bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought
Authors: Kalin Ibrahim
Published: December 2020

This book, originally published in 1962, has now become a classic on the historyof modemTurkish political thought, whose beginning is usually traced back to theT-t period (1836-1878), the most turbulent and crucial period of modemTurkish history. Serif Mardin, the famous Turkish historian and political scientist,is like a household name to those interested in modern Ottoman and Turkishintellectual history. In his numerous books and articles, which followed thepublication of the present work, Mardin took the herculean task of unearthing theparameters of modem Turkish thought with an almost solitary conscience. It issimply impossible to have a discussion about Islam and Turkish society, socialchange, modernization or secularization without referring to Mardin’s work,which is woven around a string of ideas, concepts and analytical tools, all of whichenable him to see the realities of Turkey and the modem Islamic world both fromwithin and from without. His more recent Relwon and Social change in Twkey:’ c irhe of&aYuzaman Said Nuni (New York: SUNY Press, 1989),w hich is thesingle most important book written in English on Said Nursi, the founder of theNurcu movement in Turkey, is the result of the same set of principles Mardin hasadopted throughout his career: diligent scholarship, resistance to fads, and willingnessto understand before passing any judgements on his subject.The present work under review touches upon the most sensitive and crucialperiod of modem Turkish history, viz., the end of the Ottoman era and the establishmentof the modem Turkish Republic. Mardin’s exclusive emphasis is on theTanzirnat period, and the figures that laid the intellectual foundations of it. Thesignificance of this period can hardly be overemphasized, not only for Turkish historybut also for the rest of the Islamic world. It was in this period that a wholegeneration of ottoman intellectuals, from right to left, was faced with the historictask of confronting modem western civilization in the profoundest sense of theterm, and their successes and failures set the agenda for the modem intellectualhistory of Turkey for decades to follow. Their troublesome journey was shaped bythe historical setting, in which they came to terms with such questions as modernism,secularism, westernization, nationalism, Islam, society, science, tradition,and a host of other issues that continue to haunt the minds of the Islamic worldtoday. Their trial, however, was linked to the rest of the members of the Islamicworld in ways, as the present work under review shows, more important than isusually thought, and this issue, namely the place of ottoman intellectual historywithin the larger context of modem klamic thought, has not been resolved. In this ...
Transformative Inquiry and Production of Islamic Knowledge
Authors: Al Zeera Zahra
Published: December 2020

Transformative inquiry is proposed in this paper as an alternativeresearch method that emerges from the Islamic paradigm and leadsto the creation of Islamic knowledge on one hand and inner selftransformation on the other. The emphasis, however, will beon transformative research methods based on this union of innerexperiences of awakening of the soul from inside and unfolding ofresearch experiences and knowledge from outside. Before doing that,I will shed some light on related issues of conventional and alternativeparadigms such as positivism and constructivism. Also related issuesto transformation, such as wholeness and relationships, are discussed.Finally, four methods of inquiry, are proposed as transformativemethods that have the potential for producing Islamic knowledge.
Islam, Economic Rationalism, and Accounting
Authors: Willett Roger , Sulaiman Maliah
Published: December 2020

This paper discusses the impact of western accounting technologies on belief structures such as those of the Islamic faith. It assesses a theory of accounting reporting originally proposed by Baydoun and Willett (1994). It goes on to consider the nature and origins of western materialist philosophy and contrasts the belief structure of Islam with the West. The paper also ex.amines the historical context in which western values became adopted in Muslim societies and discusses the policy issues that confront Islamic accounting standard setters.
Intellectual Discourse and the Politics of Modernization
Authors: Faghfoory Mohammad
Published: December 2020

This book examines the Islamic revolution of Iran and presents a culturalapproach to analyzing the events that resulted in the collapse of themonarchical system and the establishment of the Islamic Republic.The book contains seven chapters. An introductory chapter explores thegenealogy of the western narrative of modernity and its dichotomizingrepresentation of non-western cultures and societies. The author posesseveral questions in an attempt to provide a definition for modernity, and inthe process explores the story of Iranian modernity. Is modernity atotalizing ideology grounded in European cultural and moral experienceand incapable of understanding other cultures? Or, is it a mode of social andcultural experience of the present that is open to all forms of contemporaryexperiences and possibilities?These questions are addressed in chapter 1, where Mirsepassi examinesthe process of development of the concept of modernity in the West. Heanalyzes some of the writings of such thinkers as Montesquieu, Hegel, KarlMarx, Max Weber, Emmile Durkheim, Marshall Berman, JurgenHabermas, Anthony Giddens, and more recent works by critics ofmodernity theories such as Edward Sai'd, Arturo Escobar, and TimothyMitchell. He demonstrates quite convincingly, how in the westernconception of modernity, an "Oriental" other, passive, traditional, andirrational, is contrasted to the modem world of the West. At the depth of thediscourse of modernity, he finds a hostility to non-western cultures thatexcludes them from the possibility of meaningful participation in themaking of the modem world. He criticizes the western conception ofmodernity because it is Euro-centric and denies other cultures a positiverole in the making of the modem world. These theories all share the beliefthat "they are objective, culturally neutral, and universally applicable to allsocieties." (pp. 6-9) Therefore, the core conception of modernity theory ...
The Nature and Direction of Political Change in Pakistan
Authors: Al  Mujahid Sharif
Published: December 2020

Politics in Pakistan: The Nature and Direction of Change by Khalid BinSayeed, Praeger Publishers, New York, 1980, pp. 194, price US. $21.95.In many respects, this is a significant work-and a controversial one.In terms of the data presented, analyses attempted, insights providedand conclusions drawn, it represents long years of research andreflection. And, it is not an easy book to review.In this reviewer’s view, any discussion on this work must necessarilybegin with a flashback to the author’s background and his earlier workssince it would help put the present work in perspective. Khalid binSayeed is not only the most widely known Pakistani writer on Pakistanpolitics, but also the foremost Pakistani political scientist, havingauthored numerous papers in journals and compilations, and two majorworks-Pakistan: The Formative Phase (1960) and The Political Systemof Pakistan (1967). Being original and analytical, they achieved instantfame, acquiring, in the process, the distinction of being the most frequentlycited works on Pakistan’s historical and political development.In the first work, a political history of Indian Muslims since 1858 andof Pakistan till 1958, Sayeed interpreted Pakistan in terms of Muslimnationalism and Jinnah’s charismatic leadership, and the interplay ofpolitical forces and the course of politics in Pakistan’s early years wereexplained in terms of the “viceregal system” of undivided India. Set inthe tradition of the developmental theorists, his second worknqxploiteddextrously the idiom and formulations of the behavioralists.Now, in this third major work, Sayeed turns his back on all this andsettles for a (modified?) Marxian approach. Page two alone features fourquotes from Marx and one from the Marxist Geoffrey Kay; in particular, ...
The Islamic External Critics of Public Administration
Authors: Nusair Naim
Published: December 2020

"Whence did you enslave people who were born free?" (Umar Ibn-al-Khattab)The growth of public administration and the increasing influence ofadministrative agencies on public policy make the perennial politicalproblem of the control of administration more important than ever.Governmental activities nowadays touch so many people, in so manyways, that citizens' dissatisfaction with administration is inevitable.Many countries have sought protections and safeguards againstoppressive, mistaken, or careless exercise of public authority.Although the bureaucrats act as a leveling and rationalizing force,they are susceptible to certain persistent maladies. W.A. Robson hasidentified these as excessive sense of self-importance; indifference to thefeelings or convenience of others, obsessive to established practiceregardless of resulting hardships, persistent addiction to formality, andastigmatic inability to perceive the totality of the government because ofpreoccupation with one of its parts. When these maladies exist, theymay not be instantly recognized and treated, because administrativework often occurs beyond the gaze of professional observers. Moreover,many of the individuals with whom administrators deal offensively arelikely to be anonymous and the injustices invisible.The purpose of this study is to show that Islam had developedprominent external critics of administration long before the majorcountries had developed their current protective mechanisms againstbureaucratic excesses. The main objective is to integrate the majorIslamic critics of administration found in lslamic literature .andtheir current equivalent in modern countdea so that they become morecompatible with the contextual timing and demands of dailyadministrative life. A comparative approach will facilitate the ...
Book Reviews
Authors: Nyang Sulayman S.
Published: December 2020

Bernard LEWIS, The Muslim Discovery of Europe (New York/London:W.W. Norton & Co., 1982), 350 pp., Index & Illustrations. Price $19.95.The Muslims have had a long history of relations with WesternEuropean peoples. Some part of it was tumultous and violent and theother was peaceful and harmonious. It was the Muslims who held thetorch of civilization when the lights went out in Europe and elsewhere inthe world. And indeed it was the Muslims who passed on to Europe in theMiddle Ages the coveted intellectual jewels of the ancient world.However, such transactions and ties between the Western Europeanpeoples and the Muslim world have led to two major historicaldevelopments. The first was the renaissance in Europe, whichinterestingly enough led to the distancing of Europe from the MuslimWorld. The second was the subsequent development of learning and thesciences in Europe and the rise of European power to challenge,threaten, and finally defeat Muslim power in the world.It is indeed against this background that one can examine this book bythe well-known but controversial British orientalist, Professor BernardLewis. His book is certainly an important contribution to the limitedliterature on early and medieval Muslim transactions with theEuropean world. But in order to do justice to the work and its author, letus analyze its contents and see how and to what extent the authorcaptures the salient points about the Muslim discovery of the West.The book is divided into twelve chapters with a preface and a note onthe source of illustrations. In the first chapter, entitled "Contact andImpact", Professor Lewis traces the rise of Islam in the Middle East andthe geopolitical revisions that accompanied the Muslim ascendancy. Hepoints out that at the time the Muslim armies made their sweep over theMediterranean region Christianity served as the dominant worldview ofthe area's inhabitants. But within a very short span of time the Muslimswere able not only to conquer Christian lands but also to Arabicize andIslamize the hitherto non-Arabic, Christian peoples.Professor Lewis goes on to identify important milestones in Islamichistory. Among these milestones four are of great importance. First ofall, he talks about the Western perception of the Islamic threat. This wasevident in the desperate attempt to check the tide of lslamism inByzantium and later in the southern part of Western Europe.particularly in the Iberian Peninsula. He brings out an important point ...
The Conceptual Framework for an Action Plan for the Islamization of Knowledge
Authors: AbuSulayman Abdulhmaid
Published: December 2020

It is an admitted fact that the stagnation and the crisis of thought in the Islamic Ummah is one of the most important reasons for its backwardness and for the malaise of its contemporary civilization. It is also an admitted fact that a reform of the methodology of the Islamic Thought on the one hand, and Islamization of social sciences and humanities, and of knowledge on the other, are greatly needed if we wish to overcome the crisis of thought and move into the modern life.We will need this new orientation, if we want to benefit from what the humanity has achieved in terms of knowledge and the progress of civilization up till now, and to interact with it from the Islamic perspective in order to realize the Islamic goals of human life and civilization. Ever since the importance of the reform in Islamic thought was crystallized in the minds of the Muslim youth who had awareness and commitment to Islam and had knowledge of the scientific and academic achievements of the western world, and ever since these youth established The Association of Muslim Social Scientists thirteen years ago, and finally since the establishment of the International Institute of Islamic Thought five years ago, as an independent academic institution fully dedicated to function as a backbone to serve the message of Islam, the idea of reform of the Islamic thought and Islamization of knowledge and of social sciences and humanities has gained acceptance, and efforts have been made to realize that goal. It will be noticed that in view of the focus of concern and action, of course a politically motivated concern to achieve strength and power to defend and combat, concentration has been on disciplines of education and economics. In order to achieve these reforms in a realistic way and on a solid foundation, the plan to be adopted should be based on a comprehensive knowledge of Islamic methodology. It should concentrate on reformation of thought that is related to the behavioral sciences which are considered as the main base for social sciences from which other social sciences are ...
Islam Between East and West
Authors: Ahmad Mumtaz
Published: December 2020

Islam Between East and West is a remarkable work of multidisciplinaryscholarship by a Bosnian Muslim lawyer who is currently serving a fourteen-yearterm in a Yugoslavian prison for his Islamic activism and “fundamentalistdigressions”. Educated in Sarajevo and Paris, Alija Ali Izetbegovic hasbeen active in Islamic work throughout his adult life. Writing, lecturing, andorganizing Islamic educational and welfare activities, he has been a constantsource of intellectual and spiritual inspiration for thousands of young YugoslavianMuslims.Alija’s main objective in this book is to examine the roots of the culturalcrisis, moral anarchy and political upheavals of the modern West and to showhow these are related to the influence of partial truths and reductionistideological perspective.The central thesis of this book is that there are three distinct views of theworld that reflect three different elemental possibilities: the religious, thematerialistic, and the Islamic. Islamic worldview is integral in that itcombines both pure religiosity and pure materialism. While pure religion emphasizesconscience and pure materialism emphasizes nature, the focus ofIslam is on man who lives in the worlds of both conscience and nature.The author then shows how both pure religion (Christianity, Hinduism andBuddhism) and materialistic philosophies (Socialism and Capitalism) havegiven partial answers to life’s integral questions of “ideals” and “interests” andhow they have been trying to compensate for their primal inadequacies andhalf-truths through continuous compromises in both theory and praxis. Theauthor argues on the basis of considerable historical evidence that the actualrealization of these two opposing views of the world has been quite differentfrom what they originally aspired to achieve. A modified, post-renaissancehumanist interpretation of Christianity and the religio-moral basis of socialistegalitarianism with its teleological view of history clearly demonstrates that ...
Pakistan and West Asia
Authors: Bokhari Imtiaz H.
Published: December 2020

State to state relations between Pakistan and Southwest Asian states dateback to the birth of Pakistan in 1947, but the ideological bonds are much older.In 1946, it was late king (then prince) Faisal who chaperoned the PakistanMovement delegation headed by Mr. Isphahani that visited the United Nationsand got sympathetic ears to its pleas? Again, the Saudi king was thefirst head of state to felicitate Mohammad Ali Jinnah after learning of theViceroy’s decision to grant independence to Pakistan and India. Equally warmand sincere support came from Iran.Pakistan and West Asia: Evolution of RelationsImmediately on achieving independence, Pakistan displayed notable enthusiasmin advocating the cause of Islam and Islamic states but soon learntto be more patient. Pakistan’s call for Islamic unity was seen by the Arabsas a move to stifle nascent Arab nationalism at the instigation of the West.These developments corresponded to the early 50s when Pakistan, under intensethreat from India, signed the Mutual Defense Aid pact with the UnitedStates and became a suspect in the eyes of the Arabs who thought of Pakistanas an instrument of the West. Pakistan's joining of the Baghdad Pact in 1954along with Iraq was also interpreted by the Arab nationalist leaders as a neocolonialmove to divide the Arab world. Saudis even called it a stab in theheart of the Arab and Muslim states. In 1956, Indian Prime Minister JawaharLal Nehru’s warm welcome in Saudi Arabia followed by the Suez Crisis putPakistan’s relations with those important Islamic states at their lowest level.During that period the Arabs viewed the region mostly in the Arab and non-Arab context ...
Ibn Taymiyyah’s Ethics
Authors: Poonawala Ismail K.
Published: December 2020

Except for the works of the French scholar Henri Laoust and a recent studyby Muhammad Umar Memon, Ibn Taimiya's Struggle against Popular Religion(The Hague and Paris: Mouton, 1976), very few studies of the thought of IbnTaimiya have appeared in English. Makari’s work is therefore a welcome additionto this meager list. Its main contribution lies in dispelling some of themisunderstanding that has all along bedevilled a true appraisal of the thoughtof the Hanbalite doctor.It is unfortunate that some bright and bold spirits of Islam, such as thecelebrated Hanbali doctor and theologian Ibn Taimiya, have remainedmisunderstood not only in the West but also among the Muslims themselves.A good part of the musunderstanding stems no doubt from the fact that formost of his life Ibn Taimiya managed to remain a quite controversial figure.A substantial part of the misunderstanding results from the close associationof his name with the Wahhabi movement which erupted violently towardthe end of the eighteenth century. Muhammad b. Abd al-Wahhab, the founderof the Wahhabi movement, was certainly influenced by Ibn Taimiya and hiswritings, especially in his bitter denunciation of the Sufi rituals, tomb worship,and the cult of saints, and no less in his moral and puritanical activism.In their scrupulous observance of the word of the Qur’an and the sunnu, indeedboth Ibn Taimiya and the Wahhabis resemble each other closely. Justas Ibn Taimiya had led bands of people in raids against the local taverns andshrines, the Wahhabis in their time, too, razed tombs and sacked the holy cities.A distinction must be made, however, between the two. While the Wahhabisrepresent a religio-political movement, Ibn Taimiya was concerned, mainly,with reforming Islam and with reinculcating a positive attitude toward thisworld. He never condemned Sufism per se; rather, his criticism was directedagainst what he defined as inadmissible deviations in doctrine, ritual, andmorals. He has, moreover, left behind a vast legacy of writing. A close scrutinyof his works reveals him as a man of unrelenting intellectual conviction. Heused his uncommon erudition to criticize and reject most of the commonly ...
Secularization and Tradition In Four Arab Countries
Authors: Yahya Hasan A.
Published: December 2020

I. IntroductionThe educational process is a combination of three important elements:teacher, student, and communication. This study focused on the third elementin examining second grade reading textbooks in four Arab countries:Jordan, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. Textbooks are not the only importantelement in the communication dimension nor do texts provide the onlymessage students learn or the only influence in the educational process. Textbookshave the advantage, however, of being subject to content analysis andrepresent symbolic interaction as an effective means to translate the culturalheritage of any nation.Each country has its own books, and has its own methods to educateyoungsters consistent with broad goals and national needs. Religious educationin many Middle Eastern countries is a gradual and continuing processwhich begins early in the educational life of the individual. Such educationis complete, comprehensive, and is intended even at the elementary level todevelop understanding of religious and social behavior.Most of the content of books in Arab countries is prepared to reflect theseparated worlds of males and females, displaying the supreme societal,religious, psychological, and physical power of men over women. Educationalleaders and decision makers, at least in the Middle East, seem to be effectiveadvocates of traditional values and are concerned with the positive impactof the educational process. The primary aims of the educational system in ...
Literature About Islam in America
Authors: Tahir Muhammad , ‘Ali Siddiq
Published: December 2020

Information explosion is a modern phenomenon. This explosion can beseen in all areas of knowledge. In an attempt to keep track of this growth,secondary sources of information have also mushroomed. Each subject fieldhas its own secondary sources of information. For instance, art has Art Index,education has Education Index, library science has Library Literature.Despite these developments in indexing, and despite the progress in interdisciplinarystudies, internationally in general and American in particular,literature on Islam and Muslims rarely gets the place it deserves. Sources ofseeondaq information should be scanned to determine how far they cover informationon Islam and Muslims. This would help us to understand the importancegiven to Islam and Muslims by American writers.A scholar looking for sources of infannation on Islam in the United Statesis bound to be disappointed. It is surprising that no exhaustive attempt has asyet been made to gather information on Islam in one place. This despite thefact that Islam has emerged as one of the important religions followed by asubstantial number of Americans. In addition, the emergence of the Arab andGulf nations as important centres of economic power in the world has ledmany Americans to take an interest in Islam and Muslims. As against theneglect by the Americans, the Eumpeans have come out with an index ofIslamic literature in European languages entitled Index Islamicus. This comprehensivework finds no parallel anywhere in the world.As no attempt has been made yet to bring together all the informationabout Islam available in the United States, it is necessary to look deep intoevery book, journal, newspaper, film, and tape, etc. It is both surprising andshocking to note a sordid treatment meted out to literature on Islamic Studies.The population of Muslims in the United States is not so negligible as to warrantsuch a stepmotherly treatment at the hands of those who are at the helm of ...
The Ayatollah in the Cathedral
Authors: Arif Muhammad
Published: December 2020

"The Ayatollah in the Cathedral," to borrow the term coined by ThomasKuhn, is a book that opens the gateway to paradigmatic tranformations in thetheory of international relations and the art of effectively handling foreignaffairs. Dr. Kennedy was one of the 50 hostages who went through the 444days' ordeal in Iran. He gives a detailed account of the events witnessed andexperienced by him as a hostage.The traumatic psychological impact of being a hostage in a revolution isnot easy for others fully to understand as outsiders; still the reader is able tosee that there were many occasions when Dr. Kennedy, as a hostage, thoughtthat his death was imminent.A mediocre author would easily have made his story of captivity a "bestseller' by capitalizing on hatred and by saying what the domestic opinionmakers in the United States want to hear. Instead, Dr. Kennedy defies thiscommon heritage of American scholarship on the Middle East. In this book,he emerges as a serious thinker with an outstanding ability to analyze the factswith scientific objectivity. What makes this book a remarkable multidisciplinarymasterpiece is Mr. Kennedy's professionally skillful and scientificanalysis of the process and factors that shape U. S. foreign policy at theState Department; the weaknesses of U. S. foreign policy in the Middle East;the causes of the U. S. failure to understand the Third World in general and theMuslim world in particular; and an alternative to U. S. foreign policy makingthat would ensure mutual respect and trust not only in the Middle East but inthe Third World in general, thereby restoring the effectiveness of the UnitedStates as a world leader.This book is unique and pivotal in the area of international relationsbecause Dr. Kennedy attempts to provide an alternative approach for U. S.foreign policy. This approach would enable policymakers to protect U. S. interestswhile at the same time winning mutual trust in the Muslim world; goalswhich, under present policy, seem to be mutually exclusive.The basic flaw in American foreign policy making, as pointed out by Dr.Kennedy, is that "our analyses of over-seas problems are too often based onabstraction - what the problem should be rather than what really is. We indulgeourselves in the luxury of seeing what we want to see and denying whatwe do not want to see." (p. 196). Elaborating on the dangers of this approachto foreign policy, he says: "The problem is not professional but cultural. And ...
The 4th International Conference On Islamization Of Knowledge
Authors: Syeed Sayyid M.
Published: December 2020

The Fourth International Conference on Islamization of Knowledge,sponsored by the International Institute of Islamic Thought, was held in collaborationwith the University of Khartoum January 15-20, 1987. The themeof the conference was “Methodology of Research, Behavioral Sciences andEducation.” The call for papers was published in the American Jouml ofIslamic Social Sciences in July, 1984 and the invitations were circulated widelyamong Muslim scholars. It was in response to these calls that abstracts werereceived and finally selected on the basis of their relevance and quality.The conference was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of the Sudan, Mr.al Sayyid al Sadiq al Mahdi. Thirty-seven research papers were presented byforeign, as well as local Sudanese scholars. The subjects includedmethodology, epistomology , education, psychology, sociology, and anthropology.The conference proved to be an historic event, especially in termsof the participation of large numbers of local scholars, teachers, students andother interested Muslims.Each presentation was followed by lively discussions and critiques. Theextraordinary interest shown by the Sudanese Muslims regarding the issues ofthe Islamization of Knowledge, was evidence of this nation’s commitment tothe process of Islamization. The director of the Friendship Hall announced atthe final session that the conference had attracted the largest crowd ever at theauditorium. In addition, the lobbies, the offices and the grounds around theauditorium were all crowded and the loud speakers had to be openedeverywhere.The following are the titles of some of the research papers presented:1. The Problems of Methodology in Islamic Thought

‘Abdul Hamid ’AbuSulayman2. Reason and Its Role in the Islamic Methodology

Taha Jabir Al-‘Alwani3. Methodology of the Classification of Sciences in the Islamic Thought‘Abdul Majid Al Najjar ...
Principles of Governance, Freedom, and Responsibility in Islam
Authors: Turabi Hasan
Published: December 2020

I. IntroductionAlthough I have been directly involved in a political process that seeks toestablish an Islamic state, I am not going to describe the forms that an Islamicgovernment might take in any particular country. Rather, I will try to describethe universal characteristics of an Islamic state. These derive from theteachings of the Qur'an as embodied in the political practice of the ProphetMuhammad (pbuh), and constitute an eternal model that Muslims are boundto adopt as a perfect standard for all time. The diversity of historical circumstances,however, in which they try to apply that ideal introduces anecessary element of relativity and imperfection in the practice of Islam.An Islamic state cannot be isolated from society, because Islam is a comprehensive,integrated way of life. The division between private and public,the state and society, which is familiar in Western culture, has not been knownin Islam. The state is only the political expression of an Islamic society. Youcannot have an Islamic state except insofar as you have an Islamic society.Any attempt at establishing a political order for the establishment of a genuineIslamic society would be the superimposition of laws over a reluctant society.This is not in the nature of religion; religion is based on sincere conviction andvoluntaiy compliance. Therefore an Islamic state evolves from an Islamicsociety. In certain areas, progress toward an Islamic society may be frustratedby political suppression. Whenever religious energy is thus suppresed, itbuilds up and ultimately erupts either in isolated acts of struggle or resistance,which are called terrorist by those in power, or in a revolution. In circumstanceswhere Islam is allowed free expression, social change takes placepeacefully and gradually, and the Islamic movement develops programs ofIslamization before it takes over the destiny of the state because Islamicthought - like all thought - only flourishes in a social environment of freedomand public consultation (shura) ...
Islam, Slavery, and Racism
Authors: Abdallah Fadel
Published: December 2020

Slavery is one of the most controversial and arresting topics in humanhistory. The question of Islam in relation to slavery has been an issue of concernamong scholars for a long time. It became a question in which manyOrientalists found a convenient gap to pass through in their attacks against thesystem of governance and justice in Islam. This self-righteous criticismagainst the attitude of Islam towards slavery is part of a long Western traditionof scholarship based on stereotyping, overstating, and selectivity of Islam inparticular and the Orient in general. Most of the time, the statements of thesescholars are presented in a sugar-coated style of language that is moredangerous than if they were presented in a critical, open, and direct language.Thomas Carlyle, Renan, Goldziher, Macdonald, von Grunebaum, Gibb andBernard Lewis are good examples and representatives of this traditi0n.lThe aim of this article is to use ijtihad, or informed intellectual effort, toshow through textual and historical evidence that Islam, in its battle forjustice, which is identical to human rights, fought against slavery and initiateda humane and practical plan for its abolition. Only deviation from Islamprevented elimination of slavery within the first few decades of Islam. InArabia itself within forty years, except for temporary prisoners of war,slavery had disappeared.We shall begin with a brief historical survey of the institution of slaverybefore Islam. The body of this article will concentrate on discussion andanalysis of some related texts from the Qufan and the Hadith as well as somehistorical data that reflect the practical attitude of devoted Muslims towardsslavery and slaves. The attitude of Islam towards race, color, and slavery inthe context of the trans-Saharan slave trade are two issues that this paper willdeal with since they have a direct bearing on the question of slavery in Islam ...
The Arabs and Africa
Authors: Nyang Sulayman S.
Published: December 2020

Since the beginning of decolonization in Africa in the late 1950’s Arabcountries have found it necessary to re-establish links with Africa south ofthe Sahara. An Arab leader like Gamal Abdel Nasser argued in his Philosophyof the Revolution (1954) that Africa constitutes the second circle in Egypt’sthree concentric circles of identity. The other two were the Arab and theIslamic. Nasser’s preoccupation with what he and his fellow Arab nationalistscalled the “Israeli menace”, was another factor which drove him to seek alliesand friends in Africa. But Nasser was not the first Arab leader to establishclose relations with the Africans. The Magrebians and the Arabians to theeast also forged links with Africa in the years before the primacy of Europein African political life.The book under review is one of a series of studies that have come outin the last decade. What distinguishes this work from those before it is itsfocus and its authors. In the early 1970’s when the Afro-Arab caravan beganto move rapidly along the pathways of international politics, many Westernand Third World intellectuals and scholars began to examine the nature ofwhat was then believed by many as a new phenomenon in international politics.Africa and the Middle Eastern states coexisted in the Bandung Movement;they journeyed together to the United Nations General Assembly, but up untilthe mid-1970’s closer bonds, which resulted in the greater coordination ofpolicies on major international issues, did not develop. In fact prior to the1973 massive defection of African states from the Israeli camp, most of theindependent African states were locked in diplomatic and political embracewith the Jewish state. Indeed, Africa was unique in the sense that it was theonly part of the Afro-Asian world where the Israelis received warm welcome.Israeli leaders tried hard to win friends and influence people in Asia but withoutsuccess. It is indeed against this background that the present book can beadequately reviewed.The work consists of the proceedings of a major conference held in Amman,Jordan on 24-29 April, 1983. Organized by the Centre for Arab UnityStudies, it brought together some sixty participants. Though the conferenceitself was conducted in Arabic, many of the participants suggested that theproceedings be published in English and French. This book is the English ...
Sixteenth Annual Conference of The Association of Muslim Social Scientists
Authors: Rahman Mushtaqur
Published: December 2020

The Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS) held its SixteenthAnnual Conference at the ISNA headquarters in Plainfield, Indiana, October9-11, 1987. Registration listed about 200 participants from the United States,Canada, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, Trinidad, and other countries. Theinaugural session on October 9 provided a hospitable setting for camaraderie.Eloquent and spirited speeches by Iqbal Unus, Conference Chairman; lbrahimSyed, AMSE Program Chairman; and Mushtaqur Rahman, AMSS ProgramChairman, set the stage for the conference and the sessions.Chaired by Salahuddin Malik, AMSS Vice-president, the first session onPolitical Science was held on Friday evening after Salat-ul Maghrib. HashemAl-Jaseem of the University of California was the first to present his paperon Islam and Politics. He was followed by Taysir Nashif of Essex CountyCollege, who pleaded for a Nuclear Free Zone in the Middle East. LouaySafi of Wayne State University concluded the session with his presentationof War and Peace in Islam.This session was so lively and discussions so absorbing that no time wasleft for the following session scheduled for the same evening. Conferees preferredto postpone the second session rather than to conclude the discussions.It was heartening that every conferee maintained the Islamic tradition of conductingdebates in a spirit of good humor, disagreeing without beingdisagreeable.The first full day of the conference, Saturday, October 10, began with aTilawat-e-Quran, and a session on Education. Chaired by M.A.W. Fakhri ofChicago State University, the session had two presentations. Hakim Rashidof Howard University opened the session with his paper on “SocializatiodEducationof Muslim Children in America”. He was followed by NimatHafez Barzangi of Cornell University, who presented her paper on “Perceptionsof the Islamic Belief System: The Muslims in North America. Followingthe session on education, two concurrent sessions were held on Sociologyand History dealing with Muslim minorities. This was the first time the strategyof concurrent sessions was ever tried in the AMSS. The sociology sessionChairperson, Ilyas Baynus of the State University of New York, first invited ...
The Islamization Of The Sciences
Authors: Idris Jaafar Sheikh
Published: December 2020

IntroductionThe idea of Islamizing the sciences, whether they be natural or social,raises some philosophical and methodological questions which must, in myview, be settled before any serious program of Islamization can be carried out.I shall, in this paper, do no more than give examples of these fundamentalquestions, give brief answers to some of them and throw out hints as tohow others can be answered. In doing so I shall do my best to keep as closeas possible to the Qur’an and the Sunnah, but I cannot claim that whateveranswers I give are the Islamic answers to the questions I raise.Philosophical QuestionsWhat does it mean to Islamize knowledge?The elucidation of this question and the answer to it are given in the followingimaginary dialogue between a Western philosopher, call him W, and aMuslim propounder of the Islamization of knowledge, call him M.W: Is Islam compatible with all forms of truth?M: Certainly.W Would you agree that if something is known, then it is true, i.e. thatknowledge implies truth?M: I agree provided that you make a distinction between knowledge andclaims to knowledge and provided that you agree that there are degrees of truth.W I accept the qualifications, but if knowledge implies truth, and truth inall its forms is compatible with Islam, then knowledge in all its forms is Islamic.But if this is so, what does it mean then to Islamize knowledge? How do youmake something Islamic which is already so? Or is it your intention merelyto give each form of knowledge an Islamic flavour by injecting an ayat here,imposing a hadith there, making an opening with bismillahi-rrahmani-rrahimand a closing with alhamdu lillahi rabbi-l'alamin? ...
Crisis in the Built Environment The Case of the Muslim City
Authors: Abu-Sulaiman Abdulaziz M.
Published: December 2020

Despite this boors orientation toward scholars in the field of environmentaldesign, it contains many environmental observations that are interesting tothe casual reader. The originality of this work is that it investigates Islamicprinciples and processes of managing and operating the built environmentby Muslim individuals and parties.Through his invdgation, the author has tried to show that the environmentwhich existed in many parts of the Islamic world was successfully orderedby users to meet their needs and optimize Islamically acceptable behavior.Furthermore, it constituted a model of success for today’s crisis of builtenvironments in the contemporary Muslim world.The crisis of contemporary environment, which is described asResponsibility and Control of the built environment, has shifted frompeople/users to centralized “formal” govemment-run agencies. The result ofthis conversion of roles has negatively affected both the relationship ofindividuals and groups to the built environment, and the ability of agenciesto exercise management of that environment.The realms of “Responsibility” and “Control” of “territories” and“properties,” have been impressively elaborated in the investigation includedin this book. Their Islamic signiiicance have also been supported by referencesto original Islamic concepts and rules. The theme presented is that“responsibility” and “control” have been two fundamental issues which theQur’an, the Hadith, the Sira, and other Islamic traditions have stronglyadvocated.The author develops a study model focusing on three areas: ownership,control, and use. The combination of these three areas have generated fivepossible relationships or forms of submission which include: unified (thesame party owns, controls and uses the property), dispersed (three independentpartia are involved; one owns the property, a second controls it and a thirduses it), permissive (a party that uses a property and has to deal with theparty which owns and controls it), possessive (the party that uses and controlsa property has to deal with the party which owns the property), and trusteeship ...
Riot After Riot
Authors: Ahmed Akbar S.
Published: December 2020

One of the great paradoxes of the modern world is that India, the land that produced such major world religions as Buddhism Jainism is now torn apart by caste and communal violence. Pakistan and Sri Lanka, like India, face severe ethnic problems. Law and order are to be emphasized. Caste and community must be protected by the executive branch of the Indian Government. This bas been laid down in the rules framed by the legislative branch. When this is not done there is a breakdown. No one is safe and no group is secure. In India today this is clearly the case. This book by M. J. Akbar is a collection of 15 journalistic pieces, written for Akbar's newspaper and magazine, The Telegraph and Sunday over the last decade. Because it is journalism, the important "burning" issues are covered such as the Moradabad massacre in 1980, the slaughter of the Uttar Pradesh Harijans in 1981 and the ongoing Babri Masjid controversey. It is journalism, but the writing is of high quality and evocative: "It is early morning and a mist lies on the river, making the pre-dawn haze more blurred. A part of the Howrah Bridge looms through the gauze, like a picture deliberately created by a photographer in search of art. The fires are out." (p. 170) Akbar's material is hard, brittle, compelling stuff. He writes with the passion of the committed and his commitments are to secularism, to humanity, to the truth, as he sees it, on the ground. Here, a brief account of Dr. Akbar's cultural background seems appropriate: He was born in 1951 and has become the English-speaking voice of post-Midnight's Children of India. The significance of post 1947 independence as a dividing line is generally not fully appreciated. Missing is the literary, sentimental romanticism of the earlier Indian generation of writers. Don Moraes and Ved Mehta already appear as dated figures of the past. Their India is another country. In Akbar's background there is no punting on English rivers, laboring at Oxford intonations, getting drunk after the Oxford-Cambridge boat race nor leisurely reading of the English romantic poets on the banks of the Cam. Akbar lives in the urban nightmare of Calcutta and in his nostrils is the smell of burning flesh and rotting corpses. Missing, though he is aware of the loss, is the romantic vision of Nehru and the religious idealism of Gandhi. Akbar is an Indian writing with a white-hot pen for Indians of today's India ...
Seventeenth Annual Conference of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists
Authors: Rahman Mushtaqur
Published: December 2020

The Seventeenth Annual Conference of the Association of Muslim SocialScientists was held Rubi‘ul Awwal 18-20, 1409/October 28-30, 1988, at IowaState University, Ames, Iowa. “Development of Contemporary IslamicThought: Theory and Application” was the theme that attracted over 120participants from United States, Canada, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco,Trinidad and India, as well as numerous student “drop-ins”.The conference broke new grounds and topped all former annualconferences, in the size of meetings, quality, and diversity of presentations,and set a number of records that may stand for many years to come. Mostof the discussions were scholarly and conducted in a spirit of good humoroftendisagreeing without being disagreeable.The program included 26 papers, in addition to special sessions. Althoughthe sessions were spread over three days, as many as 16 sessions had to beheld concurrently to accommodate the participants. Topical divisions ofconcurrent sessions were successful at holding "session-hopping“ to a minimum.The array of papers covered almost all subdisciplines and current researchorientation in Islamic social sciences. Abstracts of the papers given in theprogram were helpful in planning and choosing which session to attend. Afterthe sessions, there was an array of opportunities to widen one’s experience.The banquet, and the dinners and lunches at Iowa State University MemorialUnion allowed for a relaxed, yet stimulating, setting. Those who preferredmore tension in their leisure, continued their discussions in small groups.For the first time, the conference began with a session on “Western andMuslim Women” chaired by Salahuddin Malik of the State University of NewYork, Brockport. Sharifa Alkhateeb of the International Institute of IslamicThought surveyed “Feminist Issues and Their Implication for Islamic Women,”explaining how Western feminist values were incapable of successfultransplantation to Muslim Societies. She pointed out the existing numerousvalues in Islam while recognizing the need for social change of traditionalnon-Islamically based mores. Vanessa Khadija Payton, of Morgan StateUniversity, discussed “Polygamy and American Muslims.” Her paper focusedon the cultural indoctrination of American male and female Muslims andthe practicality of polygamy amongst these groups. Sadekka Arabi of theUniversity of California, Berkeley, presented her wellreseamhed paper Western ...
Sarakhsi’s Doctrine of Juristic Preference (Istihsan) as a Methodological Approach Toward Worldly Affairs (Ahkam al-Dunya)
Authors: Kassim Husain
Published: December 2020

In the present investigation, we shall develop systematically Sarakhsrsdoctrine of Juristic preference from his Mabsut, Usul and Bab al-Muwada'aof Sharh al-Siyar al Kabir and demonstrate how Sarakhsi establishes itsrelevance as a methodological approach toward worldly affairs.The investigation is carried out in four parts:In the first part, we shall relate Sarakhsi’s doctrine of juristic preference(istihan) with his concept of treaties (muwada'a). According to Sarakhsimuwada'a is an autonomous discipline and its main focus is worldly affairsas relations (muamalat) of Muslims with other nations.In the second part, it is investigated how Sarakhsi strives to see thejustification for the application of the doctrine of juristic preference to itindependently of the doctrine of systematic reasoning (qiyas) by establishingthe ’illa (effective reasoning) of the doctrine of juristic preference on the basisof asl derived from the Qur’an and Hadith.In the third part, we shall discuss how Sarakhsi systematizes the doctrineof juristic preference by analyzing the ’illa employed by it in various formsand shows that it is connected with asl.Finally, in the fourth part, we shall show how Sarakhsi justifies theemployment of the doctrine of juristic preference as a methodological approachtoward muwadah and worldly affairs ...