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Recommended Reading

Ethica’s career counseling sessions enter into areas of interest outside Islamic finance, and we are often asked for book recommendations.

Part of being an effective professional is having an informed worldview, and books distill knowledge more effectively than other media. If you want to increase your intelligence and awareness overnight, turn off the smartphone, sell the TV, spurn Youtube and social media, stop browsing the Internet aimlessly, and read a book for half an hour or more in the evening with the intention of following the Prophet’s (Allah bless him and give him peace) words, “Be desirous for what benefits you.” (Muslim [74], 4.2052:2664. S)

Here is a selection of some of the books that benefited us. For Islamic finance book recommendations, visit https://ethica.institute/articles.aspx.

Disclaimer: Use your judgement. These books are no substitute for reliable information from qualified specialists, and should be treated as such. Moreover, recommendations should not be understood as endorsing all the information in every resource.

  1. FAITH
  2. HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
  3. PERSONAL RELATIONS
  4. INSPIRATION
  5. EDUCATION
  6. PERSONAL PRODUCTIVITY
  7. BUSINESS
  8. SCIENCE
  9. MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY
  10. POLITICS AND POWER


1. FAITH

The Quran Beheld
translated by Sheikh Nuh Ha Mim Keller
www.quranbeheld.com

Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources
Martin Lings

Sea Without Shore: A Manual of the Sufi Path
Sheikh Nuh Ha Mim Keller

Deliverance from Error: Al Ghazali’s Path to Sufism
Abu Hamid Muhammad al Ghazal

The Beginning of Guidance
Abu Hamid Muhammad al Ghazali

Reliance of the Traveller: A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law 
Ahmad Naqib al Misri (tr. Sheikh Nuh Ha Mim Keller)

Darqawi Way: Letters of Shaykh Darqawi
Muhammad al-Arabi ibn Ahmed Ad-Darqawi

Discourses of Rumi
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (tr. A.J. Arberry)

Screwtape Letters
C.S. Lewis

www.untotheone.com
The Sufi path and traditional Islam

www.masud.co.uk
A leading resource of traditional Islam


FOR THOSE NEW TO ISLAM

Sea Without Shore: A Manual of the Sufi Path
Sheikh Nuh Ha Mim Keller

The Divine for Critical Minds: Inquiry Into God's Existence
Dr. Rehan Zaidi

The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Malcolm X with Alex Haley

Desert Encounter
Knud Holmboe

The Sun Is Rising in the West: Journey to Islam: New Muslims Tell About Their
Journey to Islam Muzaffar Haleem


2. HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

Food Between Curse and Cure: Islam, Health, and the Good Life 
Abu Munir and Abdurahman Ashraf

Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food
Dr. Catherine Shanahan

Food Rules: A Doctor's Guide to Healthy Eating
Dr. Catherine Shanahan

The Big Book of Health and Fitness: A Practical Guide to Diet, Exercise, Healthy

Aging, Illness Prevention, and Sexual Well-Being
Dr. Phil Maffetone

The Barbell Prescription
Jonathon Sullivan

Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain 
Dr. John Ratey

Eight Weeks to Optimum Health: A Proven Program for Taking Full Advantage of Your Body's Natural Healing Power
Dr. Andrew Weil

Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and Diet Dictocrats
Sally Fallon

Healthy at 100
John Robbins

The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability
Lierre Keith

Healing with Whole Foods
Paul Pitchford

Anticancer: A New Way of Life
Dr. David Servan-Schreiber

What's Gotten Into Us: Living in a Toxic World
McKay Jenkins

How to be Free
Tom Hodgkinson

The Complete System of Self-Healing: Internal Exercises
Dr. Stephen T. Chang

The Diet Myth
Tim Spector

The Timeless Way of Building
Christopher Alexander

A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction
Christopher Alexander

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
Eric Schlosser

In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed 
Carl Honore

The Ascent of Humanity: Civilization and the Human Sense of Self
Charles Eisenstein

Dirty Electricity: Electrification and the Diseases of Civilization
Dr. Sam Milham

The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-to-Basics Guide
John Seymour

Beyond Backpacking: Guide to Lightweight Hiking
Ray Jardine


3. PERSONAL RELATIONS

Intiating and Upholding an Islamic Marriage
Hedaya Hartford

Man of Steel and Velvet: What it Takes to be a Man and How to be a Man
Aubrey Andelin

Fascinating Womanhood: How the Ideal Woman Awakens a Man's Deepest Love and Tenderness
Helen Andelin

The Collapse of Parenting: How We Hurt Our Kids When We Treat Them Like Grown-Ups
Leonard Sax

How to Win Friends and Influence People
Dale Carnegie

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living: Time-Tested Methods for Conquering Worry
Dale Carnegie

The Seven Habits of Highly Successful Families
Stephen Covey


4. INSPIRATION

The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Malcolm X with Alex Haley

Desert Encounter
Knud Holmboe

The Road to Mecca
Muhammad Asad

The Warrior Race
Imran Khan

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
Laura Hillenbrand

The Long Walk: The True Story Of A Trek To Freedom
Slavomir Rawicz


5. EDUCATION

Wired Child: Reclaiming Childhood in a Digital Age
Richard Freed

Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
John Taylor Gatto

High Tech Heretic: Why Computers Don't Belong in the Classroom and Other Reflections by a Computer Contrarian
Clifford Stoll

Deschooling Society
Ivan Illich

Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think And What We Can Do About It
Jane Healey

The Well Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home
Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise


6. PERSONAL PRODUCTIVITY

The Four Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
Timothy Ferriss

Early Retirement Extreme: A Philosophical and Practical Guide to Financial Independence
Jacob Lund Fisker

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
David Allen

Art of the Start 2.0: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything
Guy Kawasaki

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
Angela Duckworth

The Magic of Thinking Big
David Schwarz

The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
Stephen Covey

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
Robert Cialdini

The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less
Richard Koch

Write to the Point
Bill Stott

Getting Real: The Smarter, Faster, Easier Way to Build a Successful Web Application
37 Signals


7. BUSINESS

See here: https://ethica.institute/articles.aspx

8. SCIENCE

The Mind of God: The Scientific Basis for a Rational World
Paul Davies

Science Delusion
Rupert Sheldrake

The Seven Mysteries of Life: An Exploration of Science and Philosophy
by Guy Murchie

Evolution: A Theory in Crisis
Michael Denton

The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning
James Lovelock

Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape The Universe
Martin Rees

A Short History of Nearly Everything
Bill Bryson

Confessions of a Medical Heretic
Robert Mendelsohn

One Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming
Manosabu Fukuoka


9. MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY

Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation, What the Industry Has Done to Hide It, and How to Protect Your Family 
Dr. Devra Davis

Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now
Jaron Lanier

The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains
Nicholas Carr

Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television
Jerry Manders

Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other
Shelly Turkle

Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
Noam Chomsky

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
Neil Postman

In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations
Jerry Manders

The Case for Working with your Hands, or Why Office Work Is Bad for Us and Fixing Things Feels Good 
Matthew Crawford

The Case for Books
Robert Arndt

The Myth of the Machine: Technics and Human Development
Lewis Mumford


10. POLITICS AND POWER

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
John Perkins

Animal Farm
George Orwell

Brave New World
Aldous Huxley

When Corporations Rule the World
David Korten

The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World
Paul Roberts

The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt

Profit Over People: Neoliberalism & Global Order
Noam Chomsky and Robert W. McChesney

Making Gay Okay: How Rationalizing Homosexual Behavior Is Changing Everything
Robert R. Reilly

When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment
Ryan T. Anderson

Short Circuit: Strengthening Local Economics for Security in an Unstable World
Richard Douthwaite

Beyond Chutzpah: The Misuse of Antisemitism and the Abuse of History
Norman Finkelstein

Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible
Bart Ehrman

Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years
Israel Shahak

The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve
G. Edward Griffin

Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. was Used to Create Israel
Alison Weir

When Google Met Wikileaks
Julian Assange

Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered
E.F. Schumacher

The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power
Joel Bakan

Ron Unz articles at www.unz.com

Disclaimer: Use your judgement. These books are no substitute for reliable information from qualified specialists, and should be treated as such. Moreover, recommendations should not be understood as endorsing all the information in every resource.






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"The role Ethica has played in promoting the cause of standardization of best practices in Islamic finance, especially in the fields of Shari'ah and accounting, that too for the last two decades, is indeed praiseworthy. They have always put AAOIFI standards at the heart of all their certification and training programs for which we are grateful."

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Ethica is trusted by more professionals for Islamic finance certification. Officially recognized by AAOIFI, the world's leading standard-setting body in Islamic finance, the Institute has trained over 15,000 paying professionals in 160 financial institutions across 65 countries, winning numerous industry awards. Ranked #1 on Google for “Best Islamic Finance Certification” regularly, Ethica’s globally recognized and accredited award-winning certificates include the Certified Islamic Finance Executive™ (CIFE™), Advanced CIFE™ Financial Analysis (ACIFE™ FA), and Advanced CIFE™ Accounting (ACIFE™ ACC), delivered online or live at the bank.


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Disclaimer: This email is for information and illustrative purposes only. It is not, and should not be regarded as “investment advice” or as a “recommendation” regarding a course of action. Ethica Institute LLC does not purport to and does not, in any fashion, provide tax, accounting, actuarial, record keeping, legal, broker, dealer or any related services. You should consult your advisors with respect to these areas and the material presented herein. You may not rely on the material contained herein. Ethica Institute LLC shall not have any liability for any damages of any kind whatsoever relating to this material. Unlless indicated otherwise, the names of people, locations, and events may have been changed and any resemblance to actual people, locations, and events may be purely coincidental.


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