Vision of AJISS Back to Basics

Abstract

When the International Institute of Islamic Thought and the Association
of Muslim Social Scientists decided to launch AJ/SS sixteen years ago, they
had a shared vision of the condition of the Ummah, the crises facing it, and
the resolution of those crises. These were the three challenges that inspired
the work of HIT and AMSS the last two decades. As we write the editorial
for the first issue of the seventeenth volume of AJ/SS, we recall those challenges
and that vision of Islam and discover that they are still deeply relevant
today.
The first challenge was to understand Islam and then interpret that understanding.
Today, more than ever before, Islam is considered a great religion,
an egalitarian faith, and a holistic way of life by Muslims and others.
More and more people are realizing the extent to which Islamic values
and the Shari'ah, which are just and universal in character, may contribute
to solving the problems of contemporary civilization. They also recognize
that Islamic guidance, which integrates revelation and reason, answers eternal
questions about living righteously on earth and establishing a just and
rational 'umriin (civilization).
Both HIT and AMSS believe that Muslim scholars and intellectuals will
serve Islam and humanity if they articulate a comprehensive worldview
premised on Islamic ontology, epistemology, and methodology. This
worldview will enable Muslims to institutionalize and observe Islamic
ideals and central principles such as tawhid, 'umriin and tazkiyah, enable
non-Muslims to interpret life, nature, and human phenomena, and have sufficient
elements shared between them to facilitate a universal discourse that
can bring the fruits of Islam to all humanity.
The second challenge concerned diagnosing the contemporary condition
of the Muslim Ummah. Despite the Islamic values and principles that it
possesses and the human and natural resources it enjoys, the Ummah has
been in decline for several centuries. Muslims have been subjected to
incomparable defeats and humiliation. In today's global media they are ...