In this issue we have included the opening address of Taha Jabir Al-‘Alwani which was delivered at the First AMSS History Conference withthe theme of “Strategies for an Islamic Perspective on History and HistoricalWriting,” that was held on Dhu al Qidah 1-2, 1411/May 26-27, 1990.Al- ‘Alwani states that the collapse of Marxism all Over the world is a logicalconclusion of the philosophies which circulated in the West with a stampof undeserved academic authority and universality.Western thought, he says, will explain the fall of Marxism by trying torevive philosophies removed from Marxism and condemning Marxism asbeing opposed to human nature, antithetical to freedom and democracy, andopposed to the natural flow of history. But the alternatives to be projectedwill not be essentially any different. Therefore, Al- ‘Alwani warns, the gleewe witness in the West at the collapse of Marxism will be short-lived becausebefore too long the shortcomings of Westem thought will become more apparent.What is needed for removing the suffering of mankind is a comprehensivealternate philosophy that presents a realistic and satisfactory interpmtionof history, an overall conception of life, mankind, and the universe.Al-‘Alwani argues that the Qur’anic interpretation of time, life, theuniverse, mankind, history, and good and evil provides contemporary humanitywith a philosophical and civilizational alternative that is capable of leadingmankind out of the present crisis.It is in this context that the contributions of MISS become relevant. Ourwriters are engaged in providing a critique of the Wstern disciplines andthen highlighting the features oftheir Islamized versions. Abdul Rashid Motenattempts a contrast between the Western mode of political inquiry and theIslamic alternative. This underscores the fact that the methodology andepistemology of Western political science is built mund the seemingly limitlesspower of natural sciences. Moten exposes the subjective and ideological natureof political science in its own epistemic landscape from real life situations.He concludes that the instrumentalist conception of political community andthe final packaging of knowledge are all colored with the social, cultural,and historical experience of Western Christianity, which is also, paradoxically,materialistic and secular to the core. By identifying reason and revelationas the twin sources of knowledge, Islamic political thought is associated withsuch Qur‘anic concepts as Tawhid, Khilafah, ‘Ibadah, 'Adl, and the like ...