Modern Muslim Research Articles

From Tradition to Modernity and Vice Versa

Mahmoud Muhammad Taha (1909–1985) was the most original Muslim modernist reformist of the twentieth century. His book The Second Message of Islam is a work that, on the one hand, reflects a deep and genuine Islamic experience and, on the other, engages boldly and creatively with the predicament and the challenges of modernity. Taha developed his idea of progressive Islam by drawing upon the spiritual fountains of tradition in order to promote the relevance and viability of the message of Islam within the modern world. And this he did with integrity; and this he paid with his life… The present article attempts to show the transactions between tradition and modernity operative in the work of Taha, based on his insightful hermeneutics of the Qur’an and the Hadith. The final aim of the article is to put forward all of Taha’s major ideas—albeit not in any kind of exhaustive manner—namely, Mecca over Medina revelations, the inversion of naskh, the concept of evolution in Islam, the intention of Revelation and the ethico-religious core of Islam, as nothing less than a desperate plea for justice.

The Role of Mass Communication & Globalization in Global Islamic Perspective Futuristic and Predictive Study of Modern Muslim World

The analysis mainly deals with the processing of the qualitative data that is collected from the secondary method. The data analysis process involves collecting the qualitative data pertaining to the concept of globalization and mass communication. In accordance with the literature review, the data analysis would be analyzing the concept of globalization in light of Islam and its teachings. The data analysis would mainly be analyzing the literature obtained from the past research, news article and website. The data analysis would be mainly be looking for the concept of globalization and mass communication and its significance in light of the Islam perspective.[1] Hence the analysis technique is content analysis. The article mainly focused on the contemporary academic and media approach toward different modules of mass communication. The integration of the philosophical legacy of antiquity in the Islamic world was a major enabling factor in the use of philosophical tradition among Muslim intellectuals. It gave rise to figures such as al-Farabi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ibn Rushd (Averroes), and others, who became well-known to mediaeval Europe as philosophers, commentators and exponents of the classical tradition going back to Plato and Aristotle. The public discourse of 'adab, grounded in philosophical and moral language and concerns, represents a significant part of the cosmopolitan heritage of ethics in Islam and reflects efforts to reconcile religiously and scripturally derived values with an intellectually and morally based ethical foundation. The Muslim philosophical tradition of ethics is therefore doubly significant: for its value in continuing and enhancing classical Greek philosophy and for its commitment to synthesizing Islam and philosophical thought.
 

The Independent Sunnah in Legislation among Mohadith?ns and Modernists: an analytical study

This study discusses the issue of the independent Sunnah in legislation from a specific aspect, which is the position of the muhdithin and the position of the modernists towards it. The first trend which includes the majority of hadith and Usul scholars who approves the authority of the independent Sunnah in legislation, and approves that the Prophet possesses the authority of clarification and legislation. The second trend which includes the majority of the Muslim modernist distinguishes between the description of prophethood and the Messangerhood. They confine revelation to the Messenger not to the prophet. They consider prophethood is only a field for the application of revelation. They claim that the independent Sunnah is part of those prophetic applications. This claim ends with stating its Historicism and denying its legislative status. The study discusses these opinions and it concludes that the opinion of Hadith scholars is based on strong evidences. The study clarifies the flaws of the modernist trend that deprives the Sunnah from one of its important legislative aspects without sufficient evidence.

Muslim Subjectivities in Global Modernity: Islamic Traditions and the Construction of Modern Muslim Identities by Dietrich Jung and Kirstine Sinclair: Brill: Leiden, 2020

<i>Muslim Subjectivities in Global Modernity: Islamic Traditions and the Construction of Modern Muslim Identities</i> by Dietrich Jung and Kirstine Sinclair: Brill: Leiden, 2020

EFFICIENCY OF IMPLEMENTING SANCTIONS IN CASE OF POLYGAMY IN THE MODERN ISLAMIC WORLD

Reform of family law is necessary, and this has become a trend in the renewal of Islamic family law in the modern world. One of the themes studied is the application of legal sanctions (criminalization). Criminalization is a product of modern law, which is very different from the fiqh law, which refers to society. In this study, polygamy is the theme that will be discussed. How is the implementation of criminal sanctions in cases of polygamy in some modern Muslim countries? The country objects that are the focus of the study are Indonesia, Malaysia, and Tunisia. The study approach uses a comparative approach, including vertical comparison (state law-classical legal doctrine), horizontal comparison (Law between countries), diagonal comparison (level of legal dynamics). Results in two conclusions that polygamy as a study of Islamic family law is a private matter and a public issue, so it requires firmness of sanctions. There are two views that polygamy law is prohibited and allowed with conditions, as for those who prohibit it, Tunisia by imposing criminal sanctions and those who allow it on condition that Indonesia and Malaysia, by imposing light sanctions.&#x0D; &#x0D;

ISLĀTTIL PEṆKAḶIṈ URIMAIKAḶ: ORU KŌṬPĀṬṬU RĪTIYILĀṈA PĀRVAI [WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN ISLAM: A THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE

The Spiritual, political, economic, and social rights of women are discussed at various levels. However, violence and oppression against women continue to increase. The charisma of Islam on women's rights is very strong. Thus, the study aimed at examining the concept of Islam in respect of women with the help of its primary sources, Holy Quran, and al-Hadith. Based on the review of the earlier literatures, the study was conducted with the analysis of the research articles, books and internet information on feminism along with information on the spiritual, social, economic and political rights of women found in the primary sources of Islam, classical Islamic literatures and the written works of modern Muslim scholars. The major finding of this study is that although the primary sources of Islam have a history of more than 1400 years, Islam has given proper guidelines for the complete guarantee of women's rights in the modern world and women have enjoyed them in the early Muslim community. This study will be a supportive to future studies based on the concept of Islam on women.

Bringing Rationality Back: Harun Nasution and the Burden of Muslim Thought in Twentieth-Century Southeast Asia

Debates over the purported decline of Muslim intellectual life and scholarship have been featured in the writings of modern Muslim reformers for over two centuries. This article examines the writings of the Indonesian Islamic scholar Harun Nasution (1919–1998), focusing on his interest in the role of rationalism among Muslims in twentieth-century Southeast Asia. I argue that in response to a perceived decline in Muslim intellectual life and discourse, Nasution sought to promote the recovery of what he termed “dynamic Islamic rationality.” In his works, Nasution depicted “dynamic Islamic rationality” as a type of rationalism that reconsiders the scope of revelation, rehabilitates received approaches to Islamic interpretive traditions, and promotes a reformed theology responsive to the modern context of twentieth-century Southeast Asia.

Concept of Dua in Iqbal’s Persian Ghazal

Among modern Muslim Thinkers, Perhaps, Iqbal is the most distinctive one Iqbal’s Purpose was absolutely different from that of Poets i. general he did not compose verses for the sake of fun. He did not create are for arts’s sake. He was the man of faith and vision, and a great philosophical poet of contemporary age. He had realized the Quranic concepts strongly. He explained these concepts in his Urdu, Persian poetry in a unique Style. The importance of Dua/ prayer in the poetry of Iqbal and the right way to follow the Islamic beliefs have been told in these pages.

Ibn Rushd in the Context of the Modern Muslim Civilizational Awakening: A Critical &amp; Analytical Study

Ibn Rushd in the Context of the Modern Muslim Civilizational Awakening: A Critical &amp; Analytical Study

Overview of Securitization in the Dynamics of Relations between Saudi Arabia and the Muslim Brotherhood Post-Arab Spring

Pada Maret 2014, Arab Saudi, melalui keputusan kerajaan, menetapkan Muslim Brotherhood (MB) sebagai organisasi teroris. Keputusan ini telah memengaruhi dinamika geopolitik Timur Tengah hingga hari ini karena Arab Saudi merupakan salah satu aktor kuat di kawasan. Penetapan MB sebagai organisasi teroris merupakan respons pemerintah Saudi atas keterlibatan MB dalam Arab Spring 2011 serta adanya dugaan Saudi mengenai keterlibatan MB dalam lengsernya Presiden Mesir Hosni Mubarak dan berbagai aksi protes anti-pemerintah yang menyebar di beberapa negara Timur Tengah. Saudi tidak selalu melihat MB sebagai sebuah ancaman. Ada masa ketika hubungan keduanya pernah berlangsung secara harmonis, sehingga dalam kasus ini telah terjadi pergeseran persepsi. Tulisan ini menganalisis fenomena tersebut dengan menggunakan Teori Sekuritisasi dengan memasukan komponen-komponen sekuritisasi sebagai kerangka analisis. Penulis berargumen bahwa semakin menguatnya MB dalam panggung politik Timur Tengah dengan upayanya menerapkan ideologi muslim modernis dan menawarkan demokrasi melalui sebuah revolusi merupakan penyebab pergeseran persepsi Arab Saudi terhadap MB.

Mernissi, F. (1987). Beyond the veil: Male-female dynamics in modern Muslim society

In Beyond the veil: Male–female dynamics in modern Muslim society, Mernissi explores the impact of modernization on the social order in Morocco in the early 1970s, which was traditionally built on segregation and patriarchal understandings of Shariah law. Divided into two parts, the book begins with the traditional Muslim view of women and the social order through an analysis of the Qur’an and hadiths. Using Imam Ghazali’s concept of sexuality, Mernissi illustrates how this concept, and our understanding of it, resulted in inequalities between the sexes, as well as the belief that the social order is dependent upon women as a consequence of their active female sexuality. Social order is described as being “secured when the woman limits herself to her husband and does not create fit, or chaos, by enticing other men to illicit intercourse” (Mernissi, 1987, p.39).

Buddhism according to Modern Muslim Exegetes

Abstract This paper offers preliminary notes on Buddhism in modern Muslim exegesis with an emphasis on Tafsir al-Qasimi by Muhammad Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi (1866–1914) and al-Mizan fi Tafsir al-Qurʾan by Muhammad Husayn Tabatabaʾi (1892–1981). The research adopts a qualitative design using content analysis to collect the data. In this paper two main questions regarding both exegetes will be explored. The first question concerns the sources of both scholars for their information about Buddhism by including the discussion in their exegesis. The second question concerns the methodology they used to discuss Buddhism in the Qurʾan since this has not been done by any classical exegetes nor among the most modern exegetes. Studies have found that the approach of the two exegetes is different from both the classical and modern exegetes because their work also contains resources from the fields of comparative religion and the history of religion to make their work relevant in the current context and reliable to be referred to by any parties. The author concludes that both al-Qasimi and Tabatabaʾi used analysis (taḥlil) in discussing verses related to the position of the Buddha.

Evidence Laws in Sharia and the Impact of Modern Technology and DNA Testing

Sharia has continuously developed since Islam’s inception in the seventh century CE. This article focuses on hudud criminal law evidentiary requirements, particularly adultery, and critically assesses the impact of modern technology on these laws. Many modern Muslim states implementing Sharia or a part of it are struggling to incorporate technological advancements into their criminal evidence rules. In assessing the desirability of updating Sharia proofs, it is established that modern technology can be comfortably incorporated as circumstantial proof in Sharia under the legal concept of ijtihad. Such proof, however, means it cannot be used to prove hudud crimes, such as adultery, which would contravene objectives of Sharia, hudud, and Sharia privacy principles. Consequently, while modern technology can be incorporated within Sharia evidence laws, there are restrictions on its use due to the unique aspects of hudud and its Sharia objectives.&#x0D; Modern technology, such as DNA testing, may be used as paternity verification at a wife’s request to establish her innocence in li’an cases or to prove paternity under family and civil laws to provide maternal and child welfare rights. A number of modern Muslim jurisdictions are currently grappling with these issues, using creative approaches in combining modern legislation with Sharia principles.&#x0D; This article argues there is no discrepancy between retaining immutable Sharia laws while simultaneously updating other laws and procedures, including the integration of modern technology.

The Phenomenon of Muslim Modernist Journalism in Russia (80-90 Years of The XIX Century)

The innovations that steadily penetrated the life of domestic Muslims (Tatars, Bashkirs, Azerbaijanis, Kazakhs, etc.) demanded religious sanctions for compliance with the canons of Islam due to the specifics of their traditional way of life. An important role in the formation of public opinion regarding the ongoing changes was played by Muslim and modernist-oriented Russian-language journalism, which was most clearly manifested in the 80-90s of XIX century. The aim of the research undertaken by us is to determine the main trends in the formation and development of Muslim modernist Russian-language journalism and to identify the range of the main issues raised. As a result of their analysis of the works by Muslim modernists, the authors came to the conclusion that Muslim publicists managed to bring Islamic modernist discourse to the all-Russian level, to convey in a common language to multiethnic co-religionists their call: to go beyond confessional limitations and join the achievements of world civilization. They turned to scientific argumentation in their justification along with the traditional appeal to sacred texts.

SHARĪʿA AS STATE LAW: AN ANALYSIS OF ʿALLĀL AL-FĀSĪ’S CONCEPT OF THE OBJECTIVES OF ISLAMIC LAW

AbstractThis article presents and evaluates the legal thought of Muhammad ʿAllāl al-Fāsī (1910–1974) with a focus on his discourse on the objectives of Sharīʿa and the motives behind his reformulation of these objectives within the broader context of his political agenda. Al-Fāsī's concerns were not purely academic. As a political leader who struggled for the independence of his country and as a decision maker within the newly established Moroccan state, his theorization of Islamic law departed from traditional and modern efforts to negotiate the supposed status of Sharīʿa within the institutional structures of postcolonial Muslim states. The questions engaged in this article are to what extent did al-Fāsī's contribution to Maqāṣid go beyond its classical reformulations as represented by the Andalusian Māliki jurist Ibrāhīm Ibn Mūsā Abū Isḥāq al-Shāṭibī (d. AH 790/1388 CE) in his seminal work, Al-Muwāfaqāt fī Uṣūl al-Sharīʿa, and whether al-Fāsī's work represents a turn in the field of Maqāṣid when compared with that of other modern Muslim jurists, among them Muhammad al-Ṭāhir Ibn ʿĀshūr (1886–1970). This article focuses on al-Fāsī's book on Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿa, Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿa al-Islāmiyya wa Makārimuhā, and its contribution to the ongoing efforts to accommodate Islamic law within the corpus of modern secular laws.

Lagging Behind Others?: An Exploration of Muslims’ Educational Outlook in Modern Times

In this paper I explore how modern Muslims’ educational outlook has been affected by colonial disruptions of the past and coloniality of the present. Focusing on the case of colonial India and modern-day Pakistan, I explore how the colonial intrusion in India dichotomized local Muslim education into two separate, divergent domains: religious and secular, a division that remains intact to date. When a contemporary Pakistani Muslim contemplates the purpose of education, he/she confronts two dominant discourses: 1) secular education discourses that advocate economic growth and catching up with the West as the ultimate purpose of education, and 2) dominant religious discourses that advocate salvation in the hereafter as the ultimate goal of education. Through semi-structured interviews of university students in Pakistan, I explored how students make sense of these divergent discourses. I found that students (with a mainstream secular educational background) tend to make a distinction between the purpose of life (which they associate with religion) and the purpose of education (which they associate with worldly pursuits). I argue that this outlook of a difference between the purpose of life and that of education undermines the cultivation of the self that can make a meaningful contribution to knowledge and society. Furthermore, I explore contemporary ideas and practices of knowledge contribution and question the rampant epistemic hegemony of the West in the academic publication enterprise. I point out that the prevailing coloniality of knowledge amplifies the disorientation of Muslims’ educational outlook and hence injury to the modern Muslim self.

APOSTASY: IS IT HUMAN RIGHTS OR/AND FREEDOM OF RELIGION?

This study investigates the issue of apostasy or riddahor as a human right to freedom of religion or belief, especially among the Muslims. The purpose is to examine the question of whether apostasy should be recognized by modern Muslim states and societies as a human right that must be guaranteed for their citizens. Or, should it strictly be denied, thus freedom of religion or belief should not be extended to apostasy for Muslims and Muslim converts? The method used to complete the study is historical research and content analysis. This study showed that the call for recognition of apostasy as a human right is indeed influenced by the West which extremely enjoys freedom of belief or religion. As for Islam, apostasy is indeed contradictory with its teachings. This article is meaningful as it highlights the Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights (UIDHR) which speaks on religious freedom with limitations. UIDHR invariably attempts to match the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) that recognizes the right to believe in whatever men want or to change their religion as they wish, at any time.

Rendering Whiteness Palatable: The Acceptable Muslim in an Era of White Rage

In this paper, I analyze the perspectives of the Acceptable Muslim (Kassam, 2018)in two Canadian case studies: (a) Irshad Manji, a Canadian Muslim journalist and activist who has been an active commentator on a variety of issues including those related to Muslims; and (b) the CBC sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie (2007-2012), which was the first Canadian mainstream television series featuring Muslim characters. I suggest that these case studies illuminate the figure of the Acceptable Muslim (Kassam, 2018)who is represented as a “moderate,” modern, and assimilable Muslim, and who espouses a privatized faith with few public expressions of religious/cultural belonging. Centrally implicated in Canadian debates about multiculturalism, gender equality, citizenship, and secularism, Acceptable Muslims (re)confirm the racial boundaries of the nation-state, becoming icons of multiculturalism, reanimating the whiteness at the heart of the Canadian nation-state. The Acceptable Muslim sustains the narrative of the Canadian nation-state as liberal, secular, modern, and inclusive even as it relentlessly excludes, punishes, and eliminates the Muslim Other, enabling such policies to be legitimated as “race-neutral.” Acceptable Muslims stand as sentries at the (symbolic) borders of the nation, reanimating racialized boundaries of acceptability and signalling that those beyond these boundaries can be legitimately policed by the nation-state. My analysis provides insights into how Canada has re-configured the power and persistence of its white fantasy and, through the strategic use of the Acceptable Muslim, cloaks its deeply racialized coding in more palatable grammars of multiculturalism, gender equality, and secularism.

Hijab of modern Muslims: tradition or fashion?

The article analyzes the role and place of hijab in the daily life of Muslims. The types of head dresses of Muslim women from various regions of the world are considered within the framework of the article. The paper highlights the most distinctive similarities and contradictions of the head dresses worn with the norms of classical Islam described in the Quran. It also discloses the fashion trends of world brands’ special series producing clothes complying with Islamic standards. It reveals domestic contradictions arising in a society because of wearing a hijab, as well as mentions protest movements that arose in the Islamic world in connection with the need to comply with the dress code, taking into account not only the norms of traditional Islam, but also the norms of local traditions (adates) that affect the clothes of women in Muslim regions of the world. The research also considers the rights of women to wear religious paraphernalia and clothing for representatives of any faith. It reveals the peculiarities of hijab wearing and Muslim women’s mixed attitude towards this problem.

PERMISSIBILITY OF SURROGACY IN ISLAMIC LAW

The issue on Surrogacy has been a much debatable one from the Shariah perspective since mid-1980s and is still being discussed. Shariah shows the Islamic way of life, where medicine plays an integral part. The Prophet Muhammad founded a medical tradition in relation to human beings in their totality in which the spiritual, the psychological, and the physical were considered from social milieu as well. Marriage being half of the religion, as described by the Prophet, children are also considered as great and blessed gift of Allah. On the other hand, Literal meaning of the word ‘surrogate’ is ‘substitute’ or ‘replacement’. A ‘surrogate mother’ is therefore a substitute or tentative mother who is willing to bear child for another woman. The idea and process of surrogate motherhood, where a woman acts as an incubator for another couple for payment or otherwise, is vehemently rejected and condemned by most of the modern Muslim scholars. This issue was first addressed at the seventh session of the Muslim World League’s Islamic Fiqh Council meeting in 1404 AH/1985 CE, wherein the following year, the Council permitted fertilisation of the zygote only among married couples but with certain conditions. The Council however retracted its earlier views on permitting surrogacy among co-wives of the same husband.1 Similarly, the Fiqh Council of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in 1986 concluded that surrogacy could be permissible only between married couples and under certain conditions. Many Muslim scholars consider it a form of unlawful sexual intercourse (zina). Others quote a large number of verses and traditions to show that such an act runs counter to the intention of the Lawgiver, and it also opposes the laws of nature determined by the Almighty. View of Islamic jurists (Fatwas) seems to be absolute regarding traditional surrogacy that it is strictly forbidden but when it comes to gestational surrogacy, (the embryo is actually created by using the ova and sperm of the commissioning couple), there is no absolute prohibition or permission under Shari’ah (Islamic Law). The paper argues that none of the arguments given by the modern scholars against the legal validity of surrogate motherhood are sound. The implication of the texts they quote is not what is intended by these scholars. In fact, there is nothing in the texts or even the writings of the jurists that opposes this process. There may also be arguments in Islamic legal literature that would encourage such a process. The paper also argues that surrogate motherhood may be declared valid with certain conditions. This paper attempts to build a self-contained argument vis-a-vis infertility and surrogacy from Sunni-Islamic perspectives, taking into account socio-cultural and psychological aspects of this issue. Conversely this paper contends that surrogacy and the process thereof does not fall under the definition of zinā, since the evidences given by these Islamic scholars–against the illegitimacy of child and surrogate parenthood–have no foundations in this juncture to declare the practice of surrogacy as adultery and the resulting baby as an illegitimate. This research paper discusses the validity of gestational surrogacy under shari’ah and recommends some measures to establish limits to avoid social disorders & anomalies in surrogate parenting that outweigh any of its expected benefits to the human society.