Born in Kabul 1951, graduated from Habibia High School, attended military service at Qargha military base and completed his service as a second lieutenant. In 1974 came to the USA as a student to study English at the University of Kansas and then transferred to the University of New Mexico and graduated in 1982. In the same year joined the United States military. Then in 1983 was assigned to Kirtland Air Force Base, Later transferred to Alameda Naval Air station near San Francisco. Again in 1986 was transferred to McClellan Air Force Base at Sacramento, during this period received his specialty from the University of Davis, California. Finally in 1999 was transferred to March Air Reserve Base near Riverside California and was retired in 2002. For more information, please visit www.themeaningofquran.com

This is the third volume of the series bearing the title “The Essence of Islam,” the first volume of which was published in 1979. Like the first volume, it sets out in the words of the Promised Messiah, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian himself, a summary of his exposition of four further topics: • Family and Personal Background • Status of The Promised Messiah(as) • The purpose of the Promised Messiah’s advent • Propagation, establishment of a holy Jama’at, and instructions

A bold new conceptualization of Islam that reflects its contradictions and rich diversity What is Islam? How do we grasp a human and historical phenomenon characterized by such variety and contradiction? What is "Islamic" about Islamic philosophy or Islamic art? Should we speak of Islam or of islams? Should we distinguish the Islamic (the religious) from the Islamicate (the cultural)? Or should we abandon "Islamic" altogether as an analytical term? In What Is Islam?, Shahab Ahmed presents a bold new conceptualization of Islam that challenges dominant understandings grounded in the categories of "religion" and "culture" or those that privilege law and scripture. He argues that these modes of thinking obstruct us from understanding Islam, distorting it, diminishing it, and rendering it incoherent. What Is Islam? formulates a new conceptual language for analyzing Islam. It presents a new paradigm of how Muslims have historically understood divine revelation—one that enables us to understand how and why Muslims through history have embraced values such as exploration, ambiguity, aestheticization, polyvalence, and relativism, as well as practices such as figural art, music, and even wine drinking as Islamic. It also puts forward a new understanding of the historical constitution of Islamic law and its relationship to philosophical ethics and political theory. A book that is certain to provoke debate and significantly alter our understanding of Islam, What Is Islam? reveals how Muslims have historically conceived of and lived with Islam as norms and truths that are at once contradictory yet coherent.

This volume, the first of a series, sets out, in the words of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad himself, a summary of his exposition of four outstanding topics, namely, Islam; Allah, the Exalted; the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him; and the Holy Quran. The original compilation, in Urdu, from which these extracts have been translated into English, was collated with great care and diligence by Syed Daud Ahmad, may Allah have mercy on him.