ABU DHABI // A treatise on humour and moderation in Islam was one of seven works shortlisted for the Sheikh Zayed Book Award yesterday.
The award committee released a list of four books under consideration for the prize for translation and three for the prize for young authors. Winners in all categories will be announced later this month.
"I had great hopes to be nominated," said Leila Labidi, the author of Al Fakkah fi al Islam, or "Humour in Islam", shortlisted in the young author category.
"The book promotes moderation in Islam," said Ms Labidi, 37, from Tunisia.
"It is an attempt to dissipate the perception promoted by hardcore Islamists that Islam is rigid and complicated."
Ms Labidi spent two years writing the book, which was also her thesis for a postgraduate diploma.
"The accounts we have of the Prophet in the Hadith reveal that he had a pleasant character and that he often laughed wholeheartedly," she explained. "He was simple and unaffected in dealing with any issue."
The two other books shortlisted in the young author category, for writers below 40 years old, were Cryptography in Ancient Egypt by Nagwa Netwally, from Egypt, and Ladies of the Moon, a novel by Jokha Al Harthi, from Oman.
In the translation category, Abou Yaareb Al Marzouqi was nominated for translating a phenomenological treatise by the German philosopher Edmund Husserl into Arabic.
"It is a first translation and it was painstaking," said Mr Al Marzouqi, a philosophy professor and a member of the Constituent Assembly of Tunisia.
"I chose the book because it is the cornerstone to all modern studies in literature and philosophy," he said. "It explains the science of explaining and analysing the religious experience."
Mr Al Marzouqi was "very pleased" to hear it had been shortlisted for the prize. "This is a prestigious award known across the Arab world," he said.
The three other works shortlisted in the translation category were Saleh Almani's Arabic translation of A Life without Don Quixoteand Sancho, from Spanish; Mohammed Alboukai's Arabic translation of Linguistics and the Sub-conscious, from French; and Ravane Mbaye's French translation of Gems of the Senses, from Arabic.
Mr Almani and Mr Alboukai are from Syria; Mr Mbaye is from Senegal.
The annual Shiekh Zayed Book Award was first presented in 2007. Intended to promote scholarship and creativity in Arabic culture, it carries cash prizes totalling Dh7 million - with Dh750,000 per winner in most categories.
vnereim@thenational.ae
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
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