes? Three Commentaries on Aristotle's ?Topics,? ?Rhetorics,? and ?Poetics.? Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1971.

Craig, William L. The Kalam Cosmological Argument. New York: Harper and Row, 1979.

Davidson, Herbert A. Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes on Intellect: Their Cosmologies, Theories of the Active Intellect, and Theories of Human Intellect. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Dhanani, Alnoor. The Physical Theory of Kalam: Atoms, Space, and Void in Basrian Mu?tazili Cosmology. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994.

al-Fārābī, Abū Nasr (Richard Walzer, trans.). On the Perfect State (Mabādi? ārā? al-madīnat al-fādilah). Chicago, IL: Kazi Publ., revised ed., 1998.

Frank, Richard M. Al-Ghazali and the Ash?arite School. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1994.

Frank, Richard M. Beings and Their Attributes: The Teaching of the Basrian School of the Mu?tazila in the Classical Period. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1978.

Gianotti, Timothy J. Al-Ghazālī's Unspeakable Doctrine of the Soul: Unveiling the Esoteric Psychology and Eschatology of the Ihyā. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2001.

Gohlman, William E., trans. The Life of Ibn Sina: A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation.Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1974.

Gutas, Dimitri. Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1988.

Gutas, Dimitri. Greek Philosophers in the Arabic Tradition. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001.

Gutas, Dimitri. Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early ?Abbāsid Society. London: Routledge, 1998.

Hasse, Dag Nikolaus. Avicenna's De Anima in the Latin West. London: The Warburg Institute, 2000.

Heath, Peter. Allegory and Philosophy in Avicenna: With a Translation of the Book of the Prophet Muhammad's Ascent to Heaven. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992.

Ibn Rushd (Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee, trans.). The Distinguished Jurist's Primer, Vol. I. Reading: Ithaca Press, 2000.

Ibn Rushd (Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee, trans.). The Distinguished Jurist's Primer, Vol. II. Reading: Ithaca Press, 2000.

Kemal, Salim. The Philosophical Poetics of Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes: The Aristotelian Reception. New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.

Kemal, Salim. The Poetics of Alfarabi and Avicenna. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1991.

Kogan, Barry S. Averroes and the Metaphysics of Causation. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1985.

Mahdi, Muhsin. Alfarabi and the Foundation of Islamic Political Philosophy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2001.

Morris, James W. The Wisdom of the Throne: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mullā Sadrā.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981.

Mullā Sadrā (Parviz Morewedge, trans.). The Metaphysics of Mullā Sadrā. Binghamton, NY: Institute of Global Cultural Studies, 1992.

Netton, Ian Richard. Allah Transcendent: Studies in the Structure and Semiotics of Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Cosmology. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, revised ed., 1994.

Netton, Ian Richard. Al-Fārābī and His School. London: Routledge, 1992.

Netton, Ian Richard. Muslim Neoplatonists: An Introduction to the Thought of the Brethren of Purity.Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2003.

Ormsby, Eric L. Theodicy in Islamic Thought: The Dispute Over al-Ghazālī's "Best of All Possible Worlds." Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984.

Peters, F.E. Aristotle and the Arabs: The Aristotelian Tradition in Islam. Washington Square, NY: New York University Press, 1968.

Stroumsa, Sarah. Freethinkers of Medieval Islam: Ibn al-Rāwandī, Abu Bakr al-Rāzī and Their Impact on Islamic Thought. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1999.

Walbridge, John. The Leaven of the Ancients: Suhrawardī and the Heritage of the Greeks. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1999.

Walbridge, John. The Science of Mystic Lights: Qutb al-Dīn Shīrāzī and the Illuminationist Tradition in Islamic Philosophy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.

Walbridge, John. The Wisdom of the Mystic East: Suhrawardī and Platonic Orientalism. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2001.

Wolfson, Harry A. The Philosophy of the Kalām. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976.

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