This essay begins by exploring the extent to which the narrative of secularization presented in Charles Taylor's A Secular Age might be complicated or otherwise challenged by taking account of parallel processes within Islamic thought and practice. It then considers whether Taylor's argument might nevertheless be applicable to, or illuminative of, contemporary struggles with modernity in the Muslim world.

I contend that Jews, Christians, and Muslims who seek peace should not be reluctant to acknowledge the existence of their sometimes profound disagreements, or to affirm the truth of their own beliefs and practices. Since this places me at odds with John Hick, I analyze his views, granting the strengths of his critical realism and arguing that his revisionist-pluralist theory of religion has significant limitations for interreligious dialogue. Since the veridical-pluralist alternative I propose facilitates rather than stifles disagreement, I examine (...) three different conceptions of dialogue that acknowledge the importance of disputes among those searching for truth. I also discuss three virtues--honesty, empathy, and humility--whose cultivation would make us less likely to fail in our search for truth and the peace that is its sign and fruit. (shrink)

Islamic religious norms are important for Islamic bioethical deliberations. In Muslim societies religious and cultural norms are sometimes confused but only the former are considered inviolable. I argue that respect for Islamic religious norms is essential for the legitimacy of bioethical standards in the Muslim context. I attribute the legitimating power of these norms, in addition to their purely religious and spiritual underpinnings, to their moral, legal, and communal dimensions. Although diversity within the Islamic ethical tradition defies any reductionist or (...) essentialist reconstruction, legitimacy is secured mainly by approximation of Islamic ethical ideals believed to be inherent in the scriptural texts, rather than by the adoption of particular dogmatic or creedal views. With these characteristics, Islamic (bio) ethics may provide useful insights for comparative ethics and global bioethics. (shrink)

Amid the growing coalescence between the religion and ecology movements, the voice of Muslims who care for the earth and its people is rising. While the Islamic position on the environment is not well-represented in the ecotheology discourse, it advances an environmental imaginary which shows how faith can be harnessed as a vehicle for social change. This article will draw upon doctoral research which synthesised the Islamic ecological ethic (eco-ethic) from sacred texts, traditions and contemporary thought, and illustrated how this (...) ethic is enlivened in the educational landscape of Islam. Knowledge of the relationship between human beings and the natural world, of the creative order upon which the world was created, and of right living, is essential in this educational project and the global ecoIslamic movement employs a range of institutes, from the masjid to the maktab, to impart the environmental message of Islam. Despite the manifestation of environmental education activities across the educational establishment, much of what passes as Islamic education today is not representative of the holistic, integrated and comprehensive educational philosophy of Islam. Contemporary social concerns, such as the environmental question, can, in my view, act as an impetus to develop a pedagogy which endeavours to be true to the religious traditions, values and ethics of Islam, while also displaying the transformative force of this faith. Muslims, at more than one-fifth of the world population, own a fair share of global concern around the earth’s health and well-being. Across the world, many continue to base their life and lifestyle decisions on the teachings of Islam, and are showing the relevance of traditional resources and institutions in meeting one of the greatest challenges facing humanity—the health of our planet. (shrink)

The Qur'an depicts fluctuating relations between Muslims and non-Muslims. While at times such relations can be conciliatory and harmonious, at others they are inimical, uneasy, or distant. Still, the Qur'an acknowledges the necessary ontological reality of the human difference. This is evidenced in many verses. Thus, I will argue that an “attentive” and “worldly” reading of the Qur'an is crucial to curb misunderstanding of the way ‘difference’ is perceived in Islam by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. A close reading is primarily (...) a multiple form of communication. It is needed to resist the networked systems of power and control dominated by images and mass media in the Arab world and Western. It is exceptionally important to free the interpretation of Qur'an from the grip of Muslim and non-Muslim extremists and Islamophobes who read some of its verses as evidence of essentialized enmity harbored by Muslims towards all non-Muslims. (shrink)

There is a serious problem with arguing that God intended to lock the epistemology of the 7th century into the immutable text of the Qur’an, and then intended to hold Muslims hostage to this epistemological framework for all ages to come. Among other things, this would limit the dynamism and effectiveness of Divine text because the Qur’an would be for ever locked within a knowledge paradigm that is very difficult to retrieve or re-create. The author argues for the recognition of (...) three critical categories in Islamic theology: haqq, hikma and ma‘arifa. While haqq connotes the objective and constant truth, it is not reachable without hikma. Hikma is the balance [mizan] of truths in every historical moment with all of its contingencies. Ma‘arifa is the epistemology or the way to searching the objective and constant truth as well as the search for the hikma appropriate for each stage in human consciousness. The author contends that it is contrary to the very nature of a merciful and compassionate God to leave Muslims with a Revelation that is not fully equipped to deal with the altered states of consciousness and perceptions that are inevitable in every stage of human development. (shrink)

Al-Ghazālı̄ famously claims in the Incoherence of the Philosophers that al-Fārābī and Avicenna are unbelievers because they hold philosophical positions that conflict with Islam. What is less well-known, however, is that Averroës claims in the Decisive Treatise that al-Fārābī and Avicenna are not unbelievers; rather, al-Ghazālı̄ is the true unbeliever for writing the Incoherence of the Philosophers. In this paper, my aim is to present a sustained reconstruction of Averroës’ legal and philosophical argument for why al-Ghazālı̄ is an unbeliever. The (...) crux of Averroës’ argument is that al-Ghazālı̄ has expressed false allegorical interpretations of scripture to unqualified persons, which has led them into unbelief. By being causally responsible for other people’s unbelief, al-Ghazālı̄ is an unbeliever as well. (shrink)

: Contemporary Muslim societies suffer from numerous endemicproblems such as corruption, poverty, and gender inequality. In addressingthese problems, scholars tend to consider sociological models, and overlookthe potential of Islamic ethical perspectives. The Islamic sources, particularlythe Qur’an provide pertinent insights on ethics that should be foremost in theminds of those seeking to alleviate social problems in Muslim communities.Essential writings on ethics, particularly Tahdhib al-Akhlāq by Ibn Miskawayh,The Moral World of the Qur’an by Draz, and The Ethico-Religious Conceptsin the Qur’an by Izutsu (...) are major works in this field. This paper elucidates themeaning of Islamic ethics, with an overview from the Qur’an and the viewsof prominent scholars. It then analyses the current major problems in Muslimmajoritycountries and their ethical roots to emphasize the significance of Islamicethics as a source of remedy. This is an interdisciplinary qualitative study,which uses the thematic commentary on Qur’an and ḥemedy methodologies,integrating the methods of sociology and ethics. (shrink)

Scholars in Islamic Finance Industry have been calling for the integration of Islamic morality with legal theories in the industry. Among the reasons for this call is an unethical trend in product innovation. Implementing Islamic banking and financial practices would require adopting their undergirding Islamic legal and moral frameworks. Departing from these foundations of Islamic law could render the activities conducted under its name religiously unacceptable. Many approaches have been put forward to achieve this cause. One of the most complex (...) yet subjective approaches is the quest for Maqāṣid al-Sharī‘ah. This paper critically examines the feasibility of harmonising morality with legality in Islamic finance. In doing so, it will reveal what constitutes morality and legality in Islamic legal theory, and critically examine the approaches of Muslim classical scholars in fusing the two elements together for the realisation and actualisation of the very objectives of Sharī‘ah. Questions of the relationship between morality and legality are raised, and samples of Islamic finance products are evaluated to expose their moral and legal dimensions. Lastly, the role of Maqāṣid al-Sharī‘ah in the process of harmonisation is discussed with some observations and reservations on the practicality of their implementation. (shrink)

Corruption is a widespread global problem that has far reachingnegative consequences on all spheres of life. Muslim-majority countriesare most often ranked as ‘highly corrupt’ by the Transparency InternationalCorruption Perceptions Indexes. Yet the majority of studies about corruptionare predominantly undertaken from a Western perspective. A review of theavailable literature would suggest that it is hard to find a piece of work thatconsiders the problem of corruption from all its theoretical aspects from anIslamic perspective or is exclusively dedicated to examining it from (...) to theperspective of the Qur’ān, Sunnah, or indeed both together. To fill this gap, thispaper is a thematic examination of the problem of corruption according to themain sources of Islam; i.e. the Qur’ān and Sunnah, through which an attemptis made to investigate the main theoretical facets in relation to understandingand tackling corruption. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to trace the evolution in the meaning of the concept of Sunnah prior to its classical definition, which largely confluences it with the concept of an authentic( ṣaḥīḥ) Ḥadīth as defined by the classical Ḥadīth sciences. This article will first describe the semanico-contextual changes in the meaning of the term Sunnah during the period under examination and then present a chronological analysis of the development of the concept ‘Sunnah’ in relation to the development of (...) the concept ‘authentic Ḥadīth’. This article argues that during the first four generations of Muslims, the concept ‘Sunnah’ remained epistemologically independent of the concept ‘authentic Ḥadīth’ and that evaluation of Sunnah compliance with a certain practice or belief remained methodologically independent to that of the concept of an authentic Ḥadīth, as defined by classical ʿulūm al-ḥadīth sciences. (shrink)