Islamic Studies

Front Matter

Editorial Team — 2024-06-30

Political Loyalty, Justice, and Trust

Abdessamad Belhaj — 2024-06-30

The Qur’ān emphasizes many virtues, including the ethics of covenant, justice, community trust, and institutional loyalty. In the Qur’ān, individuals and groups are obliged to uphold moral commitments, honour agreements, and foster justice and trust. On the other hand, Qur’ānic ethics provide an opportunity for repentance and behaviour modification for individuals who have violated the trust of others. Because Qur’ānic political ethics view moral responsibility for righteousness and self-redemption as remedies to betrayal rather than imposing punishment as the only option, it is conceivable to argue that Qur’ānic political ethics can be corrective, providing avenues for change for the treacherous. This article examines the sixteen instances of the root kh-w-n (to betray), in the Qur’ān and provides a contextualized, theme-based ethical analysis of each verse. It seeks to define the Qur’ānic corpus on betrayal (kh-w-n) and classify the latter into political betrayal, betrayal of justice, and betrayal of trust. It is concluded that this corpus describes betrayal as a consequence of a lack of moral responsibility.

Waqf in Higher Educational Institutions

Mohammed Amezzian — 2024-06-30

This study investigates the historical context of the development of waqf educational institutions during the Abbasid Era from the fourth century AH to the seventh century AH. This study focused on two parts. The first investigates the internal and external factors that contributed to the development of waqf institutions and discusses the impact of political conflicts between (local) rival powers on waqf-related institutions. The second part demonstrates the unique development that educational institutions witnessed and their organizational structures. These political factors and external challenges had the greatest impact on the establishment of these schools, the multiplicity of their fields of specialization, and the diversity of their educational programmes. This qualitative development that occurred in the structure of the waqf institution and its administrative system had a limited previous existence and appeared in the form of individual initiatives before it was generalized due to the wide official support. The findings show the leading role of endowment in the development of those institutions. The history of the emergence of schools and their development as higher educational institutions independent of the mosque shows that they were indebted in their development to endowment activities, both voluntary and governmental.

The Muslim Culinary in Ho Chi Minh City

Tu Anh Phan — 2024-06-30

Ḥalāl food is a common fixture in Muslim lives across the world. In Muslim quarters of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, locally-made food products are self-recognized as ḥalāl by the community. Ḥalāl food self-recognition is a tradition that exists within closed Muslim communities based on a process of production and consumption standardized by Muslims alone. However, the urban culinary scene has changed as the Vietnamese government issued policies for enhancing the tourism industry and exhorting Muslim enterprises to produce their typical local products. Using qualitative research methods in combination with document analysis, this article shows the sophisticated and varied culinary trade techniques of the Muslim market in Ho Chi Minh City and Southern Vietnam. Products that are not ḥalāl or that falsely claim to be ḥalāl have been introduced to the market. As a result, the involvement of the local Muslim community in the manufacturing process of these ḥalāl-standardized goods is analysed and examined to prevent the products from falsely claiming to be ḥalāl as well. Cultural aspects of the local Muslim community in food processing of ḥalāl products are often applied in creating tourist products in Muslim neighbourhoods. This research also argues that the market economy in Vietnam brings profits for the country, yet is also challenging for Muslims to produce and consume ḥalāl food.

A Critical Appraisal of Obligatory Bequest as Prevalent in Muslim Countries

Haseeb Fatima — 2024-06-30

The obligatory bequest has been adopted in several Muslim states by legal force. The basic purpose of this adoption is to overcome the economic grievances of orphaned grandchildren. This reform seems to be justified from an Islamic perspective because it does not radically interfere with the Islamic law of inheritance. Those orphaned grandchildren who are excluded under the traditional law of inheritance are its beneficiaries. These grandchildren inherit the share of their predeceased parent within the bequeathable limit of one-third of the estate of their grandparent. However, if the grandparent does not make any bequest in their favour then according to the notion of obligatory bequest court will assume that the grandparent has made the bequest and enforce it. Pakistani courts have preferred obligatory bequest over Section 4 of the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance, 1961. However, obligatory bequest is not an ideal solution, it has restricted its benefit to grandchildren only and no provision is made for the spouse and surviving parent. Additionally, both these reforms of obligatory bequest and Section 4 suffer from similar anomalies of representational succession. However, the state is the ultimate guardian of all deprived and destitute classes. Therefore, the most appropriate way to tackle the economic necessities of orphaned grandchildren is through the welfare and development programmes of the state. This article has thoroughly analysed the obligatory bequest and discussed its different models applicable in Muslim countries. Moreover, it probes the arguments for and against it and examines its different aspects.

A Probable Reason for Qur’ānic Prohibition of Ribā

Muhammad Mazhar Iqbal — 2024-06-30

The Qur’ān bans interest (ribā) and declares its dissimilarity with price in commodity trading. This paper provides a numerical explanation for this dissimilarity. It argues that calculating accrued interest for any loan requires information about the interest rate and compounding period. The compounding period is generally not stated explicitly; rather, it is inferred from the repayment schedule of a loan and bond. For a given principal and interest rate, the interest amount changes in response to any change in the compounding period. Alternatively, for any timeline to repay a prescribed amount of loan more than once a year, three different rates are defined. These are nominal interest rate, internal rate of return, and annual percentage rate. Since various participants in the loanable funds market concentrate on different rates and the ranking of alternative loan options concerning these rates may be contradictory, the law of one interest rate with respect to any one of these three rates is highly implausible if not impossible to prevail in the loanable funds market.

Beeta Baghoolizadeh. The Color Black: Enslavement and Erasure in Iran.

Forough Jahanbakhsh — 2024-06-30

Dunja Rašić. Bedeviled: Jinn Doppelgangers in Islam and Akbarian Sufism.

Carimo Mohomed — 2024-06-30

Back Matter

Editorial Team — 2024-06-30