scholarly journals Different Strokes: American Muslim Scholars Engage Media and Politics in the Woke Era

Author(s):  
Jibril Latif
2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-116
Author(s):  
Maha Nassar

Zareena Grewal’s book traces the hopes, debates, accomplishments, and disappointmentsof American Muslim students who travel to the Middle East inpursuit of Islamic knowledge. As Grewal discovers through her interviewswith over 100 students and teachers, the impetus behind many of their journeysis a desire to find a solution to the “crisis” of Islamic authority in theUnited States. But once they spend some time immersed in a predominantlyMuslim society, many discover that this crisis extends to the Muslim worldas well. More recently, some American Muslim scholars have shifted their attention away from the Middle East and toward an “indigenization” of AmericanIslam, which, the author points out, also faces many challenges.In chapter 1 Grewal explains that her project is focused on student-travelerswho view the Islamic East as an “Archive of Tradition” (p. 36) that they hopewill provide a more authentic and authoritative form of Islamic knowledgethan what they could learn in the United States. Her fieldwork took her toAmman, Damascus, and Cairo during the early 2000s, where she interviewedstudents of such figures as Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller, Qubaysiya AnsaTamara Gray, and Shaykh Ali Goma‘a, among others. The students she metcame from diverse ethnic, geographic, and socio-economic backgrounds. Grewaldoes a good job of highlighting how these factors shaped their journeys ...


Author(s):  
Sara J. Chehab ◽  
Marvin R. Whitaker

This chapter discusses the work of five American Muslim scholars: Fazlur Rahman, Amina Wadud, Taha Jabir al-Alwani, Abdullahi Ahmed an-Naʿim, and M. A. Muqtedar Khan. Their contributions influence and inform the debates on a variety of issues, such as ijtihad, shari’a, gender equality, human rights, democracy and reform, and interfaith dialogue. These scholars agree that a crisis of thought exists in the Muslim world and that it was created because of the absence of ijtihad. They recognize that many problems plague the Muslim world and Muslim communities—problems partly engendered by taqlid and a reliance on old interpretations of the Qur’an. To solve them and achieve reform, justice, and gender equality, Muslim scholars should drive these debates forward through a commitment to continuous and progressive exegetical exercises. Thus this chapter outlines how each one of these five scholars explains and interprets these debates and assesses their attempts at reopening the doors of ijtihad.


2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 181-212
Author(s):  
Joseph S Spoerl

Islamic thinking on war divides roughly into two main schools, classical and modern. The classical (or medieval) view commands offensive war to spread Islamic rule ultimately across the entire world. The modernist view, predominant since the nineteenth century, limits war to defensive aims only. This paper compares the views of two important Muslim scholars, the classical scholar Ibn Ishaq (d. 767) and the modernist scholar Mahmud Shaltut (d. 1963). This comparison reveals that the modernist project of rethinking the Islamic law of war is a promising though as-yet-unfinished project that can benefit from the insights of Western scholars applying the historical-critical method to the study of early Islamic sources.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-48
Author(s):  
Siah Khosyi’ah

The division of marital joint property after the breakup of marriage, whether dropping out of marriage due to divorce or due to death, is a new thing in Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh). This is because the concept of mutual treasure is not known in the books of classical Islamic jurisprudence of Muslim scholars of the schools at their times, in which their work are always made as referral in the legal cases up to the present days. In Indonesia, the distribution of common property is regulated in the Compilation of Islamic Laws Articles 96 and 97, which stipulate the rules of distribution of joint property for married couples whose married are off as a result of divorce or death. Article 97 of the Compilation of Islamic Law actually provides an overview of the flexibility of the distribution of common marital property, including in certain cases because the article is regulating (regelen) rather than forcing (dwigen), so that the division is not absolutely divided equally between husband and wife, and casuistically the provisions of that article may be disregarded.


EMPIRISMA ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Wahab Khalil

The Muslim minorities in the West who are currently dealing with a multitude of problem receives attention from Muslim scholars. Syaikh Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī is the first Muslim scholar who attempted to provide a solution to the problems, especially related to the implementation of religious teachings, as he outlined it in the framework of fiqh al-aqalliyāt. In principle, this is not something new in Islamic jurisprudence, because its legal sources are still the same. Nevertheless, this kind of fiqh is different in the sense that it does not merely talk about legal issues, but also the problems of theology and morals that the Muslim minorities in the West are currently dealing with in their relations with non-Muslims. Fiqh al-aqalliyyāt is also characterized by the use of the principle of al-taysīr as clearly prominent in the fatwās by Syaikh Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī, such as on the validity of both performing Friday prayer in the morning due to limited time for religious sermon (khuṭbah) and during ẓuhr time in some countries. This article will explore further this principle of al-taysīr in the Qaraḍāwī’s fiqh al-aqalliyyāt. Keywords: Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī, Fiqh al-Aqalliyāt, al-Taysīr


Author(s):  
حنان ساري ◽  
محمد أبو الليث الخيرآبادي

انتشرت لفظة الحداثة في عصرنا الحالي انتشاراً واسعاً، وأخذت مفهومات متعددة، ونحن لا نراها أكثر من أنها امتداد طبيعي للقلق الأوروبي.وسعى التيار الحداثي لتقديم مشاريع تعتمد كلية على مناهج وآليات غربية في دراستها وتعاملها مع القرآن الكريم والسنة، ولعل أهم الذين تقدموا بتلك المشاريع؛ محمد أركون، عبد المجيد الشرفي التونسي، محمد عابد الجابري، حسن حنفي، نصر حامد أبوزيد، الطيب التيزني السوري، محمد شحرور، جمال البنا وغيرهم، وطالبوا بإعادة قراءة القرآن الكريم على ضوء المناهج النقدية الغربية في عملية التقليد الأعمى، ومن ثم نقلوا التجربة الأوروبية بكل آثارها الفوضوية إلى ساحة الفكر الإسلامي. وإن مدعي تجديد الدين من هؤلاء، ليس لهم صلة بالدين أو علومه، بقدر ما تشبعت أفكارهم بمناهج علمانية، فالمراد من جهودهم ليس الدين، وإنما غرس الحداثة بدل الدين، فهي خطَّةٌ تقوم على التَّغيير من داخل البيت الإسلاميِّ من خلال العبث بالنُّصوص الشَّرعيَّة بتحريفها وتفريغها من محتواها الحقيقيِّ، ووضع المحتوى الذي يريدون؛ فهم يَطرحون أفكارَهم وآراءَهم على أنَّها رؤى إسلاميَّة ناشئة عن الاجتهاد في فهم الدِّين. وقد حَمَلَ هذا الاتجاهُ شعار (التَّحديث والعصرنة للإسلام)؛ فهم يريدون منَّا تركَ ما أَجْمَعَتْ عليه الأُمَّةُ من معاني القرآن والسُّنَّة، لفهم جديد مغاير لفهم السَّلَف الصَّالح يكون متناسبًا مع هذا العصر الذي نعيش فيه. الكلمات المفتاحيّة: الحداثة، أوهام، الحداثيون، قراءة معاصرة، العصرنة للإسلام. Abstract In modern times, the word Modernity has spread widely and has become widely understood, and we see it as a natural extension of European concern and confusion. The Modernist Movement strived to present the ideas that rely completely on Western methodologies and approaches in their study and dealing with Qur’an and Sunnah. The most important scholars that have presented these ideas are; Mohammad Arkoun, ‘Abd Al-Majid Sharafi al-Tunisi, Mohammed ‘Abed al-Jabri, Hassan Hanafi, Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, Tayyeb Tizini, Muhammad Shahrour, Jamal Al-Banna, and others, they called for a re-reading and reinterpret the Qur’an in the light of Western critical approaches. Then, conveyed and brought the European experience and practice with all its chaotic effects to Islamic thought. The slogan of “Renewal of Religion” from these people has no relation to religion (Islam) or its sources, but instead saturated their ideas with secular methods. They tried to instill modernity rather than religion, and misinterpreted the Islamic sources by distorting it and evacuating it from the true context and setting it with their own understanding. They claim their ideas and opinions as the effort to understand religion and carried the slogan of “Modernization and Modernization of Islam”; they want us to leave the consensus of the Muslim scholars on religious issues (Ijmaa’ al-Ummah) especially relating to the meaning of the Qur’an and Sunnah and bring us to a new views and understanding on religious issues which are contradictory to the views of the past Muslim scholars (al-salaf al-soleh) to fulfill their opinions. Keywords: Modernity, Misunderstanding, Modernists, Contemporary Reading, Modernization of Islam.


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