An exceedingly reasonable proposal for reforming Muslim marriage.
Rida believes that he has found a sensible, lawful way to help solve the problem of divorce in Muslim cultures.
When Rida was a child, his Muslim parents fought relentlessly. Their battles were cruel and acrimonious. The author grew and eventually attended a university in the United States, where he lived with an elderly American couple, the Moores, whose marriage seemed the exact opposite of his parents’ rocky union. The difference between the Moores and his parents, Rida decided, was that the Moores had a chance to get acquainted before they chose to marry. By contrast, the Ridas were matched by their parents—poorly. Trapped in a dysfunctional relationship, they were forced either to suffer in silence or undergo the shame of divorce. But all this pain could have been avoided, had they the chance to meet and get to know each other first—to court. But there was and is a problem: Muslim tradition does not allow single men and women to meet and interact; as one hadith reads: “No man and a woman get together without Satan becoming the third.” What are couples to do? How can potential partners get acquainted without trampling on Islam? Rida believes that he has an answer, and this book is his effort to incorporate a lawful courtship period into the Muslim marriage. His solution is based on the Shia Muslim institution of mut’ah—a temporary marriage contract. In basic terms, the book establishes a set time during which future husbands and wives can get to know one another—and to discover if they are indeed compatible. Rida writes to his coreligionists; he claims that his main audience is made up of believers in non-Muslim countries, and he makes a good-faith effort at addressing the concerns of the devout. He scrupulously cites passages from the Quran and other Muslim scripture to prove that “the leap” is lawful. But his prose is smooth and conversational; he anticipates objections and explains difficult points thoroughly and confidently.
An exceedingly reasonable proposal for reforming Muslim marriage.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 978-1425908195
Page Count: 322
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
An erudite and artful, though frustratingly restrained, look at Old Testament stories.
The Book of Genesis as imagined by a veteran voice of underground comics.
R. Crumb’s pass at the opening chapters of the Bible isn’t nearly the act of heresy the comic artist’s reputation might suggest. In fact, the creator of Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural is fastidiously respectful. Crumb took pains to preserve every word of Genesis—drawing from numerous source texts, but mainly Robert Alter’s translation, The Five Books of Moses (2004)—and he clearly did his homework on the clothing, shelter and landscapes that surrounded Noah, Abraham and Isaac. This dedication to faithful representation makes the book, as Crumb writes in his introduction, a “straight illustration job, with no intention to ridicule or make visual jokes.” But his efforts are in their own way irreverent, and Crumb feels no particular need to deify even the most divine characters. God Himself is not much taller than Adam and Eve, and instead of omnisciently imparting orders and judgment He stands beside them in Eden, speaking to them directly. Jacob wrestles not with an angel, as is so often depicted in paintings, but with a man who looks not much different from himself. The women are uniformly Crumbian, voluptuous Earth goddesses who are both sexualized and strong-willed. (The endnotes offer a close study of the kinds of power women wielded in Genesis.) The downside of fitting all the text in is that many pages are packed tight with small panels, and too rarely—as with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah—does Crumb expand his lens and treat signature events dramatically. Even the Flood is fairly restrained, though the exodus of the animals from the Ark is beautifully detailed. The author’s respect for Genesis is admirable, but it may leave readers wishing he had taken a few more chances with his interpretation, as when he draws the serpent in the Garden of Eden as a provocative half-man/half-lizard. On the whole, though, the book is largely a tribute to Crumb’s immense talents as a draftsman and stubborn adherence to the script.
An erudite and artful, though frustratingly restrained, look at Old Testament stories.Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-393-06102-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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