Islamic Studies Review

Interpreting the Qur’an: Non-Muslim as Mufassir

2025-12-30T15:27:49+00:00

This essay presents a reflective intellectual history of the author’s engagement with Islamic studies, specifically the challenges and insights inherent in a non-Muslim attempting to interpret (tafsīr) the Qur’an. Drawing upon decades of scholarship at the Australian National University and fieldwork in Cairo and Indonesia, Johns articulates the hermeneutical difficulty of accessing the “tone and colouring” of the Islamic revelation from outside the faith community. The narrative traces the author’s methodological turn to a literary and phenomenological appreciation of the Qur’an as a recited, oral text. Key turning points in this hermeneutical journey include the realization of the distinct nature of Islamic “salvation history”—contrasted with Biblical narratives, particularly through the story of Joseph (Yūsuf)—and the discovery of the internal coherence of the Qur’an. The essay emphasizes that understanding the Qur’an requires moving beyond textual translation to experiencing its recited reality and accepting its prophetic narratives on their own terms, independent of Judeo-Christian antecedents. Ultimately, the work argues for an empathetic scholarship that bridges the “familiar” (shared prophetic figures) and the “remote” (distinctive Islamic theology) to foster inter-religious understanding.

Chronological Order for Qur’anic Hermeneutics: Al-Tafsīr al-Ḥadīth of ʻIzzat Darwaza

2025-12-30T15:27:49+00:00

This paper analyzes the methodological stakes of interpreting the Qur’ān through tartīb tanzīlī/tartīb al-nuzūl (chronological order of revelation) by examining ‘Izzat Darwaza’s al-Tafsīr al-Ḥadīth and the hermeneutical “value added” created by sequencing sūras along the arc of revelation rather than the canonical muṣḥafī/tawqīfī order. It argues that Darwaza’s project reconfigures Qur’ānic interpretation into a developmental narrative of guidance tracking how themes, ethical demands, and communal norms unfold across the Meccan and Medinan phases and thereby offers an alternative map for relating Qur’ānic meaning to sīra, socio-political change, and the formation of law. Methodologically, the study combines intellectual-contextual framing with close reading of Darwaza’s stated textual decisions and interpretive patterns. It notes his adoption of an Egyptian standard chronology mediated through the Kadirgali muṣḥaf tradition (with selective departures, such as beginning with al-Fātiḥa). The analysis highlights signature features of Darwaza’s chronological hermeneutics. They include a consistent “verse-in-revelation-context” orientation that treats asbāb al-nuzūl and historical circumstance as primary interpretive variables, selective deployment of ḥadīth/riwāyāt to reinforce contextual meaning rather than to foreclose semantic development, and coherence-seeking treatment of tension and abrogation claims, including stage-specific readings of conflict verses vis-à-vis earlier proclamations of religious coexistence. This paper concludes that Darwaza’s approach yields strong benefits for historical-thematic coherence, clarifies gradual moral–legal formation, and provides a pedagogically powerful “learning curve” for modern audiences. At the same time, it stresses inherent constraints as chronological lists are not universally agreed. Its heavy reliance on socio-historical reconstruction can invite historicism and reduce engagement with micro-linguistic debates central to other tafsīr genres.

From Mā Warāʾ al-Nahār to the Southeast Asian Archipelago: Tracing Ibn Sīnā’s Intellectual Connections

2025-12-30T15:27:50+00:00

It is commonly assumed that major thinkers (such as al-Fārābī, Ibn Sīnā, and al-Bīrūnī) were Arabs, whereas in fact, they originated from Central Asia. Considering the profound contributions these thinkers made not only to the intellectual heritage of the Islamic world but also to global thought, scholarly engagement with their works—whether individually or collectively—is of critical importance. Regrettably, rigorous studies on their biographies and intellectual legacies remain limited, resulting in a lack of widespread recognition of their significant contributions among Muslim communities. Therefore, in this paper, I feel compelled to undertake a focused study on a prominent intellectual figure from the 10th–11th century in Central Asia: Ibn Sīnā (d. 1037), who was born and flourished in the Central Asian region and its surroundings, and who made significant contributions to the development of philosophical, scientific, and mystical thought—not only in the Middle East as commonly thought but also in the Malay World (Nusantara).

Borrowing, Modification, and Innovation of Legal Maxims in Early Ottoman Egypt: The Case of Ibn Nujaym’s Ashbāh Wa Naẓāʾir

2025-12-30T15:27:50+00:00

Ibn Nujaym was a prominent Hanafi jurist whose influential work, al-Ashbāh wa al-Naẓāʾir (the resemblances and similitudes) served as one of the primary sources for the Majallāt al-Aḥkām al-ʿAdliyya. However, despite the significance of this compilation of legal maxims, it has not been adequately studied in terms of its sources and intellectual influences. By comparing the text of Ashbāh wa Naẓāʾir by Ibn Nujaym and al-Subkī and analyzing through a historical framework, this paper argues that. Ibn Nujaym’s legal methodology was shaped by the Shāfiʿī-dominated intellectual environment of Egypt during the transition from the Mamluk era to the Ottoman empire. This study reveals that his work was strongly inspir ed by Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī’s Ashbāh wa Naẓāʾir, a well-known Shāfiʿī compilation of legal maxims. The dominance of Shāfiʿī doctrine in late Mamluk Egypt, along with the gradual decline of legal pluralism and increasing pressure to conform to the hegemonic school, led Ibn Nujaym to position himself under the Shafī’s umbrella of legal principle. We can trace this affiliation through his adoption of several structural and conceptual elements from al-Subkī’s work, such as the use of similar language, categorization styles, borrowing the main maxims, and modifying derivative maxims. His approach reflects not only a borrowing process but also a form of legal adaptation and survival within a shifting political landscape.

Framing Resistance in Hamas’s Military Media: Mobilization Strategies and Discursive Narratives During the Gaza War (2023–2025)

2025-12-30T15:27:50+00:00

This study analyzes the strategic use of military media by Hamas during the Gaza War (2023–2025), focusing on the discursive construction of resistance and mobilization. Amid large-scale destruction and civilian casualties, media emerged as a central arena for ideological contestation. Drawing on speeches and statements by Abū ʿUbayda, spokesperson for the ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Qassām Brigades, this research examines how Hamas crafted narratives to justify military actions, legitimize its political position, and mobilize support across local and transnational contexts. Using Teun A. van Dijk’s socio-cognitive model of Critical Discourse Analysis, the study investigates the interplay between discourse, ideology, and collective memory. Through purposive and stratified sampling of textual and audiovisual materials from official Telegram channels, the analysis identifies key discursive strategies—lexical framing, religious symbolism, and emotional appeals—that represent the conflict as a divinely sanctioned struggle against occupation. At the macro level, themes of martyrdom, heroism, and ideological polarization dominate, while micro-level elements such as evaluative language and binary referential strategies reinforce in-group/out-group distinctions. Visual media further embed ideological content through symbolic imagery and narrative sequencing. The findings demonstrate how Hamas’s military media functioned as an ideological apparatus, shaping collective identity, sustaining morale, and mobilizing resistance within a hybrid media system.

The Cambridge Companion to Women and Islam (edited by Masooda Bano)

2025-12-31T01:54:01+00:00

The Cambridge Companion to Women and Islam comes at an important moment in the scholarship on Muslim women. Over the past two decades, the field has transformed from one dominated by Orientalist misrepresentations into a robust, interdisciplinary conversation grounded in textual scholarship, ethnography, sociology, and gender theory. It also challenges the assumption that the Islamic tradition is inherently as a course of women’s oppression or a marker of their backwardness.

The book comprises fifteen chapters across three sections. The first introduces the foundations of classical Islamic gender teaching and outlines a vision of women’s well-being and equality distinct from Western feminist models. The second section offers cases of women navigating piety, some by following classical norms, others by reinterpreting them, demonstrating that pious agency is an active, adaptive process embedded in the Islamic legal tradition. The final section broadens the focus to women’s roles in shaping states and societies, highlighting forms of agency that resonate more closely with textual and ethnographic scholarship on Muslim women has evolved in the past two decades and where further work is needed, revealing the complex interplay between faith, agency, and social context.

The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Women (edited by Asma Afsaruddin)

2025-12-30T15:27:51+00:00

The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Women (Oxford University Press, 2023), edited by Asma Afsaruddin, offers a rigorous, multidisciplinary inquiry into the politicized discourses surrounding Muslim women. Bringing together leading scholars across fields, the volume interrogates the lived experiences, historical roles, textual interpretations, and global representations of Muslim women (Afsaruddin, 2023). The volume stands as a timely corrective to ideological framings that obscure the complexity, heterogeneity, and historical depth of Muslim women’s realities. This review critically evaluates the work’s contributions to Islamic studies, gender theory, and epistemologies of power, foregrounding its significance in contemporary debates on agency, reform, and religious authority.

In recent decades, the figure of the Muslim woman has become both a symbol and a battleground in global ideological discourses—variously framed as a victim of religious patriarchy, a threat to liberal secularism, or a marker of authenticity in postcolonial nation-building. The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Women resists such reductive tropes. It presents instead a nuanced, rigorous, and richly layered account of Muslim women’s roles, voices, and representations across time and space. Comprising 32 chapters, the volume offers an impressive breadth of academic inquiry, encompassing historical, theological, legal, sociopolitical, and literary analyses.

Religion, Orientalism, and Modernity: Mahdi Movements of Iran and South Asia (Geoffrey Nash)

2025-12-30T15:27:51+00:00

The discourse on contemporary Islamic studies is undergoing an important paradigm shift, in which Eurocentric narratives that have dominated the field for centuries are being challenged and reconstructed. This process of decolonizing knowledge involves not only a critique of Edward Said's classical orientalism but also an active effort to restore subjectivity and agency to Muslim communities in interpreting and developing their own religious traditions. In this context, Nash's work provides a valuable perspective on how religious groups in the Muslim world have not simply been passive objects of Western influence, but also active agents who respond to, adapt, and even utilize orientalist discourse for their benefit.

Modernism in Muslim-majority regions such as Iran and South Asia has different characteristics from Western narratives of modernity. The Mahdi movements studied by Nash show how modernity is interpreted and negotiated differently in local contexts, creating a unique synthesis between religious tradition and the demands of modern times. In addition, decolonization efforts in contemporary Islamic studies seek to uncover and appreciate these varied experiences of modernity, rejecting the idea that there is only one single path to progress.