Fi Masadir al Turath al Siyasi al Islami By Nasr Muhammad 'Arif (Arabic). Herndon, VA: International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1994, 237pp.

Abstract

This is perhaps one of the most useful books I have come across in
recent years. In an age when almost every Middle East or Islamic studies
specialist is obsessed with "political Islam" or "radical or fundamentalist
Islam," and when the western mass media and below-average media specialists
on the Muslim world try to explain "the rage of Islam" to their
audience, this book is a forceful reminder that the political language of
contemporary Islamic revivalism is grounded in a historically established
and rich Islamic (political) tradition. It also reminds us that in order to do
justice to the political principles of the modem Islamic movement, both
the academics and the media specialists must familiarize themselves with
this rich and historically constructed tradition.
The author's primary intention is to document and discuss the main
sources (i.e., writings) of Islamic political thought from the first centuries
to the present. To 'Arif, the Islamic theory of knowledge and practice,
which is based on the Qur'an and the Sunnah, has worked as a catalyst that
enabled the Muslim mind to construct a unique political theory that takes
into account changing sociopolitical and historical conditions. As a result,
"political thought" has always formed the crux of Islamic thinking in general
and has never been divorced from the unique evolution and progress
of Islamic civilization. What this means, in effect, is that for a modem
scholar to carry out research, let us say, on the concept of jihad in Islam,
he/she must trace the concept to its earlier sources and study it in its epistemological
and historical evolutions. Concepts do change, depending on ...