Sixteen-hundred years ago, Augustine begged his African congregants to think rationally, pay attention to evidence, and listen to their neighbors. He knew this would not be easy. He knew that human error is more common than human knowledge. He himself had been a member of an elitist cult for nearly ten years and then had spent several years as a skeptic resigned to seeking wealth and honors rather than hoping for truth or goodness. He would not be surprised by the rise of white supremacist cults or the nihilistic apathy that have arisen in the “post truth” era. He had seen nativism, elitism, fear, and doubt rise in response to a crisis of hope that truth could be found, a crisis that led to the use of physical force rather than educated disputation, a crisis that ended in the fall of both Rome and Carthage to Vandals and Visigoths. Augustine’s response was to preach publically the hope that encouraged him in his own personal quest for a happy life. This book examines that hope in Augustine’s context until the current moment.

Have you ever wondered about the world around you? Have you ever wondered about the reason of your existence? Have you ever wondered about Allah? Have you ever wondered about yourself? “The one who knows his nafs knows his Lord.” The goal is to know our nafs, to face its reality and to perfect it... However, if you want to be sure of the right direction, you need to find the person who will know how to help you on this path full of pitfalls. Someone who has walked the path himself and who can tell you about the shortcomings of the nafs, who can tell you about Allah and who can communicate his love for our Creator. This book is a collection of preaching by our sheikh Sidi Mohamed Fawzi Al Karkari, may Allah sanctify his secret, which will give you a taste of the reality of his science. “The one who has no Shaykh, Shaytan is his Shaykh.”

Following from the premise that each person is a unique, divine being, this collection of short essays serves as a constant guide to the spirit within. Each essay provides a few moments of repose and reflection to balance the fast pace and multitasking of daily living. Concise and compassionate, the wisdom in this volume is pertinent in any given time or situation.

The story The Little Angel and the Three Wisdoms begins in heaven and travels to earth, ending up back in heaven. Follow the adventures of a nervous young trainee angel, conscientious but fallible, as he travels to earth to shadow Three Wisdoms (the three dimensions of the girl Sophia). But before he can get back to heaven, he misplaces his trumpet. Everything starts with a recapitulation of the creation of the universe by a very bored God. You see, God has got nothing better to do because He has seen it all. God loves music, especially Bach and Mozart's piano concerto slow movements. Meanwhile, the little angel, still scared and a bit fumbling, is tussling with the love affairs of three willful and flighty girls. The angel gets back his trumpet and God sends his peace messages to humankind by email (with a bit of help from his nerds). In the end, God is quite pleased with his creation and his erring creatures as they are led astray by their dragons and their free will, saved by His forgiving love and the amazing grace of music. Catherine Farrar was born and raised in Derry and Donegal, Ireland, "which will forever affect my outlook and language, not least my love of music and the music of words. For this and much else, I owe a great debt to my parents, Tom and Agnes Finnegan, to my brothers and sister who are still there, and to our wonderful three daughters, their husbands, and their children, who I hope will one day read and enjoy these stories." Publisher's website: http: //sbpra.com/CatherineFarrar

What was the greatest fault of Ayesha, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed? Surely a vanity so colossal that, to take one out of many examples, it persuaded her that her mother died after looking upon her, fearing lest, should she live, she might give birth to another child who was less fair. At least, as her story shows, it was vanity, rather than love of the beauteous Greek, Kallikrates, that stained the hands of She with his innocent blood and, amongst other ills, brought upon her the fearful curse of deathlessness while still inhabiting a sphere where Death is lord of all. Had not Amenartas taunted her with the waning of her imperial beauty, eaten of the tooth of Time, never would she have disobeyed the command of her master, the Prophet Noot, and entered that Fire of Immortality which she was set to guard. Thus it seems that by denial she would have escaped the net of many woes in which, perchance, she is still entangled and of Ayesha, Daughter of Wisdom yet Folly’s Slave, there would have been no tale to tell and, from her parable of the eternal war of flesh and spirit there would have been no lesson to be learned. But Vanity—or was it Fate?—led her down another road..FROM THE BOOKS.