Inshallah claims its place amongst social media poetry and Instagram sensations like Rupi Kaur. These poems are like perfect cups and inside each is something essential. Personal, observational, and confessional, Inshallah carries themes of self-care, romance, unrequited love, potent femininity, and resiliency. At times, these poems are self-aware and conversational, but there are private moments of self-preservation and self-love, too, reminding us of what it takes to withstand relationships. From romance to motherhood to friendships, these poems refuse to be possessed or destroyed—they explore what it means to navigate love without losing oneself. Inshallah is for the modern reader: no doubt you will find yourself in these pages and understand something about your life that you hadn’t before.

Shari'a, Inshallah shows how people have used shari'a to struggle for peace, justice, and human rights in Somalia and Somaliland.

Inshallah claims its place amongst social media poetry and Instagram sensations like Rupi Kaur. These poems are like perfect cups and inside each is something essential. Personal, observational, and confessional, Inshallah carries themes of self-care, romance, unrequited love, potent femininity, and resiliency. At times, these poems are self-aware and conversational, but there are private moments of self-preservation and self-love, too, reminding us of what it takes to withstand relationships. From romance to motherhood to friendships, these poems refuse to be possessed or destroyed—they explore what it means to navigate love without losing oneself. Inshallah is for the modern reader: no doubt you will find yourself in these pages and understand something about your life that you hadn’t before.

This “book that strips off the traditional trappings of Islamic womanhood to expose the special strengths and vulnerabilities that lie beneath” (The Washington Post) affirms the reality of the romantic lives of Muslim women. Romance, dating, sex and—Muslim women? In this groundbreaking collection, twenty-five American Muslim writers sweep aside stereotypes to share their search for love openly for the first time, showing just how varied the search for love can be—from singles’ events and online dating, to college flirtations and arranged marriages, all with a uniquely Muslim twist. These stories are filled with passion and hope, loss and longing: A quintessential blonde California girl travels abroad to escape suffocating responsibilities at home, only to fall in love with a handsome Brazilian stranger she may never see again. An orthodox African-American woman must face her growing attraction to her female friend. A young girl defies her South Asian parents’ cultural expectations with an interracial relationship. And a Southern woman agrees to consider an arranged marriage, with surprising results. These compelling stories of love and romance create an irresistible balance of heart-warming and tantalizing, always revealing and deeply relatable. “A beautiful collection that reminds us all not only of the diversity of the American Muslim community, but the universality of the human condition, especially when it comes to something as magical and complicated as love.” —Reza Aslan, #1 New York Times bestselling author of God: A Human History “Portraits of private lives that expose a group in some cases kept literally veiled, yet that also illustrate that American Muslim women grapple with universal issues.” —The New York Times

This “book that strips off the traditional trappings of Islamic womanhood to expose the special strengths and vulnerabilities that lie beneath” (The Washington Post) affirms the reality of the romantic lives of Muslim women. Romance, dating, sex and—Muslim women? In this groundbreaking collection, twenty-five American Muslim writers sweep aside stereotypes to share their search for love openly for the first time, showing just how varied the search for love can be—from singles’ events and online dating, to college flirtations and arranged marriages, all with a uniquely Muslim twist. These stories are filled with passion and hope, loss and longing: A quintessential blonde California girl travels abroad to escape suffocating responsibilities at home, only to fall in love with a handsome Brazilian stranger she may never see again. An orthodox African-American woman must face her growing attraction to her female friend. A young girl defies her South Asian parents’ cultural expectations with an interracial relationship. And a Southern woman agrees to consider an arranged marriage, with surprising results. These compelling stories of love and romance create an irresistible balance of heart-warming and tantalizing, always revealing and deeply relatable. “A beautiful collection that reminds us all not only of the diversity of the American Muslim community, but the universality of the human condition, especially when it comes to something as magical and complicated as love.” —Reza Aslan, #1 New York Times bestselling author of God: A Human History “Portraits of private lives that expose a group in some cases kept literally veiled, yet that also illustrate that American Muslim women grapple with universal issues.” —The New York Times

Western analysts have long denigrated Islamic states as antagonistic, even antithetical, to the rule of law. Mark Fathi Massoud tells a different story: for nearly 150 years, the Somali people have embraced shari'a, commonly translated as Islamic law, in the struggle for national identity and human rights. Lawyers, community leaders, and activists throughout the Horn of Africa have invoked God to oppose colonialism, resist dictators, expel warlords, and to fight for gender equality - all critical steps on the path to the rule of law. Shari'a, Inshallah traces the most dramatic moments of legal change, political collapse, and reconstruction in Somalia and Somaliland. Massoud upends the conventional account of secular legal progress and demonstrates instead how faith in a higher power guides people toward the rule of law.

“Marrying one woman is like eating chicken every day for the rest of your life,” the cultural attaché —a.k.a. my boss—warned the week before my Jewish wedding. I replied, “I like chicken.” Jessica Keith never believed she could walk down an aisle. With crippling anxiety fueled by unpredictable panic attacks, she said, “I can’t” so many times she never thought she’d say “I do.” After finally setting a wedding date, to Tyrone, her beau of eight years, Jessica made the impulsive decision to move away, accepting an offer to work for the Consulate of Kuwait in Los Angeles. The culture was unfamiliar territory—with a lot to unpack—she felt lost in translation. Adrift in life and at work, nothing seemed to go right. When the rabbi refused to perform an interfaith ceremony, and her grandmother warned, “You can’t marry a Black man,” rather than speak up, Jessica found it easier to bite her tongue. But when she hears on the job, “Jews need not apply,” it shatters her faith in herself. While illuminating the depths of anxiety and love, Jessica must find the resilience it takes to persevere.