Contemporary Ijtihad

Contemporary Ijtihad

Author: L. Ali Khan

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Published: 2012-09-17

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 0748675949

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The book examines the challenges and limits of contemporary ijtihad in the context of diverse needs of Muslim cultures and communities living in Muslim and non-Muslim nations and continents, including Europe and North America.


Ijtihad and Renewal

Ijtihad and Renewal

Author: Said Shabbar

Publisher: International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT)

Published: 2017-01-01

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13: 1565649753

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In the early centuries of Islam the response of Muslims to problem-solving the various issues and challenges that faced their rapidly expanding community was to use intelligence and independent reasoning based on the Qur’an and Sunnah to address them. This practice is known as ijtihad. As the centuries wore on however the gates of ijtihad were generally closed in favor of following existing rulings developed by scholars by way of analogy. And as reason and intellect, now held captive to madhhabs (schools of thought) and earlier scholarly opinion stagnated, so did the Muslim world. Ijtihad and Renewal is an analysis of ijtihad and the role it can play for a positive Muslim revival in the modern world, a revival based on society-wide economic and educational reform and development. It makes the case that the grafting of solutions rooted in the past onto the complex and unique realities of our own age, in a one-size-fits-all perspective, has paralysed the vitality of Muslim thought, and confused its sense of direction, and that to revive the Muslim world from its centuries of decline and slumber we need to revive the practice of ijtihad. Focusing attention on thinking through solutions for ourselves based on our own times and context, using the Qur’an and Sunnah, as well as the wisdom and experience of the past distilled from these, as tools in this endeavor whilst not the only solution, is certainly a viable and powerful one.


The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Law

The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Law

Author: Anver M. Emon

Publisher:

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 1009

ISBN-13: 0199679010

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A comprehensive guide to Islamic legal scholarship, this Handbook offers a direct and accessible introduction to Islamic law and the academic debates within the field. Topics include textual sources and authority, institutions, substantive legal areas, Islamic legal philosophy, and Islamic law in the Muslim World and in Muslim minority countries.


Issues in Contemporary Islamic Thought

Issues in Contemporary Islamic Thought

Author: Taha Jabir Al Alwani

Publisher: IIIT

Published: 2005-01-01

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 156564414X

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This collection of papers presents a reformist project calling upon Muslim intellectuals and scholars everywhere to comprehend the vast breadth and depth of the crisis engulfing Muslim thought today and the necessity of solving this crisis to enable the Ummah to experience a revival and fulfill its role among the nations of the world. The reader will find a variety of articles dealing with this intellectual crises, these include a chapter on ijtihad's role and history, important since our intellectual problems cannot be solved without the scholars' use of independent reasoning and creativity. Another discusses imitation (taqlid) calling upon Muslim scholars and intellectuals to abandon imitation and to stop favoring the past over the present when trying to solve modern problems. Another looks at human rights.


Shi'ism Revisited

Shi'ism Revisited

Author: Liyakat Takim

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021-11-15

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0197606571

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"Contemporary Muslims face the challenge of how can a legal system that was formulated in the classical period of Islam respond to the multitudinous challenges that present-day Muslims encounter? Is there a need for reformation in Islam? If so, where should it begin and in which direction should it proceed? Addressing this gap in Western scholarship, and contributing to the ongoing debate in Islamic scholarship, Shi'ism Revisited: Ijtihad and Reformation in Contemporary Times will: (i) explore how modernity has impinged on the classical formulation of Islamic law, and (ii) analyse how Shi'i jurists have responded to the intersection of shari'a (Islamic law) and modernity. The study is original and ground-breaking in that it seeks to tackle issues such as how Islamic law is being revised by Shi'i scholars on cases such as human rights, gender equality, the rights of non-Muslim minorities, and reconfiguring the rational and moral basis of Islamic law. Such questions have required scholars to apply ijtihad (independent reasoning) in providing solutions to the pressing questions in the religious and social fields. By examining the principles and application of Islamic legal theory (usul al-fiqh) and reformation in Shi'ism, as well as the current discourse on juristic hermeneutics and the basis of a new ijtihad, this research will address topics that have attracted much public attention. Since such issues have been largely neglected by Western scholarship, this book will provide a unique analysis of ijtihad and reformation in the Shi'i world"--


Contemporary Bioethics

Contemporary Bioethics

Author: Mohammed Ali Al-Bar

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-05-27

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 3319184288

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This book discusses the common principles of morality and ethics derived from divinely endowed intuitive reason through the creation of al-fitr' a (nature) and human intellect (al-‘aql). Biomedical topics are presented and ethical issues related to topics such as genetic testing, assisted reproduction and organ transplantation are discussed. Whereas these natural sources are God’s special gifts to human beings, God’s revelation as given to the prophets is the supernatural source of divine guidance through which human communities have been guided at all times through history. The second part of the book concentrates on the objectives of Islamic religious practice – the maqa' sid – which include: Preservation of Faith, Preservation of Life, Preservation of Mind (intellect and reason), Preservation of Progeny (al-nasl) and Preservation of Property. Lastly, the third part of the book discusses selected topical issues, including abortion, assisted reproduction devices, genetics, organ transplantation, brain death and end-of-life aspects. For each topic, the current medical evidence is followed by a detailed discussion of the ethical issues involved.


Islam Dot Com

Islam Dot Com

Author: M. el-Nawawy

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2009-06-22

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 0230622666

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This book analyzes the discourses and deliberations in the discussion forums of three of the most visited Islamic websites and investigates the extent to which they have provided a venue for Muslims to freely engage in discussion among themselves and with non-Muslims about political, economic, religious and social issues.


The Closing of the Muslim Mind

The Closing of the Muslim Mind

Author: Robert R. Reilly

Publisher: Open Road Media

Published: 2014-04-08

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 1497620732

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The book you must read to understand the Islamist crisis—and the threat to us all Robert R. Reilly’s eye-opening book masterfully explains the frightening behavior coming out of the Islamic world. Terrorism, he shows, is only one manifestation of the spiritual pathology of Islamism. Reilly uncovers the root of our contemporary crisis: a pivotal struggle waged within the Muslim world nearly a millennium ago. In a heated battle over the role of reason, the side of irrationality won. The deformed theology that resulted, Reilly reveals, produced the spiritual pathology of Islamism, and a deeply dysfunctional culture. The Closing of the Muslim Mind solves such puzzles as: · Why the Arab world stands near the bottom of every measure of human development · Why scientific inquiry is nearly dead in the Islamic world · Why Spain translates more books in a single year than the entire Arab world has in the past thousand years · Why some people in Saudi Arabia still refuse to believe man has been to the moon


Islam and Good Governance

Islam and Good Governance

Author: M. A. Muqtedar Khan

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-04-08

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 1137548320

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This book advances an Islamic political philosophy based on the concept of Ihsan, which means to do beautiful things. The author moves beyond the dominant model of Islamic governance advanced by modern day Islamists. The political philosophy of Ihsan privileges process over structure, deeds over identity, love over law and mercy and forgiveness over retribution. The work invites Muslims to move away from thinking about the form of Islamic government and to strive to create a self-critical society that defends national virtue and generates institutions and practices that provide good governance.


Maqasid Al-Shariah

Maqasid Al-Shariah

Author: Jasser Auda

Publisher: International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT)

Published: 2008-01-01

Total Pages: 74

ISBN-13: 1565644409

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Current applications (or rather, misapplications) of Islamic law are reductionist rather than holistic, literal rather than moral, one-dimensional rather than multidimensional, binary rather than multi-valued, deconstructionist rather than reconstructionist, and causal rather than teleological. There is lack of consideration and functionality of the overall purposes and underlying principles of the Islamic law as a whole. Further, exaggerated claims of ‘rational certainty’ (or else, ‘irrationality’) and ‘consensus of the infallible’ (or else, ‘historicity of the scripts’) add to lack of spirituality, intolerance, violent ideologies, suppressed freedoms, and authoritarianism. Thus, a maqasidi approach takes juridical issues to a higher philosophical ground, and hence, overcomes (historical) differences over politics between Islamic schools of law, and encourages a much-needed culture of conciliation and peaceful coexistence. Moreover, the realization of purposes should be the core objective of all fundamental linguistic and rational methodologies of ijtihad, regardless of their various names and approaches. Thus, the validity of any ijtihad should be determined based on its level of achieving ‘purposefulness,’ or realizing maqasid al-shari’ah.