Muslim Heritage in Religionswissenschaft : A Preliminary Study on the Purposiveness and the Non-Purposiveness of Muslim Scholarship

Abstract

The history of the study of religions has begun as early as man initially questioned on religion. Throughout the history of the study of religion or religions, many scholars had emerged and contributed to this vocation. Many international scholars; be them from the east and west, Muslims or non-Muslims; recognize Muslim scholarship in religionswissenschaft. In sum, comparative study of religions is regarded as one of the great contributions of Muslim’s civilization to mankind’s intellectual progress. Nevertheless, when referring to the popular works of Muslim scholars in this discipline, most people will refer to only some treatises with negligence to the great bulk of Muslim Heritage in Religionswissenschaft. This paper will unravel this issue and propose an alternative categorization or taxonomy with regards to Muslim heritage in religionswissenschaft. The main reason for this effort is to guide the contemporary and future researchers to the great treatises of Muslim heritage in religionswissenschaft. Therefore, this categorization or taxonomy will chart the mapping of possible references for any prospective readings, researches and new findings. This categorization can assist one’s reading towards deeper understanding on issues in Muslim scholarship in religionswissenschaft. Likewise, this categorization can also help researchers to attain a better understanding of the opinion of any Muslim scholars in the field of comparative religion. This article is reprinted with permission from the Journal of Islamic Studies and Culture. The authors wish to acknowledge M. Mamin Ullah, Executive Editor of ARIPD Journals for permission to reprint and to Dr Mohamad Nasrin for his invitation to republish this article in Abqari, Journal of Islamic Social Sciences and Humanities.