Discovering Shi'i Islam

by Mohammad Ali Shomali

Discovering Shi‘i Islam studies the origins, main doctrines and practices of Shi‘i Islam and its sources, i.e. the Qur’an, the Sunnah, reason and consensus. It ends with a brief account of the latest statistics about the present Muslim population of the world along with a breakdown of religious affiliations of some countries with a long history of Shi‘i presence therein. This book has been published in many languages including: Arabic, Farsi, French, German, Italian, Kiswahili, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Urdu, Turkish and Albanian.

87 pages, Paperback

First published February 10, 2014

About the author

Hujjat al-Islam Dr Mohammad Ali Shomali is a graduate of the Islamic Seminaries of Qum and has also both a BA and an MA in Western Philosophy from the University of Tehran. He has earned his Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Manchester. His doctoral thesis was on ethical relativism. He did his postdoctoral research on ethical issues related to life and death.

He is currently the Founding Director of the International Institute for Islamic Studies in Qum, IRAN and the Director of Islamic Centre of England, London. Dr Shomali is editor-in-chief of two journals: the Message of Thaqalayn: A Quarterly Journal of Islamic Studies and the Spiritual Quest: A Biannual Journal of Ethics and Spirituality.

Dr Shomali is very interested and involved in interreligious dialogue and has organised or attended and presented papers in UK, USA, Canada, Italy, Austria, Greece, Germany, Sweden, Poland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Philippines, Sweden, etc.

Reviews

[zaqp · Rating 2 out of 5]

not a bad book but i didn’t learn anything that i didn’t already know. it’s written for beginners in islam and shi’ism, probably best for western audiences. well-written, super concise but not for me.