This is not the usual Wardah book review. In fact it is not even a book I am reviewing, but Art Fazil’s new album, Syair Melayu.

I first saw Art Fazil at the DBS Auditorium way back in the late 1980s. It was a simple gig: Ramli Sarip, some percussionists, a guy with an ocarina, and tenderfoot Art Fazil. I distinctly remember them playing the blues standard, ‘Sweet Home Chicago’. Of all the performers on stage, Art looked the least at ease with himself ¬– perhaps because it was an improvisational encore ‘jam’.

Fast-forward twenty years to the present: Art releases his second album with Life Records. Art is now a mature musician, comfortable in his own skin, literally.

The album features 10 tracks of Malay folk songs that would be familiar to Malays and Peranakans who grew up in Singapore or Malaysia. Apart from the music, which is beautifully produced by the way, the album’s liner notes includes a short essay by Dr Hadijah Rahmat, Singapore’s expert on rural Malay social history. Lyrics (in Jawi!) and short synopses of the songs are also provided. Overall, this album is a real gem in a neat package.

Listening to the CD brought me back to the days of primary-school classroom singing, catching fish in Changi creek and experiencing the hubbub of Geylang Serai market. So much has changed, but thankfully, Art’s nuanced interpretation of these perennial Malay songs reminds us that culture is not something to be stashed in a time-capsule and banished to the past but is rather a living, timeless matrix of shared memories, joys and hopes.

Art’s collection brought a smile to my face and a lump in my throat. No wonder he was ill at ease singing about ‘sweet home’ Chicago. His heart was pining for Nusantara all along.

Track Listing
1. Kampong Pasir Berdengung
2. Bangau O Bangau
3. Air Pasang Pagi
4. Ikan Kekek
5. Lagu Tiga Kupang
6. Syair Hang Nadim
7. Nenek Si Bongkok Tiga
8. Geylang Si Paku Geylang
9. Lompat Si Katak Lompat
10. Injit-injit Semut
11. Rasa Sayang

(And yes, it is available at Wardah Books)

You are invited to a talk and discussion to be held upstairs at Wardah Books on
Monday 29 June at 8 p.m.

The subject is:

Universal Perspective in a Global Age.
What does the vision of Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi bring to the modern predicament?

The talk will be given by Adam Dupre, from the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society and the Beshara School of Esoteric Education.

There will be no charge, but let us know if you are coming so that we know what to expect.


Email: books@wardahbooks.com

WE HAVE REACHED FULL CAPACITY. No more space available unfortunately.

Our address is
Wardah Books
58 Bussorah Street
Singapore 199474

Simply Islam is organising a talk at 152 Still Road on Friday 19 June 2009. Free admission.

Treatise for the Seekers of Guidance (Risala al-Mustarshidin of Imam al-Muhasibi) |tr. Zaid Shakir
Immense Ocean (The Tafsir of Shaykh Ibn Ajiba)
The Muslim Next Door: The Qur'an, the Media and That Veil Thing | Ali-Karamali
Islamic Philosophy: A Beginner's Guide | Majid Fakhry
Art of Islam: Language and Meaning | Burckhardt


Restock:
Muhammad: The Messenger of Islam | Hajjah Amina Adil
Sufficient Provisions for Seekers of the Path of Truth 5-volume set (al-Ghunya of Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani QS)
Revelations of the Unseen (Futuh al-Ghaib) | Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani QS
Sublime Revelations (Fath al-Rabbani) | Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani QS
Utterances (Malfuzat) | Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani QS
Removal of Cares (Jala al-Khawatir) | Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani QS
Proper Conduct of Marriage | Imam al-Ghazali
Call to Believers in the Clear Qur'an | Shaikh Ahmad Fathu'llah Jami
Beads of Dew from the Source of Life (Rashahat) | Mawlana 'Ali Ibn Husain Safi
The Book of Wisdoms | Shaykh Ibn Ata Illah
Book of Illumination | Shaykh Ibn Ata Illah
Book of Assistance | Imam Abdullah al-Haddad
Lives of Man | Imam Abdullah al-Haddad
Illuminations: Compiled Lectures on Shariah and Tasawwuf | Shaykh Hisham Kabbani
Sufism and Taoism | Izutsu
Graves of Tarim | Ho Engseng
Garden of Truth | Nasr
Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time | Armstrong
Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History | Ibn Khaldun
Book of Sufi Healing
Living Presence: A Sufi Way of Mindfulness | Helminksi
Story of Layla and Majnun | Nizami
My Soul is a Woman: The Feminine in Islam | Schimmel
Adventures of Ibn Battuta | Ross Dunn
Who Speaks for Islam: What A Billion Muslims Think | Esposito
Leo Africanus | Amin Maalouf
Natural Child: Parenting From the Heart | Hunt
Does My Head Look Big In This? | Abdel-Fattah
No Logo | Klein
Shock Doctrine | Klein
Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television | Mander

Initiating and Upholding an Islamic Marriage | Hedaya Hartford
Shaykh Muhammad al-Hashimi: His Life and Works | Mokrane Guezzou
Reflections of the Beloved (Traditional Qasida) | Mustafa Styer

Unusual titles, this time, from Wardah:
The Earl and His Butler in Constantinople | Webb
Two Faiths, One Banner: When Muslims Marched with Christians | Almond
In Search For King Solomon's Mines | Shah
Islam & the Russian Empire | d'Encausse
Make a Shield From Wisdom | Nasir-i Khusraw (trans. Schimmel)

Restock
Justice and Remembrance: the Spirituality of Imam Ali | Shah-Kazemi

Islamic Liberation Theology: Resisting the Empire | Hamid Dabashi
Islam: The Key Concepts | Kecia Ali and Oliver Leaman
Muslim Ethics: Emerging Vistas (paperback edition) | Amyn Sajoo
Selling Spirituality: The Silent Takeover of Religion | Carrette and King

Restock
Qur'an: An Introduction | Saeed
A Spirit of Tolerance: The Inspiring Life of Tierno Bokar

Al-Ghazali and the Asharite School
Life of Muhammad (s.a.w.) of Ibn Ishaq
Ibn Arabi: The Four Pillars of Spiritual Transformation
Intimations of JG Bennett
Muslim Saints and Mystics: Episodes from the Tadhkirah al-Awliya'
Ana al-Haqq Reconsidered with a translation of Kitab al-Tawasin


Restock
Guide to Goodness | Dalail al-Khayrat
Al-Ghazali: Alchemy of Happiness (2 volume set)
History of the Prophets (2 volume set)
Royal Book of Spiritual Chivalry
Encyclopedia of Islamic Doctrine (7 volume set)
Transcendent Theosophy of Mulla Sadra
Al-Razi's Traditional Psychology
Wholeness and Holiness
Averroes on Plato's Republic
Taste of Hidden Things
Muslim Jesus
When You Hear Hoofbeats, Think of a Zebra | Friedlander
Does My Head Look Big In This | Abdul Fattah
Muhammad: Prophet of Our Time | Armstrong
Adventures of Amir Hamza | Lakhnovi
Garden of Truth (paperback) | Nasr
Lost History: The Enduring Legacy of Muslims | Morgan
Pocket Rumi | Helminksi
Tales from Rumi | Whinfield

Trends of 2008
Last year was very much a year for large reference works, mainly on the Qur’an, such as Routledge’s The Qur’an: An Encyclopedia (a very readable reference book, despite its 800 pages); FonsVitae’s magisterial ‘Great Commentaries of the Holy Qur’an Series’ starting off with translations of Tafsir al-Jalalayn, Tafsir Ibn Abbas, Tafsir al-Tustari, and al-Wahidi’s Asbab al-Nuzul. Another development that is making (sound) waves is the CDs of home-grown label Sout Ilaahi.

On to the best of 2008 (in no particular order)…




1. The Qur’an: A New Translation by M.A.S. Abdel Haleem (2008 re-issue)
Oxford World’s Classics

This translation comes highly recommended by Shaykh Khalil Moore who honoured us by visiting our little shop in 2008. M.A.S. Abdel Haleem has taken great effort to make the English rendition of the Qur’an lucid and clear, and it is wonderful to see the language cascade seamlessly from image to image. This should be on the bookshelf of everyone for whom English has become a first language. While we still maintain that the best translation is the Nawawi Foundation’s The Majestic Qur’an (now sadly out of print), we praise M.A.S. Abdel Haleem’s work for its accessibility, flow and beauty.

2. Book of Tauhid: A Manual for Learning the Six Pillars of Faith (Second Edition)
Qalam Publishing
Abdul Shakur Hadi

The first priority is knowledge of Allah.
Finally. A work that explains and describes the six pillars in a systematic way has been produced in the English language. Most of us who grew up in the Malay-speaking world would probably have had some exposure to the works (kitabs) of the Malay shaykhs of the past which describe the Sifat 20 (20 Attributes), list (and describe) the archangels, the prophets, the books of Allah and so on. This book does just that and is essentially a primer on the doctrine of Ahl Sunna wal Jamaah.

3. Grand Saint of Singapore: The Life of Habib Nuh al-Habsyi
Masjid Al’Firdaus
Ustaz Ghouse Khan Suratee

This is another long-overdue work. It is the biography of Habib Nuh al-Habsyi, the saint widely celebrated to be THE saint of Singapore, who lived and died in Singapore in the early 1800s. The book narrates the life of Habib Nuh and surfaces many anecdotes from his saintly life. This book is certainly a first in Singapore (a first that is even recognised by the President of Singapore, S.R. Nathan) and we hope that this landmark publication spurs other works that document the Islamic heritage of Singapore and the region.


4. The Masnavi: A New Translation by Jawid Mojaddedi (Vols I & II)
Oxford World’s Classics

Oxford World’s Classics scores another homerun with this translation of Mevlana Rumi’s Masnavi, which is widely recognised to be the greatest Persian Sufi poem. As with M.S.A. Abdul Haleem’s translation of the Qur’an, the language is strikingly beautiful. Not only do the verses rhyme, they also have a cadence that is all the more pleasing when recited – a rare achievement for a translation. And that’s not all, for Jawid Mojaddedi also manages to convey, as the original does masterfully, Sufi teachings cloaked in irony and humour. Wonderful.

5. A Spirit of Tolerance: The Inspiring Life of Tierno Bokar
World Wisdom
Amadou Hampate Ba

This work, originally in French and now available for the first time in English, is divided into three parts. Part One deals with the life and milieu of Shaykh Tierno Bokar of Mali. Part Two deals with his words (his culture transmitted knowledge primarily orally) and Part Three deals with his teachings. Shaykh Bokar (1875–1939) was a spiritual leader of the Tijani tariqah who, despite having to live in a time of political upheaval and sectarian unrest during West Africa’s colonial period, was a beacon of spiritual intelligence, love, charity and tolerance. This is a surprisingly relevant work in our own age of extremism (arising from either religious or secular fundamentalisms) that has given rise to increased intolerance and exclusion.

6. The Messenger: The Meanings of the Life of Muhammad (s.a.w.)
Penguin
Tariq Ramadan

This is not a work of a historical person. It is a work that describes the central figure in the life of each Muslim – Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. To Muslims, the Prophet is not a personality of the past, but a reality that is ever-contemporaneous, and this book captures this essence in a way modern readers (both Muslim or otherwise) can understand and appreciate.

Shaykh Fakhruddin Owaisi will be at Wardah Books for an in-store autograph session at 4.30 pm, 24 December 2008. He will be signing copies of his CD, Melodies of Medina which is produced by the Singapore-based record company, Sout Ilaahi.

{After the autograph session he will, inshaAllah, be speaking and leading the Qasidah Burdah recitation at Malabar Muslim Jama-ath Mosque from magrib onwards.}

After a long hiatus, the Institut du Monde Arabe CDs of traditional music and chants from the Arab/Muslim world are back in stock.

Ensemble Ibn Arabi
Sufi Songs | Sheiky Ahmad Barryn
The King of Sufi Qawwali | Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Al-Samaa: Ecstatic Spiritual Audition | Ihsan Rmiki
Sacred Drums from Marrakesh | La Daqqa
The Malhun In Marrakech | Ensemble Amenzou
Rhapsody for Lute | Yousra Dhahbi
Sacred Songs from Nubia and Kordofan | Ensemble Al-Mahi & Al-Bura'i
Sufi Chants from Cairo | Chadhiliyya
Sufi Songs from Tunis | La Sulamiyya
The Key to Granada | Said Chraibi
Trance Ritual | Les Aissawa de Fes
Songs from Aleppo | Sabri Moudalla

Ok here it is THE BIG ONE for the year



New Titles
Tafsir Al-Jalalayn
Asbab Al-Nuzul
Tafsir Ibn Abbas
Banquet of the Souls | Shaykh Hisham Kabbani
Garden of Truth (paperback) | Nasr
Introduction to Traditional Islam | Michon
Visionaries of Silence: The Sufi Order of Demirdashiya al-Khalwatiya | Waugh
Coattails of the Saints | Moore
Lost History: The Enduring Legacy of Muslims | Morgan
The Remembrance of God | Imam Suyuti
Submission: Faith and Beauty
The Secrets of Asceticism | Imam al-Qurtubi


Restock
Subtle Blessing in the Saintly Lives | Shaykh ibn Ataillah
Reflective Heart | Morris
Sufi Sage of Arabia | Mostafa Badawi
The Name and the Named | Shaykh Tosun
Return to the Spirit | Martin Lings
Gifts for the Seeker | Imam al-Haddad
Lives of Man | Imam al-Haddad
Motherhood in Islam | Schleifer
Sublime Treasures | Imam al-Haddad
Through the Eye of the Needle | Shaykh Nazim
Humanity: A Moral History | Glover
Ibn Arabi and the Tree of Being | Shaykh Tosun
Journals of the Ibn Arabi Society Volumes 1 to 43
Who Speaks For Islam | Esposito
Battle for Saudi Arabia | Abukhalil
Qur'an: A Biography | Bruce Lawrence
Spirit of Tolerance | Amadou Ba
Collected Poems | Martin Lings
Realm of the Saint | Cornell
Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife CD | Abdal Hakim Murad

The Prophet's Ramadan | Mufti Muhammad Khan
The Refutation of Him Who Attributes Direction to Allah | Qadi ibn Jahbal

An Islamic Perspective on the Commitment to Inter-Religious Dialogue | Prof Farid Al-Atas
On Suicide Bombing | Talal Asad
The Vital Roots of European Enlightenment | Samar Attar
Islam and Ecology
Religious Diversity in Singapore | Lai
Sufi Hermeneutics: The Quran Commentary of Rashid al-Maybudi

{A larger shipment will arrive inshaAllah next week}

OK. We've displayed some of the poems on pieces of foam all around the shop. Do check it out. And keep them coming.

A long-awaited (and very large) shipment of new books and re-stocks shall come in by next week inshaAllah. Watch this space.