Much of Kenneth Cragg's writing is devoted to finding common ground between Christianity and Islam. A conservative Christian upbringing and a liberalising education based on the Enlightenment's values have contributed to this approach. Although Cragg often quotes the Bible, he has not written on Christian Scriptures to the same extent that he has on the Qur'an. His theology of Christian Scriptures has been affected by his engagement with the Qur'an. Cragg's traditional approach to the Bible has been reinforced by Muslims' view of their Scripture. To handle problems his traditional approach creates, Cragg filters Scriptures through a single model of revelation. Thus Scriptures are valued only for their contribution to this revelation. The result is that he unconsciously develops a canon within the canon. He solves problems with the Old Testament by handling it in a way similar to the Qur'an: both become a type of old testament to the New. In connection with the New Testament, 'hospitality' is key to Cragg's interpretation. Those parts which communicate his understanding of hospitality are one major, though often unarticulated, criterion for his canon within the canon. Cragg was one of the earliest to propose comparing Christ rather than the Bible to the Qur'an. His understanding of different scriptural issues between the Bible and the Qur'än has led him to see the comparison as one of revelation to revelation rather than Scripture to Scripture. Some of the difficulties that Cragg has had with the Bible as Scripture could be helped within the framework of his theology if he were to consider a variety of models, rather than a single one, for understanding Scriptures. His exegesis tends to be intuitive and at crucial points vulnerable to a more historical approach which is concerned to work with the meaning the author would have had for the text.

The role of divine Revelation in the process of construction of normative judgments has long occupied scholars of religion in general, and Islam in particular. In the area of Islamic studies, numerous works were dedicated to the elucidation of various trends of thought on the question of the methods of formulation of norms and values. Many of those studies suppose a distinction between textualist and rationalist theories, and use this framework to explain the most influential Muslim views on this issue. In contemporary philosophical theology and the philosophy of religion, theorists of religious meta-ethics draw upon the medieval and early modern Christian debates almost exclusively. Reconstructing the philosophical foundations of classical Islamic models of norm-construction, which arise within both theological and jurisprudential works, has not received sufficient attention in either discipline. In this study, I explore eleventh century debates on the place of divine Revelation in the formulation of normative judgments in Islamic theology and jurisprudence, and bring this analysis in dialogue with current questions in philosophical theology. By reconstructing the epistemological, metaphysical and semantic foundations of those debates, I show that two general trends emerge on the question of the depth with which Revelation interferes in human moral reasoning, which generally correspond to recent debates between natural reason and divine command theorists in contemporary philosophical theology. I argue that those tensions were the result of a number of philosophical disagreements, not mere reflections of a commitment to “rationalism” or “textualism.” This study is based on an analysis of texts attributed to prominent eleventh century jurist-theologians, including Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī (d.1013), Imām al-Ḥaramayn al-Juwaynī (d. 1085), al-Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār (d. 1024) and Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Bāṣrī (d. 1044). I maintain that abstract normative considerations animating those theories are of trans-historical philosophical value, and can be “appropriated” to provide new insights when introduced into current debates in religious ethics. Whereas, following post-colonial studies that held the inadequacy of treating non-Western thought through the lens of modern Western theories, many recent works emphasized the historicity of Islamic thought, I consider the abstract claims in both Islamic and modern thought in order to generate a philosophical dialogue across traditions. In conclusion, I argue that disagreements between prominent eleventh century Muslim jurist-theologians on the place of Revelation in the formulation of normative judgments is best understood as part of broader debates on theology, metaphysics and epistemology. To do that, we must treat theology and jurisprudence as an integrated meta-ethical project that inserts itself between the text of Revelation and the process of norm-production. Reconstructing those theories of divine speech and command shows us that the Muʿtazilīs combined a naturalist view of ethics with a dualistic metaphysic to hold that Revelation is a sufficient but not necessary condition for moral knowledge. Ashʿarīs, by contrast, insisted on the indispensability of Revelation on the basis of a combination of epistemological skepticism with a metaphysic that prioritized skeptical theism.

In the past century a new school of Islamic scholarship has emerged and evolved which this thesis refers to as the Farāhī school of thought, henceforth written as the Farāhīs. Research carried out studying the Farāhīs has been very limited in the sense that it has been heavily focused on differences in conclusions, rather than approaches. Where approaches were discussed, only the main premises, as published by the scholars of the Farāhīs themselves, were covered. This thesis delves deeper, to explore the detailed methodological features of the Farāhīs’ approach that result from such premises. This is done through four case studies: stoning, apostasy, ḥijāb, and the return of Jesus. In each case study, after exploring contested areas, the Farāhīs’ approach to the subject is compared with the shī‘ah and sunnī approaches. Interviews with the current leading figure of the Farāhīs are carried out and reported to provide further insights into their approach. Where applicable, points of disagreement among the scholars of the Farāhīs are also discussed. On the subject of stoning, the Farāhīs highlight their method of deriving principles from the Qur’ān alone; they conclude that the law of stoning is associated with the concept of creating anarchy in the land and not adultery per se. On the subject of apostasy, the Farāhīs use the principle of itmām al-ḥujjah to conclude that the punishment for apostasy was related to the sunnah of God at the time of the messengers only. On the subject of ḥijāb, the Farāhīs attempt to remain loyal to the literal meaning of the Qurānīc words, while also noting the context. They conclude that covering the hair is not an obligation, unless it is embellished. On ‘the return of Jesus’, through literary analysis, they conclude that this belief is not fully in line with the Qur’ān. The findings from these four case studies lead to the identification of a number of methodological features in the approach of the Farāhīs, which are further substantiated by tracing them in other documentations of the Farāhīs. The strengths and challenges that these methodological features can bring to the Farāhīs are discussed. At the end of the thesis the Farāhī school of thought is also compared and positioned with regard to the other contemporary approaches.

In this project, I contribute to ongoing debates regarding proper conceptions of “political Islam” or “Islamism” by bringing greater attention to the roles that Islamic mysticism, or Ṣūfism (taṣawwuf), has played in shaping theories and practices of virtue and character formation in Islamist movements. I do so by undertaking a genealogical study of the discourse concerning the practice of “commanding right and forbidding wrong” in classical Islamic thought as well as in that of modern Sunnī Islamism. Figures such as medieval scholarly giant al-Ghazālī (d. 505/111), Ḥasan al-Bannāʾ (d. 1949), founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Saʿīd Ḥawwa (d. 1989), a leading thinker of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, and ʿAbd al-Salam Yassine (d. 2012), who established the Moroccan Justice and Spirituality Association, all appropriated the discourse of commanding and forbidding in differing ways and for differing reasons to put forward activist visions of Islam; however, they all stressed the need for spiritual and ethical formation (tarbīya) and relied on Ṣūfism to accomplish this. Attention to the ways in which this “Ghazalian” tradition of Islamist thought and practice adopted Ṣūfī organizational structures and models of ethical formation challenges conceptual frameworks which have described Islamist groups primarily as products of modernity or as political ideologies. Additionally, study of this Ṣūfi-centric Islamist tradition offers a contrast to scholarship which has focused almost exclusively on Islamism’s exoteric scripturalism and fixation on the law. Such insights are crucial when attempting to understand and engage Islamist actors for purposes ranging from scholarly enquiry to cross-cultural understanding to policy formulation. / A Dissertation submitted to the in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in partial fulfillment of the 2017. / Spring Semester 2017. / March 20, 2017. / al-Banna, al-Ghazali, Islamist activism, Sufism, virtue ethics / Includes bibliographical references. / John Kelsay, Professor Directing Dissertation; Jeffrey Ayala Milligan, University Representative; Helen Boyle, Committee Member; Sumner B. Twiss, Committee Member; Adam Gaiser, Committee Member.

No description available.

Terrorism has loomed in the public eye for centuries; however, since 9/11 modern terrorism has attracted a new public dimension. On an international and domestic scope, media and government bodies have identified that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were delivered by the hands of Islamic terrorists, namely Al-Qaeda (U.S. Government, 2002). According to Australian, American and British government official reports and numerous international and domestic media reports, Al-Qaeda publicly claimed responsibility for 9/11 and other terrorist attacks such as the Bali, London and Madrid bombings (Al-Jazeera, 2004: 1-6; Gonzales, 2006:3; National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, 2002: 1-49; ). Furthermore, some domestic and international Muslim communities have responded to 9/11 and other attacks by revealing their support of Al-Qaeda's hatred and violence towards the West (Tarakhil, 2004:1; Ziabi, 2006:5). It was here among these media and governmen t reports that the concept of Jihad emerged as a pivotal religious and political concept that justifies terrorism. As a result, Jihad developed a causal link to terrorism and thus, placed Islam in the forefront of controversy as a religion that creates terrorists. Despite such compelling government and media reports on the association made between Jihad and terrorism, questions as to their link remain prevalent. It would be an ignorant and a deeply unjust assumption to make against Islam, if the public are led to believe that an association truly exists between Jihad and terrorism without credibly assessing the construct and application of both concepts. Therefore, it is the aim of this research to analyze Jihad and terrorism first as singular concepts, and then examine the possible link that Jihad may have with Islamic terrorism. In order to successfully conduct such an enquiry, it is important to compare and contrast both the interpretations of Melbourne's Islamic religious leaders to that of academic literature on Jihad and terrorism.

This thesis examines how reason and freedom have been expressed in Islam through a study of the Mu'tazilite movement in 8th century Persia, the Indonesian Islamic scholar and educator Harun Nasution and the Liberal Islam Network formed in Indonesia in 2001.

<p>Abstrakt</p><p>Uppsatsen stödjer sig på en kvalitativ undersökning som har sin utgångspunkt i två skilda</p><p>läroböcker i religion, avsedda för gymnasieskolan. Uppsatsens syfte är att jämföra hur islam</p><p>och muslimer framställs i läroböckerna, samt om ett maktperspektiv går att urskilja. Som</p><p>metod används diskursanalys där läroböckernas text är utgångspunkt för analysen. Begreppet</p><p>orientalism har för uppsatsen en central betydelse för huruvida bilden av islam och muslimer</p><p>framställs i text. Vidare förs en diskussion runt huruvida Läroplan för de frivilliga</p><p>skolformerna, (Lpf 94) samt gymnasieskolans kursplan i religionskunskap, ligger i linje med</p><p>läroböckernas framställning av islam och muslimer.</p><p>Nyckelord: läroböcker, islam, muslimer, orientalism</p>

<p>There are over 1,5 billion Muslims living on earth and the religion is one of the world´s most increasing. Sweden is a country with a cultural diversity where about 300 000 Muslims lived in 1999. Today, the requirement for knowledge about caring for Muslims and the need of culturally competent nursing care are increasing.The aim of this study was to define cultural factors which the nurse has to recognize to be able to give culturally competent care to the Muslim patient. The method that has been used was a The Sunrise Model, which illustrates Leininger´s theory of culture care diversity and universality, provides a theoretical framework for the study. The results are presented on the basis of Leininger´s three cultural factors; cultural values, beliefs and lifeways. Factors that where especially important to recognize for the nurse were the perception of health and illness, prayer, death, gender roles, family, clothing, diet and communication.</p>

<p>Includes bibliographic references (leaves 184-195)&quot / In this thesis, I contrast Qutbs approach towards jihad with that which is found in the primary sources of Islam and as espoused by the proponents of the four schools of thought, as well as key Islamic scholars. This study also attempts to explore the conceptual confusion between terrorism, jihad, and legitimate defense and resistance by comparing the legislation on jihad in Islam with that which exists in international law and conventions. I then turn my attention to the focal point of this study, the writings of Sayyid Qutb on jihad...&quot / </p>