Islam and Rationality
Islamizing physics
In Morocco a video has circulated recently that speaks of the necessity of Islamizing physics. The idea is wonderful in its way. It suggests a...
Mohammed Arkoun – two sides of the same intellectual coin
The thinker Mohammed Arkoun initiated a pioneering project in intellectual circles, both Arab-Islamic and Western - a project that explicitly defended the values of modernity...
Arab societies and mental dysfunction
There are some who may resent the title, saying I am attacking or mocking Arab societies. To this I would answer: I am engaging in...
Academic and cultural illiteracy: causes and results
The human-building process constitutes the true beginning of every creative building process, and it is what any comprehensive development aspires to. Human capital is what...
Ibn Rushd and the problem of the rational and the transmitted
In dealing with this problem, Ibn Rushd went as far as penning an independent essay, and designated for it three independent works that are some...
Islam in History
The early history of Islam – Introduction to the problems – 2
It would appear a useful thing to familiarize yourself with the set of approaches and rules of ‘criminology’, and consider the early history of Islam...
The early history of Islam – Introduction to the problems – 1
It is said that history is written by the victors, or under the shade of the victor’s swords. We know that it is the victor...
The ‘Islamic narrative’
The various writings and sources in the Islamic heritage, dominated as they are by a quicksilver mentality, by a reverential and apologetic approach, have in...
The reality of the Arab invasions – from non-Islamic sources – 2
It is entirely possible to believe that the Arab (Islamic) - Byzantine clash took place as a result of the efforts expended by both parties...
The reality of the Arab invasions – from non-Islamic sources – 1
The German historian Leopold von Ranke stated that “History is made of documents, and every idea or act that does not leave a direct or...
Salafist Discourse
Terrorism’s symphony
In the arena of the sacred, the orchestra of fundamentalist political Islam plays even now an ancient melody in auditoria designed to combat tedium, as...
Halal and Haram and the culture of collective stupidity – 2
So much of what we do now on a daily basis was in the past forbidden by Sharī‘a and much of what we see as...
Halal and Haram and the culture of collective stupidity – 1
At the outset, the writer would like to stress that he does not attack any religion since he is convinced that all religions constitute a...
Ibn Taymiyya and the crime of the extremists – 2
We also find in the work Ibn Taymiyya’s Fatwās concerning jihād: "All to whom the call of the Messenger of God – may God’s prayers...
Ibn Taymiyya and the crime of the extremists – 1
Under this heading, Shaykh Dr. Saʽd bin Fahd Al-Mājid, Secretary General of the Council of Senior Scholars in Saudi Arabia, wrote an article in the...
Ethical Issues
The nature of the Muslim’s relationship with his Lord
We were raised to understand that we are slaves to God and that God created us to worship Him and fear Him. We always heard...
Islamic fundamentalism and the roots of violence
Since the dawn of history men of free intellect and lively conscience have written on the need for peace to prevail over all peoples of...
Exploring Islam’s position on violence – 2
Returning now to the story of violence, I maintain that examining this issue and its relationship to Islam is a supreme scholarly necessity appropriate to...
Exploring Islam’s position on violence – 1
Among Muslims over the last fifty years, groups espousing religious violence have spread, of various authorship and political and organisational clout. I shall here take...
Compassion in light of the doctrine of Al-Walā’ wal-Barā’
The concept of charity and unconditional good deeds is inconsistent with the concept of charity and good deeds in the light of what is referred...
Islamism
Ten proofs for secularism in Islamic jurisprudence
The definition of separating religion from politics means separating religion from the state, meaning that the dilemma between the two groups – the fundamentalist and...
Is Islam the faith closest to secularism?
‘Islamic secularism’ is a term both shocking and fearful for many clerics as well as some of the more romantic-minded liberals. It is a new...
Islamism in the light of al-walā’ wal-barā’ in the Qur’ān
The Muslim Brotherhood is proud of its motto, which reads, “The Qur’ān is our constitution, Muḥammad is our messenger, and dying for the sake of...
Verse 10 of Surat Al-Fath and its role in consolidating power
The following verse 10 of sūrat al-Fatḥ, as understood from the structure of the Qur’ānic text, confirms that whoever pledges allegiance to the Messenger is...
Muslim Arabs and their isolation from the march of civilisation
I was struck by a comment made by the late Dr. Sadiq Jalal Al-Azm, a secular Syrian thinker, a Professor Emeritus at Damascus University in...
Religious Reform
The radicalism of Mahmoud Muhammad Taha
This year marks the thirty-eighth anniversary of the martyrdom of Professor Mahmoud Muhammad Taha, whom the Muslim Brotherhood, clerics and jurists together conspired to have...
Opening up ijtihād – opening up the mind – 2
We perhaps can see in this demonstration that the ancient Muslim scholars were open to the universal knowledge available at their time, with all its...
Opening up ijtihād – opening up the mind – 1
In the foundational sources for jurisprudence (uṣūl al-fiqh) the process of ijtihād is the effort to seek out what the rulings of Sharīʻa are to...
Modernization in the Thought of Rifāʽa al-Tahtāwī – 2
It should be noted carefully that al-Ṭahṭāwī’s thoughts on progress in its various aspects resulted not merely from intellectual considerations and a deep reading into...
Modernization in the Thought of Rifāʽa al-Tahtāwī – 1
Rifāʽa al-Ṭahṭāwī is the founder of the modern intellectual nahḍa (‘resurgence’, ‘renaissance’) at the beginning of the 19th century, the inspiration for which he drew...
The Doctrinal Dimension
What is the Sharīʻa?
There are many who wield Sharīʻa law as a lethal weapon in their war on individual freedoms and their aggression against human rights – refusing...
Josef van Ess and the diagnosis of the Islamic problem – 2
Why did Muslims fall behind while others progressed? We all know that Islam's image today is associated with Sharīʻa law and the implementation of terrifying, gory...
Josef van Ess and the diagnosis of the Islamic problem – 1
We know that understanding the past is very necessary if we wish to understand the present. This is especially so with the sectarian conflicts that...
Islam between fiqh and hadith – which comes first?
A friend once asked: “Why do you advise consulting the fundamentals of jurisprudence (uṣūl al-fiqh) in questions of faith but forbid recourse to the hadith,...
The Penal Code – between religious and positive law – 2
The major difference between positive law and heavenly law is that the former comprehensively covers man's relationship within his social system, while heavenly punishments remain...
The Scriptural Dimension
Understanding an abrogation in the Revelation – 2
A further question arises here: how can Revelation alter and be replaced? Does this affect the sanctity of the fixed word of God? It is...
Understanding an abrogation in the Revelation – 1
Islamic history books, biographies and reports narrate that in the early stages of the call in Mecca, and after some of his followers had migrated...
The Qur’ānic text – Hypothesis 5
5 - The Qur’ān does not stand outside of history If we exclude the jurisprudence of Aḥmad al-Qabbanjī and ‘Abd al-Karīm Soroush, and before them...
How al-Bukhari opposes the Qur’ān
The number of hadiths that al-Bukhārī wrote (or transmitted) lies somewhere between 250,000 and one million. Of these he included 7,593 in his collection. Of...
The Qur’ānic text – Hypothesis 4
4. The Qur'an is not God's style The problem we have is that we not only sanctified the Qur’an in terms of its verses, but...