Religious Duty Research Articles

Religious and Socioeconomic Implications of Islamic Insurance: A Review

In this paper, our purpose is to evaluate religious and socioeconomic implication of Islamic insurance to the society. Islamic insurance i.e. takaful is a form of protection and wealth preservation method based on the principles of mutual cooperation, encompassing the elements of Shari’ah compliancy such as prohibitions of riba (interest/usury), gharar (uncertainty) and maysir (gambling), while upholding the virtue of mudharabah (profit sharing), wakalah (trusted agency), tabarru’ (donation/charity) and ta’awun (cooperation). Recently, there are numerous literatures on religious and socioeconomic realms with regards to takaful industry due to the financial product being widely accepted in the modern day. In addition, contemporary scholars made various efforts to study the legality and feasibility of takaful as an alternative to the conventional insurance. Within the legality and feasibility of takaful, it is essential to recognize its implications to the society. As such, this paper reviews the implications of takaful products within the context of religious duty and spiritual fulfilment, at the same time towards the socioeconomic attainment. The finding of this paper embodies that takaful industry indeed substantially influence the religious and socioeconomic behavior, hence influence the society in making decision with regards to protection of their life, family as well as preservation of their wealth. Besides, this paper outlines the benefits and pitfalls of takaful which open the door for improvement. Nonetheless, this paper limits itself to the implications in general context, hence it provides space for a more focused setting in the near future. On the other hand, as this paper is evaluative in nature, review process is done via analysis of the current literature from academic papers, journals and books obtained via library and online research databases.

“Cogent Religious Instruction”: A Response to the Phenomenon of Radical Islamist Terrorism in Australia

Over the past 15 years, 47 Muslim Australians have been convicted for terrorism offences. Australian courts have determined that these acts were motivated by the offenders’ “Islamic” religious beliefs and that interpretations of Quranic verses concerning jihad, in relation to shariah, caliphate, will of God and religious duty contributed to the commission of these crimes. This paper argues that these ideas, derived from certain classical-era Islamic jurisprudence and modern Islamist thought, contradict other classical-era interpretations and, arguably, the original teachings of Islam in the time of the Prophet Muhammad. In response to the call for “cogent religious instruction” to combat the phenomenon of radical Islamist terrorism, this paper outlines a deradicalization program that addresses late 20th- and early 21st-century time-period effects: (1) ideological politicization associated with Islamist jihadism; (2) religious extremism associated with Salafism; and (3) radicalization associated with grievances arising from Western military interventions in Muslim-majority countries. The paper offers a counter narrative, based on a contextualized reading of the Quran and recent research on the authentication of the Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad. It further contends that cogent religious instruction must enhance critical-thinking skills and provide evidence-based knowledge in order to undermine radical Islamist extremism and promote peaceful coexistence.

(319) Prevalence and Associated Factors of Musculoskeletal Pain among Adult Pilgrims: Cross-Sectional Results from 59 Nationalities

Musculoskeletal pain is a primary burden on individuals, social and health care systems. Annually, two-to-three million Muslims pilgrims perform Hajj as a religious duty in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Hajj involves high physical demands as pilgrims move, generally by foot, between a series of religious sites over 5-7 days with distances of an average of 5-15 km/day. This is likely to exceed the typical physical activity exposure for most individuals and is further complicated by overcrowding, extreme heat and fatigue. The aim of this study was to estimate the point prevalence of musculoskeletal pain by anatomical sites among adult pilgrims and to study potential associations with individual characteristics, history of major medical conditions, beliefs about Hajj, and falls during the Hajj. A cross-sectional survey was conducted during the period of Hajj. Data were collected after completion of the 2nd day of Hajj (21-31 August 2018) by volunteers who approach individuals at different sites of Mecca city using an online application or paper form. The main inclusion criteria were adult pilgrims aged 18 or older. Participants were allowed reporting more than one site of pain. A total of 2,110 responses was received, of which 1,715 were complete. The overall prevalence of musculoskeletal complaints was high (82.3%). For both sexes, foot/ankle pain was the most frequent musculoskeletal symptom (39.1%), followed by leg pain (30.4%), low back pain (28.4%), knee pain (23.0%), and shoulder pain (16.1%). Multinomial logistic regression analyses indicated that musculoskeletal complaints were more likely in females, older individuals, individuals who smoke, had diabetes and hypertension, those who believed that Hajj was physically exhausted, and those who had experienced a fall during Hajj. These data provide guidance for the potential nature of preventative programs and the allocation of resources to optimise individual's experience and capacity to complete Hajj.

Religious tourism centres in North India

Religion is one of India's most popular tourist sites, bringing in thousands of visitors from all over the world every year. The desire for religious fulfillment is another motivation that leads to inner peace and happiness. Many people will visit any holy place. Some will be tourists who came for the experience and education, but most will be pilgrims who are there to perform their religious duties. In India, it's called a Tirth Yatra. This kind of travel has many positive and negative effects. The current study shows how some of these effects affect tourists. Emotional travel is related to religious tourism. India has many places, like Kurukshetra in Haryana, Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh, and many others. People from all over India visit the many religious tourist sites in north India to fulfill their religious needs. Some of them want to meet their God face-to-face, while others want the new experience of a spiritual journey. It's not unusual to travel for faith reasons. It's as old as faith. Around the world, there were many cultures that only traveled long distances for religious reasons. Compared to other research on religious tourism, the current study doesn't add much.

The Investigation of the Jurisprudential Review of the Principle of Acquittance and Its Effects in International Law

One of the arguments is the "Principle of Atonement". If, after referring to the evidence, a doubt arises in the religious duty, the principle of acquittance says that the duty is forbidden. The subject of the principle of acquittance (doubt in the assignment is not obligatory), that is, in cases where we doubt it, we believe that we are not obliged to do so in practice and that the assignment is void. The present paper deals with the methodology of librarianship and documents on the basis of the principle of acquittance, the stage of crime detection, the stage of prosecution, the stage of the trial and the issuance of the sentence and discussed them. The principle of acquittance is one of the most important and effective rules in international law and human rights instruments, since the heavy burden of claiming the cause of the claim and the claim is put forward by the defendant, in other words, the presentation of the cause lies with the claimant and the oath. It is inconceivable that global and regional human rights declarations have repeatedly stated that no one can be arbitrarily detained, imprisoned or exiled, and that the principle is based on acquittance. Keywords: principle of acquittance, regulations, human rights DOI : 10.7176/RHSS/9-3-08

Fasting and Its Impact on Skin Anatomy, Physiology, and Physiopathology: A Comprehensive Review of the Literature.

Skin serves as the first protective line and barrier of the body. Like many other organs, skin can be affected by several disorders in response to external factors such as pathogens, ultraviolet light, and pollution, as well as endogenous alterations related to aging and/or oxidative stress disturbance. Researchers have reported new insights into how skin cells are altered in response to caloric restriction diets in mammals. One of the most well-known caloric restriction diets is the Ramadan intermittent fasting, which is a radical change in the diet plan of practitioners for the period of one lunar month. Ramadan fasting represents the fourth of the five pillars of the Islamic creed. Even though infirm individuals are waived to take part in this religious duty, patients with various health problems, including those with different skin disorders, might choose to share this event with peers and family members. No standardized protocols or guidelines exist, however, to advise their physicians on the proper management of their patients’ condition during fasting. With an increasing Muslim population living in Western countries, this topic has started to draw substantial attention, not only of Middle-Eastern physicians, but also of clinicians in the West. For this purpose, we carried out a comprehensive overview on the topic. Our main findings are that: (1) there is a strong need for evidence-based suggestions and guidance. Literature on the impact of the Ramadan fasting, as well as of other kinds of fasting, on skin diseases is scarce and of poor quality, as well as the information available from the Internet; (2) patients willing to fast should be advised about the importance of taking proper treatments or consider alternative options including administration of trans-dermal/topical drugs, as they are permitted during daylight hours. Further, non-compliance has important, clinical and economic implications for an effective patient management.

Having Faith in the Political Order

Having Faith in the Political Order Adam Jortner (bio) Jonathan J. Den Hartog. Patriotism and Piety: Federalist Politics and the Religious Struggle in the New American Nation. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015. xii + 262 pp. Illustrations, notes, and index. $49.50. Sara Georgini. Household Gods: The Religious Lives of the Adams Family. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. xi + 284 pp. Illustrations, appendices, notes, bibliography, and index. $32.50. In the last four years of American political earthquakes, one unexpected tremor has been the realization that the fundamental Republican issues are not free trade and open markets, but rather the social and religious issues that many Americans had assumed were sideshows. It turns out that Republican officeholders and the rank and file are perfectly willing to accept tariffs and deficits in exchange for an embassy in Jerusalem, a Muslim ban, and restrictions on abortion. The change has confounded academics and pundits trying to make sense of the tectonic shifts of party realignment. Part of the problem is a limited intellectual framework with which to consider religion and politics. There is a vague sense among observers that religion functions as an addition to politics; policies receive support from various religious groups depending on how they affect that group. Religions, like any other civic faction, act in their own self-interest. There is a tendency to read this approach back into history (not without justification): Virginia Baptists supported Jefferson because he offered them disestablishment, evangelical Whigs opposed Sunday mails because it disrupted their worship, etc. There are other ways of looking at it, though. Religious groups may enter into politics as a religious duty in and of itself. Religious concerns here are not merely one of a bevy of interests with a seat at the table but rather preconditions for the entire system. Revolutionary theories of republicanism sometimes posited that republics rest on moral rather than political assumptions. In other words, politics and religion are not mere "influences" on each other; they are, for some believers, the same thing. Accepting this fact does [End Page 333] not make negotiating politics—then or now—easier, but it can open up new avenues for understanding as historians and perhaps for governing as citizens. Two recent books on this phenomenon in the revolutionary era attempt to do just that; both seek to discover how religion functioned in the American political order, even after it lost its constitutional role. Jonathan Den Hartog's Patriotism and Piety studies a host of prominent Christian Republicans—John Adams, John Jay, Timothy Dwight, Charles Pinckney, and Jedidiah Morse. This prosopographical approach should remind readers of Nathan Hatch, and indeed, Den Hartog describes his book as a history of the "Federalization of American Christianity" (p. 204). Patriotism and Piety traces the early republican case for vigorous, centralized support of Christianity, an effort Den Hartog notes was "a broad-based movement, composed of clergy and laity" (p. 3) and one that did not have a clear blueprint. While the freewheeling Methodists and Baptists mocked the traditional religious elites as defenders of old systems, Den Hartog insists that Federalist divines were creating new arrangements for church and state, rather than defending a stale and dying old order. Like their democratizing counterparts, Federalist Christians also had to find new languages, theologies, and organizations in the revolutionary age. Unlike their Baptist counterparts, political power became a central part of their belief system. Revolutionary providentialism merged with classical republican theory to produce this Federalized Christianity—which, Den Hartog notes, embraced Congregationalists, Unitarians, and evangelicals. If Jeffersonians thought the state protected worship by leaving the churches alone, Federalists countered that worship protected the state by nurturing republicanism. "From this Protestant morality would flow a republican virtue," they argued, "that would support the constitutional order" (p. 4). When the military and political fortunes of the American Revolution tottered in December 1776, for example, John Jay advised Americans to reform their morals: "When you have done these things, then rely upon the good providence of Almighty God for success" (p. 25). Jay sought to exclude Catholics from citizenship for much the same reason; the "damnable doctrine" (p. 24) that the church could absolve sins did not encourage virtue...

Źródła do badań prozopograficznych nad duchowieństwem i personelem parafialnym diecezji włocławskiej w okresie nowożytnym

The sources regarding modern parishes record groups of people managing and supporting these centres. These were ministrii ecclesiae, that is priests and their auxiliary personnel. The priests – ministri sacramentorum – played the most important role in a parish; their work, however, extended beyond religious and pastoral duties. As far as laypeople are concerned, they assisted priests in parish work. They were sacristans, teachers, cantors, organists, organ pumpers, bell-ringers, gravediggers, midwives and altar servers. The article presents the sources providing information on the groups mentioned above. The archival material that is analysed concerns the diocese of Wloclawek in the pre-partition period. The most important and significant sources are the records of canonical visits, containing a great amount of information about the people involved in parish life. These records are not entirely consistent: they do not always include all parishes of the diocese, and above all, they differ in the scope of information, as they were produced on the basis of various questionnaires. Nevertheless, the ones containing a great number of details are invaluable sources for research on the parish clergy and their auxiliary personnel. Other sources useful for research on the parish clergy are the records produced by consistory and episcopal offices. In the latter case, these are the books of episcopal pontifical duties, which, especially the ones of holy orders, are particularly significant for research purposes. In addition, register books constitute an exceptional source of information (although rather of an auxiliary nature) for prosopographical research on the clergy and the people who helped them. Parish offices created registers systematically from the Council of Trent onwards. Consequently, the continuity of the documentation enables a comprehensive description of the subject under study. In addition, one can learn a lot about the clergy and parish auxiliary personnel from other types of sources: the records of colleges and theological seminaries, monastic books of the deceased, the description of churches and parishes provided by various authors, chapter records, diocesan schematisms (appearing at the end of the eigthteenth century), and secular records such as books from municipal offices.

Constructing identities: Religious argumentation, sexuality and social identity in Attic forensic oratory

This paper explores how religious argumentation is used in the construction of sexual and social identities, and the impact this may have had on the audiences in Athenian courts. There are only a few references to religion in Attic oratory that point to and undermine an individual’s sexuality and/or social standing. These references fall largely into two related categories: aggressive references that denote morally, socially, legally and sexually condemnable identities; and occupational references that describe the social occupation of people in relation to religious duties and obligations. It has been argued that orators’ use of religious discourse for identity construction is designed to sustain a close bond between the speaker and the audience, while also estranging their opponents from the group.

Cult and Crisis: A GIS Approach to the Sacred Landscape of Hellenistic Attica

AbstractFrom a political point of view, 3rdcentury BCE Athens represents a shattered unity. Parts of the Athenian countryside and even the city itself were occupied by foreign troops. This loss of control affected the city’s political, economic, social, cultural, and religious life. Since Cleisthenic times, relations between political units and religious communities had become institutionalised through specific cults. Other cult places of relevance to the larger community and therefore with a catchment area that exceeded a deme, e.g. Eleusis, were also affected, as they lay within the occupied territories. This partial inaccessibility of the countryside risked the disruption of religious duties. The project “Cult and Crisis: The Sacred Landscape of Attica and its Correlation to Political Topography” aims to identify potentially affected cult places with no limitations regarding their possible catchment area by analysing their placement in relation to foreign military bases. Alterations in cult practice can plausibly be detected in changes ranging from cessation to the rerouting of ritual movement or the establishment of substitute cult places. As these “solutions” rarely feature in written sources, our GIS-based approach will focus on material remains from sanctuaries. Although an object’s use for ritual practice cannot be deduced with certainty, the distribution of finds certainly attests to human activity. This contribution presents a trial of this approach, taking the Sounion area as its case study.

Street Children Religious Education: A Study on Car Window Cleaning Kids in Jambi

Children begin careers on the streets in several locations in the city of Jambi. They work on the streets as street musicians, vehicle glass cleaners, newspaper and tissue sellers, both forcibly and deliberately. Their existence is influenced by some factors, such as family neglect and socio-economic conditions; as well as finding work on the streets and sustaining the work are much easier than looking for work which uses energy or mind. The purpose of this research is to study the religious education of street children who become car glass cleaners which has increased significantly compared to other street professions. This study aims to explore two issues: where the children obtain their religious education and to what extent they practice it in their daily life. Qualitative collecting data techniques were used including observation and interviews. This research found that the street children interviewed in this study only had access to religious education at morning school. They do not attend madrasah, the Qur'an educational school or Taman Pengajian Alquran (TPA), and Sekolah Islam Terpadu. The dominant factors affecting their religious education were their school and their peer group at school. Meanwhile, parents seldom practice the religious duty in family, thus the parents’ influence on the children’s religious practices was minimal. Therefore, this research recommends other actors give early religious education for street children. Religious education can be integrated with their shelter homes which can be their early Islamic religious education.

Consecrated Widows: Altars of God: A Restored Ancient Vocation in the Catholic Church

Consecrated Widows: Altars of GodA Restored Ancient Vocation in the Catholic Church Christina Hip-Flores (bio) I. Introduction Recent events in the Catholic Church have brought the question of ordained deaconesses back to the fore. In August 2016, Pope Francis established a commission to re-study this proposal. Not surprisingly, the announcement brought much media coverage and heated discussion. However, many Catholics—while tending to have strong opinions about the feminine diaconate—have virtually no familiarity with another ancient female vocation alive and well in the Catholic Church today: the ancient order of consecrated widows—from which, incidentally, the deaconesses emerged. The Holy Spirit has been quietly but fruitfully inspiring a restoration of this ancient order in various parts of the contemporary Church—long before the debate concerning deaconesses attracted popular media attention. And remarkably, the pastoral functions of the consecrated widows are exactly those attributed to the female diaconate. Perhaps a serious study of this ancient, and fully sanctioned, form of consecrated life may demonstrate that the current debate concerning deaconesses is redundant in many respects. [End Page 108] The Order of Widows (Ordo Viduarum) is composed of widows who live under a vow of widowed continence for the sake of the kingdom; they vow to never remarry after the death of their first husband, and this vow is publicly received by competent ecclesiastical authority. These vowed widows give testimony to the perfect fidelity of the nuptial bond, and are dedicated to prayer and charity. The juridical bond of marriage ends with the death of one of the spouses, but the bond of love remains and continues to configure the woman into a type of the pilgrim Church awaiting the return of the bridegroom. Francis recently preached that the Church militant is similar to a widow and progresses through history searching for her divine spouse Jesus Christ. The widow of Nain in scripture is "an icon of the Church, because the Church is in a certain sense a widow," the Holy Father said, reflecting on Luke 7:11–17. "The Bridegroom is gone and she walks in history, hoping to find him, to meet with him. And she will be his true bride. In the meantime she—the Church—is alone! The Lord is invisible. She has a certain dimension of widowhood."1 Thus the consecrated widow is an eschatological sign of hope in the Resurrection and perseverance in prayer. The term "order" (Ordo Viduarum) is used in this sense as a class of persons sharing common characteristics. It can be used analogously to the Order of Deacons, Order of Presbyters, Order of Bishops, or—because it does not necessarily imply sacramental ordination—to the Order of Catechumens, Order of Virgins, Order of Spouses, and so on.2 In this case, "Order of Widows" is likewise not to be confused with the religious orders, such as Order of Benedictines and Order of Preachers, to name just two of the most prominent. The Order of Widows has its Biblical origins in the First Epistle to Timothy: Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let these first learn to perform their religious duty to their own family and to make recompense to their parents, for this is pleasing to God. The real [End Page 109] widow, who is all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. But the one who is self-indulgent is dead while she lives. Command this, so that they may be irreproachable. And whoever does not provide for relatives and especially family members has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years old, married only once, with a reputation for good works, namely, that she has raised children, practiced hospitality, washed the feet of the holy ones, helped those in distress, involved herself in every good work. But exclude younger widows, for when their sensuality estranges them from Christ, they want to marry and will incur condemnation for breaking their first pledge. And furthermore, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house...

THE IMPORTANCE OF MARRIAGE IN ISLAM

The foundation of the family in Islam is blood ties or marital commitments. Islam builds the family on solid grounds that are capable of providing reasonable continuity, true security and mature intimacy. Marriage is a part of life, family as well society. The universality of marriage in different societies and cultures is attributed to the many basic social and personal functions. From Islamic point of view, marriage is a religious duty, a moral safeguard and a social commitment. Islam views it as a strong bond terming by Mithaqun Ghaleez that means a challenging commitment. It is a commitment to the dignified meaning full survival of the human race. Islam regards marriages the first and foremost righteous act and an act of responsible devotion. Islam recognized the religious virtue, the social necessity and the moral advantages of marriage. Islam considers marriage a very serious commitment; it has prescribed certain measures to make the marital bond as permanent as humanly possible. Marriage in Islam is neither a sacrament nor a simple civil contract; rather marriage in Islam is a something unique with very special features of both sacramental and contractual nature. The aim of his paper is to discuss of marriage institution in Islamic framework and its roles and significance in current global human society. The paper also tries to present a solution to the problems of family issues in the light of Quran and Sunnah.

Violence sexuelle exercée sur les femmes en Tunisie

BackgroundSexual violence exists everywhere in the world. It depends mainly on the cultural and religious norms conveyed in the various societies. This is a neglected area of research. Available data are insufficient, especially in Arab-Muslim context. MethodsIn this paper, we comprehensively review the scientific literature in order to clarify the cultural, religious and legal aspects of the concept of sexual violence against women in Tunisia, and ask the question of the urgent need to put in place strategies to counter this problem. ResultsThe National Office for Family and Population published in 2011 the results of the national survey on violence against women in Tunisia, including data on sexual violence and its impact on women's health and well-being. According to this survey, 14.2% of women reported having been sexually abused by an intimate partner during their lifetime and 9.0% reported having experienced it during the last 12 months. One out of every six Tunisian women has been the victim of a sexual violence in a conjugal setting. More men than women legitimized violence against women in contexts where family control, especially conjugal control, is exercised over them. In a study examining the impact of culture and religion on experiences and sexual practice of women in Tunisian society, the majority of respondents thought that sexuality in women was a religious duty and that they do not have the right to refuse their husbands or to rebel. Thus, women would be doubly sanctioned having neither the right to express their desire nor not to respond to their husband's desire. A survey of a representative sample of Tunisian women found that 56.9% of the participants reported being victims of domestic violence, particularly sexual violence (10.7%) consisting mainly of rape and sodomy, at least once in their lifetime. This survey showed that those victims expressed dissatisfaction with overall quality of life. Moreover, contrary to Western literature, sexual violence was the least reported form of violence by teenage girls in Tunisian schools. Indeed, cultural values of modesty, virginity and honor are socially much more demanded for girls, in Arab countries in general, reinforcing staggering silence and inaction around violence experienced by school-aged adolescents. In Tunisian society, the cultural “solution” to rape wants the woman to marry her rapist which safeguards her family's integrity by legitimizing the union. ConclusionSexual violence has detrimental effects on female victims’ physical and mental health. Even if the information on this form of violence is not easy to obtain in our environment, and that rates of subjects reporting sexual violence in their lifetimes are not important, the problem of sexual violence must be considered as a public health problem requiring urgent interventions and a greater institutional will.

Discipline and Nurture: Living in a girls’ madrasa, living in community

AbstractThis article presents an ethnography of a contemporary residential madrasa for teenage Muslim girls in a North Indian town undertaken by a team of two researchers. We focused on different aspects of the overall study, with Sanyal conducting participant observation within the madrasa and Farah interviewing a select number of graduates and former students in their home environments. The result is a comprehensive picture of the madrasa's transformative role in the socio-religious lives of its students, which highlights the importance of the connections between the madrasa and the home.Of significance are the religious and denominational orientation of the madrasa—Barelwi Sunni Muslim—as well as the working-class status of the girls and their parents’ low level of education. With limited resources, the madrasa inculcates in the students, and by extension their neighbourhoods and wider communities, a new awareness of religious duties and mutual obligations, and gives its students confidence and a voice within both their families and communities. The long-term potential impact of madrasas such as this one appears to be significant in contemporary North India.

Resolusi Jihad di Indonesia Perspektif Ketatanegaraan dalam Al- Qur’an

Abstract: This article discusses Resolusi Jihad issued by KH Hasyim Asy’ari in 1945 from the perspective of tafsir (Quran interpretation). Among the verses that order to establish Islamic state and defend it are QS. 24: 55; 8: 60; 2: 190-191); 22: 39-40. These verses become justifications to oust colonial power from Indonesia which resulted in proclamation of independence on 17th of August 1945. The returning Dutch were resisted. KH. Hasyim Asy’ari issued a fatwa on 17th of September 1095 that defending newly proclaimed independent Indonesia is a religious duty and considered as jihad (holy war) after the question was posed by Soekarno, the president. This fatwa then was reinforced as Resolusi Jihad on 22nd of October 1945. The Quran does not explain clearly about the necessity to establish an Islamic state. Instead, it only stipulates principles of governance so that the maxim of mâ lâ yatim al-wâjib illâ bih fa huwa wâjib or al-amr bi al-syay’ amr bi wasâilihi is employed. (2) the Quran order muslims to oust and resist colonial power because this colonial power had done injustice, exploitation, and crimes against indigenous muslim population. 3). Resolusi Jihad is an inevitability for a free nation to defend freedom. It has become religiously obligatory to defend nation as it is stipulated in the Quran, especially QS. 2: 190-191 and 8: 60.
 Key words: Jihad, Resolusi Jihad, tafsir al-Qur’an

Circumcision Law in Christianity and Islam

For Muslims around the world, circumcision a common tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation. If their child is not circumcised, Muslim parents feel guilty for not fulfilling their religious duties. The Muslim practice of circumcision follows the tradition of the Prophet Abraham, not the prophet Muhammad. Unlike the Quran, the performance of circumcision is instructed by the Bible, but there are both some Christians who do it and some who do not. They disagree about the law surrounding circumcision described in the Bible. The messengers mentioned in the Bible also have different views about it, some believing it is mandatory and others not. For this reason, some Christians perform circumcision because of their awareness of its connection to bodily health and others to obey the teachings of Jesus; meanwhile, some do not carry out the messengers' orders because of their different interpretations of them.

Social Diversification and its Impact on Political Stability in Iran since Islamic Revolution

Iran launched an all-round Islamization movement after the Islamic Revolution, which, however, did not achieve real success. Since the 1990s, a noticeable shift has taken place in Iranian society, featuring a kind of “mass culture“ different from the official ideology, which, in essence, represents a pursuit of diversified values and lifestyles. Due to the secularization in their day-to-day life, Iranians are becoming increasingly indifferent towards religious duties. In the field of culture and art, religious taboos have been gradually broken. With the rise of feminism and the development of female culture, the situation of women’s complete confinement to the family has gradually changed, and women’s awareness of defending their rights and interests has greatly enhanced. Due to the profound impact of the social diversification, the relationship between society and government is both tense and compromising. The social diversification in Iran may be a considerable challenge to the political stability.

Viability and Legality of Muslims Offering Products or Services Exclusively for Muslims

The debate on ‘Muslim-Only Laundrette’ in Johor, a state at southern Peninsular Malaysia has sparked outrageous responses from various levels of the society. Given the fact that there is scant literature to address this issue, by adopting the qualitative approach, this article aims to explore the issue, from a business perspective about where Muslim products and services stand in Malaysia and the legal aspects of offering goods and services exclusively from Muslims for Muslims. The right to segmentise customers based on religious grounds is critically analysed. This article discusses the governance of Muslim businesses, the issue of discrimination of goods and services in comparison with the position in the United Kingdom, United States of America and Australia. The possibility of mediation services in response to the national call for social harmony is also explored. This article concludes that detailed guidelines to differentiate discriminatory acts from adherence to religious duties should be given to service providers to avoid interreligious misunderstanding. The article further suggests that one of the possible marketing strategies to avoid discrimination claims could be to take a more moderate stand in marketing services such as ‘clean, friendly services' and the like apart from marketing to the Muslim audience through targeted marketing channels, such as Muslim media, local publications in Muslim majority countries, as well as targeted advertisement campaigns.

Menalar Asumsi Takfirisme

Artikel ini membahas paradigma yang selama ini digunakan oleh kelompok-kelompok teror yang mengatasnamakan Islam, yaitu takfirisme, yang memandang bahwa membunuh pihak lain yang dianggap kafir adalah sebuah tugas agama. Dalam artikel ini dibahas secara deskriptif kritikan Ḥātim al-'Awnī terhadap berbagai asumsi takfirisme. Dalam paparannya, al-'Awnī mengkritisi pembacaan teks wahyu dengan pendekatan tekstualis. Karena menurutnya, tekstualisme itulah yang mengantarkan mereka kepada pemikiran takfir klasik ala Khawarij. Sisi lain yang dikritisi dari asumsi takfirisme adalah overgeneralisasi dalam melihat tindakan seseorang yang menurut mereka mengindikasikan kekafiran. Menurut al-'Awnī, paling tidak ada dua variabel yang menjadikan vonis kafir menjadi tidak valid. Dua hal tersebut adalah ketidaktahuan dan takwil. Pelaku sebuah tindakan yang mengindikasikan kekafiran tidak layak dikafirkan jika yang ia lakukan berawal dari ketidaktahuannya. Demikian pula jika yang dilakukannya berawal dari interpretasi berbeda terhadap teks wahyu, vonis kafir terhadapnya menjadi salah alamat. Sisi lain yang terungkap dari pemaparan al-'Awnī adalah bahwa pemikiran takfirisme memang ada dalam rumusan para tokoh Wahabisme di Arab Saudi sejak era Muḥammad bin Abdul Wahhāb.