This thesis presents an indepth examination of the exegetical treatment of Qur'anic themes and concepts. It explains the process of communication between God and human beings by using communication models. The invisibility of God to human beings, coupled with His difference in nature, make their interaction difficult to conceive but not impossible. This thesis will thus seek to show how that interaction is feasible, making it as comprehensible as possible. / Muslim theologians studied exhaustively the subject of God's speech and its nature without actually revealing its process in any detail or in systematic fashion. This thesis concludes that the theological differences have little bearing on God as a communicator. Finally, it demonstrates that the process of God-human interaction is entirely different from that of ordinary interpersonal communication.

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This thesis deals with the problem of evil in Islamic theology, and, in particular, tries to examine the concept of al-qabih in al-Qadi 'Abd al-Jabbar al-Hamadhanis thought. This study is based on the fact that Islam, like other monotheist religions, considers the presence of evil in the world as a grave difficulty, a situation which has resulted in much dispute among the mutakallimin. For 'Abd al-Jabbar, the problem of evil is discussed in the framework of the concept of divine justice. According to this formulation, God does nothing except the good, as he must do the obligatory (al-wajib), will not devote himself to anything except for the sake of goodness, and never desires to do anything repulsive but only chooses wisdom and righteousness. Thus, 'Abd al-Jabbar's discussion of the problem of evil is an effort aimed at defending God's justice and omnipotence in a world marred by the presence of evil. This is significant, since divine justice (al-'adl), together with divine unity (al-tawhid), constitutes the most important characteristic of Mu'tazilism, a characteristic by virtue of which the Mu'tazilites claimed for themselves the title of ahl al-'adi wa al-tawhid, the adherents of divine justice and unity.

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The relation between revelation and reason is a matter of interest for human beings and is connected with the development of reason and knowledge in modern society. Muhammad Husayn Tabataba'i, a modern Muslim scholar who was an expert in both Islamic philosophy and Qur'anic interpretation, developed new approaches to such issues as the role of human rational ability, logic and philosophy in religious knowledge. Furthermore he deals with such specific controversial topics on the subject of revelation and reason as, social freedom and freedom of thought and belief in Islam. He tends to elaborate his view of freedom based on both the Qur'an and rational bases. Tabataba'i's approach to revelation and reason, his reconciliation of them in general, and his specific perspective of freedom are studied in this thesis with respect to their underlying principles and their scopes.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2006.

This dissertation project employs both ethnographic and textual research to study the role of rational coherence and paradox in Javanese Muslims’ theological understandings and political positionings. My research site is the Javanese city of Yogyakarta known for its mixture of traditionalist or Sufi and modernist Muslim reform organizations. The project intervenes in two distinct scholarly debates concerning the everyday practice of Islam and the social ties it engenders and brings them into a new synthesis: 1) debates around the paradigm of Islam as a coherent discursive tradition and the meaning of coherence, given the complexity, ambivalence, and fragmentation of Muslims’ everyday lives; and 2) studies of the relation and meaning of traditionalism and modernism as distinct orientations, embedded in larger movements of global Islamic reform, and responding to political pressures on Muslims to position themselves as moderate. It focuses on discourses and practices around memory as a node where questions of coherence and ideological belonging intersect. Both traditionalists and modernists remember their history, claiming stewardship over their past, or preserving and commemorating it to bring about a desired present and future; but the politics of commemoration diverge widely as traditionalists and modernists, in their memory practices, navigate multiple, conflicting demands and diverging epistemologies and ideologies. The study seeks to highlight how memory is mobilized to make claims of legitimate knowledge and power; how different kinds of discursive or ritual traditions around memory are legible as identity markers of particular religious and ideological orientations, especially traditionalism and modernism; and how the juxtaposition of conflicting epistemologies and ontologies is negotiated and understood within and between these different orientations.