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Various facets of Islam Islam in the World Today
Since its inception in the seventh century, Islam has spread over the entire world. Islam in the World Today offers details that help understand the Muslim world, its past and present. All possible themes related with the organisation of Islamic societies have been covered in the 24 concise essays within its covers. The contributors and translators (since it is a translation from German) are scholars who have multilingual inter-disciplinary training and research experience at leading centres of studies in Islam, religion and comparative religion from across the globe. The first part of the volume contains a wealth of information about historical expansion and political and religious history of Islam in five brilliant essays. It opens with a note about the period of religious upheaval in the Arab world and the birth of Muhammad in the pagan environment. Historical-philosophical relationship between Judaism, Christianity and Islam has been meticulously outlined while giving details of the life of the Prophet and revelation of the Quran. Spread of Islam under caliphs, political divisions based on religious dissent and assertion of Sunni orthodoxy are responsible for the changing face of the Islamic world. An essay on Shiaite Islam tells us about Shiaite view of history, Imamat doctrine, hadith, theology and orthodoxy. Revivalist movements have been investigated to underline their role in modern history in anti-colonial, occidental and oriental perspectives as also the battle for Islamic state. Demographic details of distribution of 1.2 billion Muslims in 110 countries of the world with a brief note on each are a proof of the pains taken to accomplish the job.
Islamisation has influenced the legislative process in Islamic countries in different ways. The elaborate discussion touches some very sensitive areas of law on crime, marriage, divorce, kinship and inheritance in various countries. Islamic diaspora brings new challenges with it. The Muslims have to decide how they want to practice their religion and how they wish to pass it on to their progeny, living in a strongly secularised society and heterogeneous culture. Of late Muslim women have started intervening critically into male discourses of power. It is gratifying to see Islamic feminism. Things become complex for an outsider when he observes that there are verses in the Quran which acknowledge the equality of men and women and also those which seem to highlight woman's subordination or inferiority. The insiders explain the difference in the context of space, time and culture. This book gives a critical account of fundamental movements offering a religion-based solution to every problem. Seven chapters in the third part of this treatise have been devoted to Islamic culture and civilisation. It starts with a deconstructive dialogue with Edward Said's orientalism. Said's critique based on Michel Foucault's discourse analysis Orientalism as a culturally specific system of power. Muslim intellectuals are conscious of their cultural identity but are not inclined to accept anything in the name of Islamic heritage. They feel that culture, tradition and modernisation must be in sync with each other. The mullah, imam and preacher are frequent targets of criticism. The main accusations are hypocrisy, greed, support for the rich and powerful and denial of justice to the poor and the oppressed, all under the garb of religion. Affinity for certain colours, conventions, symbols and objects is a part of Islamic art and culture. Preference for the green and blue colour, avoidance of living creatures as motifs and calligraphic experiments with Arabic script are examples of the same. Islamic art has followed and emulated western art movements accompanied by an effort to give a feel of Islamic identity to these. Islamic art and architecture has characteristic imprint of motifs related to tents, desert, oasis, water, vegetation, shade, camels, life and social structure. Detailed notes, bibliography, name index, subject index and geographical index running into some 250 pages enhance the book's usefulness.
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The
second part carries 12 scholarly contributions, which investigate the
complex intervention of Islam in the social, political and economic
systems of the world. The challenge for Islam is to strike a
harmonious balance between Islamic social ethics and Islamic law. This
section gives us a peep into the Islamic financial sector, which
requires interest-free banking options and Shariat-compliant monetary
policy instruments both at theoretical and empirical levels.