Islamic Studies

A Polemical Critique of Philosophical Heresies

2025-11-17T14:10:57+05:00

This article examines Maqāmi‘ al-Ḥadīd, a little-studied treatise by Aḥmad Riḍā Khān (d. 1921), one of the most influential Sunni scholars of colonial India, as a polemical critique of philosophical doctrines deemed heretical by Islamic orthodoxy. Through a detailed analysis of Khān’s refutation of eight propositions drawn from the Aristotelian-Avicennian philosophical tradition, the study highlights Khān’s broader antagonism towards philosophy as a discipline he saw as corrosive to Islamic belief and religious certainty. By situating Maqāmi‘ al-Ḥadīd within the wider context of Khān’s writings and the colonial educational reforms of nineteenth-century British India, the article suggests how his rejection of philosophy may be part of a larger intellectual and pedagogical resistance to a broader colonial modernity. Khān’s critique reflects deep anxieties about epistemological authority, the integrity of Islamic knowledge, and the threat of secular rationalism to Muslim identity and religious life. In challenging recent portrayals of Khān as exhibiting a significant affinity for philosophy, this article argues instead that his polemics against philosophy were a conscious act of intellectual and cultural preservation in an era of profound transformation.

Non-Muslim Leadership and the Question of Legitimacy

2025-12-06T23:49:07+05:00

The issue of non-Muslim leadership within the Islamic community remains a highly debated topic in several Muslim countries, particularly those with diverse religious populations. While Muslim jurists have historically agreed that the head of state should be a Muslim, the political changes witnessed in Muslim societies and the establishment of modern nation states during the post-colonial era have led to the emergence of differing opinions regarding the permissibility of non-Muslim leadership. This study investigates Indonesia as a case study, considering its societal context marked by significant political and intellectual polarization. This context is characterized by ideological divisions among writers and the presence of competing organizations within the political sphere. To address this issue, this paper explores two main areas: firstly, it highlights the historical background surrounding the emergence of this problem both internationally and locally, and secondly, it evaluates the textual and jurisprudential evidence presented by proponents of non-Muslim leadership legitimacy. The evaluation of inference methods used to justify the legitimacy of a non-Muslim leadership reveals the adoption of an arbitrary approach in interpreting textual and jurisprudential evidence, which involves both selectivity and distortion.

Modernity and Ecological Crisis

2025-11-20T10:52:00+05:00

This paper critically examines modernity and prevailing conceptions of development, highlighting their role in the degradation and destruction of nature. It argues that over the past four centuries, nature has been reduced from a sacred and living realm to a lifeless object, valued primarily for its material utility to humankind. Drawing on Wael Hallaq’s critique of modern Western modernity, the paper explores how a worldview detached from religious, moral, and ethical constraints has enabled the domination and exploitation of nature. According to Hallaq, modernity, armed with secular scientific knowledge, empowered modern humans to control and manipulate the natural world. Building upon Hallaq’s argument, this paper further contends that modernity stripped nature of its spiritual and sacred dimensions, reconstituting it as an inert entity devoid of intrinsic value or rights. In contrast, the paper foregrounds Islamic environmental ethics, emphasizing the divinely ordained rights of natural beings, including animals and birds. Islamic teachings assert that the value and rights of non-human creatures are granted by God rather than determined by human utility. Consequently, human engagement with nature must be guided by moral responsibility and justice, ensuring that the rights of all creatures are respected and preserved. This study thus contributes to ongoing scholarly debates on modernity, religion—particularly Islam—and environmental ethics.

Ṭāhir al-Mawlawī and the Methodology of Sīrah Writing

2025-11-15T19:04:12+05:00

Ṭāhir al-Mawlawī (d. 1951) was a writer and poet, Sufi, mathnawīkhwāṇ, educator, journalist, translator, and also a Mawlawī shaykh. His multifaceted identity influenced his approach to writing sīrah of Prophet Muḥammad (peace be on him) and secured him a unique place in the literature. His books, newspaper essays, and magazine articles on the life of the Prophet bear traces of a synthesis that combines classical Islamic historiography with modern pedagogical and literary sensibilities. While classical Arabic texts and early modern Ottoman heritage generally stand out in sīrah studies, less attention has been paid to authors who worked on sīrah writing and reinterpreted this genre under the conditions of political and cultural transformation in the late Ottoman and early Republican periods. This gap makes Ṭāhir al-Mawlawī’s texts more meaningful and special. Evaluating sīrah not only as a transmission of religious knowledge but also as a tool for education and identity construction, Ṭāhir al-Mawlawī addresses readers of all ages in his writings and aims to draw attention to these values. His choice of sources, personal Sufi depth, and the rhetorical power provided by his literary competence add different dimensions to the sīrah narrative. Thus, sīrah ceases to be merely a historical narrative recalling the past and becomes a dynamic literary genre that seeks answers to current social needs. His narrative strategies and pedagogical orientation set a precedent for subsequent sīrah writers, influencing later authors in their efforts to interpret Prophetic events in dialogue with contemporary social realities. In this context, Ṭāhir al-Mawlawī’s sīrah writing can be considered a hybrid model that blends classical Islamic historiography with modern pedagogical concerns and literary style.

Framing the Sīrah

2025-12-07T12:00:41+05:00

This paper closely examines the representation of the Prophet Muḥammad (peace be on him) in four widely used introductory textbooks on Islam authored by leading Western Islamicists W. Shepard, J. L. Esposito, D. Brown, and A. Knysh. These texts, published by leading academic presses and widely adopted in university curricula, serve as the primary intellectual entry point through which students and non-specialist readers gain an understanding of Islam. Despite their prominence, relatively little attention has been paid to how the sīrah of the Prophet is constructed in these texts. This article attempts to fill this gap by addressing three interrelated questions: What frameworks are used to render the Prophet comprehensible within these textbooks? How is the sīrah translated, condensed, and reconfigured in the textbook form? And what methodological and epistemological assumptions inform these portrayals? In addressing these questions, the study does not seek to adjudicate questions of accuracy or normative adequacy. Rather, it aims to illuminate the discursive structures, methodological choices, and epistemic commitments that shape contemporary academic representations of the Prophet. The analysis draws on a well-established distinction between the “historical Muḥammad” as constructed in modern Western historiography, and the “Muḥammad of faith” as preserved within the Islamic tradition. By situating textbook representation at the intersection of these paradigms, this study examines the epistemological tensions that arise when a sacred biography is presented within a secular academic framework. The paper concludes that many academic representations continue to oscillate between reductive historicism and sympathetic engagement, often reproducing what Matthew Dimmock terms “the misrepresentation of a biography.”

Front Matter

2026-01-01T16:06:33+05:00

Back Matter

2026-01-01T16:24:07+05:00

Aminah Al-Deen and Aasim I. Padela, eds. Islam, Muslims, and COVID-19: The Intersection of Ethics, Health and Social Life in the Diaspora.

2026-01-01T16:16:34+05:00

Mutaz al-Khatib, ed. Key Classical Works on Islamic Ethics.

2025-07-14T11:23:36+05:00

Annual Table of Contents

2026-01-01T16:36:12+05:00