At a certain period in the history of Islamic thought, dogmatic theology (Kalam) received the full attention of the most brilliant of Muslim scholars. This happened at a time when purely intellectual sciences had appeared on the Islamic horizon, and opponents of Islam were using these as a weapon against the faith. These factors made Muslim scholars very keen to expound religious truth and support it by rational arguments and proofs, and obliged them to probe into what they called (kalam). In this way they hoped to repair the breach caused by the followers of other religious and intellectual sciences. Their work was zealous and thorough. They composed many lengthy volumes. Most of these were intended to refute md silence their opponents. One of these Mutakallimun was Imam al-Hararmayn, whose fame spread far and wide among his contemporaries and successors, and the perplexed have sought in his works the answers to most of their difficulties, When we examine the works of Imam al-Haramayn, we find him pointing out, with sound logic, the weaknesses of the views held by the various sects which then existed and brilliantly supporting Islamic beliefs against the opinions of those who were trying to belittle the tenets of the sunnis. This is why I chose Iman al-Haramayn as the subject of ay thesis, Iman al-Haramayn who was a guardian of Islamic sciences, zealous in the service of Islam, and encyclopaedic in the range of his interests, I have tried to trace his public and private life and to survey his work in the various religious sciences, I have also tried to study his writings on the origination of the world (Huduth al-'Alam) in which he tries to prove that the world has a creator. Further I have added an edition of a work of his, Luma 'al-Adillah fi Qawa'id 'Aqd'id Ahl as-Sunnah wa-j Jama'ah, which is still in manuscript form.

In modernity traditional Islam has been challenged by a separation from various spheres of life, first under colonial powers and then independent nation-states. Traditional patterns of religious authority have further been undermined by individualism and the pluralisation of sources of knowledge in an age of new media. In the context of migration to the West, some scholars have argued that modern Muslim identities are becoming more secularised and individualised. However, in a local case study of Sunni religiosity in the UK, I show that, overall, this is not the case in the city of Leeds. In Chapter 1 I examine a three-part typology of Muslim responses to modernity dwelling on the orientations of reformists and (neo)traditionalists. In Chapter 2 I outline the migrations which have seen South Asian and Middle Eastern Muslims and their associated (neo)traditional and reformist movements established in the UK. Chapter 3 offers an account of the qualitative methodology I used in researching the views of around 40 imams, scholars and members of the congregation across four different Sunni mosques in Leeds. In Chapter 4 I locate these mosques and their history, unpacking key ethnic and religious differences. Chapter 5 underlines the difficulty of establishing Muslim unity through case studies of the celebration of ‘Eid al-Adha and the work of Leeds Muslim Forum. Chapter 6 argues that although not always the most expert in terms of authority, mosque imams are the key providers of religious advice to their congregations. Chapter 7 suggests that while most Sunni Muslims and religious experts in Leeds assert the importance of following a school of law (taqlid), they also affirm the desirability of use of ijtihad (independent reasoning) by a mujtahid (one qualified to exercise ijtihad) in the specific contexts of the UK. Overall, Sunni Muslim religiosity in Leeds remains deeply influenced by tradition, something reinforced by ethnicity and sect.

This thesis presents a critical analysis on the self in relation to the concept of God in writings and discourse of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi. He has lived between 1876-1960 as not only a religious scholar but also as an activist in Turkey. Another particular importance of this study is that Nursi’s ideas about the self in relation to the concept of God have been discussed together with mainstream western and Islamic thoughts. For Bediuzzaman Said Nursi a true understanding of the concept of self is essential to fulfil the true potential as an individual. Dynamic and ever changing structure of the self can be understood by anā which is a subjective tool acting as a unit of measure. In other words it is just an image (anā) on the mirror (nafs), which reflects and shows the Divine Names and Attributes. However if anā and nafs are not guided by Divine Revelation and Sunnah, they can easily claim to be the source and owner of what is reflected on the mirror. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi has a completely different understanding of the universe and the concept of self, compared to many of the western philosophers and thinkers. For him it is important to grasp the reality of things which may ultimately lead to a better understanding of the Divine (m‘arifah). And grasping the reality of things is only possible if one can obtain a stand point to reach out to the meaning of things in a domain not limited to his benefit only. According to him this is possible through a proper understanding of the concepts like nafs and anā.

This thesis presents the results of 23 months of fieldwork conducted between 2010 and 2012 in Nampula City, northern Mozambique. It analyses the manifestation of Islamic reformism in the city’s urban periphery where social organisation has historically been structured by principles of Makhuwa kinship and post-socialist citizenship, while religious life is dominated by Makhuwa ritual specialists, the Catholic Church and Sufi orders. Recently, however, the ranks of Sufi orders have been dwindling. The decline has been matched by a sharp increase in the number and influence of reformist mosques. With financial support from international Islamic donors, reformist mosques seek to bring local understandings of Islam in line with globally-oriented Salafi-inspired interpretations. The thesis describes the appropriation, contestation and impact of these interpretations. There are three main findings. First, I found that Islamic reformism unsettles existing conceptions of personhood. The majority of city dwellers combine their religious and national sense of belonging with Makhuwa notions of relatedness and conceptualise the self as interdependent. In contrast, reformists define themselves in relation to the divine, and objectify the self as they seek to make it available for self-fashioning. Second, the significance of this reorientation lies in its epistemological ramifications. A variety of social forms in northern Mozambique, including neighbourly assistance, the administration of justice and political relations, are premised on the understanding that events in this world are structured by invisible forces. Attempts of Islamic reformists to orient themselves towards God lead them to perceive reality in more objective terms, and consequently, their participation in neighbourhood sociality changes. Thirdly, this reorientation is tentative. In a setting where many do not share the outlook of reformism, it produces dilemmas and uncertainties. People cope with these uncertainties using strategies of confrontation, negotiation and compromise. Islamic reformism and other dimensions of social life become, as a result, mutually constitutive. These findings have several theoretical implications. The recent trend in anthropology has been to study Islamic reform movements through the lens of practices of ethical self-fashioning. This thesis argues that this focus is too narrow. My data shows that the multiplicity and complexity of the life worlds of Muslims need to be considered, and that attention should be paid to questions of how Islamic reformism shapes social practice as a system of knowledge.

This dissertation is a study of the intellectual history of Ṣadr al-Dīn Dashtakī (d. 903/1498) and Ghiyāath al-Dīn Dashtakī (d. 949/1542), two important Shirazi philosophers and Shi'i thinkers who lived in the late Timurid and early Safavid period. It argues that Avicennan philosophy was revived and provided with a new impetus at a time when it was under attack by Ash'ari thinkers belonging to the later tradition. Paradoxically, many of the later Ash'ri thinkers saw it fit to engage in metaphysical speculations that took the Avicennan tradition as its basis. Yet, these same thinkers accused Avicenna and his followers of advancing specious arguments and for making incoherent statements about God, the cosmos, religious matters, and the general nature of things. So overarching was this later Ash'ari tradition, that it became the intellectual tradition par excellence in the centuries leading up to the Safavid period. In many of their major philosophical writings, the Dashtakīs sought to decouple Avicennan philosophy from Ash'ari kalām, and, at the same time, to attack the foundations of the Ash'ari tradition. In doing so, the Dashtakīs proposed a particular reading of Avicenna that was purified of Ash'ari influences and closer to philosophical Shi'ism.

This study investigates Yusuf al-Qaradawi’s and Tariq Ramadan’s conceptualizations of European Islam centering on three thematic issues: “European-Muslim” identity and the role of Muslims in Europe, reform in Islam pertaining to fiqh and Islamic ethics, and the question of incompatibility of Sharia with the European cultural system. It produces a detailed critique of the scholars’ positions, analyzes the ways in which their approaches overlap and differ from one another, evaluates the extent to which they take into account in their thinking the socio-political realities of Islam and Muslims in the West, and determines the feasibility of their propositions in the European context. The study argues that their approaches are inhibited by impractical suggestions, rhetorical ambiguities, and unexplained gaps that leave room for disagreement beyond the scope of intra-Muslim debate, but various other components within their thinking can be taken as building blocks that can be assembled into a more functional model that is devoid of the inconsistencies and problems identified in the thesis. It recommends that future research on Islam and Muslims in the West inquire further into said limitations and produce a well-argued critique that can contribute to the contemporary Muslim discourse on European Islam and reform.

This subject of this thesis is Nuzhat al-nazar fī tawdīh Nukhbat al-fikar, a manual written by Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalānī (d. 852/1449), outlining the science of prophetic traditions (‘ilm al-hadīth). The thesis aims to fulfill two tasks. Firstly, an accurate and accessible translation of the Nuzhah will be presented in English. Secondly, this will be coupled with a detailed and critical commentary of Ibn Hajar’s work. This commentary will assess the worth of the Nuzhah in many ways; the writings of Ibn Hajar will be analysed to learn what it said about the climate of the ninth Islamic century, by comparing it with the works of Muslim scholars before and after Ibn Hajar. Additionally, where the works of modern, non-Muslim scholars such as Schacht and Juynboll are mentioned, it will be with the purpose to show the interaction with their Muslim counterparts. Themes such as the use of technical terms in the discipline, the importance of seniority and the pedagogical nature of the Nuzhah will also be discussed.

This thesis is an attempt to study terrorism from a Qur’anic perspective with special reference to selected classical and modern exegeses and how they are understood by modern scholars. The study is divided into an introduction, five main chapters and a conclusion. In the introduction, a brief background about the tafsar (exegesis) genres is provided with special focus on thematic exegesis as a type of exegesis that makes a central contribution to this study. The introduction also includes brief biographical sketches of the selected exegetes, an outline of the thesis methodology, a literature review, and a note on the research questions and the objectives of the thesis. Chapter One is devoted to presenting and evaluating various organizational definitions of terrorism from both Islamic and Western perspectives. Chapter Two discusses the difference between terrorism and arming for deterrence in the light of Qur’an 8: 60. Chapter Three investigates whether or not there is a relationship between jihad and terrorism. It focuses, by way of a case study, on how the actions of the perpetrators of the September 11th 2001 attacks should be judged according to the Qur’an. Chapter Four looks at how terrorist suicide attacks are different from martyrdom. It features another case study, on "martyrdom" or "suicide" operations in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Chapter Five attempts to identify a punishment for terrorism on the basis of the Qur’anic text. This study finds that terrorism is totally different from jih«d and martyrdom as they are treated in the Qur‘ān. It also finds that there is a huge difference between the peaceful, tolerant and inclusive teachings of the Qur’an and the violent, intolerant and exclusive practices of those Muslims whose approach to the Qur’an and its exegesis is marked by selectivity and lacks the essential tools of Islamic scholarship. These and other findings are highlighted in the thesis conclusion, along with other suggestions for future research in the field.

Sayyid Aḥmad Khān (1817-1898) was a prominent religious reformer and educationist in pre-partition India. One of his least understood works is Tabyīn al-kalām fī tafsīr al-taurāt wa ‘i-injīl ‘alā millat al-Islām (The Elucidation of the Word in Commentary of the Torah and Gospel According to the Religion of Islam), or as the author simply termed it: ‘The Mohomedan Commentary on the Holy Bible’ (1860-1865). In this dissertation I examine Tabyīn along with other principle works in the original Urdu to enquire: how did Sayyid Aḥmad conceptualize revelation in the Bible? I argue that he employed a systematic paradigm to categorize all prophetic revelation, the identification of which opens the way for a clearer understanding of our author’s attitude towards the Bible. In this light, Tabyīn emerges as a prototypical example intended to demonstrate that prophetic texts share greater consonance than dissonance if universal principles are applied to regulate interpretation. Sayyid Aḥmad’s view of the coherence of all revelation, natural and prophetic, allowed for a reverent but critical juxtaposition of the Bible with Islam’s primary textual sources as initiated in Tabyīn, and continued in his final exegetical work, Tafsīr al-Qur’ān.

This research study aims to explore the concept of motivation from the Islamic perspective, which is explored to a poor extent. It seeks to shed light on Islām and how it motivates its followers to behave appropriately while fulfilling their needs and desires, guided by the Holy Qur’ān and Ḥadīth. A comprehensive literature review is conducted to study and understand the various perspectives presented by other scholars on human psychology and motivation specifically from the perspectives of Islām, Christianity and Jewish cultures. This study adopts a qualitative approach and focuses on gathering secondary data from a broad range of sources. The data collected is then analysed in an interpretative yet subjective manner. To achieve the aims of this research, the emphasis is laid on gathering both comprehensive secondary data from the religious journals and academic books. The evidence was gathered from the holy books of these religions which include Holy Qur’ān, Bible and Torah. From the findings of the research, it was concluded by the researcher that Islām significantly highlighted and differentiated from Christianity and Judaism in endorsing motivation among its followers. It is identified that Allāh created mankind to spread His word and to perform His actions. He motivated humans by offering them certain rewards and making them fearful of the consequences in case they fail to follow His commands. This thesis provides greater insight into the role played by Islām in motivating human beings to live a life in a way that is beneficial here on earth and in the afterlife. This study is expected to contribute further to the collective knowledge and understanding of motivation and human behavior.