Our List of Websites-Blogs

Dear Readers,

Below we would like to share with you our recommended list of blogs and websites, all professing knowledge and wisdom through writings and work in their areas of expertise. We will also add the website addresses to Spirit & Life blog’s side panel, for easy reference in the future.

Name: Science and Religion in Islam: The Link
Author: EasyNash
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com

Nash’s blog contains his thoughts on the above, reflecting the tradition of Shia Ismaili Islam: The material universe is part of the structure of truth, the ultimate nature of which it is the goal of religion to reach:Easy Nash. Signature posts:Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest value on knowledge, purports to understand God’s creation:Aga Khan 4. The God of the Quran is the One whose Ayats(Signs) are the universe in which we live, move and have our being:Aga Khan 3.

Name: Al-Fatiha ~ The Opening
Author: Jalaledin Ebrahim
http://jalaledin.blogspot.com/

This Sacred Space is dedicated to celebrating Al-Fatiha or Al-Hamd The Opening Seven Verses of the Holy Qur’an the one fundamental”lived experience “shared by every single Muslim , with the intention of fostering a profound and abiding level of commitment to Love and Unity within the Ummah, in commemoration on July 11, 2007 of the Golden Jubilee of the Imamat of His Highness, Prince Karim al-Hussaini, Aga Khan, The Imam of the Time. Inshallah, it will also serve as a deep wellspring of inspiration, creativity and knowledge in the direction towards developing A Psychology of Islam.

Name: Ismaili Web
Author: Nina Jaffer
http://www.amaana.org/ismaili.html

This website is an expression of personal faith. The production and presentation of this website is personal effort and as you can see, still under development. The main purpose of this site is to share with the scholastic, historian and web community a veritable treasure. When you have a valuable jewel, it does little service hidden in a personal vault. When the same jewel is showcased in a museum, the beauty is revered and appreciated by millions.

Allah says in the Quran “do not revile the faith of others as they may revile Allah in return”* and He encourages us to make His message known in the “most beautiful manner”*.

Name: That We May Know Each Other: Calgary Interfaith Initiatives
Author: Almoonir Dewji
http://almoonir.blogspot.com/

Encouraging Interfaith Dialogue to promote Pluralism, which is essential for world peace. Almoonir is an Ismaili Muslim involved in numerous interfaith initiatives. He’s currently the co-chair of the Muslim-Christian Dialogue Group of Calgary and on the executive committee of the Inter-Faith Network of Calgary. For this effort he was honoured to be nominated for the 2007 YMCA Calgary Peace Award.

Name: Pamir News Blog
http://pamirtimes.wordpress.com/

Pamir Times is the premier online magazine published for the Northern Areas of Pakistan and different societies surrounding the Pamir Mountains. It is a voluntary, not-for-profit, non-political and independent venture of young students. The objective is to bring information related to the region’s unique cultural, lingual and social heritage into the global knowledge mainstream.

Name: The Faith Divide
Author: Eboo Patel
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/

Eboo Patel is founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based international nonprofit that promotes interfaith cooperation. His blog, The Faith Divide, explores what drives faiths apart and what brings them together. He is the author of Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation . An American Muslim of Indian heritage, Eboo has a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship. He is on the Religious Advisory Committee of the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Committee of the Aga Khan Foundation and the Advisory Board of Duke University’s Islamic Studies Center. Eboo is an Ashoka Fellow, part of a select network of social entrepreneurs with ideas that could change the world.

Name: The Aga Khan and the Ismailis – Filmmaker’s Blog
Author: Shamir Allibhai
http://agakhanfilm.blogspot.com/

The story of the Aga Khan and the Ismailis. Who are they and how did they come to be? And what do they have to say in this ever-divided world?

The hour-long film, “An Islamic Conscience: The Aga Khan and the Ismailis,” depicted the spiritual leader’s message of religious tolerance as well as his heavy funding of development organizations in Asia and Africa to help eliminate poverty, to support women’s rights, and to promote Islamic art and architecture.

“In a post-9/11, post-London bombing world, we really need to examine the plurality of Islam,” said Shamir Allibhai, the documentary’s producer and a student at Harvard Divinity School. “Right now, there’s a lot of media coverage of Islam associated with terrorism and extremism. This project looks at a different side of things.”

Name: Ismailism
Author: Jim Davis
http://ismailism.wordpress.com/

Jim is a professed Pure Land Buddhist and has great interest in the study of Ismailism. The proclamation of Qiyamat by Imam Hasan II on August 8th 1164 is probably the defining event of Ismailism that drew his interest in the faith. His first exposure to this event was through the writings of Peter Lamborn Wilson a.k.a. Hakim Bey. Ironically Wilson’s comments comparing the Qiyamat to Shinran Shonin’s (founder of Jodo Shinshu the largest sect of Pure Land Buddhism in Japan) idea of shinjin (certainty of enlightenment thru Other Power) led him to the Pure Land Faith. This occurred sometime in 1990. However, he was still attracted to the faith of Imam Hasan II and kept re-reading Wilson’s work over the years.

Name: Islamicate
http://www.islamicate.com/

The term Islamicate comes from Marshall Hodgson, historian, who defined Islamicate as something that “…would refer not directly to the religion, Islam, itself, but to the social and cultural complex historically associated with Islam and the Muslims, both among Muslims themselves and even when found among non-Muslims.”(Venture of Islam, v. 1, p. 59).

This blog comments upon the culture and society, which affects Muslims, and that are affected by Muslims. Its aim is to make informed, critical commentary. Part of the tradition of the Islamic world-view is intellectual engagement with the faith and the world, and the author holds that there is not a normative Islamic thought, but rather, a spectrum of ideas and thoughts that are in constant engagement with one another, and would like to engage in this fluid process and to encourage people to extend the arguments, as well as to disagree with the positions taken amongst members and visitors.

Name: Temple of the Living Imam
http://www.livingimam.net/home/

Shia Islam is the belief that Ali ibn Abi Talib was the rightful successor to the Prophet Muhammed in the leadership of the Islamic nation and faith. Gnostic Shiism goes further, presenting Imam Ali as a semi-divine reality, the face of God, the inner reality of worship, scripture, and the world. Temple of the Living Imam is a tribute to this Imam, the light of God that transcends every nation, time, religion and doctrine.

Name: The Insititute for Spiritual Wisdom
http://www.monoreality.org/

ISW is an umbrella institution that encompasses all the various organisations under the patronship of Allamah Nasir al-Din Nasir Hunzai. The patron and his key organisations and their roles are explained in the About section at the blog. The overall mission of ISW can be viewed by clicking here

Name: Abdur Rahman’s Corner
Author: Abdur Rahman
http://thecorner.wordpress.com/

Abdur Rahman is a thirtysomething English Muslim, living in the Valleys of South Wales (UK), he’s married and have 3 children. He’s been a paid-up, card carrying member of Islam for the last 9 years, though he’s been interested in things Islamic for at least 15 years or so. He’s deeply fascinated by the religious traditions of the world in general, and by Islam, in all its forms, in particular. He’s convert Sunni Muslim, follows the Hanafi school of law and he’s deeply drawn towards the spiritual path of Sufism (to which end he’s currently a part of the broad Threshold Society community, within the Mevlevi tradition).

Name: News Statesman – Fayaz Alibhai
Author: Fayaz Alibhai
http://www.newstatesman.com/writers/fayaz_alibhai

Fayaz S Alibhai has an MSc in Social Anthropology from University College London (UCL). He is currently an Editor at the Department of Academic Research and Publications, The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS).