Piety (Taqwa) is among the most important, influential, and comprehensive Qur’anic concepts. In this divine book, hardly any term can be found that is weightier or more inclusive than it. In Islam, politics—unlike secular and Machiavellian views that emphasize “power for the sake of power”—is founded on “power for the establishment of truth and justice.” Taqwa, as one of the most frequently used Qur’anic terms, is emphasized by Almighty God in many ways, which itself reflects the importance, virtue, and broad scope of this vital issue. Given the central importance of justice, the Holy Qur’an regards it as necessary in all matters, including fairness in speech, writing, judgment, politics, issuing commands, reconciling people, giving testimony, dealing justly among wives, and upholding justice in every aspect and stage of human life. This study explores the question of what effects Taqwa has on Islamic politics and what place social justice holds within this framework. It appears that in Islam, Taqwa has a profound impact on both Islamic politics and social justice. This article has been written using a descriptive-analytical method and is documented through reliable academic sources. The findings show that Islamic politics is not devoid of morality or inner spiritual values. Rather, the attention given by the holy religion of Islam—as a comprehensive religion—to issues essential to human society, including politics and social justice, is remarkably extensive. Taqwa and God-consciousness have positive, beneficial, and constructive effects

This study examines the significant influence of regional geopolitical dynamics on the evolution of Islamic law, emphasizing the consequences of legal policies and reforms in the Middle East for non-Arab Muslim countries, particularly Indonesia and Malaysia. Using a qualitative research design and a comparative case study approach, the research is grounded in a constructivist-interpretivist framework and draws on in-depth interviews with scholars, policymakers, journalists, and observers of Islamic politics. Public discourse, policy, and legal documents are also thoroughly analyzed. The study reveals that the evolution of Islamic law is shaped by both international geopolitical tensions and domestic political factors, with distinct manifestations, including conservative theocratic, revolutionary, ideological, secular-pragmatic, and modernist approaches. Notably, geopolitical rivalries in the Middle East have exacerbated sectarian divisions in the Islamic legal discourse. While, the application of Islamic law outside the region is increasingly being integrated into constitutional and democratic frameworks. By addressing the intersection of Islamic law, politics, and geopolitics, this research advocates for promoting moderate Islamic constitutionalism, fostering transnational legal pluralism, and advocating for a more distinct separation between religious and political interests. The study contributes novel perspectives on how Islamic law adapts and evolves in response to contemporary global political shifts, offering critical insights for policymakers and scholars engaged with legal and political transformation in the Muslim world.

The relationship between Islam and politics has remained a central theme in modern Islamic political discourse, particularly in response to colonialism, secularism, and moral crises in Muslim societies. This study aimed to examine the integrity of Islamic political thought in the perspectives of Hasan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb and to analyze how both thinkers conceptualized Islamic politics as an integrated system encompassing religion and state. The study employed a qualitative descriptive design with a library research approach, drawing on books, journal articles, and relevant digital sources. The findings indicate that Hasan al-Banna advanced a gradual and reformative approach through education, moral development, and organizational movements, viewing politics as an instrument for achieving social justice and public welfare based on Islamic values. By contrast, Sayyid Qutb adopted a more ideological and transformative perspective, introducing concepts such as hakimiyyah and modern jahiliyyah and advocating the comprehensive implementation of Sharia as the foundation of governance. Despite these differences in emphasis, both thinkers rejected the separation of religion and politics and maintained that Islam provides a comprehensive system regulating all aspects of life. The study concludes that the political thought of Hasan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb makes an important contribution to contemporary Islamic political discourse by underscoring the significance of moral integrity, social reform, and the integration of religious principles in governance as foundations for justice and societal well-being.

Digital platform capitalism has restructured market coordination through data extraction, algorithmic governance, network effects, and ecosystem integration. Contemporary competition law, grounded in the consumer welfare paradigm, evaluates market conduct primarily through price-based metrics that obscure structural asymmetries. This article addresses the gap between allocative efficiency and structural justice by developing Ethical Market Failure (EMF)—a structural extension of classical market failure theory capturing infrastructural concentration, dependency locking, and distributive asymmetry in platform dominated economies. Integrating digital competition scholarship with Islamic political economy, the study employs the Maqasid alShariah framework as a normative evaluative architecture. The classical institution of hisbah is reinterpreted as a governance logic informing regulatory oversight. Using Indonesia as a semi analytical empirical anchor, the article demonstrates how subsidy driven expansion, gig labor absorption, and ecosystem consolidation generate long-term structural distortions despite short-term consumer gains. This study contributes to platform governance debates by situating consumer welfare within a broader justice sensitive institutional hierarchy.

This article examines the reconstruction of disability-friendly fiqh kebangsaan (national Islamic jurisprudence) through a paradigmatic shift from the rukhsah (legal concession) approach to ‘azīmah (normative obligation) within the context of the Indonesian nation-state. Prevailing discourses on disability in classical Islamic jurisprudence predominantly frame persons with disabilities as recipients of individual dispensations, resulting in a charity-based approach that inadequately addresses systemic discrimination embedded in public policy, employment, and social institutions. Employing a normative-critical analysis of classical fiqh texts, legal maxims, national regulations, and international human rights instruments—particularly the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)—this study argues that the rukhsah paradigm must be transformed into an ‘azīmah-oriented framework that positions the state as an active duty-bearer in guaranteeing disability rights. The findings reveal three major insights: first, legal maxims such as al-mashaqqah tajlib al-taysīr and al-ḍarar yuzāl should not be narrowly interpreted as individual exemptions but rather as normative mandates for inclusive public policies; second, classical Islamic political jurisprudence has implicitly articulated state responsibility toward vulnerable groups, although this dimension has not been systematically developed in contemporary fiqh discourse; and third, the integration of fiqh kebangsaan with principles of social justice and international human rights law produces a jurisprudential model oriented toward empowerment rather than benevolence. This article concludes that the ‘azīmah approach is more contextually relevant to Indonesia and aligns with both maqāṣid al-sharī‘ah and substantive justice. Policy recommendations include strengthening derivative legislation of the Disability Law, allocating inclusive public budgets, and enhancing the institutional authority of the National Disability Commission.

ABSTRACT The relationship between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the West has been a contentious issue for decades. Given that Iran’s Supreme Leader holds the highest authority in foreign policy, examining Ayatollah Khamenei’s views can offer valuable insights into the dynamics of this relationship. Ayatollah Khamenei’s political thought is rooted in a specific interpretation of Islam, known as political Islam, as defined by Ayatollah Khomeini. In this article, the main question is: What are the roots of Ayatollah Khamenei’s attitude towards the West? The hypothesis is that Ayatollah Khamenei’s view of the West is primarily civilizational rather than nationalist. Ayatollah Khamenei perceives a fundamental hostility between Islam and the West, very much similar to what Huntington argues in his ‘Clash of Civilizations’ theory. The authors employ discourse analysis as a methodological and theoretical framework to examine Ayatollah Khamenei’s civilizational perspective on the relation with the West.

ABSTRACT Translated by Maureen Freely and engaging with timely themes such as political Islam, Snow (2004) marked a major breakthrough for Pamuk as a representative of a smaller literature. A lesser-known fact, however, is that the British and American editions of the novel, published by Faber and Faber and Knopf, display notable differences. This study offers a critical comparative analysis of these shifts and problematizes them as editorial interventions that undermine the translator’s agency. As tangible outcomes of the editing processes to which Freely’s translation was subjected on both sides of the Atlantic, these shifts stem not only from distinctions between British and American English, but also reveal how translations may be reshaped by powerful actors in the publishing sector. Such actors seek to impose their own “horizon of expectations” and perceptions of small literatures. Editing thus becomes a negotiation among editors, copy editors, and translators, demonstrating their power to significantly change translations on a global scale.

ABSTRACT In the 2023 election cycle, the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) long-lasting dominance was challenged by emerging Islamist parties, including the New Welfare Party (YRP), the Free Cause Party (HÜDA-PAR), the Felicity Party (SP), and the Future Party (GP). This article examines the growing polarisation within Turkish political Islam, which split into two main blocs in 2023: populist Islamists in the ruling People’s Alliance and liberal Islamists in the opposition Nation’s Alliance. These five parties diverged on three core issues: a) the meaning of democracy, b) the political system and horizontal accountability, and c) the role of elections and meaning of dissent. The study shows how ideological convictions shaped these alliances, highlighting Islamism’s flexible, pluralistic, and evolving role in Turkish politics.

This article examines the concept of political character in the thought of Muhammad ‘Imarah, emphasizing its role as the ethical foundation of political legitimacy in Islam. Responding to modern political reductionism that separates power from morality, the study argues that ‘Imarah conceptualizes Islamic politics not as an ideology of power or merely a legal-formal system, but as an ethical praxis grounded in tawhid, trust (amanah),justice, and human moral responsibility as khal?fah. Employing a qualitative library research method with a normative-philosophical approach and intellectual history, this study analyzes ‘Imarah’s major works in dialogue with classical and contemporary Islamic political thinkers, particularly al-Mawardi, Fazlur Rahman, and Alija Izetbegovi?. The findings demonstrate that ‘Im?rah advances Islamic political thought beyond prevailing normative discourses by reorienting fiqh al-siyasah from an institutional and stability-centered paradigm toward a critical political ethics in which moral character constitutes the primary source of political legitimacy. By articulating the concept of al-dawlah al-madaniyyah bi marja‘iyyah islamiyyah, ‘Imarah offers a mediating framework that challenges both normative secularism and Islamic political formalism, thereby enriching contemporary debates on the ethical foundations of governance in Muslim societies. While his framework remains largely normative-philosophical and lacks detailed institutional elaboration for modern political systems, this limitation underscores the article’s contribution in repositioning Islamic political ethics as a dynamic field of moral critique rather than a fixed legal or ideological project. Ultimately, this study contributes to contemporary Islamic political ethics by proposing a character-based, humanistic, and justice-oriented model of political legitimacy that responds to ongoing ethical crises in modern Muslim politics.

Objectives: This study aims to examine how Islamic ecotheology is constructed within political Islamic movements in Indonesia, particularly focusing on the rise of green radicalism. It explores how Qur’anic ecological verses are politicized by radical groups to criticize democracy and promote the caliphate system. Theoretical framework: The study uses Althusser’s ideology theory and Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis to analyze how ecological narratives are politicized. It also introduces the Radical Ideological Ecotheological (EIR) Model, combining maqāṣid al-sharī‘ah and SDGs frameworks. Literature review: A systematic review of 42 articles highlights the politicization of Qur’anic ecological verses by political groups and the intersection of Islamic ecotheology with global sustainability discussions. Method: The study employs a systematic literature review (SLR) of 42 articles, using Althusser’s ideology theory and Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis to analyze how radical movements utilize ecological narratives. Result: Radical groups selectively use Qur’anic ecological verses to criticize democracy and advocate for a caliphate. The study introduces the Radical Ideological Ecotheological (EIR) Model, which integrates Islamic law objectives (maqāṣid al-sharī‘ah) with the SDGs framework. Implications: The study suggests practical ways to strengthen ecological literacy in Islamic education, promoting an understanding of Islamic teachings on ecology within the global sustainability discourse. Novelty: The introduction of the Radical Ideological Ecotheological (EIR) Model and the integration of Islamic ecotheology with the SDGs framework offer a new perspective on how radical movements politicize Islamic teachings on ecology.

Infrastructure shapes a nation’s landscape and promotes socio-economic progress, thereby fostering a sense of sacredness essential to nation-building. China has contributed to this sense of sacredness in Bangladesh through active involvement in its infrastructure development. Along with the rise of political Islam, Bangladesh has experienced significant economic growth, enabling large-scale infrastructure investments. Notably, this riverine country has heavily invested in building bridges due to their cultural and economic importance. The article examines the sacredness associated with infrastructure, exemplified by the Padma Bridge, a recent landmark and symbol of Bangladesh.

This article examines the structural limitation of authority exercised by the Papuan People’s Assembly (Majelis Rakyat Papua -MRP), a cultural representative institution established under Indonesia’s Special Autonomy framework. Despite its strong moral and cultural legitimacy to protect the identity and fundamental rights of Indigenous Papuans, MRP’s authority remains largely procedural, creating a persistent gap between its normative mandate and practical influence in regional governance. Existing studies tend to frame this limitation as an administrative or political issue, leaving its normative and theoretical dimensions underexplored. This study offers a conceptual reconstruction of MRP’s authority through the lens of Siyasah Syar’iyyah, employed as a normative governance framework rather than a merely ethical reference. Using a normative juridical method that integrates conceptual, statutory, and historical approaches, the research develops a prescriptive model grounded in the principles of al-maslahah (public welfare), al-‘adl (justice), and hifz al-‘ird (protection of dignity). The findings demonstrate that this framework enables a redefinition of MRP from a symbolic cultural body into a substantive guardian of Indigenous interests with strengthened consultative authority possessing normative effects. The article contributes by bridging Islamic political jurisprudence and indigenous governance, while offering a normative-institutional basis for enhancing cultural justice within Papua’s Special Autonomy system.

This article takes an unstudied Urdu tazkirah, the Tahrīk-e Pakistan aur Ḳhavātīn, written by a purdah nashīn (veiled) Muslim woman, and analyses it to challenge presumptions about ‘lay’ women’s historianship in a South Asian context. It does so by elaborating the historical value of this quasi-autobiographical text, premised upon its author’s reconstruction of a national selfhood, by reminiscing about her belonging to a women’s collective whose activism was sustained by an emotional sisterhood between them. Tracing these affective attachments and solidarities brings out a lesser-known history of emotions connected to the lived experience of nationalism and women’s assimilation into the qaum (nation) as a gendered group formation characterised by its distinct sociability and performativity in the public sphere. In this way, this history illuminates an emotional formation of the qaum that deserves attention as much as the qaum of a high Muslim politics on the eve of Independence in India.

The Issue of the Source of Political Knowledge: Epistemological Foundations of Secular and Islamic Political Thought

The Paradox of the Secular State: Subtle Islamophobia and the Securitization of Political Islam in Muslim-Majority Bangladesh

This study examines how Chinese Muslims in Jember, Indonesia, negotiate their unique position as an ethnic minority within a religious majority through the lens of fiqh al-siyasah (Islamic political jurisprudence). Using a qualitative approach that combines in-depth interviews with community leaders, participant observation, and documentary analysis, the research reveals three main patterns of political expression: a response of avoidance justified by the principle of preventing means to ends, an adaptive response rooted in expediency through strategic alignment with the Nahdlatul Ulama and limited individual participation. At the socio-religious level, Chinese Muslims have devised a complex dual-identity strategy that preserves Chinese cultural authenticity and Islamic orthodoxy through the creative application of the principles of custom, the distinction between custom and worship, and the architectural-ritual synthesis embodied in the Muhammad Cheng Ho Mosque. Their positions on contemporary theological-political issues—the Ahok blasphemy case, the call for a caliphate, fundamentalist movements, and Indonesian democracy—demonstrate a sophisticated application of political jurisprudence concepts, including siyasah syar’iyah, maqasid al-sharia, istihsan and istishlah. The study contributes theoretically by expanding fiqh siyasah to include ‘composite minorities’—ethnic minorities within religious majorities—and practically by showing how classical fiqh principles can provide a flexible yet sound framework for Muslim minorities navigating complex pluralistic contexts. The findings confirm that Islamic jurisprudence is inherently dynamic and contextual (rulings change with changing circumstances) and that creative cultural-religious synthesis can achieve social integration without compromising doctrinal fundamentals.

This research aims to examine money politics as a form of abuse of power during elections in Indonesia. It analyzes the phenomenon through the perspective of fiqh siyasah, employs a qualitative literature-based method, and proposes normative Islamic solutions, that frequently occurs during elections in Indonesia, and to explore how this practice is viewed in Fiqh Siyasah (Islamic political jurisprudence), which regards money politics as risywah (bribery), a practice prohibited due to its contradiction with the values of justice, trustworthiness, and public welfare. This study employs a qualitative method using a literature review approach. Data were obtained through the exploration and analysis of classical Islamic literature, such as Fiqh books, as well as contemporary references that discuss similar topics. The analytical technique used is descriptive-analytical in order to explore and understand the Islamic perspective on money politics through the lens of Fiqh Siyasah. The findings indicate that money politics not only undermines the integrity of democracy but also fosters corruption, worsens the quality of leadership, and er and erodes public trust in the government system. As a solution, Fiqh Siyasah offers both preventive and curative measures, such as the promotion of Islamic political ethics education, strict law enforcement, involvement of religious scholars in political oversight, and the optimization of Zakat and Infak as legitimate and transparent sources of political financing

Turkish society is claimed to have progressed through a continuous confrontation between secularism and Islamist politics (or political Islam) since its inception as a republic. However, it is an important question to investigate how constitutionally a rigid secularist country like Turkey has been governed by pro-Islamist JDP and its leader Erdogan since 2002 and what accounted for this transformation in Turkish society and public perception. This article begins with the military coup of 1980, which was uniquely distinct and most ambitious in Turkish history as it unfolded a favorable environment for right-wing political parties to win over the people through political maneuvering. Henceforth, this article is an attempt to analyze this paradigm shifting that has transpired from Kemalist secularism to Islamist politics since the 1980s. Notably, the Turkish military, traditionally despite being the ultimate protector of Kemalist secularism, began to promote Islam to counteract leftist ideologies, a strategy further strengthened by Turgut Özal’s liberal economic policies that integrated Islam into national identity, eventually provided a new momentum for Islamists to evolve in the 1980s. After analyzing the various factors that precipitated the dramatic rise of pro-Islamist Welfare Party (WP) in the 1990s, this paper ultimately aims to examine the rise of JDP and Erdogan in 2002 by employing a populist strategy, such as framing themselves as ‘conservative democrats’ as opposed to focusing solely on religion and also Erdogan’s creeping Islamization and authoritarianism through ‘New Turkey’ project

This article examines the historical and political dynamics between secularism and Islamism in the context of modern Turkey, with a focus on two central figures: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Atatürk, as the founder of the Republic of Turkey, established the foundations of the state based on principles of secularism and Western modernism, including the abolition of the Caliphate and reforms in law, education, and public symbols. In contrast, Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) have integrated Islam into national identity through policy reforms, education, and historical discourse. Drawing on perspectives from the politics of religion and political sociology, and employing conceptual frameworks such as Public Religion and Political Islam, this article adopts a qualitative research approach based on library research and Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis to trace the relationship between discourse, power, and the construction of national identity, as well as the ideological dynamics between secular and religious groups in Turkey’s contemporary public sphere. The findings indicate that despite their differing approaches to religion, both Atatürk and Erdoğan employed centralized and symbolic forms of power to shape national narratives. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of state–religion relations in the politics of the modern Muslim world, offering a critical reflection on the future of democracy, pluralism, and religious freedom in Turkey.

This study analyzes Muhammad Asad's Islamic political thought, which seeks to unite Islamic spiritual values with modern political thought. Asad rejects the limited view that considers Islam merely a ritualistic religion, and asserts that Islam is a value system that governs various aspects of life, including politics and government. Using a qualitative approach and library research methods, this study explores Asad's ideas on the Islamic state, democracy and shura, social justice, and the interaction between religion and the state. The findings of this study show that Asad views the Islamic state as an ethical entity that upholds justice, the rule of law, and moral responsibility. The concept of shura is understood as a type of moral democracy based on the values of justice and public participation. Asad also emphasizes that social justice is an important aspect of Islamic government that supports the welfare of society. Asad's thinking rejects both extreme secularism and absolute theocracy, and offers a model of Islamic politics that is rational, participatory, and based on morality. The relevance of this thinking lies in its ability to provide solutions to the crisis of ethics and justice in modern politics through a combination of spirituality and rationality in government.