The mission of Universal Knowledge Institute (UKI) is to advance knowledge and understanding of the Quran and its historical context for Muslims and others, increase public understanding and awareness of Islam and Muslims, and advance world harmony through sensitivity toward Islam and Muslims. Universal Knowledge Institute was created in 2007 by a small group of concerned individuals for educational purposes as a nonprofit 501C3 organization based in the State of Illinois. We are convinced that knowledge is a powerful element that can promote understanding of Quran, sensitivity toward Islam and Muslims, improve public awareness and increase harmony in the world.
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Professor Seema Imam
Professor Seema Imam is faculty in National-Louis University’s Graduate Elementary and Middle Level Teacher Education Program in Chicago and suburbs. She is Co-Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Council, and former Chair of the University Faculty Senate.
Dr. Imam believes there is tremendous need to advance world harmony through knowledge and understanding. She strongly believes that in today’s global society a world-class education requires familiarity with the Quran. Similarly, as a founder of Universal Knowledge Institute, Dr. Imam is committed to the notion that we simply cannot as a nation and as a world deny the need for dialogues to take place, that is, dialogue of Muslims with Muslims and Muslims with others.
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A New Interpretation And Translation
This contemporary, authoritative translation interprets the Quran’s meaning for the English reader with unprecedented access to the Book that is the foundational source of Islam, its civilization and its peoples, who now comprise nearly one-fourth of humanity across the breadth of all the Earth’s continents and who form a crucial, contiguous community at the middle of the world.
Twenty years in the making, The Gracious Quran: A Modern-Phrased Interpretation of Its Meanings in English is both highly reliable and powerfully expressed. Where the Arabic of the Quran swells with important implication, that intent is conveyed in this rendering with a light hand in unobtrusive brackets, every effort having been expended to make its reading august, clear, accessible, and consistent while at the same time free of poetic pretension, philosophical complication, and lifeless literalisms.
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Professor Ahmad Zaki Hammad is an internationally known authority on Quran and Islamic Studies. He teaches Islamic Civilization and the Primary Disciplines of Quran Commentary, the Prophetic Traditions, and the Principles of Islamic Law at the foremost center of Islamic and Arabic learning in the Muslim world, AL-Azhar University (Faculty of Languages and Translations, Department of English). He is also a member of the Faculty of Shari’ah, Departmentd of Juristic Studies.
He lived for many years in the United States, where he founded and served in numerous national and community Islamic institutions for American Muslims.
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Reviews
The Muslim World Book Review, 30:1, 2009 19
Islamic Thought and Sources
THE GRACIOUS QUR’AN: A MODERN-PHRASED INTERPRETATION IN ENGLISH
Review by: Abdur Raheem Kidwai (Aligarh Muslim University)
It is heartening to note the publication of this new English translation of the Qur’an in that it stands out above the existing ones on several counts. Its chief merit consists in its deep and sincere concern for meeting almost all the needs of the uninitiated English speaking readers of the Qur’an who want to find out what the Qur’an is, what is its message and how best it should be studied.
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Building high self-esteem in all children will result in a more peaceful and harmonious world. Select from three children’s stories. Living in a diverse society, a world of many people prompts authors to write for Muslim Children and for others to better understand the culture around the Muslim family.
I am Listening is a story for home or class, public or private. It discusses the value of names. It is a cross-cultural story in an American public school class where the 5th grade teacher wears hijab (scarf). Sadia is new to the neighborhood. It is one of the “I AM GOOD BOOK” Series.
More...Muslim Voices
The notion that religion can be practiced freely in America is something taught in American schools yet the reality of the lived experience is an interesting discussion and the book, “Muslim Voices in School” speaks in the voice of many Muslims about a vast array of personal experiences.
Such a discussion gives rise to the need for knowledge and understanding of Quran, Islam and Muslims in order to enhance the lived experiences reported by some Muslims about their school life.
A Winner!
“Muslim Voices in School” was chosen for the 2010 Phillip C. Chinn award at the National Association of Multicultural Education annual Conference.
UPDATE! Second Edition is now in the works, will be available spring 2011
Available on:
The need for research about the Muslim student and schools in the west has been paramount.
This book is part of a series published by Sense Publishers.
The series: Transgressions: Cultural Studies and Education is edited by Shirley Steinberg of McGill University in Canada and the late Joe Kincheloe also of McGill University in Canada.
This book contains chapters by Muslim researchers who were invited to share their research and is a collection of readable, accessible, compelling, varied, voiced, passionate, real, textured, multi-faceted, hybrid, fearless, fearful, cautious, bold, modest, and inspired accounts of living Islam in relation to mainstream schooling in the West. The book helps to make the diverse experiences of Muslim students (from elementary through university, student through professor) both contextual and complex. The politics and education about Islam, Muslims, Arabs, Turks, Iranians and all that is associated with the West’s popular imagination of the monolithic “Middle-East” has long been framed within problematics. The goal of this book is to push back against the reductive mainstream narratives told about Muslim and Middle Eastern heritage students for generations if not centuries, in mainstream schools. The chapters are each authored by Muslim-acculturated scholars. This book will be of interest to teachers, administrators, students and scholars. As well, the content is suited to fields of study including ethnic studies, critical multicultural education, anti-oppression approaches to education, curriculum studies, social issues in education, social contexts of education, and qualitative research in education.
The research for the chapter: Separation of What and State, by Seema Imam began in 1998 without realizing it. There was nothing harder to listen to than the labeling of a faith community as terrorist community. As the research began to look at the public curriculum or mass media, many realizations came to light. The Muslims consume the mass media public curriculum like everyone else and it takes its toll. This research revealed the essence of the lived experiences. What is it like living in the midst of the negative public curriculum? The data was collected through in depth interviewing. Post 9-11 focus groups of parents were convened to discuss their children’s experiences with pubic schooling. All that was just the beginning. Since then there have been many presentations, more research and efforts to create resource materials to help public schools work with all students through a better understanding of differences.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction Özlem Sensoy and Christopher Darius Stonebanks
PART 1: VOICES & EXPERIENCES OF MUSLIM STUDENTS IN THE K-12 SCHOOL YEARS
1. Testing the Courage of their Convictions: Muslim Youth Respond to Stereotyping, Hostility, and Discrimination
Mona M. Abo-Zena, Barbara Sahli and Christina Safiya Tobias-Nahi
2. Integrating Identities: Muslim American Youth Confronting Challenges and Creating Change
Shaza Khan
3. Separation of What and State: The Life Experiences of Muslims with Public Schools in the Midwest
Seema A. Imam
4. The Voice of a Covered Muslim-American Teen in a Southern Public School
Nawell N. Mossalli
5. Where the Heck is the “Muslim World” Anyways?
Özlem Sensoy
PART 2: VOICES & EXPERIENCES OF MUSLIM STUDENTS IN THE UNIVERSITY YEARS
6. The Evolution of an Identity Crisis
Dalia Al Houseini
7. Left to my own Devices: Hybrid Identity Development of Religion and Sexual Orientation Among Muslim Students in the United States
Younes Mourchid
8. Diversity, Self, Faith and Friends: Muslim Undergraduates on Campus
Shabana Mir
9. On Being Black and Muslim: Eclipsed Identities in the Classroom
Samaa Abdurraqib
PART 3: VOICES & EXPERIENCES OF MUSLIM TEACHERS, SCHOLARS, AND ADMINISTRATORS
10. On Being Us and Them: A Voice from the Edge
Carolyne Ali Khan
11. If Nancy Drew Wouldn’t wear a Hijab, Would the Hardy Boys wear a Kufi?
Christopher Darius Stonebanks
12. Being a Muslimah and a Headteacher: Insights from a Life Story Approach towards Accessing Leadership
Imran Mogra
REVIEWS
SEPTEMBER 2010:
MVS is the WINNER! of the National Association for Multicultural Education’s 2010 Philip C. Chinn book award!
AUGUST 2010:
Teaching Tolerance is one of the most respected and well-known equity communities for educators. They have recently posted a link to MVS in their Professional Development resources section.
From the review:
“Provides a much-needed collection about Muslim student experiences in Western schools. Each chapter ends with meaningful discussion questions and extension activities for teachers. This is a true handbook for educators.”
JULY 2010:
Really excited and honoured that MVS has been nominated for the National Association for Multicultural Education’s 2010 Philip C. Chinn book award.
MAY 2010:
From the review:
“The narratives in Muslim Voices in Schools have authenticity and readability because most [sic: all] of the authors are Muslim-acculturated scholars... As pedagogical tools, the discussion questions and extension activities accompanying each chapter are priceless.”
Source: Center for Multicultural Education, College of Education, University of Washington
APRIL 21, 2010:
From the review:
“the book highlights the role educators play in the lives of their students and sheds light on the importance of understanding how youth identity is shaped and influenced by what takes place outside of formal schooling... The book is organized chronologically from elementary through university experiences of Muslim students”
Preview Gracious Quran
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