Muḥammad and His Followers in Context: The Religious Map of Late Antique Arabia

By Ilkka Lindstedt

Series: Islamic History and Civilization, Vol. 209

Publisher: Brill

Publication Date: November 2, 2023

Hardcover: 372 pages

ISBN: 9789004687127

This title is published in Open Access with the support of the University of Helsinki Library.

Download PDF HERE.

The book surveys and analyzes changes in religious groups and identities in late antique Arabia, ca. 300-700 CE. It engages with contemporary and material evidence: for example, inscriptions, archaeological remains, Arabic poetry, the Qurʾān, and the so-called Constitution of Medina. Also, it suggests ways to deal with the later Arabic historiographical and other literary texts. The issue of social identities and their processes are central to the study. For instance, how did Arabian ethnic and religious identities intersect on the eve of Islam? The book suggests that the changes in social groups were more piecemeal than previously thought.

Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction
  – Prolegomena and Methodological Considerations
  – Ethnic, Linguistic, and Tribal Situation in Arabia before Islam
• 2. Judaism
  – Judaism in Late Antiquity
  – The Arabian Context
  – Conclusions
• 3. Christianity
  – Christianity in Late Antiquity
  – The Arabian Context
  – Conclusions
• 4. Gentiles
  – Introduction
  – Idolatry and Polytheism in Arabia
  – Gentile Monotheism in Arabia
  – The Idea of Abrahamic Descent in Arabia before Islam
  – An Excursus to Later Arabic Historiography: ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib’s Dream
  – Conclusions
• 5. The Rise of the Gentile Prophet in Mecca
  – Introduction and Methodological Considerations
  – Mecca
  – Excursus: Arabic Historiography on the Meccan Period
  – Conclusions on the Meccan Period
• 6. The Founding and Consolidating of the Community in Medina
  – The “Constitution” of Medina
  – The Believers in the Medinan Qurʾān
  – The People of the Book in the Medinan Period
  – The Jews in the Qurʾān
  – The Christians in the Qurʾān
  – Inna al-dīn ʿinda Allāh al-islām
  – Gentile Purity and Dietary Regulations
  – The Eschaton Postponed?
  – Excursus: Arabic Historiography and the Medinan Era
  – Conclusions on the Medinan Era
• 7. Near-Contemporary Non-Arabic Views on the Prophet and His Community
  – Near-Contemporary Non-Arabic Views on the Prophet’s Community
• 8. Concluding toward Early Islamic Times
  – “No Two Religions”
  – Conclusions

About the Author

Ilkka Lindstedt, Ph.D. (2014), is Lecturer in Islamic theology at the University of Helsinki. He deals with pre-Islamic Arabia, early Islam, Arabic historiography, and Arabic epigraphy. Recent publications include: Ilkka Lindstedt, Nina Nikki, and Riikka Tuori (eds.), Religious Identities in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: Walking Together & Parting Ways, Brill 2022.

Source: Brill

Feminist Theology and Social Justice in Islam: A Study on the Sermon of Fatima

By Mahjabeen Dhala

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Publication Date: January 27, 2024

Hardcover: 224 pages

ISBN-10: 1009423045

ISBN-13: ‎978-1009423045

Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed, is best known for her protest sermon, an important document from the early Islamic era. Mahjabeen Dhala here offers an in-depth analysis of this captivating narrative, which lies at the intersection of theology and women’s studies. A fresh and deep study of Fatima’s sermon from feminist and social justice perspectives, she reclaims the voice of a seventh-century Muslim woman theologian and female inheritance rights activist from patriarchal, sectarian, and secular biases. Dhala unveils a rich tapestry of empowerment for women and political minorities within the Islamic tradition. She also uncovers the early origins of female agency and empowerment in Islam, shattering prevailing Western misconceptions and challenging the notion that Muslim women are passive bystanders. Additionally, Dhala’s book contributes to our understanding of the role of women in Islamic theology and ethics, revealing their active engagement in promoting social justice and fostering transformative change.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• 1. Fatima in Islamic Sacred Sources
• 2. Fadak: More than a Land Dispute
• 3. Women’s Theology
• 4. Service-Based Leadership
• 5. Fatima Inspires Social Justice
• Conclusion
• Appendix The Sermon of Fatima
• Bibliography
• Index

About the Author

Mahjabeen Dhala is Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies and Chair of the Women’s Studies in Religion program at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.

Reviews

• “This is a landmark study of the figure of Fatima, the beloved daughter of the Prophet Muhammad. Professor Dhala deftly combines her erudition in historical sources with her solid grasp of various theoretical fields, in order to uncover a powerful God-centered agent of social justice and moral reckoning. This important book, which offers a unique feminist reading within Islam, is bound to become a model for future scholarship: it addresses pressing contemporary issues related to minoritized communities and gender equality, while remaining sensitive to the historical sources and traditions that inform possibilities of progressive transformation.” – Asad Q. Ahmed, University of California, Berkeley
• “In Feminist Theology and Social Justice in Islam, Mahjabeen Dhala reaffirms the place of Fatima bint Muhammad as an inspirational figure for contemporary Muslim feminists, theologians, and scholar-activists. With her adeptness at explicating the Qur’an and finesse with Shi‘i exegetical literature, Dhala’s monograph is essential reading for all who are invested in gender justice and early Islamic polity.” – Celene Ibrahim, Harvard University
• “From its beginnings, the Shi’a tradition has been concerned with social justice. In this important new monograph, Professor Dhala analyzes and helps us to better understand the Sermon of Fatima, both in its historical context, and its modern significance for female activism. Her work is a marvelous addition to the Islamic theological literature.” – Amir Hussain, Loyola Marymount University
• “Professor Dhala’s brilliant study focuses on the sermon of Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, and her role in female empowerment and engendering social activism. Navigating through a feminist perspective, Dhala’s pioneering work demonstrates how Fatima challenged powerful patriarchal norms in her time and contributed to the shaping of Islamic theology and notions of social justice. This is a much needed study especially as Fatima has received scant attention in Western scholarship on Islam.” – Liyakat Takim, McMaster University

Source: Cambridge University Press

Muslim Prayer in American Public Life
by Rose Aslan

Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication Date: August 2, 2024
Language: English
Hardcover: 272 pages
ISBN-10: 0190079223
ISBN-13: 978-0190079222

• Provides a multidisciplinary approach to understanding ritual practice among US Muslims
• Draws on a survey of 350 US Muslims about their prayer practices
• The first book that explicitly engages with the topic of Islamic ritual and prayer among US Muslims

Muslims are required by their faith to perform prayers five times a day, preceded by a cleansing ritual and followed by physical prostrations facing Mecca. In a society not always understanding or accepting of these practices, how do Muslims navigate this ritualistic obligation? In this book, Rose Aslan seeks to answer this question and explores the complexities of maintaining devout Islamic rituals in post-9/11 America.

Drawing on an original survey of 350 Muslims as well as examining literature, poetry, film, TV shows, and social media posts, Muslim Prayer in American Public Life provides an in-depth examination of the lived experiences of Muslim prayer practices in the United States today. It explores the various ways Muslims seek to navigate their ritual obligations within a predominantly secular society and the diverse challenges they confront regarding prayer in public settings such as schools, workplaces, media representations, religious debates, and protest movements. Aslan shows how Muslims employ creative adaptations to prayer in secular spaces that are not designed to accommodate religious needs. Despite facing discrimination, they assert their identity and claim belonging in the United States through embodied spiritual acts. Muslim Prayer in American Public Life shows how Muslims strive to maintain their faith within an ever-evolving American national context.

Table of Contents

The Sciences in Islamicate Societies in Context: Patronage, Education, Narratives

By Sonja Brentjes

Series: Variorum Collected Studies

Publisher: Routledge

Publication Date: November 30, 2023

This Variorum volume reprints ten papers on contextual elements of the so-called ancient sciences in Islamicate societies between the thirteenth and the seventeenth centuries. They address four major themes: the ancient sciences in educational institutions; courtly patronage of science; the role of the astral and other sciences in the Mamluk sultanate; and narratives about knowledge.

The main arguments are directed against the then dominant historiographical claims about the exclusion of the ancient sciences from the madrasa and cognate educational institutes, the suppression of philosophy and other ancient sciences in Damascus after 1229, the limited role of the new experts for timekeeping in the educational and professional exercise of this science, and the marginal impact of astrology under Mamluk rule. It is shown that the muwaqqits (timekeepers) were important teachers at madrasas and Sufi convents, that Mamluk officers sought out astrologers for counselling and that narratives about knowledge reveal important information about scholarly debates and beliefs. Colophons and dedications are used to prove that courtly patronage for the ancient sciences continued uninterrupted until the end of the seventeenth century. Furthermore, these papers refute the idea of a continued and strong conflict between the ancient and modern sciences, showing rather shifting alliances between various of them and their regrouping in the classifications of the entire disciplinary edifice.

These papers are suited for graduate teaching in the history of science and the intellectual, cultural and social history of the Middle East and for all readers interested in the study of the contexts of the sciences.

Table of Contents

1. ‘The location of the Ancient or ‚rational’ sciences in Muslim educational landscapes (AH 500-1100),’　Bulletin of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies, 4(1), 2002: 47-71.
2. ‘Shams al-Dīn al-Sakhāwī on Muwaqqits, Mu’adhdhins, and the Teachers of Various Astronomical Disciplines in Mamluk Cities in the Fifteenth Century,’ in (eds.) Emilia Calvo, Mercè Comes, Roser Puig, Mònica Rius, A Shared Legacy, Islamic Science East and West, Homage to professor J.M. Millàs Vallicrosa, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Publicacions i Edicions, 2008, 129-150.
3. ‘Ayyubid Princes and their Scholarly Clients from the Ancient Sciences,’ in Albrecht Fuess, Jan-Peter Hartung (eds.), Court Cultures in the Muslim World: Seventh to Nineteenth Centuries, SOAS/Routledge Studies on the Middle East, London: Routledge, 2010, 326-56.
4. ‘Patronage of the mathematical sciences in Islamic societies: structure and rhetoric, identities and outcomes,’ in Eleanor Robson, Jackie Stedall (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the History of Mathematics, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 301-28.
5. ‘Courtly Patronage of the Ancient Sciences in Post-Classical Islamic Societies,’ Al-Qanṭara: revista de estudios árabes, XXIX (2008), 403-436.
6. ‘The language of ‘Patronage’ in Islamic societies before 1700,’ Cuadernos del CEMYR 20 (2012), 11-22.
7. ‘The Study of Geometry According to al-Sakhāwī (Cairo, 15th c) and al-Muḥibbī (Damascus, 17th c),’ in J. W. Dauben, S. Kirschner, A. Kühne, P. Kunitzsch and R. Lorch eds., Mathematics Celestial and Terrestrial, Festschrift for Menso Folkerts zum 65. Geburtstag. Acta Historica Leopoldina 54 (2008), 323–341. Halle/Saale: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina.
8. ‘On Four Sciences and Their Audiences in Ayyubid and Mamluk Societies,’ in Syrinx von Hees ed. Inhitat -The Decline Paradigm: Its Influence and Persistence in Writing Arab Cultural History. Würzburg: Ergon, 2012, 139-172.
9. ‘Narratives of knowledge in Islamic societies: what do they tell us about scholars and their contexts?’　Almagest, 4(1), 2013: 74-95.
10. ‘Sanctioning knowledge,’ Al-Qanṭara: revista de estudios árabes, 35(1), 2014: 277-309.

About the Author:

Sonja Brentjes is a historian of science with specialization in Islamicate societies, the late medieval Mediterranean and early modern Catholic and Protestant Europe. Currently, she is a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. Her latest books include: Teaching and Learning the Sciences in Islamicate Societies, 800–1700 (2018), and The Routledge Handbook of the Sciences in Islamicate Societies: Practices from the 2^nd/8^th to the 13^th/19^th Centuries (2023), co-edited with Peter Barker (associated editor) and Rana Brentjes (assistant editor).

More information on: Routledge

This volume focuses on Islamic philosophy of religion with a range of contributions from analytic perspectives. It opens with methodological discussions on the relationship between the history of Islamic philosophy and contemporary analytic philosophy. The book then offers a philosophical examination of some specific Islamic beliefs as well as some approaches to general beliefs that Islam shares with other religions. The chapters address a variety of topics from the existence and attributes of God through to debates on science and religion. The authors are predominantly scholars from Muslim backgrounds who tackle philosophical issues concerning Islam as their own living religion, representing internal perspectives that have never been vocal in analytic philosophy of religion so far. This is valuable reading for scholars and students of philosophy, theology, and religious studies.

Table of Contents

PART I: Methodology

1. What Can Contemporary Analytic Philosophy Do for the Historians of Islamic Philosophy?
2. What Can the History of Islamic Philosophy Do for Contemporary Analytic Philosophers?

PART II: Existence and Uniqueness of God

3. Kalām and Cognition
4. God’s Existence and the Uniqueness Claim

PART III: Attributes of God

5. Divine Power and Divine Knowledge
6. The Doctrine of Divine Simplicity Considered in Light of Averroes’s Conception of Divine Knowledge

PART IV: Miracles

7. The Metaphysics of Miracles: Avicenna on Natures and Prophetic Powers
8. Of Miracle of Miracles: An Introduction to the Qur’anic View of Miracle

PART V: Faith and Its Obstacles

9. Faith, Knowledge, and Certainty: An Islamic Philosophy Perspective
10. Islam and The Problem of Divine Hiddenness
11. An Analysis of Some Problems of Evil from an Islamic Perspective

PART VI: Ethics and Morality

12. Islamic Philosophers’ Idea of Heaven: A Moral Analysis
13. Towards Epistemic Justice in Islam

PART VII: Science and Religion

14. Adam, Eve, and Human Evolution: Is There a Conflict?
15. Islamic Occasionalism within the context of Modern Religion and Science Debate

About the Editor

Mohammad Saleh Zarepour is a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Manchester, UK. His research interests include medieval Islamic philosophy, philosophy of religion, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of logic.

Source: Routledge

Studies on the Life of Muhammad and the Dawn of Islam: Idol Worshippers, Christians and Jews in Pre- and Early Islam

By Michael Lecker

Series: Variorum Collected Studies

Publisher: Routledge

Publication Date: October 31, 2023

This volume includes 20 articles published between 1994 and 2020 on the subject of Muḥammad and the history of early Islam, covered in five sections: Arabia on the Eve of Islam, Muḥammad at Medina, Muḥammad and the Jews, Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq and the sīra and studies on early Islamic literature.

The book focuses on a variety of historical questions, from the presumed Ghassanid/Byzantine involvement in the hijra to Muḥammad’s treaties with the main Jewish tribes of Yathrib/Medina. Predilection for detail, especially in the realms of genealogy and geography, is a salient characteristic of Lecker’s research, which in recent years has been increasingly based on digitized text repositories. Many of the articles deal with the social and economic environment of early Islam, which is vital for the study of Muḥammad’s biography. They are conceived of as building blocks in a future critical biography of the Arabian prophet.

Studies on the Life of Muhammad and the Dawn of Islam will appeal to those interested in the history of pre- and early Islam, with an emphasis on Muḥammad’s life and his relations with the Jews of Arabia.

About the Author

Michael Lecker is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Arabic Language and Literature of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has published extensively on pre- and early Islamic history, the biography of the Prophet Muḥammad and the Jews of the Arabian Peninsula.ArabianProphet

Table of Contents

Part 1: Arabia on the Eve of Islam

1. Pre-Islamic Arabia
2. The Monotheistic Cousins of Muḥammad’s Wife Khadīja

Part 2: Muḥammad at Medina

3. Were the Ghassānids and the Byzantines behind Muḥammad’s hijra?
4. Genealogy and Politics: Muḥammad’s Family Links with the Khazraj
5. The Emigration of ʿUtba ibn Abī Waqqāṣ
6. Did the Quraysh Conclude a Treaty with the Anṣār Prior to the hijra?

Part 3: Muḥammad and the Jews

7. Abū Mālik ʿAbdallāh b. Sām of Kinda, a Jewish Convert to Islam
8. Were the Jewish Tribes in Arabia Clients of Arab Tribes?
9. Did Muḥammad Conclude Treaties with the Jewish Tribes Naḍīr, Qurayẓa and Qaynuqāʿ?
10. The Assassination of the Jewish Merchant Ibn Sunayna according to an Authentic Family Account
11. Were there Female Relatives of the Prophet Muḥammad among the Besieged Qurayẓa?
12. Wāqidī (d. 822) vs. Zuhrī (d. 742): The Fate of the Jewish Banū Abī l-Ḥuqayq

Part 4: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq and the sīra

13. Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ṣāḥib al-sīra/ṣāḥib al-maghāzī
14. Muḥammad b. Isḥāq ṣāḥib al-maghāzī: Was his Grandfather Jewish?
15. When did Ibn Isḥāq compose his maghāzī?
16. Notes about Censorship and Self-Censorship in the Biography of the Prophet Muḥammad

Part 5: Studies on early Islamic Literature

17. The Jewish Reaction to the Islamic Conquests
18. Wa-bi-Rādhān mā bi-Rādhān…: The landed Property of ʿAbdallāh ibn Masʿūd
19. On the Burial of Martyrs in Islam
20. The Futūḥ al-Shām of ʿAbdallāh b. Muḥammad b. Rabīʿa al-Qudāmī

Source: Routledge

Qur’ān Translation as a Modern Phenomenon

By El-Hussein A.Y. Aly

Series: Texts and Studies on the Qurʾān, Vol. 21

Publisher: Brill

Publication Date: September 28, 2023

It is a well-established fact nowadays that modernity impacts Islam, but there has not been much focus on how modernity impacts the Qur’ān, the foundational text of Islam and the verbatim word of God. This book argues that the early Muslim Qur’ān translations into English are attempts to reconcile the Qur’ān with modernity by producing translations that encompass modern concepts and interpretations of the Qur’ān. Are these modern concepts and interpretations valid or they alter the word of God? This is the main question that the book attempts to answer, particularly that these early translations have affected and still affect Qur’ān translation.

About the Author

El-Hussein Aly was Professor of Translation Studies at Helwan University, Egypt and a teacher of Arabic at Indiana University, USA. He had a Ph.D. in Translation Studies in 2007 from Helwan University, Egypt, and a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from Indiana University in 2023. His publications include “Women in Qur’an English Translations: Critical Intertextual, Intratextual, and Contextual Analyses”, Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies 3.1 (2018).

Table of contents

1. The Early European Qurʾān Translation Project

1.1. Attacking the Holy Book of the Turks

1.2. The Genuine Interest in Understanding Islam

1.3. The Scientific Turn of the Study of the Qurʾān

1.4. The Sacred Books of the East

1.5. European Qurʾān Translation: Assessment in Context

2. Translation as Reform

2.1. Colonization, India, and the Need for Reform

2.2. The Birth of Reform and the Indian Qurʾān Translation Project

3. The Rise of Muslim Translations

3.1. Interpretation of the Qurʾān by the Qurʾān and the Bible

3.2. Chronological Translation

3.3. Collaborative Translation

4. Indian Muslim Translations: An Apex

4.1. Extensive Notes

4.2. Poetic Form

5. Interconnectedness of Qurʾān Translations

5.1. Spirituality in Yūsuf ʿAli’s Translation

5.2. The Spiral of Influence in Qurʾān Translations

6. Toward a Modernist Interpretation of the Qurʾān

6.1. The Pluralist Qurʾān

6.2. Peaceful Jihad

7. Modernism, Traditionalism, and the Social Function of Qurʾān Translation

7.1. Rationality

7.2. Science

7.3. Women

8. Alternative Modernities of Qurʾān Translation

8.1. The Journey of the Indian Qurʾān Translations in Europe and America

8.2. Politics, Religion and Qurʾān Translation in Egypt

8.3. Al-Azhar’s Translation: Al-Montakhab

8.4. State-Sponsored Qurʾān Translation in Saudi Arabia

8.5. Alternative Modernities: Qurʾān Translation Form and Content

Conclusion

1. The Interconnectedness of the Past and the Present: Tradition and Modernity as a Continuum

2. The Relationality of Qurʾān Translations

3. Assessment of Qurʾān Translation in Context

4. Qurʾān Translation, Interpretation, and Adaptation

Source: Brill

Ibn Taymiyya and the Attributes of God

By Farid Suleiman

Translated from the German by Carl Sharif El-Tobgui

Publisher: Brill

Series:  Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science. Texts and Studies, Volume: 125

Publication Date: November 30, 2023

In Ibn Taymiyya and the Attributes of God, Farid Suleiman pieces together, on the basis of statements scattered unsystematically over numerous individual treatises, an overall picture of the methodological foundations of Ibn Taymiyya’s doctrine of the divine attributes. He then examines how Ibn Taymiyya applies these foundational principles as exemplified in his treatment of selected divine attributes. Throughout the book, Suleiman relates Ibn Taymiyya’s positions to the larger context of Islamic intellectual history.

It should be noted that many ideas and teachings of Ibn Taymiyya are not shared by mainstream ideologies and beliefs of other Muslims and they should be considered with caution.

About the Author

Farid Suleiman, PhD (2018), is Lecturer in Islamic Theology at Greifswald University. His current research takes the insights on language gained from Ludwig Wittgenstein as a departure point for shedding new lights on the character and development of Islamic intellectual history.

Table of contents

1. Introduction

1.1. State of the Field

1.2. Objectives and Approach

1.3. Overview of the Works of Ibn Taymiyya Most Frequently Used in This Study

Part 1: Ibn Taymiyya’s Biography and the History of the Divine Attributes in Islamic Thought before His Time

2. Ibn Taymiyya’s Biography
3. The Divine Attributes in Islamic Intellectual History up to the Time of Ibn Taymiyya

3.1. The Emergence of the Debate over the Divine Attributes in Early Islam

3.2. The Muʿtazila

3.3. The Falāsifa

3.4. Ahl al-Ḥadīth

3.5. The Ashʿarīs

Part 2: The Methodological Foundations of Ibn Taymiyya’s Doctrine of the Divine Attributes

4. Ontological Foundations

4.1. The Term wujūd: Meaning and Gradations

4.2. Likeness (mithl, tamāthul) and Similarity (shibh, tashābuh, ishtibāh) among Existent Things

4.3. Ibn Taymiyya’s Ontological Conceptualism

4.4. Ibn Taymiyya’s Critique of the Doctrine of the Unity of Being (waḥdat al-wujūd) in Speculative Sufism

5. Linguistic Foundations

5.1. The ḥaqīqa–majāz Dichotomy

5.2. On the Semantic Relationship of Homonymous Expressions: Ibn Taymiyya’s Linguistic Counterproposal to the ḥaqīqa–majāz Dichotomy

5.3. What Are the Theological Consequences of Ibn Taymiyya’s Alternative to the ḥaqīqa–majāz Dichotomy?

6. Hermeneutical Foundations

6.1. Verse Q. 3:7—Ibn Taymiyya’s Understanding of the Terms muḥkam, mutashābih, and taʾwīl

6.2. Ibn Taymiyya’s Challenge to the Validity of Taʾwīl Majāzī: Attempting to Limit the Scope of Application of the Universal Rule (al-qānūn al-kullī)

3 The Two Principles and the Seven Basic Rules for Interpreting the Divine Attributes

7. Epistemological Foundations

7.1. On the Applicability of Qiyās in Theology

7.2. The Epistemic Value of Textual Indicants: Ibn Taymiyya in Debate with al-Rāzī

8. Summary

Part 3: The Divine Essence and Attributes in Focus

9. Temporally Originating States and Acts (ḥawādith) in the Divine Essence
10. Case Studies of Selected Divine Attributes

10.1. al-ʿAdl: God’s Justice

10.2. al-Kalām: God’s Speech

10.3. al-Istiwāʾ: God’s Rising over His Throne

10.4. al-Maʿiyya: God’s “Withness”

11. Summary
12. Evaluation and Conclusion

Source: Brill

The Crisis of Muslim Religious Discourse:
The Necessary Shift from Plato to Kant

By Lahouari Addi

Publisher: Routledge

Publication Date: September 25, 2023

Showing that Muslim societies are facing a crisis that is more cultural than religious, this book focuses on cultural representations through which social life is experienced in the Muslim world. It brings a new theoretical framework to address the secularization process that is underway and the contradictions it entails.

This volume will arouse a new debate on secularization and the relations between religion, culture and philosophy. The crisis Muslim societies are undergoing pertains to the culture and not to the Qur’an to the extent that people do not have access to the sacred in itself but only for oneself, meaning a cultural interpretation of the sacred. The Qur’an in itself is not an obstacle to secularization and modernization since any sacred text is experienced through culture. If we consider the European experience where secularization has first emerged, we see that culture has been transformed from medieval metaphysics to modern philosophy upholding a civic culture.

Discussing secularization through cultural representation, this book launches new ideas that fill an important gap in the literature on secularization. It is a key resource for any readers interested in religious studies, philosophy and the anthropology of religion.

Table of Contents

1. Plato and Plotinus in Medieval Abrahamic Theology
2. Islam and the Platonic Dualism
3. From Sufism to Islamism
4. Muhammad Abduh or the Failure of the Epistemic Transition
5. A Positivism Without Human Agency
6. Transcendence, History and Ethics: Contemporary Stakes
7. Shari’a, Fiqh and Muslim Law
8. Europe, Islam and Secularization

About the Author

Lahouari Addi is Professor Emeritus at Sciences Po, University of Lyon, and a member of the research center Triangle CNRS. Former member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (2002-2003). Professor Addi’s current research focuses on Muslim Law in the light of Moral Philosophy. Author of Radical Arab Nationalism and Political Islam (2017).

More information on: Routledge

Islamophobia as a Form of Radicalization: Perspectives on Media, Academia and Socio-political Scapes from Europe and Canada

Editors: Leen d’Haenens, and Abdelwahed Mekki-Berrada

Publisher: Leuven University Press

Publication Date: June 15, 2023

ISBN: 9462703698

ISBN-13: 978-9462703698

Islamophobia as a Form of Radicalization discusses the scope and fragmented boundaries of Islamophobia as a concept and a sociopolitical reality. The fifteen chapters of this collection cover and connect interdisciplinary research, media content analyses, media discourse analysis, ethnographic research, intersectoral advocacy work, and action research conducted in Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Poland, Portugal, and Spain. Confronted with an Islamophobia that is growing as a symptom of broader societal malaise in the West, a resistance against it is also arising. It is now a question of better understanding the foundations and mechanism of this metasolidarity and resistance. Islamophobia as a Form of Radicalization offers recommendations for urgent consideration by Muslim citizens of Canada and Europe, media professionals, civil society and academic stakeholders, policymakers at the municipal, provincial and federal levels, and academics.

About the Editors

Leen d’Haenens is full professor in communication science at the Institute for Media Studies at KU Leuven.

Abdelwahed Mekki-Berrada is full professor in anthropology of mental health and anthropology of Islam at Laval University in Quebec.

Read the full text HERE.