scholarly journals The Conceptual Framework for an Action Plan for the Islamization of Knowledge

1985 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-149
Author(s):  
Abdulhmaid AbuSulayman

It is an admitted fact that the stagnation and the crisis of thought in the Islamic Ummah is one of the most important reasons for its backwardness and for the malaise of its contemporary civilization. It is also an admitted fact that a reform of the methodology of the Islamic Thought on the one hand, and Islamization of social sciences and humanities, and of knowledge on the other, are greatly needed if we wish to overcome the crisis of thought and move into the modern life.We will need this new orientation, if we want to benefit from what the humanity has achieved in terms of knowledge and the progress of civilization up till now, and to interact with it from the Islamic perspective in order to realize the Islamic goals of human life and civilization. Ever since the importance of the reform in Islamic thought was crystallized in the minds of the Muslim youth who had awareness and commitment to Islam and had knowledge of the scientific and academic achievements of the western world, and ever since these youth established The Association of Muslim Social Scientists thirteen years ago, and finally since the establishment of the International Institute of Islamic Thought five years ago, as an independent academic institution fully dedicated to function as a backbone to serve the message of Islam, the idea of reform of the Islamic thought and Islamization of knowledge and of social sciences and humanities has gained acceptance, and efforts have been made to realize that goal. It will be noticed that in view of the focus of concern and action, of course a politically motivated concern to achieve strength and power to defend and combat, concentration has been on disciplines of education and economics. In order to achieve these reforms in a realistic way and on a solid foundation, the plan to be adopted should be based on a comprehensive knowledge of Islamic methodology. It should concentrate on reformation of thought that is related to the behavioral sciences which are considered as the main base for social sciences from which other social sciences are ...

1989 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. v-vii
Author(s):  
Sayyid Muhammad Syeed

The first decade of the 15th century Hijrah is over. It saw the establishmentof the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) and was markedby the development of cooperation and collaboration between various Islamicorganizations and institutions around the world. The results have been mostencouraging. This collaboration has contributed toward the initiation of anera of discussions and debates on the Islamization of knowledge and thedevelopment of a methodology for the reconstruction of Islamic thought.Among the consequences has been the unfolding of various intellectual forums.One such intellectual forum for the last five years has been the AmericanJournal of Islamic Social Sciences (AJISS) published jointly by the IIIT andthe Association for Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS). We are greatly encouragedby its steadily increasing circulation and by the enhanced participationof social scientists as well as lay scholars.'AbdulHamid AbuSulayman, now Rector of the International IslamicUniversity (IIU). Malaysia, continues to send us his inspiring selection andcommentary of Qur'anic verses as the "Guiding Light:'In this issue, for the first time, we are induding a paper by Taha Jabiral 'Alwani, the President of the IDT and author of several scholarly titlesin Arabic. This paper is the English rendering of his lecture delivered inRabat, Morocco at a conference held under the aegis of the Islamic Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO). He sketches a briefargument for establishing an Islamic alternative in thought and knowledge,not only for the benefit of Muslims, but for the common good of humanity.Another first is the paper by Eric Winkel, a multi-lingual political scientistof the faculty of IIU Malaysia, who provjdes us with an analysis of Habermasand Foucault. This paper entitled "Remembering Islam . . . " bringsthese postwar leaders of the Frankfurt school of anarchist and radical critiqueinto the discussion of the Islamic paradigm. Winkel explains thecharacterization of Habermas and Foucault of existing epistemologies as "pernicious,pervasive and truth distorting," and shows how their own vision ofthe possible future world is extremely restricted and inadequate. He suggeststhat we remember that Islam, as the divine guidance of Allah, provides thebasis for a truly emancipatory meta critique.Moving from philosophical issues to the more concrete, Ausaf Ali's paperon " . . . Islamization of Social and Behavioral Sciences" argues for a moral ...


1993 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. v-vii
Author(s):  
Sayyid M. Syeed

The news of Professor Mahmoud Abu Saud’s death has saddened usall. For several decades, he has been a prominent figure in the seminarsand conferences of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS),the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), the Islamic Societyof North America (ISNA), the American Muslim Council (AMC), andother Islamic and interfaith organizations. His passionate commitment tothe reconstruction of Islamic thought, as well as his tireless involvementin writing, lecturing, and touring from country to country and from cityto city, were a great inspiration to our young scholars. As a learnedscholar, Social scientist, and, in particular, an economist, friend, and mentor,he will be missed in many forums. He served as a referee for theAmerican Journal of Islamic Social Sciences (AJISS), and his commentswere always objective and straightforward. His ideas, ideals, and intellectualand moral heritage will continue to inspire his friends andstudents. We pray that Almighty Allah will cover him with His mercyand also grant us patience and help us to emulate some of his extra-The growth and development of MISS was one of the aspitations ofthe late Mahmoud Abu Saud. Our constant struggle to enhance the intellectualcontent of the journal will be a source of reward to the departedsoul of that great mujdhid. For verily “we belong to Allah and to Him wereturn.“This issue begins with Mahmoud Dhaouadi’s paper on Islamicknowledge and the rise of the new science. In the last few decades,Mahmoud Dhaouadi argues, western science has begun to shift from whatis called classical science to new science. This vision of the emergingnew science promises to heal the division between matter and spirit andto do away with the mechanical dimension of the world. However, theprocess of reconciliation between religion and science in modem westernculture still faces a great many hurdles. Islam, on the other hand, looksat knowledge and science as a continuum whereby divine and humanknowledge and science both cooperate with and complement each other.He gives examples from the practices of classical Muslim scholars, suchas Ibn Khaldin, who based their research on this approach. Knowledge ...


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Mohamed Amine Brahimi ◽  
Houssem Ben Lazreg

The advent of the 1990s marked, among other things, the restructuring of the Muslim world in its relation to Islam. This new context has proved to be extremely favorable to the emergence of scholars who define themselves as reformists or modernists. They have dedicated themselves to reform in Islam based on the values of peace, human rights, and secular governance. One can find an example of this approach in the works of renowned intellectuals such as Farid Esack, Mohamed Talbi, or Mohamed Arkoun, to name a few. However, the question of Islamic reform has been debated during the 19th and 20th centuries. This article aims to comprehend the historical evolution of contemporary reformist thinkers in the scientific field. The literature surrounding these intellectuals is based primarily on content analysis. These approaches share a type of reading that focuses on the interaction and codetermination of religious interpretations rather than on the relationships and social dynamics that constitute them. Despite these contributions, it seems vital to question this contemporary thinking differently: what influence does the context of post-Islamism have on the emergence of this intellectual trend? What connections does it have with the social sciences and humanities? How did it evolve historically? In this context, the researchers will analyze co-citations in representative samples to illustrate the theoretical framework in which these intellectuals are located, and its evolution. Using selected cases, this process will help us to both underline the empowerment of contemporary Islamic thought and the formation of a real corpus of works seeking to reform Islam.


Author(s):  
Guilherme Cavalcante Silva

Over the last few years, data studies within Social Sciences watched a growth in the number of researches highlighting the need for more proficuous participation from the Global South in the debates of the field. The lack of Southern voices in the academic scholarship on the one hand, and of recognition of the importance and autonomy of its local data practices, such as those from indigenous data movements, on the other, had been decisive in establishing a Big Data in the South agenda. This paper displays an analytical mapping of 131 articles published from 2014-2016 in Big Data & Society (BD&S), a leading journal acknowledged for its pioneering promotion of Big Data research among social scientists. Its goal is to provide an overview of the way data practices are approached in BD&S papers concerning its geopolitical instance. It argues that there is a tendency to generalise data practices overlooking the specific consequences of Big Data in Southern contexts because of an almost exclusive presence of Euroamerican perspectives in the journal. This paper argues that this happens as a result of an epistemological asymmetry that pervades Social Sciences.


2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 772-790
Author(s):  
Jisu Lee ◽  
Hye-Eun Lee

Abstract The course of reprocessing knowledge and information about social sciences and humanities using digital technology is taking root as a new field of academia called the ‘digital humanities’ (DH). While the social sciences and humanities in South Korea have shown a marked reluctance toward the integration of digital technology, the perception of its necessity as a new methodology for developing these fields in the digital age is growing. Until recently, analytical studies on the status and contents of DH were conducted on data from the western world. Despite their late start, however, Asian countries have begun conducting research on DH with enthusiasm. In order for DH to be properly established in each country, it is essential to set the direction by investigating the pre-requisites for DH studies in that country, as well as the current and future demands. As such, this study discusses the current status and issues regarding DH in South Korea by analyzing the trends of DH research published in South Korea, as well as by examining the status and perception of DH among actual scholars. Based on this study’s findings, we present strategies for improving education programs on DH in South Korea and promulgate the necessity of using DH methodologies in the study of social sciences and humanities to develop global networks and academic communication.


2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia D. Tregubova ◽  
Marharyta Fabrykant ◽  
Alla Marchenko

The objective of this paper is to outline and compare frameworks for studying post-Soviet transformations developed by social scientists from various disciplines in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. The objective is realized by means of quantitative content analysis of scholarly articles’ abstracts in ninety-four journals in eight (inter)disciplinary fields that covers the period of 2001-2015. This paper seeks to answer the question whether differences in the studies of the post-Soviet transformations are defined by country discourse or by the field of study. The research results suggest that there is a two-level mechanism, by which the societal context affects academia, in this case, social sciences and humanities. While general directions of scholarly attention are determined by societal differences, representations of post-Soviet transformations are framed through specific disciplinary lenses that combine both international and post-Soviet features.


Publications ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmitry Kochetkov

Recently, more and more countries are entering the global race for university competitiveness. On the one hand, global rankings are a convenient tool for quantitative analysis. On the other hand, their indicators are often difficult to quickly calculate and they often contradict each other. The author of this paper hoped to use widely available indicators for a quick analysis of the University’s publication strategy and opted for the normalized citation indicators available in the SciVal analytical tool, namely, Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) and Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI). The author demonstrated the possibility of applying the correlation analysis to the impact indicators of a document and a journal on a sample of social and humanitarian fields at Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (PFUR, “RUDN” in Russian). A dot diagram of university (or country) documents was used to form a two-factor matrix (SNIP and FWCI) that was further divided into four quadrants. Such an analysis illustrated the present situation in that discipline. An analysis of the RUDN university publications revealed problems and prospects in the development of social sciences and humanities. A serious problem observed was that high-quality results were often published in low-impact journals that narrowed the results’ potential audience and, accordingly, the number of citations. A particular attention was paid to the application of the results in practice.


Author(s):  
رائد جميل عكاشة

تحاول الدراسة بناء تصور حول برنامج للفنون بناءً على مقاصد الشريعة، وأهمية الدراسات البينية والتكاملية في تحقيق توازن بين البنية المعرفية الإسلامية الممثلة في الأصول التأسيسية (القرآن الكريم والسنة النبوية) والتراث الحضاري من جهة، وعلوم العصر من جهة أخرى. لقد غدت التكاملية إطاراً مرجعياً ومعياراً لفهم العلاقات بين العلوم، وإعادة تنظيمها، واكتشاف أواصر القربى بينها، لا سيما بين تلك العلوم ذات الحقول الدلالية المشتركة كما في العلوم الاجتماعية والعلوم الإنسانية. ومنهجية التفكير المقاصدي مهمة في نقل التفكير من صفة الجزئية إلى صفة الكلية، حتى يستوعب الظاهرة بصورة أكثر شمولية. إن التوازن المشار إليه يفيد في تحديد نوعية الخطاب الفني المناسب للمرحلة، ويعمل على تأسيس البرنامج التعليمي للفن بناء على التصوّر المعرفي والوظيفة الحضارية للفن أولاً (المعرفة)، وليس على تركيبته وبُعده الفني والجمالي (العلم)، وسيُفعّل فكرة البدائل الحضارية التي هي جزء أصيل من التفكير المقاصدي. This study attempts to develop a conception of art program of study based on the purposes of the Shari'a (maqasid), and the importance of interdisciplinary and integrative studies to achieve a balance between the Islamic knowledge structure in the founding sources (Quran and Sunnah) on the one hand, and the cultural heritage and contemporary knowledge in the other. Integration has become a frame of reference and a criterion for understanding, reconstructing and reconciling knowledge, especially knowledge with common semantic fields, such as social sciences and humanities. The approach of maqasidi thinking is important in moving from partial thinking to a wider space of global thinking in order to comprehend the phenomenon in a more comprehensive way. The balance referred to is useful in determining the quality of an appropriate artistic discourse. It helps to establish an educational art program based on the cognitive perception and cultural function of art; i.e., knowledge, not on its composition and its artistic aesthetic dimension (science). It will also activate the idea of cultural alternatives, as an integral part of the maqasidi thinking.


2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eloisa Betti

AbstractThis survey article seeks to contribute to the understanding of the concepts of precarious work and precarization in the history of industrial capitalism by addressing the debate in the social sciences and humanities over the past forty years. Based on a gendered global approach, this article aims to offer a critique of the Global North-centric perspective, which largely conceives precarious work as a new phenomenon lacking a longer historical tradition. The first part discusses the multiple origins, definitions, and conceptualizations of “precarious work” elaborated with regard to industrial as well as post-industrial capitalism, taking into account selected contemporary sources as well as studies conducted by historians and social scientists. In the second part, the influence of different approaches, such as the feminist and post-colonial ones, in globalizing and gendering the precarious work debate is examined in their historical contexts, exploring also the crucial nexus of precarious work and informal work. In the conclusion, the limitations of the available literature are discussed, along with suggestions for further directions in historicizing precarious work from a global perspective.TRANSLATED ABSTRACTS FRENCH – GERMAN – SPANISHEloisa Betti.En historicisant le travail précaire: quarante ans de recherche dans les sciences sociales et humaines.Cette enquête tente de contribuer à la compréhension des concepts de travail précaire et de précarisation dans l’histoire du capitalisme industriel, en examinant le débat dans les sciences sociales et humaines durant les quarante dernières années. Sur la base d’une approche globale de genre, l’article entend proposer une critique de la perspective globale nordique, qui conçoit en grande partie le travail précaire comme un nouveau phénomène dépourvu d’une assez longue tradition historique. La première partie examine les multiples origines, définitions et conceptualisations du “travail précaire” élaborées à propos du capitalisme industriel et post-industriel, en tenant compte de sources contemporaines sélectionnées et d’études conduites par des historiens et spécialistes des sciences sociales. Dans la seconde partie, l’influence de diverses approches, telles que les approches féministes et post-coloniales, mondialisant et générisant le débat sur le travail précaire, sont examinées dans leur contexte historique, tout en étudiant également le lien crucial du travail précaire et du travail informel. En conclusion, les limitations de la littérature disponible sont examinées et assorties de suggestions d’orientations ultérieures pour historiciser le travail précaire dans une perspective globale.Traduction:Christine Plard


1990 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-255
Author(s):  
Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi

What can an accomplished Western theologian and philosopher offerto modern Islamic thought‘! Is there a need for the contemporary Muslimintelligentsia to learn from outside sources? And, if "a conscious and intellectualdefence must be made of the Islamic tradition,” does it mean that Muslimshave to live in a state of mental inertia vis-i-vis the impressive Western traditionin philosophy, theology, and other humanistic and social sciences? Finally,what are the intellectual dangers of borrowing from a Western heritage whichis diffuse in nature, and which is not free from ideology most of the time?Would we be accused of eclecticism and a lack of historicism?Undoubtedly, a major North African philosopher like Abdallah Laroui would dismiss the whole theological project of Islam and Christianity, oreven the whole theoretical enterprise of comparative religion, as irrelevant,ahistorical, anti-intellectual, nxluctionist, and obstructionist. The same attitudeis shared by not a small number of Arab and Muslim social scientists whoconsider metaphysics a fading religious pastime that should have been drivenaway from the human mental endeavor long before Kant appeared on thescene. This orientation is sociologically developed by Bassam Tibi in hisrecent book entitled The Crisis of Modem Islam: A Reindustrial Culturein the Scientific-Technological Age, where he argues that the only viableapproach to Islam in the modern wrld is the sociological method. Therefore,his aim is not to study the spiritual, philosophical, and social manifestationsof Islam in today‘s world, but to understand it, “as it is incorporated intoreality as a fait social-that is, a social fact.”Metaphysics and the Search for a Methodin Religious StudiesProkssor Huston Smith, who sees the validity of the argument that religionis a social fact, argues that the religious question is primarily metaphysical.Thus he offers a “synthetic construct” of religion: metaphysical and social.Put differently, Smith maintains that, transcendentally speaking, religion isa priori and universal; whereas socially spealung, religion is subject to diversityand particularism. It is when we understand his “synthetic argument” thatwe begin to unravel his conceptual concerns: Smith is troubled by the modernphilosophical assertion that truth is made and not found ...


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