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Si ra-maghazi, which tells of the life of the Prophet and the early Islamic community, is not a historical genre. A literary mode which has its origins in an oral transmission, it is essentially hagiographic in spirit. The literature carries some unique characteristics. Constituted of numerous individual traditions juxtaposed one next to the other, it is--other than for those key events that have become mythologized--essentially dependent on the compiler and his purpose for its layout. / This dissertation explores the genre through a comparative case study of Muhammad and the Jews as narrated in the Kitab si rat rasul Allah of lbn Ishaq and the Kitab al-maghazi of al-Waqidi. Appreciating the interpretation of the individual compiler concerned, it compares, in terms of method, structure, sources, chronology, and style, their different approaches to the subject of the early establishment of Islam. The differences reinforce the argument for appreciating si ra-maghazi as literary rather than a historical genre. More importantly, they bring into focus the tendentious nature of si ra-maghazi to understand why neither one of these texts may be used to substantiate the information in the other.

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This study seeks to analyze the views of al-Shahrastani (479/1086--548/1153) on the issue of Shi`i imama as presented in his works al-Milil wa al-Nih&dotbelow;al and Nihayat al-Iqdam fi `Ilm al-Kalam. In each of these he devotes several chapters to a discussion of the leadership of the Shi`i community since the days of `Ali b. Abi T&dotbelow;alib. The study shows that both books under discussion were designed by al-Shahrastani to serve different purposes and were composed according to different methodologies. He takes completely different approaches to his treatment of Shi`i doctrine in al-Milal and the Nihaya. Acting as a "historian of religion" in al-Milal, the author shows considerable objectivity and avoids passing judgement. He supports his account of Shi`ism with arguments acknowledged by the Shi`is themselves. This is because al-Shahrastani intended al-Milal as a scientific and systematic account of religions. However, as a "theologian" he held certain of his own beliefs regarding several doctrinal problems, which he also wished to make it public. It was to serve this purpose that the Nihaya was composed. Furthermore, in this work the author does not hesitate to attack opinions different from his own, including the doctrine of imama.

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This study presents a comparative analytical investigation of two divergent yet parallel doctrines of self-realization. John Dewey, a distinguished American thinker, represents a naturalist pragmatist conception of self-realization on the one hand, and 'Allama Tabataba'i, a renowned Muslim philosopher, an Islamic perception on the other. While Dewey is considered a spokesperson for modern American pragmatist and humanist thought, 'Allama may be seen as typical of Islamic Shi'i thinking. In dealing with their conceptualizations of self-realization, the intention in this study is to focus on some significant aspects of the human self, to rediscover its potentiality and to determine the wisdom behind self-realization from a comparative perspective. After outlining the two thinkers' scholarly backgrounds, instructional contexts, sources, methods, works and purposes, the study examines certain specific issues. It investigates their understandings of human nature, and explores their positions on moral experience and human character, as well as on the arts and sciences as vehicles for self-realization. As its final chapter, the study elaborates the basic elements and manifestations of self-realization as depicted in Dewey's and 'Allama's systems of thought. This research aims at clarifying the parallels, similarities and differences that exist between the two scholars, through an in-depth comparison of their respective naturalist and Islamic approaches and attitudes.

This thesis compares and contrasts the responses of Hasan H&dotbelow;anafi (Egypt, b. 1935), Muh&dotbelow;ammad `Abid al-Jabiri (Morocco, b. 1936) and Nurcholish Madjid (Indonesia, b. 1939) to the slogan "Back to the Qur'an and the Sunna," a slogan that many modern Sunni reformers consider as the ideal solution to the decline of Islam in the modern age. The comparison is analyzed in the light of H&dotbelow;anafi's three dimensional Islamic reform project known as Heritage and Modernity ( Al-Turath wa al-Tajdid). Their responses to the factors that have led to the decline of Islam in the modern age will be compared from the perspective of the first and second dimensions of his project, which examine the implications of the classical Islamic and Western heritages, respectively, for the reform of Islam. It is, however, in the context of the third dimension of H&dotbelow;anafi's project, which deals with the theory and practice of interpretation, that we will examine their hermeneutics of the return to the Qur'an and the Sunna. In the process we will demonstrate how their respective backgrounds, political influences and concerns have led each of them to adopt a position that is, at one and the same time, radical and traditional.