Books published by The Islamic Texts Society

This work was written specifically for Muslims, and in particular young Muslims, urging them to become familiar with their religion and to gain an understanding of the modern world from the Islamic point of view in order to respond positively to its challenges.

King of the Castle examines closely many of the unquestioned assumptions by which we live our lives, comparing them with the beliefs that have shaped and guided human life in the past. It begins with a consideration of how secular societies attempt to possess their citizens, body and soul and how, as a consequence, the necessity of redefining human responsibility becomes an ever more urgent imperative. The book continues with a presentation of the traditional view of man as ''God''s Viceroy on Earth'', with an eye to its practical implications in a world that has all but forgotten, under the pressure of mass social persuasion, that man must always be free to choose his own ultimate destiny. The author''s thesis is a passionate yet incisive plea for the restoration of the sacred norms of religion, as against the debilitating and falsifying aims of a profane world-view based on no more than recent scientific and technological achievements.

This children's book on the life of the Prophet Muhammad is taken from traditional Muslim biographical literature. Although written for children of 10 to 15 years of age, it can be usefully read by anyone as an introduction because of its completeness and clarity.

''Almost a prerequisite for any serious study of Sufism in European languages'': this was the verdict of Seyyed Hossein Nasr in his review of the first edition of A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century: Shaikh Ahmad al-Alawi his Spiritual Heritage and Legacy. In this work, the author, Dr Martin Lings, presents a vivid picture of the unforgettable figure of the Algerian Shaykh Ahmad al-Alawi through a short biography by his French doctor and the translation of the Shaykh al-Alawi''s own autobiography. These are followed by expositions of the Shaykh al-Alawi''s teachings which are based on pure metaphysics and gnosis. Finally, Dr Martin Lings translates selections from Shaykh al-Alawi''s aphorisms and mystical poetry. The whole work immerses the reader in the world of North African Sufism both as an intellectual tradition and a living reality.

This work, written by the foremost authority on the subject, includes an in-depth survey of the individual Islamic sciences from cosmology, philosophy, theology to alchemy, physics, mathematics, astronomy and medicine, concluding with a chapter on the gnostic tradition.