A Lantern for Our Time — Welcome to Lantern Publications

Bismillāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm. Welcome to Lantern Publications.

We began with a question that many parents in our community will recognise. Sitting in our living room searching for content for our two-year-old daughter, we found a sparse and uneven landscape. There were publishers, certainly, but standards varied widely, and many of the more challenging works in our tradition were simply not being made available, particularly here in Australia. The gap was not in scholarship. The gap was in stewardship.

Lantern Publications was founded to address that gap. Our first title, An Altar of Roses, appeared in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic, a work of literary non-fiction for young adults grounded in Islamic and Shia tradition. Soon after, we published a timely volume on Islamic beliefs and practices, written to answer objections raised in our era. The response was beyond what we had hoped, and with the encouragement of our colleagues, especially Blake Archer Williams, we formalised what had begun as a quiet conviction into a registered publishing house.

Today, Lantern Publications is the home of a growing catalogue spanning theology, ḥadīth, history, ethics, and children's literature. Our titles are produced under the editorial direction of a team led by our Chief Editor, with contributions from established authors, translators, and illustrators, and guided by an Advisory Board of senior scholars — Shaykh Mansour Leghaei, Shaykh Zaid Al Salami, Shaykh Mohammad Saeed Bahmanpour, and Shaykh Saleem Bhimji.

What you will find in our catalogue:

• Works that take ideas seriously. Translation, commentary, and original scholarship that respects both the depth of our tradition and the intelligence of our readers.
• Books that are beautifully made. Careful typography, considered design, archival-quality production, because the form of a book is part of its argument.
• Lantern Kids — our imprint for children, where stories and learning nurture young hearts in the tradition of the Ahl al-Bayt (ʿalayhim al-salām). Visit lanternkids.com.au.

We invite you to explore the catalogue, to support a forthcoming work as a Ṣadaqa Jāriya, or simply to subscribe and follow what we publish next. Whether you are a reader, a bookseller, a scholar, or a parent — there is a place for you here.

Wa l-ḥamdu lillāhi rabbi l-ʿālamīn.

— Dr Abidali Mohamedali Chief Editor, Lantern Publications