Heaven on Earth
  • Published: 2 January 2013
  • ISBN: 9780099523277
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $22.99

Heaven on Earth

A Journey Through Shari‘a Law

Formats & editions
EBook
5 Jan 2012
Paperback
2 Jan 2013
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A timely and eye-opening investigation into one of the most disputed but least understood topics of recent times - the history and reality of shari'a law.

This book is important because it is:

Unique. Heaven on Earth offers a critique of extremism that is human rights-based and entertaining - combining the comparative approach of Karen Armstrong and the immediacy of Ed Husain (The Islamist) with storytelling.

Timely. At a time of veil bans, Qur'an burnings and English Defence League protests, Kadri voices a liberal view of Islamic history and shows Muslims working against repression. This book explains up-to-the-minute brutalities.

Epic. Interviews, anecdotes, personal reflection and analysis are set against a narrative that sweeps from seventh-century Mecca to the war in Afghanistan. Civilisations are evoked via the vivid lives of caliphs, mystics, and travellers. Legal changes are described through the feuds, courtroom dramas, conquests and cataclysms that have left their mark on modern Islamic law.

First-hand. On the road for five months, Kadri travelled through Iran just before the June 2009 election protests, and took part in a human rights conference there with ayatollahs and academics.

Eye-opening. This book goes beyond the explosive headline issues (criminal justice, women, jihad, religious freedom) to reveal the stranger ones: genie exorcisms; the legal consequences of premature ejaculation; online fatwa advice; the sharia approach to Facebook and Qur'anic mobile phone ringtones, etc.

Bold. Heaven on Earth primarily targets religious extremism, but also cuts anti-Muslim panic down to size.
  • Published: 2 January 2013
  • ISBN: 9780099523277
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $22.99
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About the author

Sadakat Kadri

Half-Finnish and half-Pakistani, Sadakat Kadri was born in London in 1964. He graduated with a first in history and law from Trinity College, Cambridge, and after taking a master's degree at Harvard Law School qualified as a barrister and New York attorney. He has been attached to London's Doughty Street Chambers since the mid-1990s, and has worked on human rights issues in several overseas jurisdictions, including Turkey and parts of the Middle East. His last book was The Trial: A History from Socrates to O.J. Simpson, he is a past winner of the Spectator/Shiva Naipaul travel writing prize, and before setting off to research the sharia, he wrote a regular column on legal questions for the New Statesman.

Praise for Heaven on Earth

Greatly enriches our understanding of a much misunderstood subject

Sunday Times

Erudite and instructive

The Times

First-rate

Guardian

[A] lively, yet scholarly, book... Kadri is an ideally positioned guide

Daily Telegraph

Thoughtful

Independent on Sunday

[An] erudite and instructive book... Captivating

The Times

[A] fascinating journey . . . Kadri approaches his themes with unstinting humanity and intelligence, as well as great fluency

Spectator

You will come across...a fresh eye, and a clear perspective, in Sadakat Kadri's new book, Heaven on Earth. Learned, level-headed, engaging, Kadri's "journey through Shari'a law" deserves praise on every front

Independent

Intellectually nimble and rigorously researched . . . admirably clear-eyed . . . Kadri is a precise and stylish writer, as good at explicating abstruse arguments as he is at conjuring vivid scenes . . . this brave and sane book could not be more timely

Scotsman

Truly penetrating and provocative

Observer

Learned, level-headed, engaging, Kadri's [book] deserves praise on every front

Boyd Tonkin, Independent

Brilliant and illuminating

Boris Johnson, Mail on Sunday

This is an extremely valuable book...Knowing this stuff is important, and Kadri takes us through it wonderfully well. He has a great grasp of the facts and – this is my favourite thing – a good, dry sense of humour

Nick Lezzard, Guardian

Superb… So much discussion of sharia is marred by misinformation and paranoia: this level-headed book provides a timely corrective

David Evans, Independent on Sunday