The pilgrimage to Mecca, or Hajj, has been a yearly phenomenon of great importance in Muslim lands for well over one thousand years. Each year, millions of pilgrims from throughout the Dar al-Islam, or Islamic world, stretching from Morocco east to Indonesia, make the trip to Mecca as one of the five pillars of their faith. By the end of the nineteenth century, and the beginning of the twentieth, fully half of all pilgrims making the journey in any given year could come from Southeast Asia. The Longest Journey, spanning eleven modern nation-states and seven centuries, is the first book to offer a history of the Hajj from one of Islam's largest and most important regions.

Whether religiously theists, atheists, agnostics, or simply seekers, each of us is on a journey of faith, spiraling through stages, seasons, or phases of spirituality. On this journey, we discover that spirituality is more caught than taught, and that faith, enriched more by subtraction than by addition, is more about unlearning than learning. At the center of Jesus' life and message stands the exhortation to receive and share divine love. The two volumes of Heart to Heart, excerpted from Dr. Vande Kappelle's published writings, examine the meaning and implications of the biblical Great Commandment to love God and others as oneself. Whereas the first volume examines the spiritual journey inward, this companion volume examines the journey outward. Ultimately there is only one spiritual journey--the journey Godward--and there is only one commandment. Divine love is the key to everything. Unloved people misbehave, fail to love, or fail to change. Loved people aren't concerned with rules, regulations, or beliefs. Rather, because they are loved, they take proper care of themselves, and in so doing, care for nature and others as extensions of themselves. Heart to Heart is written for those who affirm the value of lifelong spiritual growth, realize the limits of logic, and embrace the paradoxes in life. If you are willing to commit less than ten minutes a day over a seven-month period, you will undertake a spiritual journey of epic proportions, guaranteed to transform you morally and spiritually. In addition, you will come to embrace Christianity as the transformative movement envisioned by Jesus for humanity, a way of life grounded in compassion, justice, service, humility, and love of others.

The international nature of modern Business means that individual and organizational success is no longer dependent solely on business acumen- our ability to understand, communicate and work with people in different countries and cultures around the world is more important than ever as more companies rely on their global reach to achieve the best profit and performance. For this reason, international business and cross-cultural management are key topics in undergraduate business, MBA and executive education programs worldwide as companies and institutions prepare current and future business leaders for the global marketplace.

Home to all the major religions, India is also, inevitably, host to virtually every type of religious fanatic. No other nation has witnessed as much proselytizing or heard as many war cries in the name of God as India. For centuries, Hindus, Christians, Sikhs and Muslims have waged bloody wars, sought violent conversion and declared jihad against their enemies, as their religions have been hijacked by the forces of fundamentalism. In Holy Warriors, Edna Fernandes travels to the country's recent and past theatres of religious extremism - from Kashmir to Gujarat, Punjab to Goa - to meet the generals and foot soldiers of communal wars who assert their faith in rhetoric and rage. Theirs are stories of bigotry and bloodshed, insecurity and despair, but Fernandes listens with understanding, tolerance and a deft sense of humour, and paints a uniquely vivid and clear-sighted picture of a country divided by dogma.

In this comprehensive volume, Dr. Kenneth L. Vaux explores the shared theological ground of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam-the common God, the common good, the common word, and the common work. Based on the premise that the three Abrahamic faiths are given by God for some purpose in God's universal history, Journey Into An Interfaith World traces the ways in which these faith movements flow together from and into each other in synergistic ways. At the same time, the book reveals how each fraternal faith has missed the mark in disassociating from its sibling traditions. Vaux's "journey" examines the spiritual genealogy shared by the three cognate faiths--from whom we come--as well as the mutual spiritual ontology--to whom we belong. "All three traditions echo the same refrain: 'Do we not belong to One God?'"

John Herlihy takes readers on a journey of understanding to the heart of Islam, the world's fastest growing religion. Weaving details of Islam's central beliefs and practices--its Five Pillars--with intimate autobiographical details of his more than thirty years in the religion, Herlihy provides readers with an insightful glimpse into a religion that currently claims more than one billion adherents and yet remains so often misunderstood in the West. In Wisdom's Journey Herlihy speaks openly about his conversion to Islam and intimately retells his moving experiences while performing the pilgrimag.

Discover moving meditation with one of today's top-selling poets. Rumi was a 13th-century Sufi theologian and poet who spoke of love, unity with God, and spiritual growth. Rumi and his followers, known as the Whirling Dervishes, employed music, poetry, and dance to become closer to God. This guide brings the unique practice of moving meditation to American readers, offering more than 40 meditations based on Rumi's poems. ? Includes a timeline of Rumi's life, a glossary, and resources for further exploration

The Human Journey offers a truly concise yet satisfyingly full history of the world from ancient times to the present. The book’s scope, as the title implies, is the whole story of humanity, in planetary context. Its themes include not only the great questions of the humanities—nature versus nurture, the history and meaning of human variation, the sources of wealth and causes of revolution—but also the major transformations in human history: agriculture, cities, iron, writing, universal religions, global trade, industrialization, popular government, justice, and equality. In each conceptually rich chapter, Kevin Reilly concentrates on a single important period and theme, sustaining a focused narrative and analytical perspective. Free of either a confined, limiting focus or a mandatory laundry list of topics, this book begins with our most important questions and searches all of our past for answers. Well-grounded in the latest scholarship, this is not a fill-in-the-blanks text, but world history in a grand humanistic tradition. An instructor’s manual includes questions for classroom discussion, substance exam questions, evaluative questions, critical thinking questions, and multiple choice questions, also available in a test-bank format. .

A comprehensive overview of the Islamic philosophical tradition. AIslamic Philosophy from Its Origin to the Present offers a comprehensive overview of Islamic philosophy from the ninth century to the present day. As Seyyed Hossein Nasr attests, within this tradition, philosophizing is done in a world in which prophecy is the central reality of life—a reality related not only to the realms of action and ethics but also to the realm of knowledge. Comparisons with Jewish and Christian philosophies highlight the relation between reason and revelation, that is, philosophy and religion. Nasr presents Islamic philosophy in relation to the Islamic tradition as a whole, but always treats this philosophy as philosophy, not simply as intellectual history. In addition to chapters dealing with the general historical development of Islamic philosophy, several chapters are devoted to later and mostly unknown philosophers. The work also pays particular attention to the Persian tradition. Nasr stresses that the Islamic tradition is a living tradition with significance for the contemporary Islamic world and its relationship with the West. In providing this seminal introduction to a tradition little-understood in the West, Nasr also shows readers that Islamic philosophy has much to offer the contemporary world as a whole. Seyyed Hossein Nasr is University Professor of Islamic Studies at The George Washington University. He is the author and editor of many books, including Islam: Religion, History, and Civilization.