Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions

This book covers the theological, philosophical, mystical, topographical, architectural and ritual aspects of the Muslim belief in paradise and hell.

Christian Lange (Author)

9780521506373, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 1 December 2015

364 pages, 24 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.6 x 2.5 cm, 0.64 kg

'Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions is a beautifully written and deeply informative work.' Samantha Pellegrino, Reading Religion

The Muslim afterworld, with its imagery rich in sensual promises, has shaped Western perceptions of Islam for centuries. However, to date, no single study has done justice to the full spectrum of traditions of thinking about the topic in Islamic history. The Muslim hell, in particular, remains a little studied subject. This book, which is based on a wide array of carefully selected Arabic and Persian texts, covers not only the theological and exegetical but also the philosophical, mystical, topographical, architectural and ritual aspects of the Muslim belief in paradise and hell, in both the Sunni and the Shi?i world. By examining a broad range of sources related to the afterlife, Christian Lange shows that Muslim religious literature, against transcendentalist assumptions to the contrary, often pictures the boundary between this world and the otherworld as being remarkably thin, or even permeable.

Introduction
Part I. Textual Foundations: Narrating the Otherworld: 1. The otherworld revealed: paradise and hell in the Qur??n
2. The growth of the Islamic otherworld: a history of Muslim traditionist eschatology
3. Hope, fear and entertainment: parenetic and popular Muslim literature on the otherworld
4. The imagination unbound: two late-medieval Muslim scholars on paradise and hell
Part II. Discourses and Practices: Debating the Otherworld: 5. The otherworld contested: cosmology, soteriology and ontology in Sunni theology and philosophy
6. Otherworlds apart: Shi?i visions of paradise and hell
7. The otherworld within: paradise and hell in Islamic mysticism
8. Eschatology now: paradise and hell in Muslim topography, architecture and ritual
Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Islamic theology [HRHT], Islamic life & practice [HRHP], History of religion [HRAX]