Islamic Social Sciences Research Articles

Understanding Mawdudi's Thought

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the ideology of Sayyid Abul A'la Mawdūdī, a prominent Islamic scholar and thinker of the 20th century. Focusing on Mawdūdī's religious, social, economic, and political ideas, the paper examines his contributions to Islamic thought and their relevance in contemporary perspectives. With a special focus, the paper explores Mawdūdī's interpretations of Islam, his vision for society and governance, and his critiques of modern ideologies. Additionally, the paper examines the controversies surrounding Mawdūdī's thought and offers insights gained from comparative analysis with other Islamic thinkers. By exploring Mawdūdī's intellectual legacy, this paper seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of Islamic thought and its implications for contemporary Muslim societies. It seems that over the coming years the comprehension and influence of his thoughts will grow within the field of contemporary Islamic social sciences and he will be recognized as one of the most influential thinkers in contemporary world of Islam.

The Islamic Secular (2017)*

It is common to assume an inherent conflict between the substanceof the category “religion” and the category “secular.” Givenits putative rejection of the separation between the sacred andthe profane, this conflict is presumed to be all the more solid inIslam. But even assuming Islam’s rejection of the sacred/profanedichotomy, there may be other ways of defining the secular inIslam and of thinking about its relationship with the religion.This is what the present essay sets out to do. By taking Sharia asits point of departure, it looks at the latter’s self-imposed limitsas the boundary between a mode of assessing human acts thatis grounded in concrete revelational sources (and/or their extension)and modes of assessing human acts that are independent ofsuch sources, yet not necessarily outside God’s adjudicative gaze.This non-shar`ī realm, it is argued, is the realm of the “Islamic secular.”It is “secular” inasmuch as it is differentiated from Sharia asthe basis for assessing human acts. It remains “Islamic,” however,and thus “religious,” in its rejection of the notion of proceeding“as if God did not exist.” As I will show, this distinction betweenthe shar`ī and the nonshar`ī has a long pedigree in the Islamiclegal (and theological) tradition. As such, the notion of the Islamicsecular is more of an excavation than an innovation. *This article was first published in the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 34, no. 2 (2017): 1-31

Muslim Women and the Politics of Representation (2002)*

This paper examines the politics of knowledge production as it relates to Muslim women in western literary traditions and contemporary feminist writing, with a view to understanding the political, ideological, and economic mediations that have historically framed these representations. The meta-narrative of the Muslim woman has shifted from the bold queens of medieval literature to colonial images of the seraglio’s veiled, secluded, and oppressed women. Contemporary feminist writing and popular culture have reproduced the colonial motifs of Muslim women, and these have regained currency in the aftermath of 9/11.Drawing upon the work of Mohja Kahf, this paper begins by mapping the evolution of the Muslim woman archetype in western literary traditions. The paper then examines how some contemporary feminist literature has reproduced in new ways the discursive tropes that have had historical currency in Muslim women’s textual representation. The analysis is attentive to the ways in which the cultural production of knowledge about Muslim women has been implicated historically by the relations of power between the Muslim world and the West. *This article was first published in the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 19, no. 4 (2002): 1-22

Islam, Slavery, and Racism: The Use of Strategy in the Pursuit of Human Rights (1987)*

Slavery is one of the most controversial and arresting topics in humanhistory. The question of Islam in relation to slavery has been an issue ofconcern among scholars for a long time. It became a question in which manyOrientalists found a convenient gap to pass through in their attacks againstthe system 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 Islamin particular and the Orient in general. Most of the time, the statements ofthese scholars 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 tradition. *This article was first published in the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 4, no. 1 (1987): 31-50

Maqasid al-Shari`ah, Maslahah, and Corporate Social Responsibility (2007)*

The doctrine of corporate social responsibility (CSR), which hasemerged and developed rapidly as a field of study, is a frameworkfor the role of business in society. It sets standards of behavior towhich a company must subscribe in order to impact society ina positive and productive manner while abiding by values thatexclude seeking profit at any cost. Despite the many attempts toconstrue CSR initiatives, it remains open to wide criticism for itsinherent problems via-à-vis justification, conceptual clarity, andpossible inconsistency. These problems are more acute when itcomes to implementing and operationalizing CSR on the ground,especially in a situation that involves trade-offs.This paper offers an instructive understanding of CSR froman Islamic perspective. In particular, the implication of maqasidal-Shari`ah (the Shari`ah’s objectives) and the applicationof maslahah (the public good) to CSR are discussed in detail toshed light on how Islam’s holistic and dynamic perception of CSRtake into consideration reality and ever-changing circumstances.These principles also provide a better framework that managerscan use when faced with potential conflicts arising from thediverse expectations and interests of a corporation’s stakeholders. *This article was first published in the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 24, no. 1 (2007):25-43

Psychology and Religion: Their Relationship and Integration from an Islamic Perspective (1998)*

Religion is a pervasive and influential phenomenon in the livesof many people. Instances of religious behavior are easily foundin almost all societies and cultures of the world. However, psychologyas a behavioral science has largely ignored the studyof religion and its profound impact on human behavior. Thisarticle attempts to explore the relationship between psychologyand religion and how these two disciplines interact. After a generaloverview of the relationship between the two disciplines,Islamization of psychology is suggested as a way out of the currentimpasse between psychology and religion. *This article was first published in the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 15, no. 4 (1998):97-116

Popular Sovereignty, Islam, and Democracy (2003)*

This article examines the idea that Islam’s rejection of popularsovereignty makes it incompatible with democracy. I showinstead that sovereignty (“absolute despotic power,” popular orotherwise) is a sterile, pedantic, abstruse, formalistic, and legalisticconcept, and that democracy should be seen as involving“popular control” rather than “popular sovereignty.” Divinesovereignty would be inconsistent with democracy only if thatmeant unlike in Islam rule by persons claiming to be God orHis infallible representatives. A body of divine law that humanscannot change would be incompatible with democracy only if itwere so comprehensive as to leave no room for political decisions. *This article was first published in the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 20, no. 3&4(2003): 125-139

Global Politics of Knowledge Production: The Challenges of Islamization of Knowledge in The Light of Tradition Vs Secular Modernity Debate

This paper argues that the main objective of the ‘Islamization of knowledge’ project is to assert Muslim ownership over their institutions by developing an alternative system of learning/knowledge production that serves as a foundation for re-inventing/renewing the Islamic traditions to cope with the multitude of challenges that Muslims face today. These challenges stem from a number of intertwining factors that influence this process, including the modern advances that accompanied the colonial and post-colonial developments that shaped and reshaped the intellectual culture and institutions of Muslim and non-Muslim societies precisely by allowing Western methodological approaches to set the agenda and the objectives of the schools. Accordingly, proponents of the Islamization of knowledge such as Naquib al-Atas, Ismail al-Faruqi, Taha Jaber al-Alwani, and others have developed their own different approaches to the production of knowledge and in so doing have generated a philosophical discourse that offers a critique of modern/Western knowledge and its epistemological and methodological assumptions. What, therefore, has been the outcome of the Islamization of knowledge project in terms of producing, for instance, Islamic social sciences, broadly defined, in the areas of, say, economics, sociology, political science, and so on? How have normative teachings of Islam, its ethical concerns, and Muslim efforts to come to terms with modernity (an ideology that carries the values and ideas of triumphant capitalism and secularism) been incorporated into these disciplines to counter or respond to Western hegemony and Eurocentric and orientalist order of knowledge? Finally, have Muslims succeeded in bringing together scholars of the text (fuqaha) and scholars of the context (experts in different fields of knowledge from social sciences to sciences) to deal with pressing modern problems that require new interpretations? This paper will attempt to answer some of these questions.

Reconstructing the Integration between Islam and Wasathiyyah Based Social Science: An Epistemological Approach

Abstract This article is aimed to build bridge between Islamic Science and Modern Western Social Science and offer a wasathiyyah (moderate/median) oriented Social Science building from epistemological point of view. Through philosophical approach, this article suggests that in order to develop integrative social science, philosophers and Muslim scholars must incrementally and systematically formulate comprehensive integrative theory building which includes metatheoretical understanding imperative as the foundation or grand theme of the systematization of social theories. This study identifies that the gap in current modern social science is caused by the micro extremism approach and methodological individualism. Here is the importance and relevance of wasathiyyah (moderate/median) as principle of balance (tawazun) between individual and societal claim in the social life of Muslims. Through this proposal, prophetic paradigm putting forward balance/moderation (wasathiyyah) in developing the framework of integrative Islamic Social Science finds clearer orientation and direction. The next step is to derivate them into social theories and their practical forms.

People of the Book: Empire and Social Science in the Islamic Commonwealth Period

Social science is often described as a product of nineteenth-century Europe and as a handmaiden to its imperial and colonial projects. However, centuries prior to the Western social science enterprise, Islamic imperial scholars developed their own “science of society.” This essay provides an overview of the historical and cultural milieu in which “Islamic” social science was born and then charts its development over time through case studies of four seminal scholars—al-Razi, al-Farabi, al-Biruni, and Ibn Khaldun—who played pivotal roles in establishing fields that could be roughly translated as psychology, political science, anthropology, and sociology. The axioms undergirding Islamic social science are subsequently explored, with particular emphasis paid to the relations between said axioms and the discursive tradition, “Islam.” The essay concludes with an exploration of how looking to social science enterprises beyond the “modern” West can clarify the purported relationships between social science and empire.

Introductory Note and Editorial

Introductory NoteIt is a great honor to introduce myself as the new Co-Editor of the American Journal of Islam and Society. Developing the future of this journal is a considerable intellectual trust that I can only envisage as a collective effort to be undertaken with the journal’s excellent editorial team. Under Dr. Ovamir Anjum’s editorial leadership in the last few years, the journal established a very successful trajectory, combining high academic quality and timelytreatment of topics of interest to diverse communities of readers.In this introductory note, I would like to begin by expressing my commitment to the vision behind the recent name change from the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences to the American Journal of Islam and Society. The new name captures the multidisciplinarity of the journal’s current content. This multidisciplinarity is reflected too in the editorial team’svaried areas of expertise, to which I bring my primary academic interest in Qur’anic and tafsīr studies; my work and experiences in developing Islamic Studies as a subject in its own right in Britain, which led to my involvement in founding and launching the British Association for Islamic Studies (BRAIS); and my more recent work on Islam and Muslims in Britain. Somecommon threads run across these different academic interests and activities, but one mode in which they have significantly intersected for me is through questions of gender, both conceptually and institutionally. It is this last aspect of my work that I am keen to draw upon as Co-Editor of the journal.Building on the achievements of the current editorial team, I see publishing research on Islam, gender, and sexuality to be an important and strategic area of growth. Scholarship on related topics has exponentially expanded both in quantity and quality. However, a great deal of current research is clustered around narrowly defined approaches and goals, themapping of which remains a future task. Suffice it to say here that central to my vision is to see the journal become a platform for rigorous gender-focused research which critically pursues as well as challenges the intellectual agendas and societal concerns on which the study of gender and Islam has turned until today.This intellectual dimension I see as concomitant with structural changes that allow broader and less siloed representation of women academics in the study of Islam and Muslims. One of my main goals is to work with the editorial team to formulate editorial policies and strategies which lend support to early-career female researchers and facilitate intellectual mentoring through reviewing processes.Finally, I would like to thank all those who have supported the journal throughout the years and helped build it up into a strong publication. I look forward to working with you and to receiving manuscript submissions from scholars across the multitude of fields which study Islam and Muslims. Shuruq Naguib, Co-Editor, American Journal of Islam and SocietyLecturer, Department of Philosophy, Politics, and ReligionLancaster University, Lancaster, UK

A New Co-Editor Joins the American Journal of Islam and Society

It is a great honor to introduce myself as the new Co-Editor of the American Journal of Islam and Society. Developing the future of this journal is a considerable intellectual trust that I can only envisage as a collective effort to be undertaken with the journal’s excellent editorial team. Under Dr. Ovamir Anjum’s editorial leadership in the last few years, the journal established a very successful trajectory, combining high academic quality and timely treatment of topics of interest to diverse communities of readers.In this introductory note, I would like to begin by expressing my commitment to the vision behind the recent name change from the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences to the American Journal of Islam and Society. The new name captures the multidisciplinarity of the journal’s current content. This multidisciplinarity is reflected too in the editorial team’s varied areas of expertise, to which I bring my primary academic interest in Qur’anic and tafsīr studies; my work and experiences in developing Islamic Studies as a subject in its own right in Britain, which led to my involvement in founding and launching the British Association for Islamic Studies (BRAIS); and my more recent work on Islam and Muslims in Britain. Some common threads run across these different academic interests and activities, but one mode in which they have significantly intersected for me is through questions of gender, both conceptually and institutionally. It is this last aspect of my work that I am keen to draw upon as Co-Editor of the journal. Shuruq Naguib, Co-Editor, American Journal of Islam and SocietyLecturer, Department of Philosophy, Politics, and ReligionLancaster University, Lancaster, UK Download

Varieties of Islamic Social Science

Varieties of Islamic Social Science

Editorial

This issue of the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences features twoimportant articles: Sarah Marusek’s ethnographic study of a grassroots Islamicmovement in Lebanon reconfiguring (even resisting) secularism andneoliberalism, and Madiha Tahseen and Charissa S.L. Cheah’s empiricalstudy of the formation of American Muslim adolescents. Also featured isan extended interview with the renowned anthropologist, Talal Asad.Marusek’s study of the interaction of an Islamic movement withinsecular, liberal, and neoliberal structures and practices is innovative andthought-provoking. It shows how certain Shi‘ite clerics and leaders are ableto adapt but also simultaneously resist neoliberalism while providing servicesto the poor, in particular the downtrodden Shi‘a population of Lebanon.The intellectual posture of these movements, she highlights, seeksto separate the rationalistic procedures and procedures of modernity fromwhat they insist are still religious values. But straddling “forces of materialismand spirituality,” Marusek argues, “need not inevitably yield a gospelof wealth. Indeed, these forces may even coalesce into a decolonial project.”The Lebanese “Shi‘i movements,” she concludes, “are each critically engagingwith secular liberalism and neoliberal capitalism on their own terms, inprofoundly interesting, complex, and contradictory ways.” This is an illuminatingstudy which alludes to the contradictions and limits of embeddingreligious values and rationality in neoliberal and secular structures andpractices, which themselves are inevitably instilling their own values andrationality as they must in order to be fully efficient on their own terms. Thestruggle, the author suggests, is ongoing and worthwhile ...

In the Presence of the Sublime Qur’an

This volume represents an especially modern viewpoint with regard to understandingthe Qur’an and its message, while also being firmly embedded intraditional approaches and methods for its interpretation. The commentaryconsists of a number of lectures originally given in Persian by AbdolaliBazargan as a weekly lecture series in Irvine, CA. These lectures, a portionof which have been translated and edited into this single volume, were initiallypresented to groups of lay Muslims interested in the general theme of “becomingacquainted with the Qur’an” (p. xiv).The author, Abdolali Bazargan, is part of the laity himself: an architectby profession. While not having been fully trained in the traditional sciences98 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 34:2of Qur’anic interpretation, his strong interest in Qur’anic exegesis (accordingto the editor) has led him to spend “the last 55 years researching it and writing20 books in the field of Qur’anic sciences” (p. xiv). This volume is thus a laycommentary on the Qur’an’s “short surahs,” namely al-Fātiḥah and the lastjuz’ (chapters 78-114). Although no specific argument or thesis holds the entiretyof the work together, it nevertheless stands as a representative sampleof modern (educated) Muslim engagement with the text of the Qur’an and itsramifications for their lived religious tradition, particularly in the modernworld ...

Shari’a in the Modern Era

Iyad Zahalka’s commendable Shari’a in the Modern Era: Muslim MinoritiesJurisprudence gives researchers and legal practitioners an overview of theemerging fiqh al-aqalliyyāt (the jurisprudence of minorities) discipline. Infact, at the time of its publication several other books were published on thissubject, among them Uriya Shavit’s Shari’a and Muslim Minorities: TheWasati and Salafi Approaches to Fiqh al-Aqalliyyāt al-Muslima (Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 2015) and Said Fares Hassan’s Fiqh al-Aqalliyyāt: History,Development, and Progress (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).114 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 34:1Zahalka credits Shavit with giving him useful comments while preparingShari’ah in the Modern Era.It is no coincidence that all of these books are from a Sunni perspectivewith particular focus on the works of two well-known scholars in the Sunnilegal world: Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Taha Jabir al-Alwani (d. 2016). Zahalka’sbook, therefore, captures the gradual creation of another – or perhaps a new– branch of fiqh that focuses on the socio-legal issues faced by Muslims ruledby non-Muslim sovereigns or systems that conflict with Islamic law. His objectiveis to examine the “fiqh al-aqalliyyāt of the wasaṭi faction, a school ofthought dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood that positions itself in the middleground between conservative resistance to changing religious laws andthe disintegration of the commitment to religious tradition” (p. 4). The author ...

REFLECTIONS ON THE IDEA OF ISLAMIC SOCIAL SCIENCE

When we refer to Islamic social science what do we mean? In what ways can the social sciences be Islamic? There are two such ways. One involves approaching specifically Muslim problems, that is, problems found in Muslim society, in a social scientific manner. An example would be the issue of the relationship between religion and the state. Concepts developed in Western social science would be modified and applied to achieve this aim. The other way in which social science can be Islamic goes beyond the former and involves the idea that social scientific theories, concepts and methodologies can be derived from the history and thought of Islam in order that these social sciences may be based on the Islamic Weltanschauung. The Islamic social sciences should not be confined to the tackling of just Muslim society but are to be extended to the interpretation of the whole world from an Islamic point of view. They are, therefore, juxtaposed to the Western social sciences which involve the interpretation of not only Western civilization but non-Western civilizations as well. What does it mean to say that the writing of history or the social sciences are to be based on a particular Weltanschauung or point of view whether this is Islamic, European, Malay or Asian? In the field of Southeast Asian history something of a debate on this issue took place during the 1960s. Two extremes are discernible in the debate. Bastin gave an extremely dismal picture of the possibility of writing Southeast Asian history from the Southeast Asian point of view.

Reflections on the Idea of Islamic Social Science

When we refer to Islamic social science what do we mean? In what ways can the social sciences be Islamic? There are two such ways. One involves approaching specifically Muslim problems, that is, problems found in Muslim society, in a social scientific manner. An example would be the issue of the relationship between religion and the state. Concepts developed in Western social science would be modified and applied to achieve this aim. The other way in which social science can be Islamic goes beyond the former and involves the idea that social scientific theories, concepts and methodologies can be derived from the history and thought of Islam in order that these social sciences may be based on the Islamic Weltanschauung.

MENUJU SOSIOLOGI PROFETIK

Modern social sciences, including sociology, believe that religion is outside the world of science. The growth of the sciences is characterized by their secular perspectives. On the other side, the idea of islamization of social sciences is trapped in the dichotomy between secular social sciences and Islamic social sciences. In this article, the writer discuss an alternative paradigm of the integration between social science (Sociology) and religion. Based on the idea of Prophetic Social Science proposed by Kuntowijoyo, the writer states the importance of an alternative paradigm to develop sociology, called Prophetic Sociology. Prophetic Sociology is constructed based on three fundamental and integral pillars: humanization, liberation and transcendence.

Mumtaz Ahmad

Wise, kind, humorous, humble, profoundly honorable and dignified– these are just some of the words that describe our beloved MumtazAhmad, whose passing we mourn. A great scholar, mentor, friend,and family man, he will be missed by the countless people whoselives he influenced. I feel honored to count myself among them.With degrees in economics, Islamic studies, and developmentadministration, and a Ph.D. in political science from the Universityof Chicago, Ahmad published eight books. His most recent is Observingthe Observer: The State of Islamic Studies in American Universities(Herndon, VA: International Institute of Islamic Thought,2012). Bringing together a stellar array of scholars, this book is particularlyprescient in stressing the importance of the responsiblestudy of Islam in a country whose policies so deeply impact Muslims.He also published dozens of articles and chapters, and deliveredhundreds of lectures throughout his native Pakistan and NorthAmerica, as well as Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South andSoutheast Asia.He served as president of the Association of Muslim Social Scientistsas well as the South Asian Muslims Studies Association. Inaddition, he served on numerous editorial boards, was editor of Studiesin Contemporary Islam, and associate editor of the AmericanJournal of Islamic Social Sciences and the East-West Review. Hiswork was supported by grants from the Fulbright Foundation, theFord Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trust, the Center for Strategicand International Studies, the United States Institute of Peace, theNational Bureau of Asian Research, and the Brookings Institution,among others ...