{"product_id":"a-thinking-persons-guide-to-love","title":"A Thinking Person's Guide to Love","description":"\u003cp\u003eMost books about love describe it. This one makes a claim about it and then dares you to break the claim. Prince Ghazi sets out what he calls a theorem of love, argues that it meets Karl Popper's test for a scientific statement — that it must be capable of being shown false — and then invites anyone in the world to disprove it. His one condition is that they read the book first.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHe is unusually well placed to make that offer. He holds doctorates from Cambridge and from al-Azhar, and his al-Azhar thesis became the widely translated \u003cem\u003eLove in the Holy Qur'an\u003c\/em\u003e. This book took thirty years of reading and five years of writing, and it is where those two halves of his training finally meet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHow it is built to be read\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e642 pages sounds like a commitment until you see the structure. There are 71 chapters, most of them six or seven pages, and each one stands alone. The author's own recommendation is a chapter a day, or one in the morning and one at night, which puts the whole book comfortably inside two months. The trim helps: at 5 by 7.75 inches it has the footprint of a novel rather than a reference volume, so it actually travels.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEvery chapter closes with a single takeaway sentence, and all 71 are gathered again in the Summary, so the argument can be recovered in a few pages once you have read it properly. Every section ends by answering the question \u003cem\u003ewhy do you need to know this?\u003c\/em\u003e There are no footnotes and no technical jargon anywhere in the book. Instead each quotation carries its full reference in line, repeated in full every time, so you can open at any chapter without hunting backwards for a source.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat is in it\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe range is the point. Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Auden, Dante, Aristotle, Alexander Pope, C.S. Lewis, Henry James and Karl Popper sit alongside the Qur'an, the hadith and the Sufi literature of love, plus working material from biology, chemistry, cognitive and developmental psychology, anthropology and mysticism. Three appendices trace the stages of love through \u003cem\u003eJane Eyre\u003c\/em\u003e and Turgenev's \u003cem\u003eFirst Love\u003c\/em\u003e and set out the full list of seventy stages. A closing bibliography names the thirty-three best books ever written on love, with the reason for each one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eReaders who care about architecture will notice two things. The Introduction and the nine Parts map onto Aristotle's ten categories for defining a thing, so that love is examined from every available angle in turn. And the book runs to seventy-eight chapters counting the appendices and bibliography, an allusion to the seventy-seven branches of faith. Perhaps, the author suggests, love is the one more.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eQuestions the book answers\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhat is the actual difference between love and lust, and can you have one without the other?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhat are the stages of falling in love, and how long does each one take?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIs love at first sight real?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhy does falling in love make people lose their reason, their will and their physical control?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhat is the difference between love, infatuation and obsession?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCan you stop yourself loving someone? Should you?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCan love be restarted once it has gone?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhat is actually happening in jealousy?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAre soul mates a real thing?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhat does unrequited love do to a person, and what is the way out of it?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhat is beauty, why do we recognise it, and why does it have such power over us?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhy is there love at all?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat others have said\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"A scintillating tour of the great classical writers\" on this most characteristic of human emotions.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eProfessor T. J. Winter\u003c\/strong\u003e — Shaykh Zayed Lecturer in Islamic Studies, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge; Dean of the Cambridge Muslim College\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBeautiful and wise, and \"essential reading for 'thinking persons' and especially for lovers everywhere.\"\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eProfessor Paul S. Fiddes\u003c\/strong\u003e — Professor of Systematic Theology, University of Oxford\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRemarkable, humane, the product of a lifetime's reflection. \"The book is a tour de force.\"\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eProfessor Sir Iain Torrance\u003c\/strong\u003e — President Emeritus, Princeton Theological Seminary\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"A work of stupendous erudition\" that arrives at an original insight into the knowledge of love.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDr Ismail Fajrie Alatas\u003c\/strong\u003e — Associate Professor, New York University\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"A true inspiration for the quest of understanding\" across religious and cultural borders.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eProfessor Klaus von Stosch\u003c\/strong\u003e — Schlegel Professor for Systematic Theology, University of Bonn\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eReviewing it in \u003cem\u003eThe Muslim 500\u003c\/em\u003e, the editors called it \"accessible and entertaining and very often beautifully lyrical\" despite the difficulty of its subject. The foreword is by Professor Miroslav Volf, Director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eContents\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhat is \u003cem\u003enot\u003c\/em\u003e Love?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhat is Love?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhat is Beauty?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eHow\u003c\/em\u003e Does Love Work?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhat is Falling in Love, and \u003cem\u003eHow\u003c\/em\u003e Does it Work?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eWho\u003c\/em\u003e Loves?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eWhen\u003c\/em\u003e is Love?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eWhere\u003c\/em\u003e is Love?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eWhy\u003c\/em\u003e is Love?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ol\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFollowed by a Summary, a closing exhortation, four appendices (Keys to Plato; the stages of love in \u003cem\u003eJane Eyre\u003c\/em\u003e; the stages of falling in love in Turgenev's \u003cem\u003eFirst Love\u003c\/em\u003e; the total list of seventy stages of love) and a select bibliography of the thirty-three best books on love.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWho it is for\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe author wrote it, in his own description, as a guide and self-help manual to love, aimed at the general public and at young people in particular. In practice it lands with three kinds of reader: anyone trying to understand what is happening to them while it is happening, anyone about to marry or already married who wants something more substantial than the usual advice, and anyone who simply wants the best thing written on the subject in a long time. It also makes an unusually good gift, which is worth saying about a book this size.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eBook details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e H.R.H. Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eForeword:\u003c\/strong\u003e Professor Miroslav Volf\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Turath Publishing, jointly with White Thread Press\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Paperback\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 642\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eChapters:\u003c\/strong\u003e 71, in nine parts, plus summary, four appendices and bibliography\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 5 x 7.75 x 1.2 inches\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eWeight:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1 lb 1.3 oz\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/strong\u003e English\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 978-1-915265-37-1\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Turath Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49262117421364,"sku":"WTP036","price":25.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0832\/5031\/5572\/files\/a-thinking-persons-guide-to-love-front-cover.jpg?v=1787197917","url":"https:\/\/www.meccabooks.com\/products\/a-thinking-persons-guide-to-love","provider":"Mecca Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}