A classification of contemporary cognitive currents in the Islamic world with specific critical reference to neo-mu'tazilism

One of the recent currents of thought in the contemporary Islamic world, which is becoming increasingly dominant, is developing on the margins of social and cognitive credibility of modern rationality. The basic methodological orientation that characterizes this cognitive current could reaffirm the historical memory of mu'tazilism, a classical theological school in Islam known for the fact that its representatives strongly promoted the primary importance of rational thinking. It does not matter whether we will accept to call these new Muslim thinkers NEO-mu'tazilites because of that - what will be much more important is to clearly determine their cognitive position in the overall classification of cognitive currents in the contemporary Islamic world. In fact, today we recognize four general currents of Muslim thought: (1) continuity of historical intellectual heritage, (2) mechanical promotion of modern knowledge, (3) critique of modernism from the perspective of Islamic intellectual tradition, (4) reconstruction of Islamic historical heritage from the perspective of exclusive credibility of modern knowledge. In this general cognitive classification in the contemporary conditions of the Islamic world, it will be crucial to distinguish two groups within the last current of thought, namely: (1) early Muslim reformers who were not experts in internal structures and hidden philosophical principles of modern science, (2) newer thinkers who are in no way connected with the historical heritage of Islamic classical knowledge, but under the cloak of popular religious terms reduce the key elements of the Islamic doctrinal and ontological stage in favour of the exclusive authority of the logical structures of modern rationality. These latter thinkers, who usually declare themselves as NEO-mu'tazilites, by essential reconstruction of the cultural and civilizational being of Islam, in fact discredit the social position of contemporary representatives of the classical Islamic intellectual heritage, who in the last few decades have renewed the internal sources of Islamic civilizational power in conditions of general reaffirmation of religious values. In this context, we will understand better the recent changes in the balance of global power and the models by which the modern West is reorganizing comprehensive capacities of its political, media and even academic authorities in order to consolidate in the long run new intellectual and educational structures in the contemporary Islamic world on the margins of modern rationality.

The role of human thoughts in everyday life in the works of Rhonda Byrne

This paper presents the author Rhonda Byrne and her works in the context of the role of human thoughts in the daily life. Special attention is paid to her work The Secret as it represents the foundation which makes it possible to construct her teaching from. Also, this paper explores the reception of The Secret in the former Yugoslav countries.

The life and work of Imam Sulaymān Ibn Aḥmad Al-Ṭabarānī with specific reference to his scientific travels: A supplement to the biography

Imam Al-Ṭabarānī, Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad ibn Ayyūb ibn Muṭayyir, is one of the greatest hadith authorities in the Islamic history, and one of the most prolific writers in the field of hadith. His most famous works are three hadith encyclopedias better known as Mu'ğam: Al-Mu'ğam al-Kabīr, AlMu'ğam al-Awṣaṭ, and Al-Mu'ğam al-Ṣaġīr. Apart from these three well-known works, he wrote many other works, some of which were printed, and a number of which are considered lost. Among the most famous lost works of Imam Al-barabarānī is Al-Sunnah. The importance of this lost work is reflected in the fact that great Islamic authorities such as Al-Ḏahabīja, Ibn al-Kaṯīr, Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn al-Qayyim, Al-Mizzī, Al-Suyuṭī and others cited quotations from the said lost work in their own works. Imam Al-Ṭabarānī lived a hundred years and his life was filled with scientific journeys, and we will rarely find that any Islamic authority had as many scientific journeys as Imam Al-Ṭabarānī did. In this paper, I tried to pay special attention to these scientific journeys and to offer their chronological overview. While doing so, I mostly relied on his work Al-Mu'ğam al-Ṣaġīr, in which Imam Al-Ṭabarānī mentioned the place and date where he heard a hadith when narrating it. Then I tried to list all the works of Imam Al-Ṭabarānī, whether they were printed or lost. I also mentioned the narrations of the greatest Islamic scholars and historians about Imam Al-Ṭabarānī and his virtues, as well as some of his most prominent teachers and disciples.

On theological-philosophical teachings of the Mu'tazilite school

The paper discusses several issues that were in the centre of interest of the most important representatives of the Mu'tazilite school. It is a concept of God's absolute transcendence presented through rational arguments. The transcendence of God also becomes a central theological-philosophical question in Abu Hudayl, Vasil Ibn Ata, Jubai, Nazzam, Abu Hashim and others. The whole theory of Mu'tazilites about divine properties, modes, or states functions as proof of divine transcendence and the idea of creation clothed in philosophical form. These theories cannot be validly formed unless the notion of the oneness of God (tawhid) is abstracted. Mu'tazilites add another category to this notion, which has a metaphysical meaning, and that is divine justice, which they relate to ethical concepts, that is, to man's freedom and responsibility.

Islamic culture in the Balkans: Emphasizing Alawites' role in the development of the Balkans

Islamic culture and civilization have a history of more than thousand years in the Balkans. Verifying the historical background of the arrival of Islam and Islamic currents in the Balkans, recognition of ethnicities and races, analysis of the situation and position of Muslims in the region, evaluation of new developments in the Balkans, study and recognition of socio-cultural and religious challenges in the Balkans, opportunities and threats in the field of culture and science in the region and other issues are important points that must be noticed in this research in order to be utilized for the expansion of Islamic culture and renovation of Islamic civilization in the Balkans. This paper is trying to answer the following questions: What is the background of Islamic culture and civilization in the Balkans and what were the factors of its development? The findings of the research are based on descriptive-analytic, library studies and field observations which show the particular position of Islamic culture and its role in the civilization of the region in the past and present.

Shiʻa mystical theology: Notes on Sayyid Ḥaydar ĀmulĪ's 'Jāmiʻ al-Asrār wa Manbaʻ al-Anwār'

There is a certain tendency among the scholars of Shī'ī Islam to synthesize Shī'īsm and Sufism within the Islamic context. Chief among these scholars is Bahā' al-Dīn Ḥaydar b. 'Alī b. Ḥaydar al-'Ubaydī Āmulī (1319 or 1320 - after 1385) known as Ḥaydar-i Āmulī whose Jāmi' al-Asrār wa Manba' al-Anwār is one of his essential works in which the interrelation between Shī'īsm and Sufism developed. This paper tries to look closely at the Jāmi' al-Asrār to depict the ways and approach in which Āmulī necessitates the identicality of the Shī'ī-Sufi approach. In the same framework, his relation to Ibn Arabi is examined. Āmulī's approach is called a marginalized one by some in the Shī'ī seminary. This paper, on the other hand, indicates that Āmulī's approach is more a continues and existing movement rather than a marginalized historical approach.

Travel journals in Islam and their contribution to the development of social thought

Travel journals are primarily a literary genre in which the writer expresses his impressions about the geographical and other characteristics of the region through which he travels, along with demographic, cultural, religious, cognitive and ethical characteristics of the people he encounters during his travels. This literary genre has an extraordinary potential to reveal the cognitive frameworks of the collective thought of a nation that is directly or indirectly manifested through various folk customs and traditions. Travel journals are beneficial in two ways when it comes to social thought. First, an author who visits new regions and meets a people that he has not had the opportunity to talk to before, informs his readers about the customs, beliefs, fears and hopes of that people. Demographic descriptions and analyses of all interesting, and sometimes strange, events that he witnessed, are a testimony to his modern readers about the existence of different views of the world, not so far away from them. Moreover, it will provide later readers with authentic information about how people once thought and how a community functioned. Secondly, an author who writes about his impressions after encountering a new tradition inadvertently makes his own judgment about it. In that way, he implicitly and indirectly points to the collective consciousness that he brings through his subjective judgments from the region which he belongs to, from his homeland. This aspect is most noticeable with later readers, because they can observe from a certain distance both the people to whom the author belongs to and the people about whom the author reports. If the author is affected by a certain phenomenon, it means that the collective consciousness of his people would not approve of such an action, and if he supported a tradition, it meant that his people would also agree with it. In this paper, we will try to offer a brief insight into the history of travel journals in Islam, and to present sociological potentials of some of the main travel journals prepared by Muslim authors during their arduous and difficult journeys.