On reviving the religious discourse
WHILE THE QUR’ĀN portrayed the Islamic nation as one that calls to charitableness, tolerance, love, harmony, mercy and justice for…
Arkoun and the defeat of reason in Islam – 2
THE FIRST IS that there was no single intellectual school of thought either in Basra or later in Baghdad that…
On the concept of the ‘Ahl al-Dhikr’
NO ONE CAN DENY that anyone who reads a text, particularly if that text is ‘sanctified’, must make use of…
Text and Context in Qur’ānic interpretation
TAKING THINGS from this view, we will attempt to examine here the widespread dictum concerning the Qur’ān which runs: “The…
Contemporary Islam and the challenges of modernity
MUSLIMS POINT to the damage caused by delay in the updating of religious thought in four broad areas: 1 –…
Arkoun and the defeat of reason in Islam – 1
‘Fundamentalism’ did not originally have the negative connotation it has today. Now, however, it has come to mean merely the…
The abrogation and alteration of the Sharīʻa
SIMILARLY THERE ARE what they considered to be rational arguments – that God does not change His opinion like mortals…
Turning back to Ali Abd al-Raziq
The last Ottoman caliph Sultan Mehmet VI exiting the Dolmabahçe Palace in 1924 AT THE TIME the decision to abolish…
The case for Islamic reform – 2
Japan free of ‘hysterical taboos’: A concert of European Music by Yōshū Chikanobu (1838–1912) EVERY TRUE REFORM is a matter…
A Manifesto for Reform
REFORM IS A QUR’ĀNIC TERM, where it appears ten times mostly in the sense of ‘reparation’ between men, or ‘restoration’…