EDITORIAL

Abstract

This is the tenth year of the existence of AJISS. Starting from a publication
schedule of twice a year in 1984 to three times a year in 1989, it
became a desk-topped quarterly in 1993. In 1992, due to increased demand,
we began printing AJISS simultaneously in Washington, DC, and
Malaysia. This year, it will also be published in Pakistan as well as translated
into Turkish in Turkey, in shii. Allah. We are grateful to Almighty
Allah for our widespread readership and for the contributions sent from
around the globe.
In this issue, we feature two articles on various theoretical aspects of
the Islamization of knowledge. The first one, by Ibrahim A. Ragab, discusses
theory building in the Islamic social sciences. He argues for an alternative
social science framework based on the Islamization paradigm,
which he asserts could integrate both empirical and nonempirical elements
of behavior into a united system of explanation. Exploring the possibility
of using knowledge derived from revelation as a major source in the process
of theory building, he encourages Muslim social scientists to draw
upon the rich insights derived from the transcendental sources, but only
after subjecting the resulting propositions to stringent verification. Ragab
assures us that this new model rejects unwanted dogmatism, unwarranted
exclusiveness, and a parochiality that shuns anything that comes by way
of non-Muslims. Muslim social scientists, he opines, will have to reorient
their critical approach to their disciplines and also acquire a better understanding
of the religious sciences: revealed knowledge. This would ensure
a Muslim contribution in the social sciences, a contribution that disappeared
during centuries of stagnation in the Islamic ummah.
In the second paper, Louay Safi examines the progress of the Islamization
of knowledge project over the last decade. He outlines the general
framework, analyzes the work of its proponents and critics (al Faruqi, al
Buff, Rahman, 'AbuSulayman, Arif, Umziyan, Abul-Fadl), and proposes
modifications aimed at overcoming the difficulties inherent in the original
plan. Safi makes it clear at the outset that even though the production of ...