Books published by The Islamic Texts Society

Exclusively based on what the Prophet Muhammad himself said and did, this title is one of the most referred to works on prayer and the merits of prayer. Bilingual Arabic-English edition.

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.

A revised and updated edition of the best-selling introduction to Islam written by one of the foremost scholars in the field. S H Nasr outlines the essential aspects of the Islamic beliefs and presents the Islamic spiritual and intellectual tradition in the light of contemporary modern thought.

This book provides a thorough introduction to Muslim belief, history, art and literature. It includes topics such as 'fundamentalism' and the status of women in Islam.

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.

The Hadith, the sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, form a sacred literature which for the Muslims ranks second in importance only to the Qur'an itself. This book is the only introduction in English which presents all the aspects of the subject.

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 is the first English translation of 'Miftah al-Falah', a thirteenth century Sufi text, written by Ibn Ata' Allah, one of the great masters of the Shadhili Sufi order. Considered to be one of his most important works, 'The Key to Salvation' sets out the principles of Sufi mystical practices.

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.

The essays presented in 'The History and Philosophy of Islamic Science' discuss the principles behind the different sciences cultivated in the Islamic world from the third century of the Islamic era onwards and the place of science in relation to other branches of Islamic learning.