In general, traditional religion in Africa is characterized by belief in a supreme being who created and ordered the world but is often experienced as distant or unavailable to humans. Lesser divinities or spirits who are more accessible are sometimes believed to act as intermediaries. A number of traditional myths explain the creation and ordering of the world and provide explanations for contemporary social relationships and norms. Lapsed social responsibilities or violations of taboos are widely believed to result in hardship, suffering and illness for individuals or communities and must be countered with ritual acts to re-establish order, harmony and well-being.
how islam created the modern world pdf download
He then discusses the encounter of traditional Islam with the challenges which face it in the modern world in general, as well as in the specific realms of education, science, philosophy and architecture and urbanism which are of central concern to the contemporary Muslim world.
The book also devotes a section to some of the leading Western interpreters of Islam who in one way or another have appreciated and made known some aspects of traditional Islam to the West and who represent another dimension of the encounter between traditional Islam and the modern world.
The establishment of the Great Ming dynasty in 1368 was a monumental event in world history. A century before Columbus, Beijing sent a series of diplomatic missions across the South China Sea and Indian Ocean that paved the way for China's first modern global era. 1368 maps China's ascendance from the embassies of Admiral Zheng He to the arrival of European mariners and the shock of the Opium Wars. In Ali Humayun Akhtar's new picture of world history, China's current rise evokes an earlier epoch, one that sheds light on where Beijing is heading today.
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