Michael Muhammad Knight

A biography of the founder of Islam dealing with the life of the man and the religion and civilization he shaped.

"With a cast of characters ranging from Malcolm X to 50 Cent, Knight's work is the first detailed account of the movement inextricably linked with black empowerment, Islam, New York, and hip hop. Containing unrivalled insider access to the movement's elders, oral histories, and community literature, this fast-paced investigation uncovers the Five Percenters' icons and heritage, and examines their growing influence in urban American youth culture." "Including coverage of Brooklyn turf gangs, the Attica prison uprising, 1980s crack empires, and the stars of Five Percenter rap, Knight explores the origins and development of this controversial community, and reveals the hidden reality behind the myths, rumours, and hearsay."--BOOK JACKET.

Blue-Eyed Devil is the story of the charming, volatile and ambitious Hardy Cates, who is determined to carry out his private revenge against the Travis family. Haven is the rebellious Travis daughter who struggles against her overpowering attraction to the most dangerous man in town. But when Hardy crashes a Travis family wedding, the heiress and the bad boy uncover an explosive chemistry that neither of them can deny. Hardy Cates is an unscrupulous rascal, but now he's trying to clean up his act. He is looking for the perfect society wife, the kind of woman Haven Travis could never be. Having once been burned by a love affair gone wrong, Haven vows to stay far away from the sexy heartbreaker. However, Haven discovers that the temptation of a blue-eyed devil is hard to resist. And then when a menace from Haven's past appears, Hardy may be the only one to save her ...

"Magic in Islam offers a look at magical and occult technologies throughout Muslim history, starting with Islam's earliest and most canonical sources. In addition to providing a highly accessible introduction to magic as it is defined, practiced, condemned, and defended within Muslim traditions, Magic in Islam challenges common assumptions about organized religion"--

Reimagines the classic story of Tarzan from Jane's perspective, following the only woman student in Cambridge's medical program as she travels the world to prove the theories of Darwin and finds love with an extraordinary man in the jungles of West Africa.

"The Salafi movement invests supreme Islamic authority in the precedents of the Salaf, the first three generations of Muslims, who represent a "Golden Age" from which all subsequent eras can only decline. In Why I Am a Salafi, Michael Muhammad Knight confronts the problem of origins, questioning the possibility of accessing pure Islam through its canonical texts. Why I Am a Salafi is also a confrontation of Knight's own origins as a Muslim. Reconsidering Salafism, Knight explores the historical processes that informed Islam as he once knew it, having converted to a Salafi vision of Islam in 1994. In the decades since, he has drifted away from Salafism in favor of an alternative Islam that celebrates the freaks, misfits, and heretical innovators. What happens to Islam when everything's up for grabs, and can an anything-goes Islam allow space for reputedly intolerant Salafism? In Why I Am a Salafi, Knight explores not only Salafism's valorization of the origins, but takes the Salafi project further than its advocates are willing to go, and reflects upon the consequences of surrendering the origins forever"--

"When Michael Muhammad Knight sets out to write the definitive biography of his "Anarcho-Sufi" hero and mentor, writer Peter Lamborn Wilson (aka Hakim Bey), he makes a startling discovery that changes everything. At the same time that he grows disillusioned with his idol, Knight finds that his own books have led to American Muslim youths making a countercultural idol of him, placing him on the same pedestal that he had given Wilson. In an attempt to forge his own path, Knight pledges himself to an Iranian Sufi order that Wilson had almost joined, attempts to write the Great American Queer Islamo-Futurist Novel, and even creates his own mosque in the wilderness of West Virginia. He also employs the "cut-up" writing method of Bey's friend, the late William S. Burroughs, to the Qur'an, subjecting Islam's holiest scripture to literary experimentation. William S. Burroughs vs. the Qur'an is the struggle of a hero-worshiper without heroes and the meeting of religious and artistic paths, the quest of a writer as spiritual seeker."