Orientalism and the historicization of the Islamic heritage – 2
HEREIN LIES the basic difference between ourselves and the Orientalists; it is a difference of an epistemological basis not an…
The Arabs and Islam – 2
ARAB ISLAMIC CIVILISATION is, as Hāmid Abū Zayd put it: ‘a civilisation of the text’, or as Muhammad ‘Ābid al-Jābrī…
Dīn and Dunya and the failure of Arab Enlightenment
WHAT ILLUSTRATES THIS best is that despite the fact that politics and political governance constitute some of our most pressing…
Hadith, the biggest scam in Islamic history – 1
A PERPLEXING ISSUE indeed. All the criteria for accepting the validity of a hadith focus upon the chain of transmission…
The Qur’ān – between the Meccan and Madinan sūras
THE SCHOLARS OF LAW say that the Qur’ān was revealed over a period of 23 years. This can be divided…
Contemporary Islamic thought and chronological alienation
ALIENATION IS ASSOCIATED with feelings of isolation from one’s social environment. This may be occasioned by psychological reasons, but others…
The Verse of the Sword and the jurisprudence of violence
IN THIS ESSAY I shall attempt to present three Islamic readings of this verse according to the historical conditions in…
‘Umar’s Pact Conditions – A present caged in tradition
IF WE MAKE AN EXCEPTION of the Qur’ān, the eternally preserved word of God and of the (very limited in…
Why religious narcissism impedes modernity
NARCISSISM, AS A MENTAL SICKNESS, is a delirious self-love that makes the ego despise all other egos. Modern psychology takes…
Is western civilisation collapsing?
MOST CONTEMPORARY historians and philosophers of history believe that civilisation is characterised in general by the emergence of a number…