Overview Islamic Studies Review publishes original, peer-reviewed research focusing on the dynamic relationship between Islamic knowledge and religious authority. The journal critically examines how Islamic knowledge is produced, transmitted, and contested, and how religious authority is negotiated and transformed across diverse historical and contemporary contexts, bridging classical scholarly traditions with modern complexities and the lived engagements of Muslims within public spheres, institutions, and digital networks. Editors welcome scholars, researchers, and practitioners around the world to submit scholarly articles for publication in this journal. All articles are reviewed by experts before being accepted for publication, and each author is solely responsible for the content of their published article. Indexing & Identifiers Islamic Studies Review has been a Crossref member since 2022, and every article the journal publishes is assigned a unique DOI. P-ISSN: 2829-1816 E-ISSN: 2963-7260 The journal is indexed in DOAJ, SINTA, Garuda, Dimensions, and Google Scholar. Author Resources Before submitting, please consult the author guidelines and prepare your manuscript using the journal template. Authors are also encouraged to use a reference manager such as Zotero or Mendeley. Author Guidelines · Manuscript Template
Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia
Copyright & License All articles published in Islamic Studies Review (ISR) are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Law and Muslim Political Thought in Late Colonial North India (Adeel Hussain)
Copyright (c) 2026 Manzoor Ahmed https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Copyright (c) 2026 Ali Samalia https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Muslim Youth in Southeast Asia (edited by Mohd Al Adib Samuri and Peter Hopkins)
Copyright (c) 2026 Yanwar Pribadi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The hijab has been a controversial issue in Morocco, despite the country's Muslim majority and the constitutional declaration of Islam as the state religion. This study examines contemporary debates surrounding the hijab in Morocco. It analyzes the discursive strategies of both opponents and supporters, the material implications for veiled women, and the implications of these patterns for Moroccan national identity. This article employs qualitative content analysis (QCA) and discourse analysis (DA) of Moroccan media sources, public discourse, and intellectual dialogues conducted between 2008 and 2026, arguing that the debate on the hijab is not fundamentally about women's clothing but rather a symptom of deeper, unresolved conflicts. This struggle is between colonial legacy and post-colonial identity, state secularism and popular religiosity, and competing visions of what it means to be Moroccan in the contemporary world. The analysis identifies several patterns in the opposition's discourse, such as calls for development, liberation, universal values, and feminist frameworks, as well as a strategic silence regarding the Moroccan constitution. Supporters respond with arguments based on religious obligation, individual rights, cultural authenticity, and resistance to Western hegemony. This article documents the material consequences of this debate, including professional exclusion, educational barriers, and social polarization. This article suggests that the hijab debate is likely to continue as long as Moroccan institutions operate according to secular norms that differ from the country's constitutional and religious traditions.
Copyright (c) 2026 Oumaima Bouchouk, Asmaa Bouchouk https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
This paper examines qawmī madrasah education in Bangladesh as a distinctive site for traditional Islamic scholarship, where the preservation of religious authority is continuously negotiated alongside the demands of modern educational structures. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork conducted in four qawmī madrasahs, including semi-structured interviews with 30 participants, classroom observations, and engagement with relevant scholarly, policy, and media sources, this study explores the perspectives of students, teachers, parents, and institutional authorities. The paper argues that the central challenges facing qawmī madrasahs are not merely the result of curricular limitations, but are rooted in their commitment to preserving the authority, authenticity, and transmission of Islamic knowledge, as understood by their ʿulamāʾ (traditional Islamic scholars). Qawmī students’ aspirations are closely tied to the pursuit of ʿilm (religious knowledge) and engagement in daʿwa (religious outreach), reflecting a broader moral and religious orientation that is often reinforced by family expectations, as many parents enroll their children in qawmī madrasahs to cultivate religious commitment, moral discipline, and future Islamic scholarship. However, a significant structural limitation emerges from the lack of formal recognition across the different stages of qawmī education. While students may complete the highest level of study, their earlier qualifications remain unrecognized within the national educational framework, creating barriers to entry into general universities, limiting access to a wide range of employment opportunities beyond the qawmī sphere, and restricting prospects for higher studies abroad. The findings further show that pedagogical practices, institutional autonomy, and limited curricular integration intersect in shaping both opportunities and constraints within the system. Crucially, resistance to reform is closely tied to concerns among the ʿulamāʾ regarding state intervention, particularly the fear that any external regulation may compromise their epistemic and institutional autonomy. The study concludes that meaningful engagement requires a coherent alignment between curriculum, certification, and institutional practice, developed through negotiated frameworks that preserve the internal logic of qawmī education while expanding students’ access to broader educational and social pathways.
Copyright (c) 2026 Md Mahdi Hasan, Bhirawa Anoraga https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
This study explores the nature and methods of biomedical reasoning to ascertain its epistemic standing. The analysis of the metaphysical presuppositions that undergird contemporary biomedicine as well as its logical weaknesses is needed, since biomedicine, when appropriated from within the Islamic tradition of theology and jurisprudence, is assumed to have extremely high epistemic worth and prestige due to its practical efficacy and success. When biomedicine interacts with the Islamic knowledge tradition (theology and jurisprudence), these unquestioned assumptions lead to the subsuming of the Islamic worldview by the biomedical worldview, in which Muslims tend to interpret their doctrines and principles under the undeclared philosophical position of scientific realism (SR). The method employed in this paper is to reveal the underlying metaphysics of modern biomedicine and the lack of finality (qaṭʿiyya) in its reductionist working principles. Through this method, this paper argues that the high level of ẓann (both in terms of conjecture and doubt) that characterizes the knowledge (theoretical models) and practice of biomedicine does not warrant its use within the sphere of Islamic theology. By delineating the inherent metaphysical reduction and various logical weaknesses in biomedicine, this paper tends to open the discourse in which Muslim scholars should treat biomedical knowledge as instrumental knowledge for pragmatic ends, instead of adopting it in a scientific realist fashion, providing a provisional outline of such a framework.
Copyright (c) 2026 Amana Raquib, Marium Ezam Qazi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Political Loyalty in Modern Islamic Thought
This paper argues that mainstream Muslim schools of thought support multiple loyalties, including country, ethnicity, tribe, and religion. First, we provide a summary of the major positions held by various Muslim schools of thought regarding the concept of al-walāʾ wa-l-barāʾ (loyalty and disavowal). The article then addresses the implications of these loyalties in contemporary Muslim politics. We focus on how these discourses on loyalty construct enemies of Islam and Muslims. Finally, we show how various political factors impact Muslim allegiances and how commitment to Islam can complement and be consistent with civic responsibility in secular and pluralistic democracies, particularly Western societies.
Copyright (c) 2026 Abdessamad Belhaj https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
This study examines contemporary Islamic legal responses to Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the broader discourse on Islam’s engagement with modern science and technology. Historically, Muslim jurists (fuqahāʾ) and muftīs have responded to technological innovations through context-specific juristic reasoning rather than through simple acceptance or rejection. However, AI presents a qualitatively distinct challenge, raising questions about human reasoning, moral agency, religious authority, and knowledge production. Focusing on the 10th Annual Dār al-Iftāʾ al-Miṣrīyah Conference, “The Making of the Competent Muftī in the Age of Artificial Intelligence,” and the 26th session of the Majmaʿ al-Fiqh al-Islāmī al-Duwalī, this study analyzes how contemporary muftīs conceptualize the relationship between human expertise and machine-generated fatwās. Through textual analysis of conference papers, resolutions, and juristic discussions, it explores how Islamic legal thought defines the role of the muftī and distinguishes human juristic reasoning from AI-generated outputs. This study argues that AI differs from earlier technological innovations because it not only facilitates communication and calculation but also reshapes the conditions of knowledge production, social life, and ethical responsibility. This development exposes the limitations of positivist approaches that reduce fatwās to codified legal rulings or reactive, religious pronouncements. By recovering the fatwā as a historically situated mode of ethical and juristic reasoning, this study demonstrates that Islamic legal thought retains the capacity to generate new normative possibilities in the age of AI. While contemporary juristic discussions often remain constrained by positivist categories, the fatwā tradition offers conceptual resources for addressing the ethical challenges of increasingly AI-mediated forms of life and contributes to broader debates on Islamic law, technology, and the future of human moral agency.
Copyright (c) 2026 Muhammed Ameen Fazal https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Interpreting the Qur’an: Non-Muslim as Mufassir
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.
The Cambridge Companion to Women and Islam (edited by Masooda Bano)
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.
Religion, Orientalism, and Modernity: Mahdi Movements of Iran and South Asia (Geoffrey Nash)
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.
The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Women (edited by Asma Afsaruddin)
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.
From Mā Warāʾ al-Nahār to the Southeast Asian Archipelago: Tracing Ibn Sīnā’s Intellectual Connections
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).
Framing Resistance in Hamas’s Military Media: Mobilization Strategies and Discursive Narratives During the Gaza War (2023–2025)
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.
Borrowing, Modification, and Innovation of Legal Maxims in Early Ottoman Egypt: The Case of Ibn Nujaym’s Ashbāh Wa Naẓāʾir
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.
Chronological Order for Qur’anic Hermeneutics: Al-Tafsīr al-Ḥadīth of ʻIzzat Darwaza
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.
Beyond Debt: Islamic Experiments in Global Finance
Daromir Rudnyckyj. Beyond Debt: Islamic Experiments in Global Finance. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2019. It is remarkable how few scholars of Southeast Asia have thought to look to Islamic finance, and how few scholars of Islamic finance have paid attention to Southeast Asia, for clues as to how global Islamic networks and global finanscapes converge. In part, this two-way oversight reflects the lack of interest in finance capitalism in conventional Southeast Asian studies and the marginal position Southeast Asia continues to occupy in Islamic studies. On this point alone, anthropologist Daromir Rudnyckyj's Beyond Debt: Islamic Experiments in Global Finance, arguably the first ethnography documenting the ongoing experiment of Islamic finance in Malaysia, is a significant contribution.
Studying Islam in the Arab World: The Rupture Between Religion and the Social Sciences
Education plays a central and pivotal role in the fabric of societies and is a crucial aspect of human development. Governments, scholars, and institutions have long worked to enhance systems that deliver both meaningful knowledge to learners and effective ethical guidance. This issue is particularly relevant in the Arab and Islamic world, where traditional Shariah colleges and Islamic education curricula have historically been foundational but often stagnant. These systems have increasingly faced criticism for failing to address contemporary realities effectively.
Muslims and Humour. Essays on Comedy, Joking, and Mirth in Contemporary Islamic Contexts
In 2015, French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo became a global symbol of free speech after a deadly attack on its office, following its publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. The Western world rallied around the slogan Je suis Charlie, hailing the magazine as a bastion of comedic defiance against religious extremism. But amid the outpouring of solidarity, a deeper question lingered: Was this truly about defending humor, or was it about reinforcing the idea that some cultures, some religions, are inherently hostile to satire? After all, outrage over religious mockery is hardly exclusive to Islam—Hindu nationalist groups have protested depictions of their gods, and conservative Christians have long decried irreverent portrayals of Jesus. Yet, in public discourse, Islam alone is framed as uniquely humorless, its followers unable—or unwilling—to take a joke.
Copyright (c) 2025 Rizky Bangun Wibisono
Navigating Belonging and Identity: Representation of Indonesian Muslims in the United Kingdom
Indonesian Muslims, despite navigating their adaptations to new life circumstances in the United Kingdom, actively contribute to the country's socio-cultural landscape through academia, festivals, art exhibitions, and culinary events that promote and preserve Indonesia’s cultural heritage. Examining Indonesian Muslim organizations in the UK such as KIBAR, PCINU UK, PCIM Britania & Irlandia, and Indonesia Islamic Centre (IIC) London, this research explores the sense of belonging and unbelonging among Indonesian Muslims in the UK, focusing on individual and collective identities. By employing Christensen's framework on belonging and unbelonging and Mossovici’s framework of social representation, this study discusses how Indonesian Muslims construct and uphold their identity in different circumstances. The results reveal that Indonesian Muslims navigate their identity by preserving their traditions and practically applying their traditions in a diaspora setting through religious agendas. This research also highlights their religious commitment and contribution to socio-cultural problems in their homeland, Indonesia.
Reimagining Tradition: Faisal Kamandobat and the Fusion of Islamic Values, Poetry, and Contemporary
Discourses on globalization, contemporary art and tradition often revolve around power dynamics, positioning them in binary terms of domination or emancipation. This paper proposes an alternative framework that moves beyond power relations, emphasizing the role of Bildung—a process of cultural and intellectual formation—in understanding the interaction between these forces. Through a critical analysis of Faisal Kamandobat's artistic practice, the paper argues that globalization, contemporary art and tradition are not opposing forces, but rather interconnected elements that shape cultural and artistic expression. Kamandobat's approach to art, which is deeply rooted in the pesantren tradition, shows how tradition can be reinterpreted through a modern and cosmopolitan sensibility. By exploring Bildung as a conceptual lens, this study reveals how culture functions as a living and evolving entity that bridges the past and the present. Ultimately, Kamandobat's work demonstrates that artistic practices can serve as spaces for creating meaning, resilience, and dialogue, rather than mere contestations of power.
Aceh and Mindanao: A Comparative Study of Postcolonial Muslim Experiences in Democratic States
This study offers a comparative analysis of the postcolonial experiences of Muslim communities in Aceh (Indonesia) and Mindanao (Philippines), focusing specifically on the impact of colonialism on institutions, legal structures, and religious identity. Both regions, while sharing a Muslim-majority population and a long history of colonial domination, have developed distinct trajectories in their approaches to governance, law, and cultural identity within contemporary democratic frameworks. Aceh, as a province of Indonesia, implements Islamic Sharia through special autonomy, reflecting a negotiated balance between local religious identity and national legal structures. In contrast, Mindanao continues to face challenges in securing Muslim rights through peace agreements, such as the Bangsamoro Organic Law, highlighting ongoing struggles over institutional autonomy and legal recognition. Employing a comparative approach, this study analyses three main aspects: the legacy of colonial institutions and legal systems, postcolonial transformations in governance and identity, and the dynamics of Muslim political participation in democratic states. The findings demonstrate that colonialism has left a profound imprint on the social, legal, and religious structures of both regions, but their responses have diverged due to differences in cultural contexts, national policies, and local agencies. This study contributes to broader discussions on decolonization and Islamic studies in the Global South by highlighting the diversity of post-colonial Muslim experiences in democratic societies.
Copyright (c) 2025 Syarifah Huswatun Miswar
Deconstruction of Women’s Testimony in Fiqh: Promoting Gender Equality in Hilal Sighting Through Sociological and Astronomical Perspectives
This study aims to deconstruct the traditional views in Islamic jurisprudence regarding women's testimony in the determination of the beginning of lunar Islamic calendar months, by examining gender equality through the perspective of the sociology of change and Islamic astronomy. This process, which has traditionally involved more men than women, is revisited with consideration of the role of women in contemporary society. In Islam, both men and women have equal capacity to provide testimony in various matters. Advances in science and technology have increasingly blurred the distinctions between men and women, as evidenced by the equal opportunities and positions in social, cultural, structural, and even religious domains. Unfortunately, women's involvement in moon sighting (rukyat al-hilal) remains very limited. In fact, in the history of the Ministry of Religious Affairs' decisions on the confirmation (istbat) of the new moon for the beginning of Ramadan, Shawwal, and Dhu al-Hijjah, there has only been one accepted and recorded testimony from a woman in the official decree of the Ministry of Religious Affairs (KMA). This raises a significant question: is there a restriction on women's participation in rukyat al-hilal activities due to their social status? This study highlights how social dynamics and developments in knowledge, particularly Islamic astronomy, can drive a more inclusive reinterpretation of Islamic law. The research employs a qualitative method with a descriptive and critical analysis using the sociology of change and Islamic astronomy in the process of deconstruction. This study also explores how gender equality can be realized in religious practices and its implications for the reform of Islamic law. The findings of this study include the formulation of women's testimony in rukyat al-hilal and its validity compared to men's testimony.
The Role of CIPSI in Epistemic Decolonization: Integrating Islamic Philosophy and Local Wisdom into Educational Reform in Indonesia
This paper explores the role of the Center for Islamic Philosophical Studies and Information (CIPSI) in decolonizing education in Indonesia, focusing on its efforts to challenge colonial influences by integrating Islamic philosophy and local educational systems into the curriculum. CIPSI contributes to a culturally relevant educational model by translating key Islamic texts, conducting research in Islamic philosophy, science, and mysticism, and advocating for the inclusion of local wisdom. This study highlights CIPSI’s role in bridging Islamic and Western knowledge systems, emphasizing the importance of indigenizing curricula. The paper also examines the challenges CIPSI faces and how non-state actors can collaborate with state institutions to reform the education system, contributing to the development of an educational framework that reflects Indonesia’s cultural and intellectual heritage.
Seventy years ago, Indonesia hosted one of the most renowned conferences in modern history: the Asia-Africa Conference. Since that pivotal 1955 Bandung moment, numerous commemorative events have been held by governments, academia, and civil society across the globe—particularly in major cities of the Global South. The profound legacies of this moment continue to resonate throughout the world, including within academic discourse, especially in what has increasingly been referred to as “decolonization”—a term coined in Latin America that now echoes across many regions. In academia, decolonization is more than a buzzword. It has become the subject of serious inquiry, with scholars seeking multiple tools—not just a singular approach—to redefine notions of ‘selfhood’ and ‘explanation’ beyond Eurocentric frameworks.
Copyright (c) 2025 Syamsul Rijal, Zacky Khairul Umam
The Sound of Salvation: Voice, Gender, and the Sufi Mediascape in China (Guangtian Ha)
The Sound of Salvation: Voice, Gender, and the Sufi Mediascape in China (Guangtian Ha). New York: Columbia University Press, 2022. Guangtian Ha completed 'The Sound of Salvation: Voice, Gender, and the Sufi Mediascape in China’ while undertaking his Ph.D. dissertation for Columbia University. As an anthropologist who conducted ethnographic research, he was mired in uncompleted fieldwork. When writing this book in 2021, he remarked that the COVID-19 global pandemic was in its second year, leading to the deaths of over half a million people in the United States and an unknown number in China, where the total number of deaths has been kept secret by the government. Even before the pandemic, the role of Islamic seminaries in Ningxia had been substantially reduced due to political pressure. But when the pandemic hit the region, most religious locations, such as mosques and Sufi graves, were ordered to close their doors to outside visitors. Even though much of his fieldwork was already completed in 2018, he lamented that much had changed in the intervening years, and so noted that the book had been written with a deep sense of loss.
Why Islamists Go Green. Politics, Religion and the Environment by Emmanuel Karagiannis
Why Islamists Go Green. Politics, Religion and the Environment by Emmanuel Karagiannis. Edinburgh University Press, 2023. Islamist groups have been examined from various perspectives, with most studies focused on these groups’ use of violence, which provides a misleading perspective of how Muslim societies evolve and how they interact with the rest of the world. As a result, there is a lack of focus on Islamist movements’ relationship with the environment. Emmanuel Karagiannis’s Why Islamists Go Green is the first well-researched work that reveals important trends in how Islamism interacts with the environment (p. xi). The author focuses on five Islamist groups – the Muslim Brotherhood, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Hizbullah, Hamas, and Salafi-jihadist groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIS – and the religious and political foundations for the formation of their green policies based on Islamic texts, rulings and principles (p. 10). The author’s argument convincingly sheds light on the basic principles and essence of Islamist environmentalism as it includes extensive literature and interviews with representatives of these movements and an analysis of online resources and initiatives from the various parties and groups (pp. 11-13).
Copyright (c) 2025 Hudriansyah Hudriansyah
A Comparison of Jewish and Islamic Views on The Banishment of Hagar
Hagar is a fascinating figure in both Jewish and Islamic traditions. Her portrayal varies greatly across these two different faiths. In both Jewish and Islamic traditions, Hagar is sent away into the desert. However, this same story has different interpretations in Judaism and Islam and has diverse cultural impacts on today’s Jewish and Muslim societies. In Islam, Hagar is seen as a respected figure, the mother of Arabs. This contrasts with her negative portrayal in some Jewish interpretations. This paper examines historical sources of Hagar’s story in the Biblical narrative and the Islamic tradition, exploring how each scripture aligns and contrasts with the other through the pivotal event of Hagar’s banishment to the wilderness. Utilizing a qualitative methodology and comparative approach, this study undertakes a textual and content analysis of relevant literature. This paper argues that how Hagar’s banishment is recounted in Jewish and Islamic traditions significantly influences how her story is understood and interpreted today. These interpretations, shaped by their respective cultural and historical contexts, contribute to differing portrayals of Hagar’s role and social position within the family of Abraham in Jewish and Islamic communities.
Copyright (c) 2024 Fithri Dzakiyyah Hafizah
Islam & Natural Philosophy: Principles of Daqīq Al-Kalām (Basil Altaie)
Islam & Natural Philosophy: Principles of Daqīq Al-Kalām (Basil Altaie). Oldham: Beacon Books, 2023. The discipline of kalām (Islamic rational theology) can be generally divided into two categories: jalīl al-kalām and daqīq al-kalām. The former mainly deals with theological questions whereas the latter deals with questions related to natural philosophy such as causality, free will, time, space, etc. The book under review deals with the latter: it provides an original attempt to revive and recontextualize daqīq al-kalām. Trained as a theoretical physicist in Mosul, Iraq, and Manchester, the United Kingdom, with some 30 years of exposure to the field of kalām, the Iraqi author offers an interesting interplay between classical Islamic theology and modern scientific discoveries.
Copyright (c) 2024 Hasan Al Asyari, Juris Arrozy
The Victims of Victims: Islamophobia in the South Korean Feminist Movement
This research attempts to introduce a new perspective on the complex relationships in South Korea's patriarchal society that produces "victims of victims". The patriarchal culture in South Korea stems from Confucian values that have demeaned women by branding them immoral (hwanyang-nyeon/화냥년). In modern times, these Confucian values perpetuate misogyny and create a second-class identity for women in South Korean society. Thus, the feminism movement was born as a form of emancipation to fight the enduring injustice against women in South Korea. By using Jürgen Habermas' perspective on moral discourse and Spinner-Halev’s perspective on enduring injustice, this study aims to examine the formation of a victim mentality in South Korean women and its relationship with the label of 'patriarchy' pinned on Islam, which then contributes to intensified Islamophobia in South Korea. The construction of Islam as patriarchal and degrading to women is often expressed alongside acts of racism and xenophobia. This phenomenon constitutes a vicious cycle. Deep-seated trauma and hatred due to mistreatment and othering experiences over time has caused women in South Korea to internalize a victim identity. Ironically, this creates new victims through anti-Islamic campaigns in the feminist movement. By conducting a literature review, this research seeks to analyze the relationship between enduring injustice due to patriarchal culture, mental formation of victims and Islamophobia in the South Korean feminist movement.
Copyright (c) 2024 Namira Risqi Putri Muquita