EDITORIAL

Abstract

This issue is unprecedented in a variety of ways. It has five papers with
extremely interesting materials, four Research Notes, four Book Reviews,
eight conference/seminar reports, and one letter to the Editor. Its lead article
has been written by one of our top intellectuals displacing many conventional
notions to assert that Islamization is a force of global renewal. It is rare that
one reads such a nicely worded, well-argued, and refreshing article.
This issue begins with a selection from the Holy Qur'an and commentary
by the AMSS President, AbdulHamid AbuSulayman. These selections always
inspire the readers and provide the best framework for conceptualization.
The lead article by Mona Abul Fadl of the International Institute of Islamic
Thought contends, and rightly so, that Tmhidi Episteme is as relevant to
modernity as anything else could be. Following her article are two papers
germane to Islamic thought. In the first, Husain Kassim presents Sarakhsi's
Doctrine of Istihsan as an approach towards Ahkam al-Dunya. In the second
paper Hakim Rashid deals with the socialization of Muslim children in
America. Discounting the dichotomy within and across societies between
ideal and actual behavior in the West, he asserts that acquisition of knowledge,
skills and socialization among Muslim children must conform to the Qur'an
and Sunnah.
The third section on Islamization of Disciplines also presents two papers.
In the first one, Mohammad Siddiqui describes an Islamic framework for
the study of interpersonal communication. The other paper, by A. al Tayob,
is a review of the religious, political, and social transformation of the Arabs
after the advent of Islam. He compares pre-Islamic Arab societies with Muslim
Arab societies and states that religio-cultural-political transformation in them
was the expression of the holism of the Qur'an which was capable of underhung
the meaningfulness of the past, thus bridging the gap between past and present.
The following section has four Research Notes. Rizwan Malik organizes
his note in two parts. In the first, he discusses the role of the 'Ulama in
the political development of late 19th and early 20th century India. In the
second, he raises an interesting question concerning whether the role of 'Ulama
was based on Islamic issues or was shaped by its response to British power.
In the following note, Marwan Obeidat examines Royal Tyler's Algerine Captive
(1797), affirming that such novels and others like them, includmg the accounts
of early travellers and missionaries gave a fragmentary and grossly inaccurate ...