This thesis explores the epistemology and theology of a Sufi theorist Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 1240) and one of the most controversial Muslim scholars Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) comparatively. Although scholars have long emphasized the differences between these two influential and significant figures, the purpose of this thesis is to focus on their potential similarities. The present work at the outset shows that both Ibn al-ʿArabī and Ibn Taymiyya regard revelation, the human intellect, and inspiration – unveiling (ilhām – kashf) to be the main epistemological means for acquiring religious knowledge. However, they differ over the relative value of these means or tools. Both Ibn al-ʿArabī and Ibn Taymiyya place revelation at the top of the hierarchy, but after that Ibn al-ʿArabī places inspiration – unveiling ahead of reason while Ibn Taymiyya reverses the order. The other main subject elaborated in this thesis is the theological issue of the divine names and attributes. This subject is connected to many other theological problems, and both Ibn al-ʿArabī and Ibn Taymiyya pay considerable attention to it. Just as many similar approaches, ideas, and interpretations may be seen concerning their epistemological stances, it is possible to see similarities in their theological positions although there are crucial distinctions as well. The unique way of finding out this similarity is to keep in mind the existence of the duality found in the thought and expression of Ibn al-ʿArabī. Briefly, the main finding of the thesis is that Ibn al-ʿArabī and Ibn Taymiyya are more similar in their epistemologies and theologies than many scholars have thought. They are benefitting from the same epistemological means while putting them in different order. Also, they share similar theological points concerning the divine names and attributes, creation, the divine will, and the incomparability of God while expressing them through different conceptions and styles.

Background: This research endeavoured to explore the Imam’s experience of managing the mental health needs of the Muslim community given the contemporary issues faced by the Islamic population, including stigma of accessing mental health services (Inayat, 2007) exacerbated by political demonisation (Tahir, 2005; Sheridan, 2006; Gottschalk & Greenberg, 2007; Ameli et al., 2007). Recommendations were made for mental health professionals to consider the views of formal religious leaders to; understand the helpseeking behaviours of the Muslim community including clarity for the implication of religious methods of coping (Mullick et al., 2013) and; reduce stigma of accessing mental health services by establishing communication pathways with local mosques (Amri & Bemak, 2013). Method: A qualitative methodological approach was employed in the form of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith et al., 2009). A compilation of transcripts from six semistructured interviews with male Imams were subjected to an IPA thematic analysis as described by Landridge (2004). This was achieved by a process of ‘coding’ the individual accounts of participants. Results: Three main themes emerged entitled ‘Mending the broken bridge’; ‘Alleviating distress’; ‘Role identity’. The Imams attempted to restore psychological wellbeing using a range of consultation extending beyond the sphere of religion and spirituality. However limited direct collaboration between public health providers and mosques resulted in Imams signposting Muslim clients to either their GP, or to seek support from allied health professionals. While the Imams expressed openness to refer directly onto formal services they were uncertain how to proceed with this. Conclusion: Imams held a relational landscape when connecting to others on a humanistic level by drawing on their binary skills of an Islamic minister and a learned-resourceful individual in the heart of the community. However there remains a need to establish a direct referral pathway between Imams and health providers to ‘catch’ Muslim individuals who fall through the gap with help-seeking for mental health problems, as it was apparent from the findings of the study. This may necessitate a transparent dialogue between all parties for understanding of one another’s roles, in line with the multi-modal considerations of the Muslim client framework developed by the researcher.

There is limited research generally in Western nations exploring Muslim explanations regarding mental health. One such explanation is something called waswaas, and the very little research there is on waswaas is quantitative. However, there is no clear explanation readily available from the Western literature describing what waswaas is and how it might impact upon formulations of the psychological distress of Muslim clients who may present to psychological services. In response to the dearth of research, this qualitative study aims to investigate Muslim individuals’ experience of waswaas. The study is conducted using semi-structured interviews with 8 Muslim participants and is analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Three superordinate themes emerged from the data: ‘The Qareen’, which captures participants’ understanding and experience of there being another being whom they believe is responsible for the waswaas, which are unbidden thoughts, and the methods this other being employs to do the whispering. The second superordinate theme ‘Impact and Content of Waswaas’ explores some of the different ways participants experience waswaas and other areas that waswaas might impact on. The third superordinate theme ‘Therapy can be an Asset’ refers to coping mechanisms which might be employed to help deal with the waswaas. The findings suggest a number of implications for Counselling Psychology, including a need for multicultural awareness amongst counselling psychologists, enabling them to work more effectively with Muslim groups, whilst working collaboratively with clients and respecting their subjective experiences and meanings they give to them. The subjective and diverse ways in which participants made sense of waswaas has provided new and richer insights in to the phenomenon and contribute further to the limited knowledge base of Muslim explanatory models for mental health. Both the findings and the limitations of the study are discussed, along with suggestions for future research.

Women academics in collectivist societies, despite their significant numbers, have been of little concern to researchers. While women’s involvement in education and employment opportunities has increased and their economic positions have improved, their role pertaining to domestic responsibilities and care for the family in such societies remains the same. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological research is to describe the work-life interface as experienced by Malay Muslim women academics. This study also identifies the work environment factors that assist and/or hinder these academics in managing their work-life responsibilities as well as investigating the influence of culture and religion. Diary entries and in-depth telephone interviews with seven Malay Muslim women academics were employed to capture the essence of their daily work-life experiences. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis as the research method, the findings of the study are presented under four themes: juggling multiple roles, sources of supports, impact of leadership style, and identity formation. The participants in this research provided valuable insights based on their many years of experience as academics in higher education institutions besides their roles as mothers and wives. The Malay Muslim women academics’ work-life experiences appear to be complex and multifaceted. Negotiating between professional and personal roles has an impact on the careers of women academics, their personal and family lives, and their well-being. In managing their daily work-life responsibilities, an interplay exists between Islamic values and Malay traditional customs. The customary practices which are important in the functioning of the society as a whole contribute in shaping their identity as women, family members and academics. In addition, leadership style can have a significant impact on their work-life management. For these women, the lived reality is that being an academic means having never-ending tasks that sometimes require personal sacrifices which are achieved through the support of family and work colleagues as well as their personal belief systems.

This work aims to look into the question of authenticity and inauthenticity within the Muslim discourse. How muslim can Muslims really be? Within the Muslim world the concept of authenticity is usually coupled with questions of adherence to the canonical and historical. Despite the fact that the Qur’an addresses the individual in a very direct manner, little emphasis seems to be focused on personal authenticity within contemporary Muslim circles. Muslim societies are understood to be communally based with less emphasis on the individual (Lewis : 2007) and yet inner searching has been very much a part of Muslim culture though this may now have shifted significantly in engaging with, what is argued here, as the increasing mundanization (Drane : 2000) and rationalist approaches to religion generally and specifically to Islam. This work sets out to explore what, if any, inauthenticities have arisen within the Muslim discourse that might have given rise to this. In attempting to think through these questions, various contemporary manifestations of global management culture are explored, the development of rationality within Muslim intellectual history and contemporary theological positions within Islam are brought up for examination. Throughout these enquiries any resulting connection with inauthenticity and rationalism is sought out. Has this management paradigm reached the religious sphere? Has there been a McDonaldization of Islam? How can these be effectively countered? Much of the analysis and discussion that takes place is through a dialectical perspective between classical Islamic and existentialist thought. One of main aims of this research is to demonstrate ways of thinking through to potential personal authenticity despite the obstacles mentioned.

This thesis seeks to resolve the debate between conservative and feminist thinkers over Muslim women’s participation in public space. It is divided into two parts. The first part examines the discourses of both partisans of the debate, taking Abu A ‘lā Mawdudi as representative of conservative thinking and largely Barbara Stowasser as representative of feminist thinking. This examination identifies that the debate rests decisively on conceptualizations of hijab and the pivotal role of the hadiths in informing these but that both conservatives and feminists are selective and literal in their use of hadiths. The second part examines the hadiths in the collections of Bukhari and Muslim in a full and comprehensive manner in their original Arabic text on the topics of women’s mosque attendance, visitation of graves, joining funeral processions, travelling, jihad and veiling. The findings largely uphold feminist positions but seriously challenge conservative conceptualizations of hijab, demonstrating that these are informed as much by cultural factors as by their reading of the hadiths. Above all, they confirm the hypothesis that apparently “restrictive” hadith when read within the context of other hadiths are found to be predicated in considerations other than to maintain gender segregation.

This thesis aims to present the contemporary legal criminal procedures in Saudi Arabia that are relevant to crimes of killing. The thesis is divided into five chapters; each chapter is divided into two or three sections; and every section contains various sub-sections. Part one in the first section of chapter one provides a general introduction to the criminal procedures, its establishment and objectives in Islamic law. Part two discusses the general essential elements that must exist in the analysis of every crime. The general divisions of crimes have been pointed out in this part, as well as importance of this classification in Islamic law. Section two of this chapter embodies two parts which reflect respectively the sources of criminal procedure, as the ground from which it derives its legal authority; in addition, it provides miscellaneous statistics that indicate the effect of Islamic criminal law on decreasing crime rate in Saudi Arabia. Chapter two consist of two sections in which crimes of killing are classified. Part one of the first section discuses the fundamental components of intentional killing; types of punishments imposed upon a murderer, and the infliction of the death penalty as aq'sas in Saudi Arabia. The contemporary legal methods and conditions to implement capital punishments in Saudi Arabia has been discussed in the second part of this section. The second section deals with unintentional crimes of killing which comprise quasi-murder and killing by mistake. The due punishments for such crimes have been detailed in the first part of this section. The Saudi legal system of blood-money has been elaborately discussed in the second part. Chapter three is divided into three sections, each section contains various parts. Part one and two in the first section concentrate on examining those crimes of killing that are committed by a group of people, who either directly or indirectly participated in the crime. The effect of circumstances of insanity, infancy and intoxication, on annulling criminal responsibility has been comprehensively discussed in the second section. The last section of this chapter focuses on examining the effect of certain extenuating circumstances, such as self-defence and defence of honour, upon criminal liability. Chapter four deals with the contemporary Saudi pre-trial criminal proceedings relevant to crimes of killing. The first section of this chapter comprises six parts. The discussion in these parts focuses upon the legal procedure of examining suspects, searching of private premises, and the rights of suspect during this stage of police investigation. Section two deals with the pre-trial legal procedure following the detection of crimes of killing. It also covers the legal process of pre-trial detention, release proceedings, and the rights of the detained person. Chapter five embodies three sections which provide a comprehensive discussion to the trial proceeding and the consequent procedure after the trial. This includes: the Saudi courts system; the rule of evidence for proving criminal cases; the procedures of hearing cases of crimes of killing; the rights of the accused during this stage; and the ensuing legal process required to implement the judgement.

In this thesis I am investigating the religious ideas of Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, H. P. Blavatsky and Annie Besant as examples of early approaches to religious pluralism. In this context, the term ‘religious pluralism’ refers to the belief that all religious traditions are paths to genuine religious ends. Thus, religions other than one’s own are considered to be of significance to people of all faiths and even to those who are not believers. I relate the appearance of these early notions of religious pluralism to the historical and ideological setting in which they were proposed, particularly the late nineteenth-century debate about science and religion in the West and its spheres of influence. I argue that theories of evolution, in addition to the emerging field of historical biblical criticism, presented a serious challenge to traditional understandings of religion. Together, these two strands of thought made a strong case for a purely materialistic worldview and for the further development of modern sciences on such a basis. In response to this crisis of religion, the four thinkers proposed religious teachings inspired by their own intense religious experience. They emphasised the experiential aspect of these teachings in order to claim an epistemic status of religious knowledge equal to that of scientific or empirical knowledge. In order to universalise this claim, they appealed to religious experience and religious knowledge originating in all faith traditions. In my assessment of these arguments I suggest that the two main thinkers, i.e. Ramakrishna and Blavatsky, may have been led towards pluralistic ideas of religion through their endorsement of the esoteric traditions of Tantrism and Hermeticism, respectively. Moreover, I trace the impact of the British colonial presence in India on the content, presentation and reception of the teachings of all four thinkers. I conclude that the teachings of Ramakrishna et al. represent early attempts to engage with the fact of religious plurality from a religious perspective. Thus, the four thinkers encouraged people to relate to the beliefs and practices of other faiths and to explore them in relation to their own life. These early efforts in interreligious understanding represented the initial steps towards our current debates about religious pluralism and interreligious dialogue.

Since 9/11 and 7/7 the focus on Muslims as a subject of political, media and academic debate has intensified. Muslim women, who are critical to these various debates, are often essentialised and typified as casualties of Islam, and their voices are effectively silenced. This study, which ‘gives voice’ to the experiences of Muslim women, examines the ways in which Muslim women negotiate their religious identities and commitments in twenty-first century Britain through their engagement with artistic projects. Through a combination of semistructured interviews with twenty-six women and participant observation in a Muslim women’s arts organisation and nasheed group, it addresses three research questions each of which tries to cast sociological light on the intersection between artistic practice and identification with Islam. Firstly, it asks to what extent Durkheim’s notion of religion as la vie sérieuse helps to describe the beliefs, identities and practices of Muslim women. Secondly, it considers the extent to which, and manner in which, Muslim women’s artistic participation expresses selfidentification with religion and culture. Finally, it examines the implications of artistic participation for other areas of Muslim women’s lives. In responding to these questions, I draw upon literature on religion and identity, religious commitment, Islam and gender, and Islam and the arts. My analysis focuses on how religion and everyday life are entwined in the experiences of Muslim women and how these experiences problematise the idea of strict boundaries between the ‘sacred’ and ‘profane’. It highlights variety in the commitment and practice of Muslim women and how individualisation and choice are very much part of the variation in their religious lives. I consider how my participants negotiate their gendered, religious and cultural identities through artistic participation and show that Muslim women engage in performances, not only in their roles as artists, but also as they navigate the expectations or (cultural) scripts handed to them by their families and religious communities. I also highlight how re-presenting and representing Muslim women and Islam can be an important act for those engaging in artistic practices and how this activity demonstrates active agency in a public sphere that often excludes them.

This study seeks to argue for the persistence and continuance of Arab and European fascination with the desert and desert travel in the Middle East evidenced by the texts of desert travellers. The research stems from the question: How has textuality, whether poetic, mystical or material, been brought to the desert’s otherwise implacable nature by traveller/writers dating from the broad landscape of Arab and European desert writings from the 12th/13th and the early 20th centuries? Acknowledging the complex nature of the desert’s actual and symbolic qualities, this enquiry seeks to identify the existence and endurance of a dynamic between the desert, embodied experience and the desert as text. In order to frame this study, a further question is asked as to the significance of the image of the lover as both a figure and a state within these writings. Four particular works of desert literature provide the focus for close readings and a comparative and creative analysis that forms the substance of the thesis: Ibn al-‘Arabî’s Tarjumân al-ashwâq (611/1215); Isabelle Eberhardt’s posthumously published book entitled, Dans l’ombre chaude de l’Islam (1906) (translated into English as, In the Shadow of Islam (1993)); Harry St. John Bridger Philby’s, The Empty Quarter: Being a description of the Great South Desert of Arabia known as Rub’ al Khali (1933); and T.E. Lawrence’s, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1935). The thesis being structured in three thematic sections, each relating to a condition of Sufic love – attraction and seeking (an ardent longing (raghbat)), servanthood (submission (taslim)), spiritual annihilation (fanâ) and subsistence (baqâ) – the Tarjumân al-ashwâq forms the locus around which each of the other texts are brought into relation. Despite the gap of time or cultures in which the chosen texts originate, core to this study is the process of revealing common tropic elements and shared intentions in the texts, and identifying those areas of difference and singularity. A dynamic of diversity and affinity is revealed between occidental and oriental perceptions, focused by the complex nature of the desert, the traveller’s experience of it, and the manifestations of both in the text. What unifies these authors is a shared sense of the desert as both a space of Divine encounter and as a text to be read. The desert becomes a place of embodied experience, where literal and metaphoric readings are inverted, and the real is encountered. The journey across the desert’s surface provides a mirror image of each author’s inner quest.