{"title":"From Victims to Suspects: Muslim Women since 9/11 (by Shakira Hussein)","authors":"Felipe Freitas de Souza","doi":"10.35632/ajis.v40i3-4.3171","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35632/ajis.v40i3-4.3171","url":null,"abstract":"Issues involving Muslim women are recurrent in contemporary times, given that the interest in the topic reappears when events involving Muslim populations are reported. Whether they are majority or minority populations, the conditions of Muslim women are highlighted to justify narratives about Islam and its practitioners. The present work by Shakira Hussein, From Victims to Suspects: Muslim Women since 9/11, offers a synthesis of recent questions about these women, covering the last years of the 1990s to the last years of the 2010s, considering events that occurred in Australia, Afghanistan, France, the United States and other locations, bringing the researcher’s experience as a Muslim woman and as an academic.","PeriodicalId":34866,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Islam and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136352081","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rethinking the Prophethood of Muhammad in Christian Theology","authors":"Mehraj Din","doi":"10.35632/ajis.v40i3-4.3055","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35632/ajis.v40i3-4.3055","url":null,"abstract":"In the modern world, there is an incessant amount of research on religions and interfaith interaction. Yet, too much of our theological activities remain shockingly intramural. Instead of allowing an inherent energy to launch us into the larger reality of global religiosity, we insist on protecting our theology from the threat of contamination. Among many points of agreement, the centrality of Muhammad’s prophethood remains key among the contentious issues between Islam and Christianity. Anna Bonta Moreland’s Reconsidering Muhammad takes us on a journey into the reception of Muhammad in Christian Theology. Engaging Islam from deep within the Christian tradition by addressing the question of the prophethood of Muhammad, Anna Bonta Moreland calls for a retrieval of Thomistic thought on prophecy. Moreland sets the stage for this inquiry through an intertextual reading of the key Vatican II documents on Islam and on Christian revelation. This review will retrace the historical reception of Muhammad in early European tradition and also how Moreland’s work is a pathbreaking introduction to one of the least talked about theological puzzles between Islam and the Christian tradition.","PeriodicalId":34866,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Islam and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136352078","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rethinking the Concept of Fiṭra","authors":"Syamsuddin Arif","doi":"10.35632/ajis.v40i3-4.3189","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35632/ajis.v40i3-4.3189","url":null,"abstract":"Little attention has been given to the role of innate human nature or fiṭra in the motivation behind human action. This article examines the views of contemporary Western thinkers to creatively rethink the concept of fiṭra, not only from a theological perspective but also a scientific perspective. Drawing upon Islamic scholarship and previous research on the subject that explore the wide spectrum of connotations couched in the Islamic term fiṭra in comparison with Western perspectives, this study offers a fresh look at, and approach to, the concept of human disposition or primordial nature, giving special attention to the biological, epistemological, and ethical dimensions, while most studies of fiṭra focus mainly on the theological and spiritual sides. It is hoped that this conceptual analysis will serve as a stepping stone towards a more nuanced understanding of fiṭra not only as (i) a natural tendency to act or think in a particular way, but also as (ii) the religious instinct, (iii) the power of the mind to think and understand in a logical way, and (iv) the inner voice or conscience of what is right and wrong in one’s conduct or motives that drives the individual towards right action.","PeriodicalId":34866,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Islam and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136352075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Shi‘i Islamic Martyrdom: Narratives of Imam al-Ḥusayn (by Muhammad-Reza Fakhr-Rohani)","authors":"Akif Tahiiev","doi":"10.35632/ajis.v40i3-4.3298","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35632/ajis.v40i3-4.3298","url":null,"abstract":"The topic of the movement and martyrdom of Imam Husayn is central to the doctrine of Shi‘ism. There are many works devoted to this subject, especially in the context of mourning events held annually on this occasion. Thus, an enormous amount of literature has been written on the uprising of Imam Husayn. Here, Muhammad-Reza Fakhr-Rohani has analyzed the major outlines of typical martyrdom narratives (maqtals) of Imam al-Husayn and his martyred companions.","PeriodicalId":34866,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Islam and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136352074","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Islam and Good Governance A Political Philosophy of Ihsan (by M. A. Muqtedar Khan)","authors":"Samira I. Ibrahim","doi":"10.35632/ajis.v40i3-4.3158","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35632/ajis.v40i3-4.3158","url":null,"abstract":"Muhammad Abdul Muqtedar Khan is a professor of Indian origin in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware. He is known as a well-established author who has published several notable works, such as American Muslims: Bridging Faith and Freedom and Islamic Democratic Discourse: Theory, Debates, and Philosophical Perspectives. In 2019, he wrote his latest book of an interdisciplinary nature: Islam and Good Governance: A Political Philosophy of Ihsan, where social sciences, humanities and theology intersect.","PeriodicalId":34866,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Islam and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136352079","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Islam, Liberalism, and Ontology A Critical Re-evaluation (by Joseph J. Kaminski)","authors":"Sümeyye Sakarya","doi":"10.35632/ajis.v40i3-4.3191","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35632/ajis.v40i3-4.3191","url":null,"abstract":"Scholarship on Liberalism and Islam appears to be neither scarce nor soon to be. However, Joseph J. Kaminski’s Islam, Liberalism, and Ontology: A Critical Re-evaluation diverges from this extensive literature in its substantiveness. The work attempts an ontological analysis of the issue, whereas the bulk of other work is rather “stylistic” (9), as the literature review in the Introduction puts succinctly. Kaminski undertakes this research through “a rigorous critical analysis and deep investigation of the basic categories and constructs that comprise” (3) the relevant phenomena. To this end, unlike usual discussions of the matter, he employs a comparative political theory approach, which enables him to scrutinize Islam and Liberalism as two comprehensive doctrines.","PeriodicalId":34866,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Islam and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136352077","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Women and Gender in the Qur’an","authors":"Zainab Bint Younus","doi":"10.35632/ajis.v40i3-4.3173","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35632/ajis.v40i3-4.3173","url":null,"abstract":"Women and Gender in the Qur’an by Celene Ibrahim focuses on women’s voices, presence, and roles found within the Qur’an. Ibrahim situates her work as part of the tafsīr tradition by presenting herself as “the tentative mufassira” (8). Given that there are few known classical Islamic writings from female exegetes, it is intriguing to see a modern work from a female author claiming a place within the tafsīr tradition, which holds significant weight due to its role in understanding the meanings of the Qur’an. Though one may point to other authors such as Amina Wadud and Asma Barlas for their previous work on similar themes, it is important to note that the former two spend far more time asserting and defining their own Weltanschauung than engaging in close readings. To her credit, Ibrahim embodies the classical tafsīr ethos by centering Qur’anic language itself as the basis for her conclusions.","PeriodicalId":34866,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Islam and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136352073","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Female Religious Authority in Shi'i Islam: Past and Present","authors":"Carimo Mohomed","doi":"10.35632/ajis.v40i1-2.3252","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35632/ajis.v40i1-2.3252","url":null,"abstract":"Islamic religious authority is conventionally understood to be an exclusively male purview. Yet when dissected into its various manifestations – leading prayer, preaching, issuing fatwas, transmitting hadith, judging in court, teaching law, theology, and other Islamic sciences and, generally shaping the Islamic scholarly tradition – nuances emerge that hint at the presence of women in the performance of some of these functions. This collection of case studies, covering the period from classical Islam to the present, and taken from across the Twelver Shi‘i Islamic world, reflects on the roles that women have played in exercising religious authority across time and space. Comparative reflection on the case studies allows for the formulation of hypotheses regarding the conditions and developments – whether theological, jurisprudential, social, economic, or political – that enhanced or stifled the flourishing of female religious authority in Twelver Shi‘i Islam.","PeriodicalId":34866,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Islam and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45142756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Non-Crucifixion Verse","authors":"L. Fatoohi","doi":"10.35632/ajis.v40i1-2.3143","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35632/ajis.v40i1-2.3143","url":null,"abstract":"Over the centuries, there has been almost a consensus among Muslims and non-Muslims that the crucifixion of Jesus is denied in the Qur’an, mainly because of al-Nisāʾ 4:157. This overwhelmingly accepted interpretation has been challenged in recent times, albeit by a small minority of scholars, by suggesting novel interpretations of 4:157 and seeking support from history and other verses. This study first reviews how, from the early days of Islam, denying the crucifixion of Jesus was always seen by both Muslims and non-Muslims as the established Islamic view. It analyses the theological arguments of the minority view, promoted by some early Ismāʿīlī scholars and modern scholars, that the Qur’an does not deny Jesus’ crucifixion. A new attempt, which has been gathering some support, linking 4:157 to the Talmud is then critiqued. This study shows that the immediate context of 4:157 and the broader Qur’anic narrative also refute the new interpretation. A detailed linguistic analysis of the verse in question further shows that it cannot be reasonably read to mean anything other than rejecting that Jesus was crucified. In summary, history and a detailed study of 4:157 and related verses show that there is hardly any basis to justify challenging the centuries-long semi-consensus that the Qur’an denies the crucifixion of Jesus.","PeriodicalId":34866,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Islam and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49502096","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cosmographical Readings of the Qurʾan","authors":"A. Chauvet","doi":"10.35632/ajis.v40i1-2.3175","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35632/ajis.v40i1-2.3175","url":null,"abstract":"The Qurʾan is the primary source of inspiration for Muslims across the ages. As Muslims, the task is to make the Qurʾan relevant to our own context. That task is however challenged every time the conception of the world changes. The change from a medieval Aristotelian to a modern heliocentric view of the world represented just such a challenge. But regardless of the differing worldviews, the Qurʾan’s descriptions of natural phenomena remained relevant. Accordingly, the aim of this article is to demonstrate the correspondence between the Qurʾanic description of natural phenomena and various scientific paradigms. It claims that the Qurʾan is relevant to both past and present scientific paradigms, even if these paradigms conflict with one another. This claim is illustrated through the example of cosmographies. It shows that the Qurʾan’s cosmographical verses can be read considering both ancient and modern paradigms. This multiplicity of correspondences is achieved: (1) by means of subjective descriptions, which are open to interpretation, (2) by means of negative affirmations, which allude to certain paradigms without fully endorsing them, and (3) through a silence about key elements that would unambiguously validate or refute a specific scientific paradigm. The Qurʾan’s interpretatively open cosmographical verses also include particularly apt word choices and morphology when it comes to considering them in the light of modern scientific paradigms. The philosophical and theological consequences of this multiplicity of correspondence are also discussed.","PeriodicalId":34866,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Islam and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44833191","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}