IU-101
Before Mecca: The African Origins of Islam and the Arabic Language
Foundations and the Doors
The anchor: Islam's roots run African and Arabian together, and the Arabic language carries the mark.
Schools & Syllabus
Every course is one book.
The syllabus is the twenty-five books of The House of Islam, grouped in the series' own four schools.
School I
Foundations and the Doors
IU-102Door book — FREE
The Quran: A Guided Reading
Foundations and the Doors
The Book itself: its order, its themes, its great passages, taught sura by sura through the checked early renderings (Pickthall 1930, Rodwell 1861, Sale 1734, Palmer 1880).
IU-103
The 99 Names of Allah
Foundations and the Doors
Asma ul Husna, name by name: the meaning, the verses that carry each name, and the remembrance built on them.
IU-104
Muhammad: The Life of the Prophet from the Earliest Sources
Foundations and the Doors
The Sira told from the early records, honestly graded.
IU-105
The Four Archangels of Islam
Foundations and the Doors
Jibreel, Mikaeel, Israfil, Azrael: their stations, their appearances, their work.
IU-106
The Night Journey: Isra and Mi'raj
Foundations and the Doors
The ascension through the heavens and the meetings with the prophets.
School II
The Poets
IU-201
Rumi: The Ocean of the Masnavi
The Poets
The best-selling poet in America, restored to his Islamic root; Nicholson, volume by volume.
IU-202
365 Days with Rumi
The Poets
A passage and a teaching for every morning of the year.
IU-203
Hafiz: The Tongue of the Unseen
The Poets
The Divan and the tavern of the Friend, from the real early translations (Clarke, 1891).
IU-204
Omar Khayyam: The Rubaiyat and the Astronomer
The Poets
FitzGerald's evergreen quatrains (1859) and the calendar-maker behind them.
IU-205
The Prophet: A Guided Reading of Kahlil Gibran
The Poets
In print without pause since 1923; shelved honestly as the house's Arab-wisdom door — Gibran was Lebanese and Christian-born.
IU-206
Al-Ghazali: The Alchemist of Happiness
The Poets
The Muslim world's evergreen teacher, from the early English rendering (Field, 1909).
IU-207
Ibn Arabi: The Unity of Being
The Poets
The Shaykh al-Akbar and wahdat al-wujud, stated at full strength and graded.
School III
The Unseen World
IU-301
The Djinn: The Hidden Peoples of Islam
The Unseen World
The third creation, made of smokeless fire; in Africa they became the Hausa bori, the zar of Ethiopia and Sudan, the majini of the Swahili coast.
IU-302
Asmak Khodam: The Guardian Angels of Java
The Unseen World
The living Javanese names-practice: the khodam, the initiation, the seven-day discipline, the Eight Virtues of protection. Taught as scholarship.
IU-303
The Khodams: Guardian Servants of the Islamic Occult World
The Unseen World
The wider khadim tradition across the Arabic and Malay worlds, from the medieval texts.
IU-304
Shams al-Ma'arif: The Sun of Gnosis
The Unseen World
Al-Buni's great book: its history, its system, its science of letters. Scholarship only.
IU-305
Tawiz and Wafq: The Talismans of Islam
The Unseen World
The amulet tradition and the magic squares, from the medieval manuals.
School IV
The African Root and the Moors
IU-401Door book — 99¢
Bilal: The Voice of the First Call
The African Root and the Moors
The Abyssinian companion who first raised the adhan; every episode carries its sourcing grade, printed honestly.
IU-402
The First Hijra: Islam's Debt to Abyssinia
The African Root and the Moors
615 CE: before Medina, the first Muslims found protection on African soil, under the Negus.
IU-403
Bilqis: The Queen of Sheba in Islam and Ethiopia
The African Root and the Moors
The Quran and the Kebra Nagast (Budge, 1922); the weld between this house and the Ethiopian house.
IU-404
The Moors of Al-Andalus: The African Empire in Spain
The African Root and the Moors
Seven centuries of civilization, with the Almoravids as its spine.
IU-405
Timbuktu: The Scholars of Sankore
The African Root and the Moors
The manuscript libraries of African Islam.
IU-406
Mansa Musa: The Golden Pilgrimage
The African Root and the Moors
Mali's emperor and the hajj that moved the price of gold from Cairo to Mecca.
IU-407
Muslims in America: Omar ibn Said and the Arabic Writers of Slavery
The African Root and the Moors
Enslaved African scholars writing in Arabic on American soil; African cosmology carried across the ocean in Arabic script.
In preparation
Coming to the syllabus
The second twenty-five of the House of Islam. Not yet open for enrollment.
- Attar: The Conference of the Birds
- Rabia of Basra
- Saadi: The Gulistan and the Bustan
- The Sokoto Caliphate
- Ibn Battuta: The Travels of the World
- Isa in Islam
- Maryam: The Mother of Isa
- The Bori: The Spirit World of the Hausa
- The Zar: The Healing Spirits of Ethiopia and the Sudan