Good reads:
In the second edition to her popular book, Once In A Lifetime, amina wadud, The Lady Imam, gives an introduction to the Five Pillars of Islam as she reflects on her journey to Makkah to perform the “once in a lifetime” ritual of Hajj. Her account is deeply spiritual, drawing us into the “Mandelbrot Set” of faith, as you look more closely, you find ever and more intricate beauty. There is anger for the misogyny and exclusivism that has tainted the ritual, frustration with the banalities of simply getting there, but most of all love for the connection to God through walking the path of the mother of Islam, Hagar (2024).
Drawn from a series of personal blog posts, amina’s account of her journey to Makkah is unlike any other: funny, serious, passionate, and searingly honest. At every corner, she challenges entrenched patriarchal and exclusivist views that have dominated Islamic thought for fourteen centuries. You would expect no less from ‘The Lady Imam’ (2022).
In this engaging study, Dr Amina Wadud, an Afro-American Muslim herself, introduces the feminist movement in Islam and delves into its challenges, its textual foundations in the Qur’an and its achievements. Beginning with her own place in the effort for greater justice for women in Islam, Wadud goes on tackle a number of pertinent issues, including the state of Muslim women’s studies as a discipline in mainstream academia and the role of Muslim women in the domestic space (2006).
Fourteen centuries of Islamic thought have produced a legacy of interpretive readings of the Qu’ran written almost entirely by men. Now, with Qu’ran and Woman, Amina Wadud provides a first interpretive reading by a woman, a reading which validates the female voice in the Qu’ran and brings it out of the shadows (1992).
Feminism and Religion 