Books published by Beacon Books and Media Ltd

The Girl Who Slept Under the Moon follows the story of Noor, who arrives in a new country and feels like she doesn''t belong in her new school.To feel better, Noor takes comfort in the things that remain the same and decides to stick to them. The most important thing to Noor is to stick to her prayers, but at school she has a problem. The only place to pray is a storage cupboard... but Noor is not alone. Another girl also can''t find her place in the playground.This is a story of journeys that take you to different places, of discovering where you belong and the importance of sharing stories.

DESCRIPTIONAcross the world, we are facing a crisis in education at all levels: for some communities, schooling remains inaccessible, and for others, educational institutions have become elite qualification factories.What kind of knowledge do we need to survive in the present century and next? Do the current modes of knowledge creation and application address the challenges of the 21st century? How do we bridge the dichotomy between being and knowing, research and innovation, theory and practice?In The Idea of the Communiversity, the authors propose a new approach to the economic, social, technological, educational and moral transformation of society. This book takes an integral world's approach to societal transformation, by pointing to ways in which we can reform our modes of knowledge creation. Through the fourfold model of community, pilgrimium, academy and co-laboratory, Lessem, Adodo and Bradley-all intellectual and grassroots activists-have re-conceptualised a university for every people and culture, centred on the need to think local and act global. We have seen the eras of post-colonialism and decoloniality. This book ushers us into a new one-that of the Communiversity.

Reem is a Syrian refugee who has arrived in London, trying to discover the whereabouts of her10-year old brother, Adar. Obsessed with history and consumed by her fragmented memories ofhome, Reem is also hiding secrets she hopes will never be revealed.After being placed in a tower block, she befriends Leah; a single mother who has been forced toleave her expensive South Kensington townhouse. Their unlikely friendship supports them asthey attempt to find their place in a relentless, heaving city, and come to terms with the homesthey left behind.Both bold and timely, The Tower shows how Reem and Leah’s lives change and intersect in thewake of individual and communal tragedy, as well as in their struggle to adapt to a rapidlyshifting society.

Thanks largely to the matchless collection of mystical hymns in the local language of Siraiki, Khwaja Ghulam Farid (1845-1901), of Chacharan in the former princely state of Bahawalpur, continues to enjoy an enormous local reputation. In each area of Pakistan, there is one great figure of the literary past who has achieved the status of a patron saint and a symbol of local identity; and in the Siraiki-speaking area, this figure is unquestionably Ghulam Farid. Comprised of a collection of both his teachings and poems, the present translation brings the wider public direct access to one of the greatest figures in the literary and spiritual past of Pakistan.The Teachings, recorded first-hand by the Khwaja's devoted disciple Rukn ud-Din, capture the unblurred vividness of the Khwaja talking to his disciples in a way that leads the mind gradually and seamlessly into the world of classical Islam. Through these lessons, the Khwaja proves himself to be a scholar with wide intellectual interests as well as a spiritual dignitary of the firmest orthodoxy. A master of the poetic form of the kafi, the present work also exposes the reader to the Khwaja's sensitivity to beauty and magical ability to handle language through poems which appeal to the emotions as much as they convey religious teaching and profound mystical awareness. The blend of traditional Sufi allegories with the Khwaja's refreshing originality results in the kind of all-embracing poetic language which can perhaps emerge only once in the history of any given literature.

ABOUT THE BOOKSince the publication of Nature Power in the year 2000, there has always been a demand for a subsequent book of this kind, to help readers identify the medicinal plants pictorially. This book aims to serve as a workbook for students, teachers, and practitioners in the field of ethnobotany and ethnomedicine. It documents the plants that are traditionally used by the local population, the history of local use, and the traditional beliefs around the use in Nigeria. At a time when so much attention is being given to phytochemical screening of plants, there is a temptation to overlook the philosophy of ethnomedicine and cultural use of plants, thereby losing the link between plants and the community. This plant album will help herbal medicine practitioners to identify the local plants available in Nigeria, and also give them some basic knowledge of the chemical constituents. It is a welcome addition to the existing body of literature on Nigeria's plants and flora. The chapter on Nigerian grasses, which is a much-neglected area of research, contributes to the book's uniqueness.ABOUT THE AUTHORAnselm Adodo is a member of the Benedictine order of the Catholic Church. He was ordained a priest in 1997. Father Anselm Adodo is foremost herbal research Institute, the Pax Herbal Clinic and Research Laboratories, popularly called Paxherbals, and Ofure (Pax) Centre for Integral Research and Development (OFIRDI). He has over twenty years' experience of research in the fields of Ethnography, Ethnobotany, Epidemiology, Phytomedicine and Medical Sociology. He is a prominent advocate of African herbal medicine research, indigenous knowledge systems, rural community development, health policy reform and transformation of education in Africa. He has authored a number of books which include: Herbs for Healing (1997), Healing Radiance of the Soul (2003), New (2005), Herbal Medicine and the revival of African Civilization (2010), Disease and Dietary patterns in Edo Central Nigeria (2013), in Africa. Communitalism as an Alternative to Capitalism (2017) and the best-selling Nature Power. Fr. Anselm is a visiting lecturer at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, where he teaches African Transformation studies and Research (NIMR), a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Botanists, and a Senior Research Fellow at Trans4m centre for Integral Development, Geneva, Switzerland.

The novel is a rare example of contemporary English fiction drawing on traditional Moroccan folklore. Written in gripping English prose fused with Arabic words, the novel gives an authentic insight into a Westerner's experience of modern Moroccan society, whilst simultaneously exposing the reader to the country's rich cultural history by weaving classic Moroccan folk takes and the mysteries of Sufism into its fabric. The book not only explores the point where East and West merge, but the collision of the human world with the world of the djinns - mysterious shape-shifting creatures of an unseen realm.SANDY McCUTCHEON is a New Zealander but lived most of his adult life in Australia as an author, playwright, actor, broadcaster and journalist. He has written twenty plays and a number of novels, including Black Widow (2006) which won the Christina Stead Award for Literature, and The Magician's Son (2005), an autobiographical work on the true nature of his ancestry. Hecurrently resides in Morocco where he has close ties with a Sufi brotherhood, and has a large following on his website 'The View from Fez' which he runs with his wife, the photojournalist Suzanna Clarke.

The Young Muslim’s Guide to Modern Science is aimed at high schoolers, university students and teachers, and anyone wanting to understand what modern science says. This book presents a wide range of topics, from the Big Bang to genetic engineering, in simple, clear, and scientifically accurate language, but also showing the Muslim or religious reader how this all fits with his/her beliefs and cultural background. Dr Nidhal Guesssoum shows how it is possible to uphold both one’s religious teachings and the scientific education that we acquire in schools, in total harmony and without sacrificing one or the other.