Islamic Writings Research Articles

An Egyptian Female Mufassīr: Kariman Hamza and Her Tafsīr Named al-Lu’lu’ wa al-Marjān fī Tafsīr al-Qur’ān

This study incvolves the analysis of al-Lu’lu’ wa’l-Marjān fī Tafsīr al-Qur’ān of Kariman Hamza (1942-2023), one of the Egyptian female mufessīr (exegete), and the determination of the tafsīr (exegesis) method she followed. In this context, the life of Kariman Hamza was researched, and the methods of her tafsīr al-Lu’lu’ wa’l-Marjān were analyzed in terms of riwāya (narration) and dirāya (reasoning). A qualitative research method was used in this study. The author’s work was systematically examined from beginning to end and evaluated using the document analysis method. However, Kariman Hamza, whose main profession is news reporter and television presenter, initially refused the request to interpret/exegesis the Qur’ān for children because she was not a graduate of al-Azhar University. Later, as a result of various requests, her interest in the Qur’ān and her television programmes on the subject, she decided to write a tafsīr. Her tafsīr is a three-volume work that she wrote in three years, focusing on tafsīr studies, and was approved by Al-Azhar University. Kariman Hamza sees the writing of her tafsīr on the basis of her religious programme and Islamic writings in her 35 years of broadcasting life and sees it as the fruit of her efforts to preach Islam. Kariman Hamza, who stated that the reader can read her tafsīr without being bored and that she wrote like a mother explaining something to her child, is one of the rare female writers who tafsīr the Qur’ān from beginning to end. The fact that there are very few studies on al-Lu’lu’ wa al-Marjān is one of the factors that makes this work unique. Analyzing the work in terms of the tafsīr method makes a significant contribution to the literature. The most distinctive aspect of the tafsīr is the comparative presentation of quotations from the Bible and the attempt to make connections with current events. One of the results of this article is that Kariman Hamza’s tafsīr, which she compiled from many sources of tafsīr and combined with her knowledge of the Qur’ān and the Sunnah, opens up the discussion of whether it is a tafsīr or a compilation work, and raises the question of how to name and interpret such works, examples of which are beginning to appear today, based on the perception of the mufassīr in the tafsīr tradition.

Women and Gender in the Qur’an

Women and Gender in the Qur’an by Celene Ibrahim focuses on women’s voices, presence, and roles found within the Qur’an. Ibrahim situates her work as part of the tafsīr tradition by presenting herself as “the tentative mufassira” (8). Given that there are few known classical Islamic writings from female exegetes, it is intriguing to see a modern work from a female author claiming a place within the tafsīr tradition, which holds significant weight due to its role in understanding the meanings of the Qur’an. Though one may point to other authors such as Amina Wadud and Asma Barlas for their previous work on similar themes, it is important to note that the former two spend far more time asserting and defining their own Weltanschauung than engaging in close readings. To her credit, Ibrahim embodies the classical tafsīr ethos by centering Qur’anic language itself as the basis for her conclusions.

The Forging of a Tradition: The Hebrew Bible, Ezra the Scribe, and the Corruption of Jewish Monotheism According to the Writings of al-Ṭabarī, al-Thaʿlabī, and Ibn Ḥazm

A widely distributed religious legend maintains that Ezra the scribe rewrote the Hebrew Bible sometime during the post-exilic period. The story is interpreted differently among its varying iterations. Some accounts view Ezra’s recovery of the Scriptures as an act of divine wonder while other versions insist that Ezra’s hand distorted the biblical text. Both outlooks are present in medieval Islamic writings. This article considers the polemical approach of three Muslim authors (e.g., al-Ṭabarī, al-Thaʿlabī, and Ibn Ḥazm) and their portraits of Ezra, including his role that led to a purported compromise of Jewish monotheism. The article explores Ibn Ḥazm’s claim that Ezra the scribe corrupted the biblical text. Several sources are examined (e.g., 4 Ezra, Porphyry, Justin Martyr, a Samaritan liturgical imprecation, and diverse rabbinic traditions) as plausible support for the charge that Ezra corrupted the Scriptures. A tale from Avot d’Rabbi Natan that features Ezra’s alleged scribal dots is posited as a reasonable source for the comment. Given Ibn Ḥazm’s interpretive outlook and Ezra’s prominent role in the story, the dots offer a new and sensible explanation.

Evolution of the figure of the Brahmin in early Muslim writings

When we talk about the caste system today, among other things, we talk about the wily, crafty and the boasting Brahmins who founded and maintained a set of self-serving rules that effectively took the form of the caste system. How do social scientists know about these Brahmins? As a set of new scholars are demonstrating today, the ancient Indian texts - such as the Vedas or the Mahabharata - do not talk about the caste system or the rule-setting priestly class of Brahmins. These texts do not even exhibit an impulse to put into place a system that even remotely resembles the so-called caste system. Whence is this idea of Brahmin then? Ever since Wilhelm Halbfass’s Imagining India (1990), a growing but a small number of Indologists talk about the 11th century Al-Bīrūnī as one of “the greatest scholars ever” to speak about the Indian caste system. There is, however, neither a comprehensive study to show what his contributions measure up to nor any attempt to dig into the Islamic culture that culminates in Al-Biruni’s quite detailed picture of the Brahmin and the caste system. This paper sifts through the earliest available Islamic writings on India, from the early 8th century to Al-Biruni’s time, to chart a genealogy of the figure of the law-making crafty Brahmin that we confront by the 11th century in Muslim writings.

The Arab-China Communication: From the Silk Road to the Dialogue of Philosophy

Abstract The Arab-China relations go back to the second century BC. The Silk Road was the most important link that enabled the early Arabs to get to know China far from their own countries. In the modern era, a new dialogue began between the Arabs and Chinese, especially after China proposed the Belt and Road Initiative, which was the official announcement of the establishment of a new Silk Road linking China with the Arab world and the rest of the world. This was preceded by exchanged intellectual, cultural, literary and philosophical dialogues, translations and seminars between Arab and Chinese intellectuals and academics based on a new understanding of Chinese philosophies such as Daoism and Confucianism, as well as the work of Chinese Muslim translators to translate Qur’an, jurisprudential books, interpretations, poems and Islamic writings from Arabic into Chinese, which paved the way for a continuous dialogue and an ongoing and open-to-the-future encounter between the two cultures.

FALSAFAH DAN KONSEP SASTERA ISLAM MENGIKUT SIDEK BABA

Professor Datuk Dr. Sidek Baba is an intellectual and authoritative scientist. He has produced papers on Islamic literature and Islamic writings while pursuing studies at the Diploma in Islamic Studies at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in 1985. In his study, he emphasized the concept of Islamic literature and Islamic writing by bringing the differences in the use of both. The study that Sidek Baba has done is very closely related to the title of this study, which is about debating the concept of Islamic literature in Sidek Baba's views and comments. This study explains the origins of manners and Islamic writings and how the history of Islamic literary ideas in the Arab world and Malay land has emerged. Furthermore, this study is further reinforced by how Sidek Baba accepts the work and art of Muslims and non-Muslims by submitting their concrete arguments and opinions about the conditions of accepting and practicing the content of a work because for him the world of writing works is a daunting field unintelligible for a writer, for the writer who is always practicing with the Islamic teaching to produce a moral Islam that thereby elevates the rank and value of Islam to all over the world.

KONSEP SASTERA ISLAM MENGIKUT ISMAIL FARUQI

This study is related to the concept of Islamic Literature conceived by Prof Ismail al-Faruqi. In this concept al-Faruqi emphasizes some important questions that need to be understood by Muslims; firstly Muslims need to look at their history, that is, the history of literature and correspondence from the writers of the past. Then he stressed that today's writers if they want to produce quality works must imitate the authentic Qurānic art. Next, al-Faruqi mentioned that the field of literature today is weak because Islamic writers are influenced by the west. The fact is that the west has lost its spiritual value because of its acceptance to secularism. If Islamic writers were to follow the west then we would become weak like them. Al-Faruqi mentions several Islamic figures who were influenced by the west. He then responded to Granebaum's accusation of blaming the teachings of Islam on the backwardness of Muslims in the field of art and literature. For al-Faruqi, the basis in producing literary art in Islam is ‘Tawḥīd’.

Effectiveness of Content – Based Instructionin Improving Students’ Islamic Writing Ability In Islamic Boarding School of Al-Wahid Papesidenrengrappang

Effectiveness of Content – Based Instructionin Improving Students’ Islamic Writing Ability In Islamic Boarding School of Al-Wahid Papesidenrengrappang

The First Islamic Classic in Chinese: Wang Daiyu’s by Sachiko Murata

Reviewed by: The First Islamic Classic in Chinese: Wang Daiyu’s by Sachiko Murata Cuma Ozkan Sachiko Murata, trans., The First Islamic Classic in Chinese: Wang Daiyu’s Real Commentary on the True Teaching. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2017, vii, 273 pp. US$23.95 (pb). ISBN 978-1-4384-6508-1 Sachiko Murata has previously contributed to the research on Islam in Late Imperial China, especially by translating seminal texts from the Han Kītab collection (Islamic writings in Chinese) into English. In her Chinese Gleams of Sufi Light, she translated Wang Daiyu’s 王岱輿 (ca. 1570–ca. 1660) Great Learning of Islam (Qingzhen daxue 清真大學) and Liu Zhi’s 劉智 (ca. 1660–ca. 1739) translation of Jami’s Lawa’ih into Chinese as Displaying the Concealment of the Real Realm (Zhenjing zhaowei 真境昭微), as well as produced a synopsis of Wang Daiyu’s Real Commentary on the True Teaching (Zhengjiao zhenquan 正教真詮) by translating snippets from each chapter.1 In the Sage Learning of Liu Zhi, she translated and annotated Nature and Principle in Islam (Tianfang xingli 天方性理).2 In this book, she translates the full forty chapters of Wang’s Zhengjiao zhenquan, which is the first Islamic text written in China, together with the author’s “Self-Narrative” (zixu 自敘) and a “Record of Questions and Answers” (wenda jiyan 問答紀言). Murata bases her translation on the 1657 edition of the text, but she also notes the differences between the editions of 1642, 1873, 1904, and 1922 (pp. 32–33), finding that they mostly have to do with typographical errors or the use of synonymous words. The Zhengjiao zhenquan consists of two sections of twenty chapters each, in which Wang explains the “spiritual and ethical underpinnings” of Islamic beliefs and practices while providing a “social and spiritual rationale” for them (p. 3). The first section of the work mainly introduces Islamic theology and cosmology explaining the attributes of Allah, Islamic creation, prophethood in Islam, and the relationship between human beings and God. Wang also explains deviant views that mischaracterize God in chapters titled “Similarity to the Real” (sizhen 似真), “Changing the Real” (yizhen 易真), and “Darkening the Real” (meizhen 昧真). The chapter “The Outstanding Differences” (jiongyi 迥異) presents the differences between Islam and the other religions in seven aspects, asserting the superiority of Islam over Chinese religions. The chapter “Huihui 回回,” the Chinese term for Muslims at that time, which Murata translates as “the Returning Returners,” explains the meaning of huihui as a return of body to its origin in two ways and a return of heart to its origin in two ways. The chapter “Husband and Wife” (fufu 夫婦) is unusual in the first section in that it deals with practical topics of marriage, celibacy, and a wife’s obedience to her husband. The first section ends with the chapter on the first pillar of Islam, the profession of faith (shahadah) where Wang explains the necessity of a creator (the “Real Lord” in the text) and prophets. The second section mainly introduces Islamic practices, showing their similarities to and differences from those of Chinese religions. It starts with the five pillars of Islam, which Wang refers to as “The Five Constants” (wu chang 五常), alluding to the Confucian concept. This section also includes topics such as filial piety, friendship, animal sacrifice, vegetarianism, gambling, drinking alcohol, usury, and hoarding. [End Page 307] Nevertheless, Zhengjiao zhenquan provides not a manual of Islamic beliefs and practices but a rationale for their superiority. Wang’s position in the text is often “polemical,” defending Islamic beliefs and practices against Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism (p. 5). Wang also presents Islam as the only true teaching and shows inconsistencies and fallacies in the beliefs and practices of Chinese religions. Wang often quotes from a wide range of Chinese sources and uses metaphors intelligible to the Chinese audience to demonstrate that Islamic beliefs and practices conform to Chinese antiquity. Yet, he does not abstain from boldly criticizing some Chinese beliefs and practices to show the superiority of Islam. With regards to fengshui 風水, he notes that “the teaching of Islam takes the method of yin and yang as incoherent and regards the clarity of knowledge as shallow . . . The foolish people of the world talk happily about...

Suffering the Sons of Eve: Animal Ethics in al-Maʿarrī’s Epistle of the Horse and the Mule

In the year 1021 CE, blind author and skeptic Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī (d. 1057 CE) wrote Risālat al-ṣāhil wa-l-shāḥij (The Epistle of the Horse and the Mule), a winding prose work populated by animal characters who talk about poetry, grammar, riddles, and Syrian society on the eve of the crusades. Traditionally forgotten as a source for al-Maʿarrī’s pacifism, and his vegan worldview, the Ṣāhil lets readers see his thinking on animals more than most other works. After a brief survey of animals in Islam, which shows a mainstream desire for balance between human and non-human needs, as well as exceptional cases that strongly uphold animals as subjects per se and which stand as key inter-texts for al-Maʿarrī, this paper considers how the Ṣāhil champions non-human creatures through images of animal cruelty deployed to shock readers into compassion, and through poetry and popular sayings (amthāl) recast in a zoocentric mold. It, therefore, advocates with more fervor than anthropocentric Islamic writings on animals, such as Kalīlah wa-Dimnah or the letters of the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ. However, this happens in a way that makes it hard to pin down the sources of al-Maʿarrī’s thought. Furthermore, al-Maʿarrī seems to contradict himself when, for example, he employs literal meaning when it comes to animal justice, even as he avoids literalism in other contexts. This calls his concern for animals into question in one sense, but in another, it affirms such concern insofar as his self-contradictions show an active mind working through animal ethics in real time.

الدراسة الفنية لشعر نجيب الكيلاني

Dr. Najīb al-Kiylānī is considered one of the foremost modern Islamic writers. He has written more than seventy books include novel, short story, poetry, criticism etc. He was a talented writer who mastered the necessary artistic tools; the main purpose of his writing was promoting goodness, virtue, tolerance and other human and Islamic values. His poetical works are free from any element of permissive-eness typical of poets. It is rather a poetry filled with concerns about the problems of the Muslim World. Al-Kiylānī was a well-known poet who left about nine books for us, six of them are published and four of them are unpublished. The published ones include: “Naḥwa’l-‘Ulā”̦“Aghānī al Ghurabā”̦Ᾱthār al-Shuhadā”̦ “Muhājir” Kaifa Alqāka” and “Madeenat al-kabāir”. The unpublished works include: “Al amal al-tareed”̦ “Lu᾿lu᾿at al Khalīj” and Ughnīyat al-Layl”. Al-Kiylānī’s poetical works are purposeful, depth, and mystical transparency which had a great influ-ence in the life of people that was one of the most splendid works. The poetry of Najīb al-Kiylānī, the writers notes are filled with an Islamic and sense of purpose.

Islamic Economic Redefinition and its Methodology Among Contemporary Thinkers


 
 
 
 
 Abstract: The Islamic economic crisis from an epistemological perspective has been going on in recent years, based on many Islamic economic figures' writings. Monzer Kahf argues about Islamic economics's definition that there is no agreement among Muslim economists about the definition of Islamic economics, its scope, its relation to conventional economics, analytical methods and instruments, and even some of its basic assumptions. They view that the Islamic economy epistemologically still needs to be studied, while this Study, which has been going on for 40 years, seems to be running in place. In this Study, researchers used a library research method. This aims to reveal the redefinition of Islamic economics from contemporary economists, the methodological crisis that has hit Islamic economics, and the urgency of developing Islamic economics methodology among contemporary thinkers. The essence of the urgency of developing methodologies and approaches in Islamic economics is tawhid. The central or core concept that permeates all aspects of the epistemology of Islamic economics is tawhid. Tawhîd is the essence of Islam; tawhîd is considered the unity of knowledge and can be broken down into sources, methods and scientific knowledge. Knowledge comes from Allah's revelations to His Prophet, and reasoning, perception, and empiricism. Because of al-Attas, God's first type of knowledge is through direct revelation. The second is through the speculation of rational investigations based on his experience of the plausible and understandable.
 
 
 
 

Theme and Lyricism: Two Considerations in the Islamic Writing Tradition Motivating Muslim Authors in Naming Their Works

Theme and Lyricism: Two Considerations in the Islamic Writing Tradition Motivating Muslim Authors in Naming Their Works

Comparative Analysis of Capital Punishment in the Hadd Offence of Riddah Vis-a-Vis the Offence of Espionage

Under Islamic law, all Islamic jurists held that riddah is a violation of the divine law. Riddah is established by the Quran and the hadith while its punishment is objectively rooted from the hadith. The punishment of riddah, according to the vast majority of Islamic jurists, is the death penalty. The Hadd offence of Riddah and its capital punishment is declared inconsistent with the universal principles and fundamental human rights by the family of 'civilized countries' coupled with a general heated argument against capital punishment. This has placed some 'liberal Muslims' on the adjacent line to the Hadd offence claiming its contradiction with ‘freedom of religion' known in Islamic law and absence of the express stipulation of the punishment in the Quran. Hence, this has led to a campaign for reformation of the hadd offence of riddah and Islamic law in whole. This poses a problem on the Muslim countries generally who are signatories to several International Human Rights treaties and Muslim scholars who adhered to the classical capital punishment on riddah. This has led various Islamic writers to compare the hadd offence of riddah with treason offence under the common law. The question of whether individual denunciation of Islam can amount to treason against the Islamic state becomes the critics’ pot of argument when the element of threat is lacking. The offence of espionage is a common-law offence which involves obtaining private information or secrets and disclosing that information to a foreign entity. Whether the disclosed information is useful or not, the offence stands against the individual spy and it attracts severe punishment including the death penalty. This offence is mostly used to ensure national security and loyalty. This work is aimed to justify the hadd offence of riddah and its punishment by comparing it with the offence of espionage and its punishment under common law. This will quench the claim of individualism among others raised by the critics. The analytical and doctrinal methodology will be adopted to ensure the justice of this work. Chapter one deals with a general introduction on the offences of riddah and espionage under Islamic and common law respectively couple with concept of capital punishment. Chapter two focuses on the hadd offence of riddah. Chapter three centres on offence of espionage. Chapter four compares and contrasts the offences of riddah and espionage. Nature of protection desired of the two offences, limitation to fundamental human rights, the concept of punishment and war under the two offences e.t.c. are the comparative elements used in this work. Through the above elements, this work will show the seriousness of ratio decidendi in the Hadd offence of Riddah and its higher degree over the offence of espionage. Therefore, if capital punishment is sustained in some cases of the offence of espionage, its sustainability in the Hadd offence of Riddah is more justified.

Dakwah Islam Melalui Karya Sastra

The Da'wah through literary works is based on Al-Quran surah Ali Imran verse 110. Da'wah through literary works, in this case, the writer or creator of literary works is an element of da'i. Religious points, both religious themes or messages are elements of the message of preaching. While literary works are the media of his da'wah. Da'wah through literary works will be most successful depending on the way the presentation and packaging it uses. Da'i who are competent to become Islamic writers are needed. This was to meet the challenges when many writers (writers) often turned away from religious literature and preferred to pursue liberalism or genital literature (exploiting sex). Therefore, a cadre of the preachers should be needed for proselytizing professionals through literary works. Need to conduct training based on "Da'wah and Literature". The trainings study theoretically and practically about da'wah through media literary works. The main goal is for the preachers to be both theoretically and practically skilled in preaching through.

Did Premodern Muslims Distinguish the Religious and Secular? The Dīn–Dunyā Binary in Medieval Islamic Thought

Abstract This article challenges the widely-held belief, within and outside academia, that premodern Muslims did not make a distinction between the religious and secular. I explore the issue by examining several usages of the dīn–dunyā binary across diverse genres of medieval Islamic writings and assessing to what extent it accords with or diverges from the categories of the religious and secular as commonly used in the modern Western world. I situate my particular counter-claim vis-à-vis the argument against the relevance of the religious–secular distinction to Islam made by Shahab Ahmed in his, What is Islam? The Importance of Being Islamic. My findings show that contrary to Ahmed and the broader consensus, premodern Muslims did in fact view the world in terms of distinct spheres of religion and non-religion and that this distinction was used to understand phenomena as diverse and significant as politics and prophethood. Nevertheless, the two categories interacted in a way distinct from the common understanding of the two in the modern world insofar as, under the medieval Islamic conception, it was religion that regulated the secular. My article will make sense of these similarities and differences in an effort to present an indigenous account of the religious–secular dialectic in medieval Islam, one that problematizes the current standard account which holds that these categories were invented within the modern West.

Universality Towards A New Theory of Islamic Literature

20. yüzyıl ortalarında, Ortadoğu ve özellikle Mısır’da İslami yazar ve entelektüeller etkin bir şekilde İslami edebiyatı isimlendirmekle meşguldüler. Bu konuda aralarında Seyyid Kutub, Muhammed Kutub ve Nejib el-Kilani’nin başlıca eserleri de bulunan birçok Arapça kitap kaleme alındı ve Malayca ve Endonezce dillerine çevrildi. Tüm bu eserler arasında, Muhammed Kutub’un İslam Düşüncesinde Sanat isimli kitabının Ahmed Kemal Abdullah, Şahnun Ahmed, Muhammed Kemal Hasan, İsmail İbrahim, Muhammed Buhari Lubis ve İslami edebiyat teorisi üreten diğer Malay yazarları üzerinde muazzam bir etkisi oldu. Bu makalede, “evrensellik” (el-‘âlemiyye) kavramına dayanan yeni bir İslami edebiyat teorisi önerilir. Makalenin birinci kısmında mevcut teoriler gözden geçirilirken sonuç kısmında İslami edebiyat kavramı, mesajı ve İslami edebiyatı diğer dünya edebiyatlarından ayıran yedi temel özellik gibi birçok konu tartışılır.

The Roots of Sayyid Qutb’s Qur’anic Studies, 1939 – 1947

The paper is an inquiry into the roots of Sayyid Qutb’s Qur’anic studies 1939 - 1947, which were to pave the way for his commitment to Islam and his emergence as a leading ideologue of the contemporary Islamic movement in Egypt, the Arab and Muslim worlds. Qutb’s Qur’anic commentary Fi Zilal ai-Qur’an (In the Shades of the Qur’an) which appeared first in early the 1950’s and his other controversial Islamic writings have become an integral part of current Islamic resurgence. And like other Muslim revolutionary writers, Qutb’s Islamic writings are grounded in and justified by quotations from the Qur’an. This is clearly seen in his major Islamic writings such as al-‘Adalah al-ijtima’iyah fi al- Islam (Social Justice in Islam) (1949). The paper tries to discuss Qutub’s literary career and concerned works to focus on them and to disseminate among the world leaders.

The Romanization of Qurʾānic Letters: An Argument for a Review in Light of ʿIlm al-Tağwīd and Modern Arabic Linguistics

Abstract More than ten Romanization schemes have been developed for Qurʾānic letters over time, and any transliteration of the Qurʾān follows one of these schemes. Islamic writers also adopt one of them when transliterating parts of the Qurʾān. Efforts were made in the past to develop a uniform system, but these have proved unsuccessful. This study highlights the need to harmonize such schemes and reviews the present transliteration methods for various Qurʾānic letters. It employs a descriptive method and reviews related library sources. In so doing, it demonstrates that there are various problems associated with having different transliteration schemes for Qurʾānic letters, and hence there is a need for a uniform scheme. It also shows that the transliteration of certain Qurʾānic letters do not, arguably, following the rules of both ʿIlm al-tağwīd and Modern Arabic linguistics, and so also calls for a review of the transliteration of those Qurʾānic letters in light of ʿIlm al-tağwīd and Modern Arabic linguistics.

Ibn Ḥabīb’s Kitāb al-MuḤabbar and its Place in Early Islamic Historical Writing

Ibn Ḥabīb’s Kitāb al-MuḤabbar and its Place in Early Islamic Historical Writing