Provides a wide depiction of Islamic doctrines, practices, and worldviews. Some 50 articles by scholars that are also practicing Muslims representing a diverse range of places, traditions, cultures, and beliefs are presented in volumes that individually address the grand traditions and beliefs of the religion; the spiritual experience of Islam; everyday experiences of family, home, and society; Islamic cultures' art, aesthetics, and science; and Muslim progressives, modernists, and other reformers.

Despite frequent and extensive publications on Islam, very few Americans, indeed very few non-Muslims, truly understand the faith or the more than one billion adherents who live it. This set presents the diversity and richness of Islam, filling in the blanks and expanding our knowledge and understanding. Portraying Muslims in all their humanity and diversity balances the images that have bombarded society and presents the reader with a fuller and more accurate picture of the Islamic faith and what it means to live as a Muslim—in Muslim communities, and as part of a broader tapestry of pluralism in the nations of the world. What does it mean to share Muslim concerns? To experience Muslim spirituality? What is the difference between Sunni and Shiite sects? Why do Muslims pray so frequently? What is the reality of Muslim marriage and gender relations? What is the meaning of jihad and martyrdom to a practicing Muslim? What role do the arts and humanities play in modern Muslim life? How are Islamic children raised? These questions and others are answered in these volumes, which bring together Muslim voices from around the world, including men and women, scholars and laypersons, fundamentalists and progressives, and others from various cultural, political, and Islamic backgrounds. Personal experiences and poetry are included to illustrate the many different expressions of Islam.

Provides a wide depiction of Islamic doctrines, practices, and worldviews. Some 50 articles by scholars that are also practicing Muslims representing a diverse range of places, traditions, cultures, and beliefs are presented in volumes that individually address the grand traditions and beliefs of the religion; the spiritual experience of Islam; everyday experiences of family, home, and society; Islamic cultures' art, aesthetics, and science; and Muslim progressives, modernists, and other reformers.

No one knows heaven’s paradise, but earthly paradises created by mortals may mirror the paradise of the afterlife. Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan crafted paradises with Diwan-e-Khas in Delhi and the Taj Mahal in Agra. Enthralled by the splendor, he inscribed a Persian couplet on the Diwan’s arches: ‘If there is paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this.’ The title and contents of this book echo the crux of this couplet. This travelogue explores the author's five-decade journey through European monarchs' architectural marvels of paradisiacal proportions and their eminence relative to South Asian architectural resurgence under Shah Jahan in the 17th century CE.