The game was developed by Bigitec Studio, a Germany-based Islamic digital media startup. Bilal Chbib, managing director of the studio, told Rest of World that the aim was for the game to create an “interactive environment where users could explore and learn about Islamic rituals, history, and lifestyle in a positive and compelling way.”

Chbib, who grew up playing immersive role-playing video games, said he had dreamed of building something similar that explored Islamic history.

“When you encounter Muslims in video games or movies, there is a high chance that they are depicted as terrorists or people who are backward,” he said. “I believe Islamophobia and prejudice have one root: ignorance and lack of knowledge.” Initiatives like Muslim 3D, he said, can help fight anti-Muslim prejudice. In the video game Muslims Game Islam: Eid Mubarak, for instance, players can be part of a virtual Muslim family, cook food for suhur (the predawn meal eaten during Ramadan), and go shopping for an iftar party. Muslim Tales, also created by Bigitec, offers interactive stories based on the Quran; in Muslim Sadiq 3D, players explore simulations of Mecca and other Islamic holy sites.

Muslim 3D is inspired by role-playing games like Skyrim and Assassin’s Creed, which allow players to recreate historical locations like ancient Egypt. A demo version is available on Apple’s App Store for free; Windows users can purchase an early access version of the game on video game distribution platform Steam. Users can buy “executive nameplate” NFTs and have their names “listed perpetually in the Hall of Dua” in the game, Chbib said. He hopes to bring Muslim 3D to virtual reality headsets next and said he is currently working on raising funds for the game’s official release. The game is currently more of a statement piece, but Chbib hopes it will have a large active player base once he releases the full version.

Chbib said the video game industry, now a multibillion-dollar powerhouse globally, was the ideal medium to spread Islam’s message. “It appeals to people across all ages and genders, proving that video games are not just a means to waste time but a valuable medium for education and engagement,” he said.

D’Youville University in Buffalo, New York, has included Muslim 3D in its Gaming and Religion course. Clips from the game have drawn millions of views on YouTube; some commenters criticize the show for depicting “haram” (forbidden by Islamic law) practices. On Steam, Can Sungur, a well-known Turkish gamer known for his Twitch streams and YouTube reviews of video games, called the game an “unprecedented opportunity to discover the wonders and knowledge of the Islamic world and mythology” but warned that non-player characters walking around users while they’re praying at the virtual Kaaba is “unacceptable” and “totally haram.” Another user praised the game for making “people of other religions … learn new things about Muslims, which can reduce misunderstanding and hate speech both in real life and online.”

Source: Rest of World 

The Muslim market is emerging as a blue ocean with the potential to replace China. Various market analysis reports, such as the ‘Global Muslim Travel Index 2024’, estimate the market size to be around $276.7 billion this year. It is expected to grow to $417.6 billion by 2034, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.6% from this year until 2034.

‘Halal’ means ‘permissible’ according to Islamic law and encompasses all aspects of Muslim life, including not only food but also cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, electronics, and almost all products used in daily life. Recently, the perception that Halal products are safe and reliable has spread among non-Muslim consumers, significantly increasing demand.

The global Halal market has been growing at an annual average rate of 6.2% since 2019. This growth is significantly impacting the global economy, coupled with the rapid increase in the Muslim population. In particular, various products and services are being developed to meet the needs of Muslim consumers, further enhancing the potential of the Halal market.

The reasons why the Halal market is gaining attention include the increase in the Muslim population, the rise in purchasing power due to economic growth based on abundant resources, and the expansion of the consumer market based on a cultural identity that values Islamic law in any situation. Particularly, the cultural impact of multiple births, seen as a virtue, has led to an increase in young consumers driving market changes in travel and wellness.

The development of information and communication technology, the expansion of tourism information, and the enhancement of Muslim-friendly facilities and services also contribute to this trend. This phenomenon is not only about meeting religious needs but also relates to the global demand for healthy and safe products. Therefore, companies are enhancing their competitiveness in the global market through Halal certification, further promoting the growth of the Halal market.

The Surge of Muslim Tourists and Korea’s Tourism Industry Response

By 2024, the number of Muslim tourists worldwide is expected to reach approximately 160 million, with their expenditure amounting to about $225 billion.

The remarkable growth and changes in the global Muslim tourism market suggest the increasing importance of Muslim tourists in the tourism industry. The trend of increasing Muslim tourists visiting Korea is also evident.

In 2019, the number of Muslim tourists visiting Korea exceeded 1 million, and by 2023, it had recovered to levels similar to before the pandemic.

According to the Korea Tourism Organization, the number of Muslim tourists who visited Korea last year totaled 985,858, a 33% increase from the previous year. The proportion of Muslim tourists among all tourists visiting Korea is increasing every year, but there are still many complaints about the lack of prayer rooms and restaurants, indicating that there is a long way to go for Muslim tourists to travel comfortably in Korea.

This increase indicates the rapid growth and recovery of the Muslim tourism market and is closely related to the continuous expansion of Muslim-friendly infrastructure in Korea.

Korea is continuously expanding infrastructure such as Halal restaurants and prayer rooms for Muslim tourists, creating Halal food streets in areas like Itaewon, Seoul, providing a comfortable environment for Muslim tourists. However, Muslim tourists, who have significant cultural and religious differences, face many restrictions compared to tourists from other cultural backgrounds. Muslims are highly sensitive to ‘Halal’, which means permissible to eat and use according to Islamic law. While efforts are being made to provide better travel experiences to Muslim tourists through various cultural contents, conflicts arise due to a lack of understanding of their religion and culture.

There is still a significant lack of Muslim-friendly facilities and information on Halal certification in Korea.

Reducing the constraints Muslim tourists face in Korea and providing them with a more comfortable and satisfactory travel experience is a crucial task for the Korean tourism industry.

Efforts are needed to utilize new technologies like AI to provide easier access to various tourist attractions and cultural content for Muslim tourists. Also, providing a better travel experience for Muslim tourists and enhancing global tourism market competitiveness is necessary. It is necessary to improve various services to meet the needs of Muslim tourists from a more meticulous perspective.

If Korea’s tourism industry can meet the needs of Muslim tourists, it can become a new popular spot for Muslim tourists.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

Hadith Commentary: Continuity and Change

Edited by Joel Blecher, and Stefanie Brinkmann

Series: Edinburgh Studies in Islamic Scripture and Theology

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Publication Date: May 18, 2023

Pages: 312

ISBN: 9781474461047

Explores key texts and critical themes of hadith commentary

• Represents a milestone for the field: the first-ever edited volume on the important subject of hadith commentary
• Presents diverse case studies of hadith commentaries across time, place and sect
• Delivers new insights into themes of Islam and politics, Islamic mysticism, Islamic law, Islamic philosophy and the digital humanities
• Offers cross-disciplinary models of cutting-edge methods in textual studies from a group of international scholars

Hadith commentary has been a central site of Islamic intellectual life for more than a millennium, across diverse periods, regions and sects. This is the first volume of scholarly essays ever collected on the key texts and critical themes of hadith commentary. The book unfolds chronologically from the early centuries of Islam to the modern period, and readers will discover continuities and changes as a group of international experts offer illuminating studies of Sunnis, Shi‘i and Sufis who interpret and debate the meaning of hadith that spans a wide terrain: Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, India, and further. The volume also models a variety of methodological approaches, including social history, intellectual history, the study of religion, and digital history. By highlighting both differences and commonalities as the practice of hadith commentary circulated across distant eras and lands, this volume sheds new light on the way Muslims have historically understood the meaning of Muhammad’s example.

Table of Contents

• Introduction: What is Hadith Commentary?
  by Joel Blecher and Stefanie Brinkmann
• Part I: Formations and Developments in the Early and Middle Periods

1. Between Philology and Hadith Criticism: The Genre of Sharḥ Gharīb al-Ḥadīth
   by Stefanie Brinkmann
2. The Hermeneutics of al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā: The Interpretation of akhbār al-āḥād in Kitāb al-Amālī
   by Ali Aghaei
3. ‘Blessed are the Strangers (ghurabāʾ)’: An Apocalyptic Hadith on the Virtues of Loneliness, Sadness and Exile
   by Youshaa Patel
4. Sufi Contributions to Hadith Commentary
   by Samer Dajani
5. Ibn Rajab’s Commentary on al-Nawawī’s Forty Hadith: Innovation and Audience in the Jāmiʿ al-ʿulūm wa-l-ḥikam
   by Mohammad Gharaibeh
6. The Words of the Imām beyond Philosophy and Tradition: Shīʿī Hadith Commentaries in the Ṣafavid Period
   by Sajjad Rizvi

• Part II: Modern Recollections and Reimaginings

7. Contesting Ḥanaf ī Thought in a Twentieth-century Turkish Hadith Commentary
   by Susan Gunasti
8. Debating Authority and Authenticity in Modern South Asian Hadith Commentaries: Muḥammad Zakariyyā Kāndhalawī’
   by Awjaz al-masālik and Ali Altaf Mian
9. ʿAllāma Ṭabāṭabāʾī and Exegetical Hadiths in al-Mῑzān: A Contemporary Imāmī Commentary on Hadith?
   by Shadi Nafisi
10. Studying Hadith Commentaries in the Digital Age
    by Maroussia Bednarkiewicz, Aslisho Qurboniev and Gowaart Van Den Bossche

• Afterword: More Comments, Further Questions
  by Joel Blecher

About the Editors

• Joel Blecher is Associate Professor of History at the George Washington University in Washington, DC, the author of Said the Prophet of God: Hadith Commentary Across a Millennium(University of California Press, 2018), and co-translator of Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī’s Merits of the Plague (Penguin Classics, 2023). His other writings have appeared in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Islamic Law & Society, Oriens, and several edited volumes. His work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Library of Congress, and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
• Stefanie Brinkmann is Research Fellow at the “Bibliotheca Arabica Project” at the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig. Trained in Arabic, Persian, and Roman Studies, she had acting professorships at the universities of Freiburg and Hamburg, and was member and principal investigator of a number of manuscript projects. She has published in the fields of manuscript studies, especially on hadith manuscripts, material culture in hadith, and classical Arabic poetry.

Source: Edinburgh University Press

The Integrity of the Qur’an: Sunni and Shi‘i Historical Narratives

By Seyfeddin Kara

Series: Edinburgh Studies in Islamic Scripture and Theology

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Publication Date: July 31, 2024

ISBN: 9781474462235

Advances the method of isnād-cum-matn analysis for unravelling complex aspects of early Islamic history

• Establishes the earliest dating of the Qurʾanic codex based on the study of hadith
• Contributes to the textual history of the Qur’an
• Examines the claims regarding the integrity of the text of the Qur’an
• Uses case studies of the verses on stoning and breastfeeding, making it relevant to contemporary studies in the field

This book investigates Muslim narratives on Qurʾanic distortion through a meticulous analysis of hadith. Using isnād-cum-matn analysis, Seyfeddin Kara discovers the historical origins of this disputed claim and illuminates the dynamic interplay between Sunni and Shiʿi traditionists. He demonstrates that isnād-cum-matn analysis is not only an important tool for dating hadiths but also crucial for uncovering forgeries. By identifying the individuals responsible, he provides new explanations of forgery culture in early Muslim society. Kara illuminates debates over the textual integrity and evolution of the written Qurʾanic text, offering insights into the enigmatic early history of Islam. By pushing the boundaries of isnād-cum-matn analysis, this book makes methodological advancements in the study of early Islamic history and contributes to its reconstruction on the question of the canonized Qur’an’s integrity.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• ʿĀʾisha’s Legal Debate on the Scope of Breastfeeding
• The Litigation of the Two Men According to ‘The Book of God’
• The Prophet, the Jews and the Stoning Penalty
• CaliphʿUmar’s Sermon About the ‘Missing Stoning Verse’
• Transition of the Distortion Narrative into Shiʿi Reports
• Distorting the Book of God
• The Return of the Avenger (Al-Mahdī) and Teaching the Correct Quran
• Conclusion

About the Author

Seyfeddin Kara is an Assistant Professor of Islamic Origins at University of Groningen. He is also a Marie Sklodawski Curie Global Fellow at Lund University and the University of Toronto. He holds a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Durham. Dr Kara’s academic journey includes a prestigious Marie Sklodowska-Curie Global Fellowship, with research terms at the University of Toronto, the University of Lund, and the University of Göttingen. He has received grants from the European Union, Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and other funding bodies. Dr Kara has also taught at the University of Durham, UK, and served as an Assistant Professor at Hartford International University, US. His scholarly work encompasses research articles in journals such as the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, the Muslim World, and Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. Kara authored In Search of Ali ibn Abi Talib’s Codex: History and Traditions of the Earliest Copy of the Qurʾan (2018).

Source: Edinburgh University Press

Author: Robert Don Deal

University: Columbia International University

Date of Award: October 1, 2023

Abstract:

The Islamic Law of the Dhimma is conventionally viewed among Muslims as the proper legal framework for the presence of non-Muslims within an Islamic Society. It provides the legal rights and restrictions on the “People of the Book,” primarily Jews and Christians living under Islamic rule. Under this view, the law can be traced to the lifetime of the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad. This view, though typical, does not accord with the currently available historical evidence.

The study of the history of Islamic Law is limited in the Western tradition of learning. Among the scholars studying the discipline, Ignaz Goldziher (1850-1921), Joseph Schact (1902- 1969), Wael Hallaq (b. 1955), Ahmad El-Shamsy (b. 1974), and John Esposito (b. 1940), are among the few to attempt a historical account. None of these scholars wrote on the specifics of the creation of the Law of the Dhimma.

Source: ProQuest

Islamic Law and Society: The Practice of Iftā’ and Religious Institutions

By Emine Enise Yakar

Publisher: Routledge

Publication Date: May 31, 2023

ISBN: 9781032103808

This book places context at the core of the Islamic mechanism of iftā’ to better understand the process of issuing fatwās in Muslim and non-Muslim countries, thus highlighting the connection between context and contemporaneity, on one hand, and the adaptable perception of Islamic law, on the other.

The practice of iftā’ is one of the most important mechanisms of Islamic law that keeps Islamic thought about ethical and legal issues in harmony with the demands, exigencies and developments of time. This book builds upon the existing body of work related to the practice of iftā’, but takes the discussion beyond the current debates with the intent of unveiling the interaction between Islamic legal methodologies and different environmental contexts. The book specifically addresses the three institutions (Saudi Arabia’s Dār al-Iftā’, Turkey’s Diyanet and America’s FCNA) and their Islamic legal opinions (fatwās) in a comparative framework. This demonstrates the existence of complex and diverse ideas around similar issues within contemporary Islamic legal opinions that is further complicated by the influence of international, social, political, cultural and ideological contexts. The book thus unveils a more complicated range of interactive constituents in the process of the practice of iftā’ and its outputs, fatwās.

The work will be of interest to academics and researchers working in the areas of Islamic law, Middle Eastern studies, religion and politics.

Table of Contents:

• Chapter 1: General Presidency of Scholarly Research and Iftā’ (Dār Al- Iftā’) In Saudi Arabia
• Chapter 2: Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) In Turkey
• Chapter 3: The Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) In America
• Chapter 4: A General Comparison Related to Madhhab Affiliation and Social Values
• Chapter 5: A General Comparison from The Point of Legal and Political Systems

About the Author:

Emine Enise Yakar completed her BA in the Faculty of Theology, Ankara University, Turkey, in 2010. She received her MA and PhD from the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, the University of Exeter, UK, in 2014 and 2018, respectively. She is specifically interested in the interaction between Islamic legal methodologies and social context to provide insight into the flexible, practicable and applicable dimensions of Islamic law in both Muslim and non-Muslim countries. Currently, she is Assistant Professor of Islamic law at Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Turkey.

Source: Routledge

Editor-in-Chief: Dr Ahmad Ghouri, Senior Lecturer in Commercial Law, University of Sussex, UK

Publisher: Electronicpublications.org Ltd

MJTILP is a peer reviewed journal and can be accessed on HeinOnline. The journal welcomes submission of articles that meet its objectives for consideration with a view to publication. The journal comprises of three sections: (1) Articles, (2) Recent Developments, and (3) Book Reviews. The normal word length for articles is between 5000-8000 words (10000 including footnotes). The journal also welcomes shorter contributions (between 2000 to 3000 words) for its ‘Recent Developments’ section.

The MJTILP is not restricted to any specific field of law and aims to cover a wide range of subjects relevant to Islamic law and practice. Topics of particular interest include: transnational forms of Islamic law; constitutional developments, law reform and application of international law in the Muslim world; application of Shariah in Muslim or non-Muslim States; accommodation of Muslims in non-Muslim State; comparative practices of Muslim majority States; and intersections between Islamic law and international law or other religious and secular legal systems.

Continue reading at: ElectronicPublications.org

The International Society for Islamic Legal Studies (ISILS) was conceived in 2003, in Murcia, Spain, during the convening of the Fourth International Conference on Islamic Legal Studies (ILS). A group of participants came together to take steps to establish a more official body for the planning and organizing of the triennial conference that began as the Joseph Schacht Conference on Theory and Practice in Leiden and Amsterdam in the Netherlands, in 1994.

Since that first conference, organized to attract submissions for the newly launched journal Islamic Law and Society, three more conferences had been organized by the same founding parents of the Leiden/Amsterdam conference, who were beginning to feel that they should not be monopolizing the choice of conference theme and location.

In May 2004, articles of organization were filed with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, effectively incorporating the International Society for Islamic Legal Studies. The statutory articles can be found in the Corporate Database (fill in the society’s name) at: www.sec.state.ma.us/cor/coridx.htm.

As of June 2018 the membership has grown to 92 members, from 47 at the time of the first Business Meeting in 2006.

ILS Conferences

• IX ILS Conference: Helsinki and Tampere, Finland (2018)
• VIII ILS Conference: Islamic Law and Ethics (2015)
• VII ILS Conference: Islamic Law and the State (2012)
• VI ILS Conference Program (2009)

Website: https://isils.net/isils/

An Introduction to Key Debates Between Islamic Law and International Human Rights Law

by Abdullah Saeed

Series: Elgar Studies in Human Rights

Publisher: Edward Elgar Pub (April 27, 2018)

Is there a basis for human rights in Islam? Beginning with an exploration of what rights are and how the human rights discourse developed, Abdullah Saeed explores the resources that exist within Islamic tradition in support of human rights. He identifies those that are compatible with international human rights law and can be garnered to promote and protect human rights in Muslim-majority states. Relying on significant texts in the Qur’an and hadith, early juristic discourses and modern Islamic scholarship, Saeed explains the compatibilities and incompatibilities between Islamic law and international human rights law.

He also deals separately with a number of specific rights that are usually considered somewhat incompatible with Islamic law, such as the rights of women and children, freedom of expression and religion and jihad and the laws of war. Each chapter also contains a case to allow readers to look more closely at issues of relevance. Human Rights and Islam emphasizes the need for Muslims to rethink problematic areas of Islamic thought that are difficult to reconcile with contemporary conceptions of human rights.

Students of Islamic law, human rights and Islam in the modern period will appreciate this challenging but accessible look at an important topic.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Human rights and Islamic legal sources
2. Development of human rights and some basic conceptions
3. Islamic human rights instruments
4. Human rights and the idea of clash of civilizations
5. Islam and the state
6. Religion the state and human rights
7. Islam human rights and women
8. The rights of the child
9. Freedom of expression
10. Islam and religious freedom
11. Human rights and war
Conclusion

Source: Edward Elgar Publishing

Since that first conference, organized to attract submissions for the newly launched journal Islamic Law and Society, three more conferences had been organized by the same founding parents of the Leiden/Amsterdam conference, who were beginning to feel that they should not be monopolizing the choice of conference theme and location.

In May 2004, articles of organization were filed with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, effectively incorporating the International Society for Islamic Legal Studies. The statutory articles can be found in the Corporate Database (fill in the society’s name) at: www.sec.state.ma.us/cor/coridx.htm.

As of June 2012 the membership had grown to 83 members, from 47 at the time of the first Business Meeting in 2006. The next census-taking will be on the occasion of the fourth Business Meeting, convened at the Eighth ILS Conference in 2015. The website was launched in December 2007. ISILS is deeply appreciative of those members who contributed funds in addition to membership dues to make the website possible.

ISILS Membership Information

ISILS is open to all who are interested in the academic study of Islamic law. There are two classes of membership: regular and student. Student members must present evidence at the time of membership of full-time enrollment in an institution of higher learning.

Both types of membership include voting privileges at ISILS Business Meetings, which are held at every ILS conference; participation in member-only discussion forums on the website; and a reduced or waived fee for conference registration (depending on the agreement the ISILS Board has reached with the conference host institution). The membership fee of $75 (regular) / $40 (student) is for a period of three years. The present membership period runs from January 2017 through December 2019.

Past Conferences

• 8^th International Conference of the International Society for Islamic Legal Studies: “Islamic Law and Ethics”

Coinciding with the 6th Annual Conference of the Leiden University Centre for the Study of Islam and Society (LUCIS)

November 6-8, 2015 | Leiden, The Netherlands

• 7^th International Conference of the International Society for Islamic Legal Studies: “Islamic Law and the State”

Convened under the auspices of the Turkish Historical Association, Ankara

May 30, 2012 | Ankara, Turkey

Keynote Speech: Halil Inalcik (Bilkent University, Ankara)

• 6^th International Conference of the International Society for Islamic Legal Studies: “Islamic Law and Custom”

July 13-15, 2009 | University of Exeter, UK

Incorporated in 2004, ISILS is an international, non-profit, and non-political organization that aims to encourage scholarship on and to foster communication about Islamic law and related subjects. ISILS’s primary focus is the organization and convening of the Islamic Legal Studies (ILS) conferences, which are held triennially. ISILS is open to all who are interested in the academic study of Islamic law.

Executive Board

• President:

Peri Bearman, serena.tolino@gmail.com

• Secretary-Treasurer:

Robert Gleave, r.gleave@exeter.ac.uk

• Officers:

Samy Ayoub, sayoub@austin.utexas.edu

Evgenia Kermeli, ebussuud@gmail.com

Serena Tolino, serena.tolino@gmail.com

Contacts

ISILS can be reached at

c/o Rob Gleave, Secretary-Treasurer

Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter EX4 4ND, UK

Website: http://www.isils.net/