MSI Press Blog

  Today's book excerpt comes from When You're Shoved from the Right, Look to the Left   by Omar Imady . THE SHEEP THAT NEVER LOST HOPE There once was a sheep who dreamed of walking in the very front row of her flock, but each time she tried to move towards the front, she was pushed back by her strong and mighty sisters and brothers. “Know your place, sheep,” they would whisper. “Even the very last row is too much for you.” Day after day the sheep would try to move towards the front row, and day after day she was pushed back with sarcasm. A dawn arrived when the shepherd, after having directed his flock towards the usual northern pasture field, suddenly stopped and decided he would try out a pasture field to the south which he had heard about from one of his friends. With his rod, he gestured to his flock to turn towards the opposite direction and suddenly the sheep, who had never lost hope, found herself in the very front row. For more posts by and about Omar and h

Veteran and award-winning author, Omar Imady, has done it again with a new book, Erasures . Literary Titan Gold Award Winner. 'An exceptional novel on par with previous dystopian classics written by Orwell and Huxley.' - Los Angeles Book Review The Year is 2049. Following a brutal seven-year war, Earth teeters on the brink of destruction. The World Congress is convened to identify the enemy: unpredictability. Deep in the subterranean corridors of Zone 4 Literature Hub, Head Archivist Ray Blankenship is tasked with digitizing humanity’s remaining books. In this new world, meticulously organized, monitored, and managed, Ray is restless. In the absence of chance, of mystery and miracles, meaning is missing. Amid the order, Ray’s shocking discovery of disappearing digital texts quickly plunges his department, his superiors, and the entire principle of predictability into uncertainty. Soon, whole books begin to vanish. But not just any books. Only religious ones. As the race to pres

  Excerpt from The Rise and Fall of Muslim Civil Society by Dr. Omar Imady --  Planting the seeds of Muslim Civil Society: (1871-1879)  The Activist: Jamal al-Din al-Afghani  Although Iranian and Shici 33 by birth, Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1838-1897) was known to most of his contemporaries as a Sunni Afghan. He described himself as such out of purely practical considerations, namely, to avoid being dismissed by religious scholars and political leaders of Sunni Muslim countries. In actuality, however, al-Afghani was neither a Shici nor a Sunni. His worldview, rather, was a synthesis of tasawwuf (an approach to Islam that emphasizes the spiritual experience, henceforth: sufism) and philosophy, combined with an intense inclination towards political activism. Al-Afghani was trained as a traditional scholar in Iraq and was, seemingly, self-taught in Western philosophy and political institutions during his subsequent stay in India. After living in Afghanistan (1866-1868), where he wa

  Today's fortune cookie is associated with The Rise and Fall of Muslim Civil Society by Omar Imady. Read more about this book and its author  HERE .  Get a paperback copy at  MSI Press webstore . If not on sale at the time, use code FF25 to get 25% discount. (Note: the code does not work on books that are already on sale att discounted prices.) Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC? Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book  in exchange for  reviewing  a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com. Want an  author-signed copy  of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com.  Want to communicate with one of our authors? You can! Find their contact information on our  Authors' P

                    One of the fun things that a publisher (or at least, an acquisitions editor) gets to experience is meeting more than one member of a family -- as authors whose work we publish, In this series of presenting family authors, we take note of the Imady writers, who have written several exciting and award-winning books. Above pictured, left to right, is Elaine Imady, the mother of Muna (daughter) and Omar (son). Elaine's book, Road to Damascus , a memoir of her physical and emotional journey from New York to Syria with her husband, Mohammed, was the first runner-up in the Eric Hoffer Legacy Award competition. Muna, who published two books with MSI Press -- the popular Syrian Folktales and the gut-wrenching Damascus amid the War , passed away suddenly and unexpectedly just as she finished the latter book; may she rest in peace. Omar's MSI Press books are quite different one from another: The Rise and Fall of Muslim Civil Society and When You're Shoved from th

  Excerpt from When You're Shoved from the Right Look to Your Left: Metaphors of Islamic Humanism (Omar Imady) FOR A FEW SILVER COINS Once a man heard about a place where people worshipped a tree. “These people are under a delusion. They have  replaced the glory of the transcendent God, the secret of all that is alive, with a mere tree? I must save them from this path. I must cut down this tree.” And so, the man climbed on his horse and headed toward the tree. When he got there, he picked up his ax and began to strike at it. People ran to him, yelling, “Stop! This is our most sacred tree.” But everyone who tried to push him away from the tree failed. He was simply too strong and too determined. When everyone was about to give up, an old man approached him and said, “Listen, my friend. The truth is that you have severely surprised these people. They are all very devoted to this tree, and they will be very hurt if they see it cut down today. However, if you were to wait just until t

  The Severe Trial During the ninth century, the Abbasid khalifah1 al-Mamun (r. 813-833) set out to convert ahl al-sunnah, or the traditionalists who emphasized the authority of the Qur’an and Prophetic traditions, to a theological doctrine held by the Muc tazilah, or the rationalists who emphasized the authority of reason and philosophical principles. Traditionalist scholars were forced to recant their belief in the non-created nature of the Qur’an in favor of the rationalist doctrine which held that the Qur’an was a creation of God. Those who refused were tortured and, at times, executed. In 848, fifteen years after the beginning of the government sponsored inquisition, termed al-Mihnah, or the Severe Trial, by Muslim historians, al-Mutawakkil (r. 847-861) ordered the end of all government sponsored attempts to enforce the rationalist doctrine. Al-Mutawakkil’s decision reflected his awareness that the inquisition had simply not succeeded and that its continuation might well

  The affiliated book, The Celeste Experiment , by Omar Imady has just won a silver award from Literary Titan.   When modern science fails to save his wife Celeste, Michael turns to religion. When religion fails to cure her, he is left searching for answers.  From his grief flows anger, determination, and finally the plan – a meticulous experiment to unravel the truth in one of civilization’s most controversial topics … the concept of God.  At the heart of this plan is Hamida Begum. A young woman of depth and intelligence, heiress to a lost lineage. Selected and prepared. Qualified in ways even Michael could never have anticipated.  Will her involvement in this vast, mysterious, and at times unethical endeavor deliver resolution?   This literary work, with a touch of magical realism,  The Celeste Experiment,  is the story of one man’s attempt to sever the spiritual threads of history once and for all. It is a thrilling journey of revenge and conviction, sorrow and rage, design and entr

  Omar Imady, author and poet, has produced a new book, The Celeste Experiment , to be published November 17 by Villa Magna Press. The book is available on pre-order from Amazon. We welcome this new book as an affiliate with MSI Press.  For more posts on Omar Imady, click HERE . For more posts on affiliated books, click HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .

  As the managing editor of MSI Press, I am reaching out to you to ask whether you’d be interested in reviewing a book by an author who is very close to my heart and whose most recent book has been published by Villa Magna. Omar Imady is one of the finest writers to come out of Syria, and I have known him and his family for many years. Omar’s writing weaves together themes of religion, spirituality and history with the light touch of magic realism. His writing is quite simply magical.   Omar’s latest book When Her Hand Moves is a lyrical symphony in three captivating movements; that combines the sensual and the sacred, the intellectual and the imaginary, the divine and the dangerous in three stories that examine, interrogate, and challenge our understanding of universal truths and spirituality.    An English nurse becomes possessed with unravelling the mystery behind the disappearance of a Syrian woman. A Syrian professor escapes Damascus only to find himself in another su

  Omar Imady, who started out his publishing career with MSI Press and still has two books with us, has done some remarkable work over the past decade -- a couple of "gospels" with Villa Magna (The Gospel of Damascus in four languages was a Book of the Year finalist for the English version; and The Gospel of Bethany) and now, a new book, When Her Hand Moves , also with Villa Magna. Here is a summary of the new book: When Her Hand Moves  combines the sensual and the sacred, the intellectual and the imaginary, the divine and the dangerous in two stories that examine, interrogate, and challenge our understanding of universal truths and spirituality. A Syrian history professor escapes Damascus only to find himself in another surreal and dangerous setting, uncovering a conspiracy that places his life in even greater peril. And an Oxford professor and an eccentric journalist embark on an adventure through Portugal and Spain seeking to decipher an ancient manuscript and uncover a re