This dissertation attempts to elucidate early Isma`ili thought on various aspects of prophecy during the 4th A.H./10th C.E. century in the light of Kitab al-Is&dotbelow;lah&dotbelow; (Book of Correction) by Abu H&dotbelow;atim al-Razi (d. ca. 322/934--5), one of the leading da`is (missionaries) in the Iran of his day. Al-Is&dotbelow;lah&dotbelow; is on one level an early example of Neoplatonist influence on Isma`ili thought, taking the form of a polemic aimed at his coreligionist, Muh&dotbelow;ammad al-Nasafi. However, al-Is&dotbelow;lah&dotbelow; also shows a new doctrinal formulation of early Isma`ili discourse on prophetology, especially concerning the messianic figure of the Qa'im. / In al-Is&dotbelow;lah&dotbelow; al-Razi discusses the missions of each of the enunciator-prophets (nut&dotbelow;aqa' ) using the terminology of Greek-Hellenistic sciences, thereby implying that the Qa'im possesses a rank higher than any other prophet. In addition, whereas he appears to assign the Qa'im's political role to the leaders of the Isma`ili community in the present age, al-Razi describes a new era to be inaugurated by the figure, constituting a purified version of this world. In this way the figure of the Qa'im is depoliticized and spiritualized. It is thus suggested that al-Razi's thought on prophecy in al-Is&dotbelow;lah&dotbelow;, while theorizing the place of the Qa'im in sacred history, represents a response to the crisis in his own time engendered by the postponement of the Qa'im's final advent and victory.

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This dissertation offers an analysis of the exegetical treatment of the Qur'anic evidence for the prophecy of women. Specifically, it tries to answer contentious questions whether or not there were women prophets according to the Qur'an, and whether or not women were regarded as eligible for this office. Scholars are sharply divided in their opinions on these issues, and the majority rejects both possibilities. This study will show that even though their conclusions happen to coincide with that of the Qur'an, their arguments lack genuine Qur'anic support. / For they failed to consider the fact that, one has to identify, first and foremost, the Qur'anic concept of prophecy, which, through juxtaposition of its verses, can be identified as "God's sending of a human being with a book/scripture in order to deliver a message of glad tidings and warnings to people." To evaluate this, certain important scenarios have to be addressed in searching for the concept of prophecy; namely, the purpose of the prophecy; the question of God sending the individuals; and the idea of sending down books/scriptures. / At the same time another group of scholars who argue in favor of women's prophecy have concentrated on the fact that certain women, such as the mothers of the Prophets Isaac, Moses and Jesus, have actually received inspiration from God; a fact that makes them, in their opinion, prophets. The Spanish-born theologian Ibn Ḥazm (d.1064) belongs to this group, and he is considered their chief representative. Thus, this study focuses on him and his theory. He tried to prove women's prophecy through a philological approach and by establishing how communication did take place between God and certain women. Despite the conclusion of this study (using the Qur'an as a measure of prophet/messenger) that the Qur'an does not recognize the prophecy of women, it nonetheless, finds no credible proof that women, in consequence, are debarred from any other type of leadership in Islam.

This dissertation deals with Ibn Taymiyya's theory of the unity of God and of creation, or, as Muslim philosophers have posited the question, the relation between the oneness of God and the diversity that has come out of it. Indeed, Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) responded to the same ontological question that earlier Muslim philosophers were concerned to answer. Although Ibn Taymiyya was a theologian, he did not encounter quite the same questions as the early kalam theologian whose concern it was to prove the existence of God. The dissertation discusses the forms this question took. / The introduction reviews Ibn Taymiyya's life, works and historical circumstances. The first chapter deals with Ibn Taymiyya's concept of God which is that of a real and actual being. God, for him, is not abstract in the way some Muslim theologians, philosophers and mystics had affirmed. / The second chapter discusses two great Muslim thinkers: al-Ghazali, who attempted to reconcile kalam with Ibn Sina's philosophy, and Ibn Rushd, who criticized both al-Ghazali and Ibn Sina and established a new philosophical approach to the notion of God and the process of creation. In this chapter we touch on the later development of both kalam and philosophy in Islam and show how Ibn Taymiyya, while pursuing the same goal as al-Ghazali in reconciling kalam and philosophy, drew benefit from these developments. / The third chapter goes to the core of Ibn Taymiyya's theory of diversity issuing from the oneness of God. This chapter shows the bold notions that Ibn Taymiyya believed represent the only possible answers to the question of creation: the essence of God as a substrate of generation; the eternity of the world; and God's attributes as species and genera, actualized in our concrete world. / The conclusion illustrates the differences between Ibn Taymiyya and other Muslim philosophers and theologians, as well as his adoption of certain of their ideas.

The study asks the following question: to what degree do the categories of philosophical knowledge apply to the original work of Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani? In order to answer the question, the study tries to characterize al-Sijistani's thought as expressed in the Kitab al-Yanabi'. The textual analysis emphasizes the role of Sijistani's theory of Sources and theory of kalimah, which allow useful comparisons with aspects of the hermetic and hermeneutic traditions. The analysis aims at demonstrating that the hermeneutical thought of al-Sijistani, although gnostic in character, integrates in its spiritual itinerary the conceptual expression characteristic of philosophical knowledge. The possibility of such an integration rests on the ta'wi l's function of synthesis. The various aspects of the synthesis are finally discussed by reference to the ismaili conception of prophecy.

This thesis is, as its title duely indicates, an attempt to establish and describe the facts or events of an aspect of the public life of Ibn Taymiya (661-728), namely, his mihan or the trials and tribulations he underwent apparently due to the stands he took on certain dogmatic issues of his time. This thesis is divided into two chapters: the first tries to determine the originality of the sources in relation to each other as well as in relation to the mihan -- and their reliability; in all eighteen sources are dealt with. The second chapter tries to reconstruct a plausible account of the mihan on the basis of the knowledge acquired of the sources.

This study presents a comparative analysis of the interpretative approaches and the religious Weltanschauungs of two Islamic revivalists of Pakistan, especially in relation to jihad and the establishment of Islamic global order. Abu al-A'la Mawdudi (1903-1979) argues that the correct understanding of certain key Qur'anic terms makes it incumbent upon every Muslim to strive for the achievement of the basic objective of Islam, which is to establish an Islamic global order ( izhar-i din) to implement the Divine laws ( iqamat-i din) so that all un-Islamic (and, therefore, oppressive) "systems" of the world be replaced by the "ideal Islamic rule" (khilafat) of "the Islamic State." To strive fully to achieve this end is jihad, which may assume the form of an armed struggle (qital) when the situation so demands and Islamic conditions for it are fulfilled. Mawdudi gives various arguments to assert that this jihad is not a bane but a boon for mankind, and in it lies the only hope for mankind's prosperous existence in this world and the next. Contradicting Mawdudi's worldview, Javed Aḥmad Ghamidi (1951- ) asserts that the basic purpose of Islam as a religion is to purify the human soul to enable a person to worship and serve God as His true subject and servant. The qital done by the Prophet and his companions was essentially and for most part a form of Divine punishment against Divinely specified peoples for denying the truth of the Prophet's message and position after this truth had become evident to them. This form of jihad ended with the Prophet and his companions, and the only valid moral basis for qital now is to end oppression and injustice. Jihad (as qital) cannot be waged to propagate religion or merely to eradicate a non-Islamic "system." This study looks at the implications of these ideas and also delves into the concepts and interpretative approaches on which they are founded.

This thesis studies the theory of istihsan, an aspect of Islamic legal reasoning, as a method for ascertaining the legal norm in cases where qiyas dictates an overly strict ruling. The study primarily focuses on the concept presented by Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328), a prominent Muslim theologian, philosopher, sufi and outstanding jurist. Placed in the context of later development, Ibn Taymiyya's theory proposes both a criticism and reformulation of the Hanafi school's perception of istihsan. Having observed previous formulations, Ibn Taymiyya sees this theory as being understood as an arbitrary contradiction to qiyas. Although attempts to redefine the theory, through rigorous definition and well-calculated application were conducted by later Hanafi jurists, criticism from other schoools continued unabated. To this effect, Ibn Taymiyya's contribution emerges as an alternative solution. In order to fully understand istihsan, Ibn Taymiyya contends that one must determine particularization of the cause (takhsid s al-'illa). By doing this, istihsan and qiyas can be easily distinguished. He, thus, perceives istihsan as takhsid s al-'illa. Unlike the Hanafis, Ibn Taymiyya does not juxtapose istihsan against qiyas sahid h. He argues that if there is a contradiction, it must be proved by a decisive descrepancy (farq mu'aththir) provided by the law giver. Furthermore, when qiyas produces an unsatisfactory legal norm, takhsid s al-'illa represents a viable alternative. Above all, Ibn Taymiyya contends that istihsan must be supported by the revealed texts, consensus or necessity.

Many works present solid biographical data on h&dotbelow;adith transmitters, offering tajrih&dotbelow; and ta`dil with respect to both personal and social background. These works have different ways of organizing their entries. Some show various classes (t&dotbelow;abaqat) of h&dotbelow;adith transmitters, e.g., T&dotbelow;abaqat of Ibn Sa'd. Others use alphabetical order. The outcome is a difference not only in structure but in contents. Some works are based on transmitters, such as those of the six canonical books of Sunni h&dotbelow;adith ; others are based specifically on the disputable qualities of the transmitters. The purpose of this thesis is to present Ibn H&dotbelow;ajar al-`Asqalani's Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, which comes as a summation of its kind and is to a large degree comprehensive. By focusing on some biographies of h&dotbelow;adith transmitters included in Tahdhib al-Tahdhib which are based on the transmission chains of four selected h&dotbelow;adiths , we hope to show Tahdhib al-Tahdhib as a independent source for assessing the validity of h&dotbelow;adith transmission chains. Moreover, by comparing the assessment of a h&dotbelow;adith transmitter found in Tahdhib al-Tahdhib to that of other works---such as Kitab al-Jarh&dotbelow; wa al-Ta`dil by Ibn Abi H&dotbelow;atim al-Razi and Mizan al-I'tidal by al-Dhahabi---we hope to appraise the position of Ibn H&dotbelow;ajar al-`Asqalani within h&dotbelow;adith criticism.

This dissertation is a study of the composition and reception of two chronicles written in Arabic in the first decades of the fourth century of the Islamic hijrī era (the tenth century of the current era). They were written by a little-known scholar usually called Abū Muḥammad Aḥmad ibn A‘tham al-Kūfī. Although no complete copy of the Arabic histories survives, the history was widely circulated in Persian. In other words, unlike most authors, Ibn A‘tham became somewhat more famous as his text circulated further. This work sets out to explain how this came to happen in two parts. The first part examines the composition of Ibn A‘tham’s history, arguing on biobibliographical, paleographical, and textual evidence that Ibn A‘tham must have belonged to the first decades of the fourth/tenth century. This argument serves as prelude to the second part, in which I show how Ibn A‘tham’s history developed over time, watching as selective readings and manuscript damage led to reduced engagements with Ibn A‘tham. Here, by examining how other historians quoted Ibn A‘tham, I track the logics of writing and reading that guided their encounters. The dissertation culminates in the sixth chapter, in which I provide a conceptual history for the Persian translation, showing how Ibn A‘tham’s history was re-imagined and prepared for its yet-bright future as a work of Persian historiography. Ultimately, I try to show the critical place filled by the culture of writing shared between Arabic and Persian: Rather than a firm boundary between two distinct languages, in the lens of Ibn A‘tham’s history, we observe a zone of interaction and innovation.