bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Equilibrium and Realization
Authors: Rustom Mohammed
Published: April 2020

William Chittick, currently professor of religious studies at the State University of New York (Stony Brook), is an internationally renowned expert on Islamic thought. His contributions to the fields of Sufism and Islamic philosophy have helped paint a clearer picture of the intellectual and spiritual landscape of Islamic civilization from the seventh/thirteenth century onwards. Yet Chittick is not simply concerned with discussions in Islamic thought as artifacts of premodern intellectual history. His vast knowledge of the Islamic intellectual tradition serves as the platform from which he seeks to address a broad range of contemporary issues. In this short essay, I will outline Chittick’s writings on the self within the context of his treatment of cosmology. Rather than being outdated ways of looking at the universe and our relationship to it, Chittick argues that traditional Islamic cosmological teachings are just as pertinent to the question of the self today as they were yesterday.
Revivalism or Reformation
Authors: Takim Liyakat
Published: April 2020

Since the events of 9/11, there has been much debate in Muslim circles regarding the question of reformation. More specifically, among questions that have been posed are: how can a religion believed to be immutable and constant regulate and serve the needs of a changing community? How can a legal system formulated in the eighth and ninth centuries respond to the requirements of twenty-first century Muslims? Is there a need for reformation in Islam? If so, where should it begin and in which direction should it proceed? These are some of the most challenging questions facing contemporary scholars of Islam. Some scholars suggest that reformation should be interwoven with the reexamination of the authenticity and pivotal roles of the sunnah and the hadith,2 while others want to revisit Islamic law as it was formulated in the classical period and reexamine the traditional exegetical literature. This implies that the proposed reformation should be based not only on changing institutions, but also on a reevaluation of traditional sources and hermeneutics. The recently published Progressive Muslims seeks to provide alternative interpretations of Islam and to refute the views of those who present a static and monolithic Islam.3 In order to examine the issue of reformation, it is essential, at the outset, to discuss Islamic law’s development and evolution during the classical period (the seventh to tenth centuries). Thus, I begin with a brief overview of its classical exposition, the various factors that shaped its formulation, and then explore some of the possible venues in which reformation can take place.
Water and Sign Magic in al-Jabin, Yemen
Authors: Hehmeyer Ingrid
Published: April 2020

The preserved heritage of al-Jabin, a town located in Yemen’s western highlands, offers a unique opportunity to document traditional water engineering principles. There are no springs in the immediate vicinity, because the town is perched at the edge of the mountain escarpment. Even today, water is provided by open cisterns that collect surface run-off following a rain. But as the rains needed to feed the system are highly unpredictable, the water supply is never secure. The perimeter wall of one of the cisterns bears a group of seven signs, a detailed description of which is given in Kitab Shams al-Ma`arif wa-Lata’if al-`Awarif, a work attributed to Ahmad ibn `Ali al-Buni (d. 1225), a well-known prolific writer on magic. Al-Buni explains that the signs symbolize God’s supreme name and thus display great magical power of a protective and well-wishing nature. Generally speaking, magical practices attempt to influence the course of natural events by calling upon a superhuman force. In the case of the cistern, God’s supreme name was inscribed in the hopes that this would lead to a guaranteed water supply. While it is easy to dismiss al-Buni’s text and the observed practice in al-Jabin as superstitious frailty, one needs to bear in mind that under life-threatening circumstances, even people in the modern West easily resort to magical procedures.
Between the Seventh and the Twenty-first
Authors: Safi Omid
Published: April 2020

Monotheistic traditions of the Abrahamic variety have commonly conceived of the Divine interacting with this world through the Divine Word. No surprise, then, that the Qur’an refers to the Jews, Christians, and Muslims as “People of the Book” (Ahl al-Kitab). Yet the task of seeking and finding God is not as simple as opening a book, even the Book. Reading religious words necessitates some self-awareness about the revelation’s context, the history of interpretations that stands between us and the text, and our own situatedness. What follows is a series of musings on these principles.
The Invitation to Treat and Mu`atah in Online Contracts
Authors: Razali Siti Salwani
Published: April 2020

When dealing with an offer, it is crucial to determine whether a “statement” amounts to an “offer” or a mere “invitation to treat.” Even though “offer” and “acceptance” are among the basic elements of any binding contract, both [English] common law and Islamic law have their own views on what constitutes an invitation to treat. This paper focuses on the invitation to treat and mu`atah as specified in Islamic law. The following points will be discussed: (1) how the invitation to treat can be considered a valid contract, although common law has ruled it invalid because a mere invitation to treat does not constitute an offer; (2) a comparison of their differences in the context of online or cyber transactions. Several Qur’anic verses, hadiths, and opinions from Muslim and non-Muslim scholars will be presented, and specific cases will be referenced; and (3) providing a better understanding of both principles and an analysis of some critical issues, especially with regard to the invitation to treat.
Enforcing the Shari`ah in Nigeria
Authors: Anyanwu Ogechi
Published: April 2020

The reemergence of the Shari`ah in northern Nigeria in 2000 is reshaping the Muslims’ criminal justice system in unintended ways. This article accounts for and provides fresh insights on how the fate of Muslim women under the Shari`ah intertwines with the uncertain future of the law in Nigeria. Using Emile Durkheim’s theory of conscience collective as an explanatory framework of analysis, I argue that the well-placed objective of using the Shari` ah to reaffirm or create social solidarity among Muslim Nigerians has been undermined by the unequal, harsher punishments and suppression of human rights perpetrated against Muslim women since 2000. A I show, not only does such discrimination violate the principle of natural justice upheld by Islam, but it also threatens to shrink, if not wipe out, the collective conscience of Nigerian Muslims that the law originally sought to advance.
Speaking for Islam
Authors: Sounaye Abdoulaye
Published: April 2020

Unexpectedly, one of the marking features of democratization in Niger has been the rise of a variety of Islamic discourses. They focus on the separation between religion and the state and, more precisely, the way it is manifested through the French model of laïcité, which democratization has adopted in Niger. For many Muslim actors, laïcité amounts to a marginalization of Islamic values and a negation of Islam. This article present three voices: the Collaborators, the Moderates, and the Despisers. Each represents a trend that seeks to influence the state’s political and ideological makeup. Although the ulama in general remain critical vis-à-vis the state’s political and institutional transformation, not all of them reject the principle of the separation between religion and state. The Collaborators suggest cooperation between the religious authority and the political one, the Moderates insist on the necessity for governance to accommodate the people’s will and visions, and the Despisers reject the underpinning liberalism that voids religious authority and demand a total re-Islamization. I argue that what is at stake here is less the separation between state and religion than the modality of this separation and its impact on religious authority. The targets, tones, and justifications of the discourses I explore are evidence of the limitations of a democratization project grounded in laïcité. Thus in place of a secular democratization, they propose a conservative democracy based on Islam and its demands for the realization of the common good.
Ijtihad in Contemporary Shi`ism
Authors: Mavani Hamid
Published: April 2020

The adoption of the Mu`tazili school of “rationalist” theology and the institution of ijtihad enabled Shi`i legal theory to exhibit vibrancy and made it adaptable to changing contingencies and circumstances. But because Shi`i jurists did not face the challenge of governing a state, their juridical focus and orientation remained fixated on resolving issues confronting the laity or their followers (muqallid) at a personal level and did not provide an ethical framework for the ijtihad process. The establishment of a Shi`i state in Iran in 1979, which forced them to tackle social, political, economic, educational, and cultural issues, demanded a change in orientation – away from the individual and toward society as the unit of analysis vis-à-vis ijtihad. They marshaled various methods, legal devices, and strategies to address contemporary social issues in order to provide pragmatic guidance to the citizens that would be in conformity with the moral and ethical principles laid out in the revelatory sources. This paper examines the writings of Ayatullahs Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, Muhammad Mahdi Shamsuddin, Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Fadlullah, and Ruhullah Musavi al-Khomeini and studies this phenomenon of change from individual-oriented ijtihad to society-oriented ijtihad.
Islamic Environmental Ethics and the Challenge of Anthropocentrism
Authors: Rizvi Ali M.
Published: April 2020

Lynn White’s seminal article on the historical roots of the ecological crisis, which inspired radical environmentalism, has cast suspicion upon religion as the source of modern anthropocentrism. To pave the way for a viable Islamic environmental ethics, charges of anthropocentrism need to be faced and rebutted. Therefore, the bulk of this paper will seek to establish the nonanthropocentric credentials of Islamic thought. Islam rejects all forms of anthropocentrism by insisting upon a transcendent God who is utterly unlike His creation. Humans share the attribute of being God’s creations with all other beings, which makes them internally related to every other being, indeed to every single entity in this universe. This solves the problem that radical environmentalism has failed to solve, namely, how to define our relation with nature and other beings without dissolving our specificity. Furthermore, Islamic ethics structures human relations strictly around the idea of limiting desires. The resulting ethico-legal synthesis, made workable by a pragmatic legal framework, can sustain a justifiable use of nature and its resources without exploiting them. The exploitation of nature is inherently linked to the exploitation of one’s self and of fellow human beings. Such exploitation, according to Qur’anic wisdom, is the direct result of ignoring the divine law and the ethics of dealing with self and “other.” Only by reverting to the divine law and ethics can exploitation be overcome. The paper ends by briefly considering possible objections and challenges vis-à-vis developing a philosophically viable yet religiously oriented environmental ethics.
A Critical Evaluation of Some Problematic Hadith Narratives
Authors: Chande Abdin
Published: April 2020

This study examines some issues critical to understanding the hadith literature in the modern context. It argues that this literature, despite its widely accepted status as a foundational source of Islam second in importance only to the Qur’an, continues to be a subject of controversy in some Muslim and non-Muslim quarters. This article brings together a small sample of problematic hadith narratives for the purpose of critically evaluating them according to certain criteria. This will be the basis for passing judgment over these pre-selected hadith that are, for instance, textually incompatible with the purport of the Qur’an.
American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences
Authors: Ojsadmin
Published: April 2020

Included within the sample
Islamic Intellectualism
Authors: Swazo Norman K.
Published: April 2020

The Pakistani scholar Fazlur Rahman disagreed with the German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer on elements of philosophical hermeneutics as they bear upon interpretation of texts ‒ in this case, the interpretation of the Qur’ān. Rahman proposed a “double-movement” theory of Qur’ānic interpretation through which he hoped for the revival and reform of Islamic intellectualism in its encounter with Western modernity, but also with difference from Islamic orthodoxy’s conceptualization of ijtihād. In this paper, I examine Rahman’s concerns as they relate to Gadamer’s general approach to understanding history and textual interpretation. Rahman argued that if Gadamer’s thesis concerning the forestructure1 of human understanding is correct, then Rahman’s theory has no meaning at all. I conclude that there is reason to see Rahman’s theory as consistent with Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics, albeit with some modification given Rahman’s focus on psychologism and objectivity as part of his approach to Qur’ānic interpretation. It is the tyranny of hidden prejudices that makes us deaf to what speaks to us in tradition. Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method
The Role of Islam in the Abolition of Slavery and in the Development of British Capitalism
Authors: Afroz Sultana
Published: April 2020

West Indian scholars have overlooked the role played by the Muslim leadership in West Africa in bringing an end to the transatlantic trade in Africans. The jihād movements in West Africa in the late eighteenth century gave political unity to West Africa challenging the collaboration of European trade in Africans with the pagan slave traders. West Indian historiography, while emphasizing European abolitionist movements, ignores the Islamic unity (tawhīd) of humankind, which brought together many ethnically heterogeneous enslaved African Muslims to successfully challenge the West Indian plantation system. The exploitation of the human resources and the immense wealth of the then Moghul India and Imperial China by British colonialism helped develop the British industrial capitalism, which controlled most of the world until the end of World War II. The security of the British industrial capitalist complex could no longer depend on the small-scale West Indian plantation economies but on the large-scale economies of Asia protected by the British imperial forces under the British imperial flag.
Sufism, Politics, and the Arab Spring
Authors: Muedini Fait
Published: April 2020

This paper examines the role of Sufi individuals and groups in the politics of the Middle East and North Africa during and following the Arab Spring. While some have suggested that Sufis are distant from politics, this paper looks at events in Syria and Egypt, and how Sufis have been active in playing a political role in terms of calls for the dismissal of authoritarian leaders, as well as in the post-regime politics of the states. In the case of Syria, Muhammad al-Yaqoubi has taken a key role in advocating the removal of authoritarian regimes in the name of a democratic state. Similar calls have taken place in Egypt; in this case, Sufi groups have begun to form political parties for representation out of concern for the increase in political influence by the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as Salafi Muslim organizations.
Textuality as a Linguistic Mechanism for Codifiying Legal Maxims in Islamic Criminal Law
Authors: Zakariyah Luqman
Published: April 2020

Studying the works of medieval Qur’anic exegetes reveals that they explored approaches to interpreting the Qur’an based on the contextualization of Qur’anic principles and concepts. As this article will show, several of these approaches include the notions textuality, intertextuality, and hypertextuality. This article examines one such approach by focusing on the use of textuality as a linguistic mechanism to complement the juristic methodology of codifying legal maxims (qawOE‘id fiqh¥yah) from Qur’anic exegesis. It explores a number of relevant Qur’anic exegeses and synthesizes how Muslim exegetes view the use of textuality with regard to the development of Islamic legal maxims. This article also notes that legal maxims codified by this approach are potentially subject to exception when applied to Islamic criminal law, although, as this article ultimately explains, the basic rule may be static. I also examine the claim that legal maxims codified directly from the sacred texts are unquestionable. This article concludes that the remit of legal maxims codified from textual revelations be done so directly or indirectly; however, this does not preclude their actual application from scrutiny.
A Third Sector-Led Economic Model
Authors: Molla Rafiqul Islam , Alam Md. Mahmudul
Published: April 2020

Private (first sector) and public (second sector) sector economics, both individually and jointly, have failed to ensure the wellbeing of human societies on the national and global levels. In response, social enterprise (third sector) economics, which features cooperatives and not-for-profit social enterprises, foundations (awqOEf), and similar undertakings, has emerged as a make-up strategy in an attempt to counter the deficiencies of the market-state economic model. However, there is a strongly felt belief that the third sector needs to be broadened and mainstreamed in order to include both not-for-profit and for-profit businesses blended with social justice (via provision of such social welfare programs as corporate social responsibility) so that they can play a major role in poverty alleviation and economic growth. Islamic entrepreneurship, which is basically a community-centric mode of business initiative, is an antidote to the problem of intolerable economic and social dualism, a natural strategy against all forms of capitalist exploitation and attempts to control a nation’s resources. Moreover, it is the natural model for solving economic inequity, wealth concentration, and social divides. Based on its potential and using examples from Bangladesh and Malaysia, we present the Islamic style of entrepreneurship. We contend that this particular style is the most efficient and desirable one for effectively widening and mainstreaming community-centric third sector economics so that it can ensure development with equity and social justice especially in developing countries.
The Islamization of English Literary Studies
Authors: Hasan Md. Mahmudul
Published: April 2020

In today’s world where the former colonized are reshaping their relation with the colonizer, the concept of decolonizing or indigenizing education is widely discussed in postcolonial studies. Decolonizing/indigenizing education counters the western systems of knowledge’s hegemony over those of non-western systems of thought and requires the development of a new approach to education that keeps in view the indigenous societies’ socio-cultural and religious values and traditions. The Islamization of Knowledge undertaking maintains a similar approach, but additionally requires an Islamic perspective on knowledge. Among all western disciplines, English literature is arguably the most culturally charged and carries western value-laden ideas. This reality points to the need to look at it from Islamic perspectives. Based on this theoretical concept, this study seeks to establish the urgency and feasibility of Islamizing English (British) literary studies.
Honor-related Violence in the Context of Patriarchy, Multicultural Politics, and Islamophobia after 9/11
Authors: Altınbaş Nihan
Published: April 2020

Many women are exposed to domestic and/or sexual violence by their family members on a global scale, forced to marry before reaching maturity, mutilated for the sake of preserving their chastity, and deprived of their right to education and of any inheritance rights. Honor-related violence is an extreme, worldwide form of violence that after 9/11 has been increasingly associated with Islam, as if it were perpetrated only by Muslims living either in diaspora communities or in Muslim-majority countries. This stereotyping has lent ideological support to unequal power relations that have been shaped mainly by western economic interests since colonialism. This essay contextualizes honor-related violence in relation to patriarchy and a society’s economic wellbeing, to migratory experience in terms of multicultural politics and, finally, to critiques its use in post-9/11 misrepresentations of Islam. It argues that unequal power relations and patriarchal domination, as opposed to religion, shape this global phenomenon.
Islamic Revivalism in the Arab World and Its Dialogue with the West
Authors: Dhaouadi Mahmoud
Published: April 2020

This paper seeks to underline two features of transformation in the Arab world since the late 1960s. First, that region’s religious transformation or ṣaḥwah(awakening) has been a general and overwhelming phenomenon. The pulse of Islam’s global surge can be easily observed at various levels of contemporary Arab countries: the individual and the collective, as well as their political behavior and organization. Second, the great tension between the West and Islam, particularly after 9/11, constituted a sort of change in the relationship between these two parties. I argue that these tensions could be reduced and minimized if the West were to improve its linguistic and cultural ties with Arab societies. The perspective of cultural sociology is very helpful in clarifying how to enhance such a dialogue. I shed light on these two topics through what I call a Homo Culturus perspective.
South Africa’s Institutions of Higher Learning
Authors: Haron Muhammed
Published: April 2020

As a discipline, “Islamic studies” has attracted serious attention by a number of institutions of higher learning in predominantly nonMuslim societies. While southern Africa’s communities witnessed the inclusion of “Islam” as a subject in the faculties of theology at various regional universities as well as Christian seminaries, Muslim communities have clamored for the appointment of Muslim staff at universities to teach courses on Islam. On the whole, these educational developments bode well for the teaching and studying of Islam regionally, even though the purpose and objectives for doing so differ radically from one institution to the other. This essay first seeks to offer a brief insight into the teaching of “Islam” as a subject in theological/oriental/religious studies programs; it thereafter reflects upon “Islamic studies” as a social science discipline that has been included in the social science and humanities syllabus. It focuses on the BA Honors program to show the themes chosen for these programs and how scholars redesigned and changed these programs to meet modern needs. Apart from using “social change” as its theoretical framework, it also brings en passantinto view the insider/outsider binary that further frames the debates regarding the teaching and studying of Islam at these institutions in southern Africa generally and South Africa in particular.
Cognitive Systematic Desensitization
Authors: Badri Malik B.
Published: April 2020

This paper discusses my innovative alterations and my Islamization of Wolpe’s systematic desensitization therapy applied during 1965 to treat a Moroccan patient. I have used this technique for the last fifty years; however, this is the first time I have described it in full detail. My main modifications were to (1) ask the patient to speak out loudly when detailing what she was imagining in order to enhance her involvement and her ability to imagine vividly; (2) encourage her to “horizontally” imagine and speak about other scenes of comparable anxiety-provoking instances to facilitate the transfer from clinic to real life. In fact, this turned out to be one of the earliest attempts to transform classical behavior therapy to cognitive therapy. Whenever she reported a great deal of anxiety, I discussed it with her and helped her discover her unconstructive thinking and Islamically change its negative irrationality. In doing so I combined desensitization with behavior rehearsal and spiritual Islamic therapy; (3) ask her to stop talking, instead of raising a finger, whenever she experienced a great deal of anxiety. My combination of the gradual approach of desensitization with cognitive therapy, behavior rehearsal, and spiritual therapy has shown how this combination can be of special relevance when treating Muslim patients.
Beyond Textuality in Islamic Legal Exegesis
Authors: Zakariyah Luqman
Published: April 2020

When studying textuality in the codification1 of Islamic legal maxims (qawā‘id fiqhīyah), it is worth researching how intertextuality and hypertextuality can be used as linguistic mechanisms to help understand Qur’anic texts and how such texts cohere to form legal maxims in Islamic criminal law. An in-depth study of medieval Qur’anic exegetes reveals the length to which Muslim scholars have gone to link texts to extract contextual meanings from the Qur’an and, perhaps, to codify Islamic legal maxims. Two such approaches are intertextuality and hypertextuality. This article examines how the linguistic mechanisms defined herein complement juristic methodology in codifying Islamic legal maxims from Qur’anic exegesis. It explores several relevant exegeses, illustrates that maxims codified through intertextuality and hypertextuality are more far-reaching than those codified through textuality alone, and emphasizes these legal maxims’ application toaspects of criminal law. I conclude that were it not for juristic methodologies, many objectives of Islamic law would have been misconstrued in the process of identifying the texts’ meanings.
A Qur’anic Methodology for Integrating Knowledge and Education
Authors: Baba Sidek Bin , Salleh Mohamad Johdi , Zayed Tareq M , Harris Ridwan
Published: April 2020

Integrating knowledge and education has become a major issue in Malaysia in the context of globalization. This study develops a teacher-centered Qur’anic methodology based on the integration of acquired (‘aqlī) and revealed (naqlī) knowledge as regards content, as well as the integration of teachers’ role in a teaching-learning process designed to empower students to manage “self” and “system.” It further investigates the existing curriculum and institutional efforts to integrate these two types of knowledge, students’ understanding of the integrated knowledge and its learning process, as well as how the teachers and lecturers understand this integrated knowledge and apply it to their teaching methods. Data collected through interviews and surveys of participating school students and teachers, as well as university students and lecturers, revealed several issues that need to be addressed.
Islam as a Platform for Politics
Authors: Belt David
Published: April 2020

Why, in the aftermath of 9/11, did a segment of the U.S. popular security experts, political elite, media, and other institutions classify not just al-Qaeda but Islam itself as a security threat, thereby countering the prevailing professional consensus and White House policy that maintained a distinction between terrorism and Islam?Why did this “politically incorrect” or counternarrative expand and degenerate into a scare over the country’s “Islamization” by its tiny Muslim population? Why is this security myth so convincing that legislators in two dozen states introduced bills to prevent the Shariah’s spread and a Republican presidential front-runner exclaimed:“I believe Shariah is a mortal threat to the survival of freedom in the United States and in the world as we know it”? This analysis offers a framework that conceptualizes popular discourses as highly interested fields of political struggle, deepens the prevailing characterization of this part of the U.S. popular discourse as “Islamophobia,” and analyzes how it has functioned politically at the domestic level. Specifically, it examines how a part of the conservative elite and institutions, political entrepreneurs already involved in the ongoing culture wars, seized upon Islam in the emotion-laden wake of 9/11 as another opportune site to advance their struggle against their domestic political opponents, “the Left,” and the more progressive societal institutions and culture in general.
A Model-based Semantic Network for Smart Representation and the Inference of Islamic Law
Authors: Mabrouk Ahmed
Published: April 2020

Over the last few decades, knowledge representation techniques have made huge strides toward computerizing human knowledge. Modern smart engines can capture some aspects of human intelligence and process natural language texts. However, classical Islamic sciences have yet to benefit from these technological advances. This paper introduces a novel hybrid approach for smart representation and the deduction of Islamic legal rulings. An uṣūlbased structure is used to represent the various elements of rulings across a multi-dimensional semantic network. Moreover, smart deduction engines provide compact codes of fiqh rules and deduce answers to the queries relevant to these rules. Accordingly, a fully computerized system that comprises a fiqh knowledge base and smart deduction engines can be developed. This paper delineates the proposed system’s selective browsing, comparative analysis, deduction from fiqh rules, and fatwa assistance features.
Islam in English
Authors: Ogunnaike Oludamini , Rustom Mohammed
Published: April 2020

The Quranic revelation had a tremendous impact upon the societies, art, and thought of the various peoples with whom it came into contact. But perhaps nowhere is this influence as evident as in the domain of language, the very medium of the revelation. First, the Arabic language itself was radically and irrevocably altered by the manifestation of the Quran.3 Then, as the language of the divine revelation, Quranic Arabic exerted a wide-ranging influence upon the thought and language of speakers of Persian, Turkish, numerous South and South-East Asian languages, and West and East African languages such as Hausa and Swahili.
In Quest of Justice
Authors: Anchassi Omar
Published: April 2020

Historians have been preoccupied for some time with the question of how Islamic law came to be transformed in the last two hundred or so years and the role this has played in the emergence of modern Middle Eastern states. All too frequently, this conversation has lacked granularity; it has taken place without reference to the vast archival records that document this transition in intimidating detail.
Modern Muslim Theology
Authors: Sheikh Faraz
Published: April 2020

True to its title, this book engages God and the world with faith and imagination. It is a work inspired by faith and that aims to inspire faith, a work of Muslim theology that does the work of theology, a term which for Nguyen “names a life-encompassing and faith-affirming process with which every person is already engaged”.
Modern Things on Trial: Islam’s Global and Material Reformation in the Age of Rida, 1865-1935
Authors: Anchassi Omar
Published: April 2020

The late writer and intellectual George Ṭarābīshī (d. 1437/2016) observes that when the tomato first made its appearance in late nineteenth century Aleppo, locals took to denouncing it as ‘the Devil’s arse’ (mu’akhirat al-shayṭān) on account of its colour. The muftī of the city, who remains curiously unnamed in this account, is said to have issued a fatwa on its prohibition.1 Unsurprisingly, no source is given for this anecdote, but the point is clear enough: jurists are hidebound creatures, wrong-footed by the advent of modernity and stupid or morally depraved, or perhaps both. One could give many other examples that serve to illustrate the same conclusion. Leor Halevi’s formidable monograph on the fatāwā of Rashīd Riḍā (d.1354/1935) in al-Manār is thus precisely what one would hope for in the study of this much maligned Islamic legal instrument.

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Speed Control of Direct Current Motor Using Mechanical Characteristics
Authors: Frayyeh Hatem Fahd , Mukhlif Muayad A. , Abbood Abdulsalam M. , Keream Settar S.
Published: April 2020

A direct current (DC) motor is a very old machine, but the applications have become more important and developed in recent years. This article describes a new method of controlling the speed of a DC motor based on armature voltage control, armature resistance control and field excitation control with constant flux motors shunt and series field. The proposal allows improving the experimental result, and the simulation results have the same response with an expected error. This error is due to voltage drop and rotational losses. Armature voltage control is the best method and more economical; the cheapest method is armature resistance control, but this is wasteful and less versatile. The new method effectiveness evaluation has confirmed the calculation results.
Crude Oil Price Prediction Based on Soft Computing Model: Case Study of Iraq
Authors: Ali Saad Hassan , Ali Abdullah Hasan
Published: April 2020

The prediction of the price of crude oil is important for economic, political, and industrial purposes in both crude oil importing and exporting countries. Fluctuations in oil prices can have a significant influence in many countries. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a suitable model that can accurately predict different economic and engineering parameters that are directly related to the price of crude oil. This paper proposes the use of a soft computing (SC) model which consists of a multi-layer perceptron neural network (MLP-NN) for accurate predictions of future crude oil prices. The performance of the SC model proposed in this study was compared to that of other neural network approaches and found to perform better in the prediction of both monthly and daily crude oil prices, especially where there is a limited number of input data for model training and in situations of high parameter variability.
Enhancement of the Surface Plasmon Polaritons Excitation Efficiency
Authors: Mansoor Riyadh D. , Duffy Alistair
Published: April 2020

Surface Plasmon Polaritons (SPPs) are propagating excitations that arise from the coupling of light with collective oscillations of electrons on the metal surface. This paper describes a new approach for increasing the SPP excitation efficiency. Using a computational electromagnetics approach, potential techniques for reducing incident power reflectivity were investigated using the Kretschmann configuration. The effects of different parameters such as incident angle, metal thickness, and dielectric permittivity were tested and optimized to improve the efficiency of SPPs by minimizing reflectivity. An 30% increase in efficiency was obtained. In addition, the optical response of a thin metal film on a glass substrate was numerically examined in terms of SPP excitation. The dependency of the response on the incident angle, materials, and dimensions were demonstrated. This paper describes how an improvement in efficiency can improve the effectiveness of bio-sensing applications through the proper choice of layer dimensions and material permittivity of different layers. The relationship between incident angle and reflectivity for different permittivities can be used for bio-sensing applications such as blood glucose biosensors, etc.
Enhancing Environmental Quality through Community Participation based on Traditional Rules: Empowering the New Role of Pecalang in Bali
Authors: Sugiantiningsih Anak Agung Putu , Weni I Made , Hariyanto Tommy , Tutuko Pindo , Sedyowati Laksni
Published: April 2020

Pecalang are community organizations that primarily maintain security and order when an indigenous or traditional event takes place in Bali, Indonesia. However, in addition to their role in maintaining security and order during traditional activities, Pecalang also have a role in maintaining environmental preservation in their respective territories with regard to the “Regional Regulation of the Governor of Bali” to minimize plastic waste, which has an inherent stop-motion regarding plastic when it is applied. In this study, observations and interviews were carried out to document how Pecalang in Bali preserve the natural environment in the region. The results of this reveal that there has been an expansion of the Balinese Pecalang’s principal duties to include nature conservation. It is concluded in this study that the role of Pecalang has expanded; not only do they assist in security, but Pecalang also have an important role in maintaining and preserving the natural environment in their respective regions, and have expanded into other regions in the Bali province.
The Impact of Natural Disasters can Affect Economic Sustainability and Development
Authors: Mustafa Tismazammi , Padli Jaharudin
Published: April 2020

Natural factors such as geological conditions, climate change, and depletion of mineral resources may affect economic sustainability and development. Natural resource degradation increases global challenges such as scarcity of resources, water, and land; hence, countries are exposed to natural disasters. Nevertheless, do natural disasters cause a rise in terrorist attacks? In general, terrorist attacks cause death, suffering, and severely affect social and economic situations, as well as national politics. The determinants of terrorist events are a popular issue globally that attract both researchers and policymakers. This research involved a structured methodology using a panel logit model between natural disaster and terrorism. It covered the binary data of terrorist attacks, which allowed the researchers to recognize the determinants that could lead to conflict. Based on the research of detailed data of 127 countries between 1970 and 2014, it was found that there is a strong positive relationship between the total number of deaths and the total occurrences of natural disasters and terrorist attacks. On the other hand, the total damage caused by natural disasters has a significant negative relationship with terrorist attacks. For other variables, the result gives a consistent significant relationship. From the findings, it may be concluded that rapid occurrences of natural disasters will increase the risk of terrorist attacks.
PAPR Reduction of a Universal Filtered Multicarrier Using a Selective Mapping Scheme
Authors: Shawqi Farooq Sijal , Hammoodia Ahmed Talaat , Audah Lukman , Falih Ammar Ahmed
Published: April 2020

The new generation of wireless communication systems involves several different technologies. The universal filtered multicarrier (UFMC) is one of these technologies. UFMC supports various numerology designs; however, the high peak to average power ratio (PAPR) is a major limitation faced by designers. Therefore, diverse approaches have been introduced, such as amplitude clipping, tone reservation, and active constellation extension, to mitigate the PAPR problem. These algorithms produce significant degradation in terms of bit error rate or power consumption. Another proposed solution is multiple signal representation schemes, which have promised to conserve bit error rate performance without power waste. Selected mapping is a multiple signal representation technique that reduces the PAPR without bit error degradation. This paper focuses on integrating the selected mapping method with the UFMC. Simulation results show that the integrated algorithm presents better PAPR performance: the PAPR was reduced by 2.1 dB and 1 dB for UFMC and CP-OFDM, respectively, without bit error rate degradation.
Design of Quad Band Microstrip Patch Antenna for Electromagnetic Energy Harvesting Applications
Authors: Taha Bilal S.
Published: April 2020

In this paper, a modified circular microstrip patch antenna is simulated and fabricated for RF energy harvesting applications. Energy harvesting technologies have risen in term of technical developments gradually recently because of the limitation of energy storage and wired power supply. This paper focuses on quad RF energy harvesting in the operating frequency ranges 2.1 GHz, 2.4 GHz, 2.6 GHz and 5.8 GHz emitting from wi-fi, Wimax, LTE, 3G and 4G. The receiving antenna picking up the radio signal in the aforementioned frequencies then converts it from a radiated electromagnetic wave into an alternating signal and, via rectifier, it is converted later into DC voltage. This voltage can be stored inside battery or the load may be fed directly. In this paper, SMD capacitors resistors and Schottky diode model SMS7630-005LF were chosen in the construction of the rectifier circuit due to their low forward voltage between between 0.15 to 0.45 V, fast switching action and small size.
Analyzing Elementary School Students Geometry Comprehension Based on Van Hiele’s Theory
Authors: Pasani Chairil Faif
Published: April 2020

Teaching geometry in elementary school sets out to build and develop students’ logical thinking skills. Comprehension of geometry topics is expected to develop the students’ skills to solve everyday problems. However, this learning objective has not been met as expected. In Indonesia, there are many elementary school students who still do not understand the basic concepts of geometry, such as shapes and planes. Based on this problem, the researcher conducted a study to examine students’ comprehension of geometric concepts. This study is of an experimental kind and involves two classes: an experiment class and a control class. To solve the problem of geometric topics learning, the researcher utilizes the Van Hiele’s theory. Geometry learning in the first class is delivered using a learning approach based on the Van-Hiele theory (experiment group), while learning in the second class is delivered with the conventional approach (control group). This study comprised of 150 students, drawn from primary five, representing two classifications of the medium and low performances from the selected schools found in Banjarmasin. Before conducting the study, the researcher designed learning scenario and research procedure to ensure the study goes as expected. The conclusion of this study is that students’ comprehension of geometric concepts after Van-Hiele’s Theory-Based Geometry Learning belongs to the medium category, which is better than the students’ comprehension of geometric concepts after conventional learning, which is in the low category. Conclusively, Van Hiele’s geometry learning theory is found to be effective in teaching and learning mathematics.
Fuzzy Logic Using in Images Retrieval Depending on Their Features
Authors: Alrufaye Faiez Musa Lahmood , Al-Sagheer Mohammed Muanis I. , Ali Marwah Thamer
Published: April 2020

Image processing has become one of the most important branches of computer science, especially after entering into several areas of life such as medicine, engineering and various sciences. In our current research, we have developed a system of image recognition based on image characteristics and some content information using the most important artificial intelligence algorithms, a fuzzy logic algorithm, to obtain complete image information using small values ranging from 0 to 1. The program was executed on a set of standard database called the WANG database. It holds the contents of 1000 images from the Corel stock photo database, in JPEG format. The system was evaluated using the recall method. This method calculates the proportion of correct results identified by the system as correct results with correct result identified by the classic system.
Distance and Travel Time Modeling in High-Level Picker-To-Part Systems (3-D Warehouses)
Authors: Cano Jose Alejandro , Correa-Espinal Alexander , Gómez-Montoya Rodrigo Andrés , Cortés Pablo
Published: April 2020

This article describes new minimum travel time formulations for the picker routing problem (PRP) in 3-D warehouses based on real operating conditions, such as height reference levels, to leave aisles and to pick devices with simultaneous and sequential movements. This study validated the proposed formulations through an experimental design, statistical analysis based on ANOVA, and comparison of means. This research proposal allows for improving order picking models for 3-D warehouses by including appropriate travel time formulations related to vertical and horizontal movements and height reference levels to leave aisles, which affect the objective functions involving travel time.
Small and Medium Enterprises Problem and Potential Solutions for Waste Management
Authors: Prasetya Dwi Arman , Sanusi Anwar , Chandrarin Grahita , Roikhah Elfiatur , Mujahidin Irfan , Arifuddin Rahman
Published: April 2020

Waste is a major issue in the environmental field. Daily garbage in Malang City reaches 661.12 tons per day. Of this amount, 202.96 tons per day are managed by the people of Malang City. The remaining 458.16 tons per day is transported to the existing landfill in Supiturang. The composition of Malang city waste consists of organic waste (70.5%) and inorganic waste (29.5%); meanwhile, the potential of methane gas in the Supiturang landfill is based on the GIZ count of 4521 tons per year. Of this amount, only 3% has been utilized as a substitute for LPG gas by the public and as an electric generator drive, so this research uses the assessment of the potential development of the One Village-Owned Enterprises Urban Program on MSMEs in Malang, East Java Province, based on waste management in driving the community's economy as a most effective solution. This research is a quantitative developmental policy using the analysis of the critical problem and potential solutions. The variables to be explored are factors for the achievement of increased income source, Waste Management Strategies as Alternative Energy Sources and Drivers of Community Economy, regional core competencies and waste management.
On Maximal and Minimal Sets in Topological Spaces
Authors: Al-Abdulla Raad Aziz Hussain
Published: April 2020

In this paper, we examine new classes of sets in topological spaces that are called maximal and minimal sets. Their relations are introduced and studied. Also, a recent class of functions has been found in topological spaces which use maximal and minimal sets. In addition, maximal and minimal sets are independent; the maximal and minimal sets cannot be equivalent under any conditions.
The Role of Activating Electronic Training in Increasing Efficiency of Training Process
Authors: Alrubaie Shymaa Akram , Alrubaie Mustafa Akram , Hassoon Israa Mohammed
Published: April 2020

The research deals with the reality of using electronic learning to teach the lessons prescribed for the training courses held at the Continuing Education Center of Middle Technical University, through a survey of the opinions of trainees in training courses held at the center. These trainees are considered the research sample as for the research, community is represented by all participants in the training courses using electronic classes through Google Classroom as a practical application for supporting electronic learning. The questionnaire tool was designed to collect information as a descriptive approach and a set of statistical methods was used to analyze the relationship between variables and test the research hypotheses. This included the simple correlation coefficient Pearson (r) and the significance tests (F, t) to test the significance of the hypotheses. Further more, in order to verify the hypothesis verification; simple linear regression (Regression Linear) was used, as well as interpretation factor (R2) to measure what the independent variable explains from the changes affected by the dependent variable in the research. The research results indicated the importance of using electronic learning in the training process, based on diligence and personal initiative. The research conclusions showed that members of the sample agreed on the importance of supportive (blended) electronic training to enhance the training process and also give them a skill in using electronic learning software.