This study aims to investigate the challenges of translating metaphors of the Quran. It examines English speakers' understanding of a number of Quran metaphors which are selected from three well known English versions of the Quran translations. In addition, the study highlights the root causes which may be deemed to be a source of misunderstanding Quran metaphors. The study also aims to find out to what extant metaphors of the Quran can maintain their sense in today's context. Translation in today's globalised world is gaining relevance as a means to enhance communication among multicultural nations. Translation studies have contributed significantly in bridging the linguistic and the cultural gap among languages. However, the key literature of this study suggests that, translating metaphors and translating metaphors of the Quran in particular have been under researched as they are very often overlooked in translation studies. The conclusion that can be drawn from the predominant literature related to translation studies is that the on-going debates over the faithful, loyal approaches of translating vs. the free and dynamic methods have generated in parts insightful explanations and interesting and useful, but they have fallen short of providing a general consensus. This study takes the view that there is no master plan for translating and that a word for word approach often leads to stilted translation particularly when dealing with metaphors. Given the nature of the topic under consideration, this study combines both qualitative and quantitative methods. The advantage of the use of both methods for collecting data is highly considered and recommended. Utilization of this combination enhances the trustworthiness of findings as well as reduces limitations. The qualitative method in this study represents scholars' interpretations and views and a questionnaire as a data collection instrument is adopted to enhance the result of this study. The findings suggest that the three selected English versions of the Quran have fallen short of conveying the meaning of Quran metaphors. The findings also indicate that the meaning is often mistranslated or misleading or misunderstood by English readers.

This thesis examines the experiences and the attitudes of Bradford females who have Pakistani Mirpuri heritage. The study has involved people of different ages ranging from sixteen to thirty-five and older women aged in their forties and beyond. The women explore their relationship with their parents, the biraderi (their extended family), career and educational aspirations, involvement with religion and culture and how these fit into their personal identities. The data was gathered incrementally over three stages. Each stage was equally important, and themes emerged at each stage, which were then explored further. The data comes out from a number of questionnaires, which were followed by interviews. The research evidence creates consistent pictures and provides an insight into the lives and experiences of Bradford females, of Pakistani Mirpuri origin. The concern was to explore the notions of their sense of personal identity in the face of conflicting cultures and conflicts between culture and religion. The research evidence shows that younger women believed they did share a close relationship with their parents. At times this relationship was tested. The evidence shows that an area of major inter-generational tension was where parents were trying to control the behaviours of younger women by using cultural interpretations of Islam. This was particularly mentioned by younger women in relation to education, careers, and marriage and on issues of freedom generally. The relationship of younger women, with the biraderi (kin) is not as close as their parents' relationship with it. Younger women are leading independent lives and have high career and educational aspirations. The majority of the respondents felt their parents had supported their aspirations. The evidence shows that younger women feel comfortable with the freedom they have. They wanted to be able to fulfil their education and career aspirations and socialise with friends. The younger women felt they understood Islam and followed religion more than culture. They felt they were able to distinguish between culture was and where parents were confusing religion and culture. The majority of women in this study described having multiple identities and were comfortable with this. Being British did not mean they had to compromise them as Muslims. The thesis demonstrates that Pakistanis are not homogonous and that there are many differences based on gender, cast and sect. At the core, however, is the sense of personal identity and the use the women made of their religious beliefs, not as a sign of the subjection to their inheritance but a symbol of their sense of personal independence.

Religiosity has been researched in relation to psychological well-being through assessing cognitive and behavioural components of religion (e.g. prayer). The lack of consensus in defining and measuring religiosity is a complex matter. Different forms of religiosity are measured in relation to positive and negative psychological well-being. The literature review identifies orthodoxy and spirituality as two forms of religiosity. Research is examined in detail to establish how orthodoxy relates to negative well-being whereas, spirituality associates with positive well-being. Shame is a distressing emotion that involves negative evaluations of the self. Whereas, self-compassion is contrasted in that a positive relationship with the self is evident. Since shame and self-compassion are opposite constructs the prediction was that orthodoxy may relate to greater shame and lower self-compassion, whereas spirituality may associate with lower shame and greater self-compassion. The empirical research explored how both forms of religiosity; orthodoxy and spirituality relate to shame and self-compassion in South Asian (SA) Muslim women. The study’s qualitative component explored the conceptualisation of shame. The results show that orthodoxy and spirituality are related yet distinct entities. Greater shame associates with lower self-compassion. No significant association was detected between shame and both forms of religiosity. Orthodoxy negatively correlated with self-compassion. That is a unique finding since this had never been researched previously. The qualitative component enabled the development of a process model for shame experience pertinent to this population that may be relevant for clinical practice. Implications of these findings, the study’s limitations and recommendations for future research are debated.

The thesis examines the role of Islam and Shariah (Islamic law) in the economic development of Malaysia and it rejects the assumption that Islam and Shariah inhibit economic development. In contemporary Malaysia, there are two 'policies' adopted by the Government. Firstly, 'Islamisation' which is for the advancement of Islamic law and institution building. Secondly, 'Malaynisation' which promotes the socio-economic development of the Malay ethnic group. The study adopts a holistic approach which covers the political economy of law in Malaysia. The thesis explores the relationship between the two policies considering in particular whether they are essentially the same. The study covers the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods although the focus is on the post-1969 period which involved the application of the New Economic Policy (NEP). The NEP was a pro-Malay Policy to rectif,' the economic imbalance of the Malays vis-à-vis other communities. Therefore, the focus of this thesis is on the Malay- Muslim population of Peninsular Malaysia who form the bulk of the Bumiputera (indigenous people). Two Bum iputera and Islamic organisations, Bank Islam (BIIMB) and Tabung Haji (TH) as well as the Bumiputera unit trust scheme, Amanah Saham Nasional (ASN) are used as the case studies. Their establishment, structure and organisation are examined. There is a specific focus on the extent to which they are examples of Islamisation or Malaynisation. It is clear that in contemporary Malaysia, Islam and Shariah are being used by the Government to promote economic development. Islamic values have been used to further Malay economic participation in the commercial sector. As a consequence, the economic position of many Malay-Muslims has greatly improved. However, the Government position is questioned by the Islamic opposition who say that the Islamisation policy in many respects is either contrary to Islam or merely cosmetic, and want a 'pure' Islamic approach. The thesis therefore involves a critical examination of the perspectives of both the Government and the Islamic opposition.

The thesis critically examines the view that associates religion with bellicosity in politics. It is argued that the structural link between religion and the propensity to (political) violence is inaccurate because (1) religious theories of just war can be shown to be tolerant of difference in important instances and thus not belligerent; (2) secular ideology can be shown to be intolerant and bellicose in important cases; and consequently (3) the more important explanatory factor of bellicosity is not necessarily religion but it can be found elsewhere. It is argued that the true source lies in the association of a monistic ideological commitment and the willingness of its political agents to impose it on those with different ideological views. The thesis is a critical and comparative discussion of those who have dealt with ideological violence. It compares interventionist theorists with those who are not in religious tradition and contemporary theory of just war to reveal that the cause of violence is located in an avoidable failure to reconcile religious morality and politics. The thesis adds a new perspective on the debate, calling for a rethink of the relationship between religion and violence in politics. It also proposes greater scepticism about widely held assumptions about the bellicose tendency of religiously motivated political agents, arguing that theorists should rethink the real cause of bellicosity beyond the religious domain and pay closer critical attention to the sources of the belligerence of secular agents.

The 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran was based and formed upon the concept of Khomeinism, the religious, political, and social ideas of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini. While the Iranian revolution was carried out with the slogans of independence, freedom, and Islamic Republic, Khomeini's framework gave it a specific impetus for the unity of people, religious culture, and leadership. Khomeinism was not just an effort, on a religious basis, to alter a national system. It included and was dependent upon the projection of a clash beyond a “national” struggle, including was a clash of ideology with that associated with the United States. Analysing the Iran-US relationship over the past century and Khomeini’s interpretation of it, this thesis attempts to show how the Ayatullah projected "America" versus Iranian national freedom and religious pride. This projection used national interest and the religious and social culture of Iranians to mobilise the masses to overthrow a secular and pro-American political system, replacing it with an Islamic, anti-American system. However, while anti-Americanism was an essential part of Khomeinism, it was a conditional and impermanent concept. As the historical investigation shows, hostility between Iranian and American communities has been exceptional for much of the period since 1850. That recognition, as well as the critique of Khomeinism, offers possibilities for improvement in future relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the West, especially the US.

This study addresses how educated Afghan refugee women in Pakistan have experienced,contributed to and challenged the gendered constructions of national, ethnic and religious identities in war and displacement. In addition, this study addresses the lived experiences of educated Afghan refugee women of formal education in Afghanistan and in Pakistan, and their `agency' in utilizing education to further the cause of equity in their families and communities. This is a qualitative study using twenty in-depth and semi-structured interviews, as well as extensive participatory observation in Afghanistan and Pakistan and library-research over the period of 1996 to 2003. It is the result of immersion, as an `in-between' feminist researcher, in Afghanistan and Afghan refugee life in Pakistan since 1996, and an effort to link academic endeavor with activism and life as a development/humanitarian practitioner. This study shows the symbolic and actual role of women in the gendered constructions of dynamic and shifting identities, and their mobilization by patriarchal, political and military processes in war and displacement. It highlights the specificity of Afghanistan, as well as Pakistan, as the `near abroad'. This includes national `modernization', Sovietization and Islamization efforts and the influence of regional and global politics on Afghanistan and Afghans. The study also shows that many Afghan women, in all their diversity, have challenged not only patriarchy but also other dogmatic and undemocratic process of exclusionary politics. Their lives and efforts challenge Westocentric/orientalized stereotypes of Afghan women (and men), as well as generally those of Moslem women, women of the South and refugee women, and their constructions purely as victims. Formal education, as one of the first and most important public spaces available to girls and women, with its contradictory yet critical potential in enhancing the awareness, skills and resistance of girls and women, is further reviewed and analyzed. While addressing the above issues, this study also highlights the need to undertake further in-depth research on Afghanistan, Afghan women, Afghan refugee women and female education in Afghanistan. Such research can be used to support Afghan women and Afghan refugee women with due consideration to their heterogeneity, `agency' and struggles for wellbeing, choice and respect.

The present thesis is an enquiry into the nature and consistency of the idea of music as a metaphor throughout the works of the English philosopher and physician Robert Fludd (1573/4-1637). Fludd was very fond of a view of the world in which man is made of the same elements and the same proportions of the cosmos. Though this idea was slowly losing credit amongst the intellectuals of the time, Fluddean thought made some impact in the British Isles, and even more so on the continent: Johannes Kepler, for instance, wrote extensively about Fludd’s use of numerical symbolism, and stressed the differences between his own idea of harmony of the spheres and Fludd’s. After Fludd’s death, his ideas were still taken seriously amongst certain intellectual circles, e.g. in England (John Webster) and Poland (John Amos Comenius), and Fluddean thought influenced German musico-theoretical writers such as Athanasius Kircher, Andreas Werckmeister, and Johann Walther. But the subsequent centuries witnessed a general obliviousness towards Fludd. His figure began to re- emerge only in the second half of the 20th century in an increasing number of essays, papers, articles and a few books dedicated to him. What is still lacking, though, is a reassessment relying upon a more organic approach, which takes into account the entirety of Fludd’s publications and the wide range of topics covered in them. My work attempts to address this issue. The musical metaphor is one of the strongest leitmotifs in Fluddean publications, thanks to its being fit for representing man, the cosmos, and their interrelationship. Indeed the monochord, which well before Fludd was the preeminent practical and philosophical demonstration of the Pythagorean ‘divine’ proportions, rules the pages of Fludd’s earlier volumes. In later volumes, though, a new instrument takes its place: the more up-to-date weather-glass, surprisingly also linked to musical proportions. I argue that the new scientific instrument retains some of the monochord’s traits, thus representing an original re-arrangement of ‘ancient’ music; in fact, Fludd even applies it to the human pulse – an under-studied topic that I survey in detail. Following the whole Fluddean opera omnia is a task that gives one a glimpse of Fludd’s reactions to the deep changes that the intellectual and scientific world was undergoing from a perspective that has been, so far, largely neglected. This opens up to new fascinating outlooks on music, medicine and science at the beginning of the seventeenth century.

Tawfiq al-Hakim is known across the Arab world as a pioneer dramatist. He is one of many misunderstood writers and philosophers. My aim is to introduce him to the English-speaking public in order to shed some light on a specific period known to be one of the best in Egypt intellectually and culturally. Former President Nasser’s ideologies, and those of former President Sadat such as his “open-door” policy to the West, have contributed positively to the forming of an intellectual renaissance in Egypt. This rich period in Egyptian history is one that can directly shed light on the literary and philosophical contributions of al-Hakim, and on the social and cultural issues that should be revisited in order to gain an understanding of the problems that face Egyptians today. With this said, it is my hope that by reviving al-Hakim’s philosophical doctrines and by examining the major issues he addresses in his texts, I will be able to explain and clarify some misconceptions about this author, his philosophy and his work. I would also like to show ways in which his distinctive doctrine of equilibrium can be of use to us both in the East and the West. The objectives, accordingly, are twofold: (1) To introduce and critically examine al-Hakim’s equilibrium doctrine; and, (2) To identify the philosophical traits and Western influences that had an impact on his character and philosophy. The core problem that this work will indirectly address is the problem of how philosophy in the Arab world, according to Sari Nusseibeh’s article “The Arab World: What role for philosophy?” has been blatantly used as a tool in order to defend one version or another of the religious beliefs of those who pursued it. I ask what specific role a philosopher or intellectual can play in his or her society and how his philosophy can be put to use. This question is one that has been long forgotten in the Arab world. Freeing the Arab world from the colonizer, back in the 1930s, was clearly a goal for many intellectuals. Today, freeing the Arab mind by introducing a philosophy or an ideology that can be of use to the Muslim world as well as to the West would be a great task to accomplish.

There is a conceptual resonance between the rhizomatic habit in the world of plants and the perennial errancy in the (meta)physical world of man traversed by Mohammed Dib’s writing. In so far as reflective research and the practice of translation can ‘mirror’ the surface of their object, this project is a rhizomatic endeavour. It is a fragmentary journey into the desert, in search of the mysterious at’lāl, the trace of the sign, drawn and effaced and redrawn again by Mohammed Dib to reveal ephemeral truths about the self and its others. Dib’s focus migrates from early realist ‘socio-ethnographic’ novels in the 1950s to metaphysical explorations described by critics as ‘hermetic’, ‘mystical’ or ‘surreal’. The historical and the mystical, however, are two facets of the same inexorable acts of deterritorialization and reterritorialization in a precarious, often oneiric, universe. The ‘visions’ expressed in his poetics are couched in the elemental vocabularies of light and shadow, fire and water, space and duration and draw their substance from Sufi mystical scholars and poets. I posit that Dib’s nomadic contemporary writing arises from the place that lies between the sensible and the intelligible in Sufi mysticism, in a secular transposition of the Sufi Imagination: Dib neither constructs nor deconstructs. Rather, his singular style serves to hone an acutely experiential expression. Further, there is a sense in which each ouvrage is a heterotrope whereby his poetry and prose collections are inextricably embedded in each other, thus one is always in the middle of his universe. The ubiquitous entry point to this universe lies in the middle of his metaphorical desert, an aesthetic landscape stripped of idiocultural signification. Central to its lines of flight is the sign, both ephemeral and enduring, and what is enveloped in the sign is the non-signifying impact of its expression. I argue that Dib’s perennial re-assembling of ‘ces chaînes aux mailles d’acier qui sont mots’ (those chains with links of steel that are words) doesn’t so much ‘give rise to thought’ as ‘give rise to affect’.