R – Hybrid Learning

RISALE-I NUR

Batoota — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 16:49:14 +0000

The Risale-i Nur Collection is a tafsir (Islamic exegesis) on the Qur’an written by Bediuzzaman Said Nursi between the 1910s and 1950s in Turkey. The commentary does not keep to the order of the ayah as is done in classic Islamic exegesis, as it makes comments on their meanings. It is rather a thematic tafsir which deals with the doubts surrounding the basic doctrines and principles of Islam. The collection includes fourteen books.
The primary purpose of the Risale-i Nur is to bring about a religious revival in Turkey.
The collection includes an analysis of Islamic sources and a reinterpretation of the text for the “mentality” of Said Nursi’s age. However, it isn’t solely an exegesis, as it includes reflections and details about Said Nursi’s own life and interpretations. These reflections and details help the reader to learn how to practice everyday activities on Qur’an norms, and “install” Qur’an to a person’s alternating life situations and emotions.
MORE on Wikipedia
see Nurculuk

RIBA

Batoota — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 15:16:36 +0000

Dealing with interest is a major sin in Islam

Riba is a concept in Islamic banking that refers to charged interest. It is forbidden under Sharia, Islamic religious law, because it is thought to be exploitive. Depending on the interpretation, riba may only refer to excessive interest; however to others, the whole concept of interest is riba, and thus is unlawful.

While Muslims agree that riba is prohibited, not all agree on what it is, or whether it should be punished by humans. It is often used as an Islamic term for interest charged on loans, and this belief—that there is a consensus among Muslims that interest is riba—is the basis of a $2 trillion Islamic banking industry. However, not all scholars equated riba with all forms of interest, and among those who do there is also disagreement over whether it is a major sin and against sharia (Islamic law), or simply discouraged (makruh).
In addition to the unjust gains made from repayment of a loan—the full name of which is riba an-nasiya—most Islamic jurists believe there is another type of riba, riba al-fadl: the simultaneous exchange of unequal quantities or qualities of a given commodity.
More on Wikipedia

RESURRECTION

Batoota — Sun, 16 Jul 2017 15:35:13 +0000

RESURRECTION. See Eschatology; Afterlife.

REPENTANCE

Batoota — Sun, 16 Jul 2017 02:32:41 +0000

REPENTANCE. The Arabic term tawbah literally means “return.” When used with reference to humans it means the individual’s return to God after falling into sin or error; when used with reference to God, it means that divinity has turned to the penitent with compassion.

Repentance is an informal act in Islam and does not require atonement or ecclesiastical confession. The most comprehensive expression of repentance is essentially a moral one. The penitent should be convinced that a sin did occur, show remorse, and resolve to abstain in the future. If the sin committed involves the violation of a fellow human being’s rights, then restitution is a precondition to repentance. If it does not infringe on others’ rights but involves an offense against God, then penitence, remorse, and a resolution to abstain are sufficient.
Classical scholars saw sin and repentance as related to the individual; in modern writings there is a notable shift in emphasis relating these to questions of morality and social reform. This trend is noticeable in the writings of the nineteenth-century reformers and culminates with their recent revivalist successors.
The Egyptian reformer Muhammad `Abduh (18491905) and his disciple Muhammad Rashid Rida (18651935) stress the dimension of public acknowledgment of sin as a vital part of the act of repentance. This stems from the Qur’an, surah a. 160, where the accent is on repentance, making amends, and acknowledging the truth by disavowing sin and error. However, the same verse concludes with the statement, “And I am the most Forgiving and the Dispenser of grace,” in which God personalizes repentance. Reformist scholars understood repentance to be society’s moral crusade against evil. Failing to repent means being an accomplice to wrong. The notion of repentance was harnessed as part of the project of social reform. While individual repentance was not rejected, it became subordinate to broader social concerns.
In the writings of revivalist leaders like Abu al-A’la Mawdudi (1904-1979) and Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), the notion of repentance as social reform takes on another guise. According to their analysis, societies have fallen into a state of modern “barbarity” that can only be remedied by the implementation of the Islamic penal code. Repentance both individual and social takes place after the expiation of the sin by the law. Contrast this to the traditional view of al-Shafi’i (d. 819) that a penal sanction (#add) lapses if it is preceded by an act of repentance. This is also the view espoused by most modernist scholars.
Contemporary revivalist and even modernist discourses on repentance are polemical and consistently oppose Christian doctrine of original sin. Individual repentance is posited as the antithesis of the crucifixion and its accompanying salvation. While these polemics are primarily directed at Christianity, they indirectly serve as a puritan countermeasure to certain strains of popular Islam in which salvation through the intercession of saints features prominently. The subtle influence of doctrines of salvation in cultures that coexist with Islam is clearly distinguishable in the notion of repentance. Both Mawdudi and Qutb present repentance as a doctrine of hope and describe the Christian doctrine of original sin as a doctrine of despair.
Reformist and revivalist expressions of Islam maintain that genuine repentance means a renewed commitment to the faith followed by sincere and virtuous deeds. Traditionalists part company from the other expressions of Islam by arguing that faith alone can lead to salvation after expurgatory punishment has been suffered. According to this belief, a nominal believer will not suffer perpetual damnation. Other schools of thought contend that faith and action together constitute an acceptable definition of Islamic belief.
Twentieth-century writers on repentance also derive explanations from psychology and sociology. Sayyid Qutb, commenting on surah 25.70 regarding the one who “repents, attains to faith and does righteous deeds, God will change the evil of such persons into good,” says that by a process of “positive substitution” sinful impulses are replaced by virtuous ones. Others view the Qur’anic concept of tawbah not as repentance from singular identifiable violations, but rather as the transformation of personality. This resembles the Sufi attitude toward repentance, in which the term denotes spiritual conversion. Whereas traditionalists insist on the confession of sin and the declaration of the truth as a precondition for repentance, modernists following the Sufi tradition emphasize a change in personality as the goal of repentance. In Sufism any recollection of sin or thought of remorse is wrong; for to remember sin is to forget God and a cardinal sin. The Qur’an constantly exhorts believers to return to God, and the prophet Muhammad is said to have sought God’s forgiveness several times a day.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Denny, Frederick Mathewson. “The Qur’anic Vocabulary of Repentance: Orientations and Attitudes.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 47, Supplement (December 1979).
Maududi, Sayyid Abu al-A’la. The Meaning of the Qur’an. Lahore, 1978.
Muhammad Shafi`. Ma’arif al-Qur’an (Urdu). Karachi, 1969. Nicholson, Reynold A. “Tawba.” In First Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. 7, p. 704. Leiden, 1913-.
Qutb, Sayyid. Ft Zildl al-Qur’an Cairo and Beirut, 1981. Rashid Rida, Muhammad. Tafsir al-Mandr. Beirut, n.d.
EBRAHIM MOOSA

REGIONAL ISLAMIC DA`WAH COUNCIL OF SOUTHEAST ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Batoota — Fri, 14 Jul 2017 17:40:46 +0000

REGIONAL ISLAMIC DA`WAH COUNCIL OF SOUTHEAST ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

The nongovernmental nonprofit organization RISEAP, as its name indicates, operates in Southeast Asia and the Pacific region. Formed in 1980-. RISEAP was established in response to a need to bring together Muslims in the area and to coordinate their Islamic da’wah (missionary) activities. While the Mecca-based Rabitat al-Alam al-Islam! (Muslim World League) addressed the general welfare of Muslims worldwide, the new organization was intended to concentrate on this particular part of the world.
Malaysia, through the work of its ex-premier Tunku Abdul Rahman and the Malaysian Muslim Welfare Organization (PERKIM), was largely responsible for the establishment of RISEAP, although the Rabitat also had a hand in its formation. RISEAP’s headquarters are in
Kuala Lumpur, and the organization has been funded mainly by the host country and Saudi Arabia. RISEAP’s central concern is to forge links among the various voluntary Islamic organizations in the spirit of muaakhat (brotherhood) and to coordinate their policies and actions for the betterment of Muslims in the region. Its responsibilities include supervising da`wah activities, training individuals for Islamic social work, and providing experts to teach Islam. In its efforts to promote international Islamic cooperation, the organization gives special attention to the establishment of mosques and Islamic centers, the publication and distribution of Islamic literature, and related activities.
The 1980s. saw RISEAP actively catering to the needs of Muslims who live in segregated areas or as isolated communities. RISEAP’s objectives, which are cast in broad terms, appeal to national governments in its region, or at least are not in conflict with government interests; this partly explains RISEAP’s success. Over the years it has held da’wah training courses in such countries as Fiji, Australia, Thailand, and Japan. Under its auspices ustadhs or Islamic teachers work in remote regions such as the Solomon Islands to propagate the Muslim faith, or visit distant areas such as Yunnan in the People’s Republic of China to establish contact with Muslim communities there, RISEAP’s Department of Information and Welfare, which publishes the quarterly journal Al-nahdah, has undertaken to translate Islamic books, mainly for use by Muslim children. Although RISEAP concentrates on translating these works into Malay, English, Japanese, and Chinese, it has also set its sights on speakers of Korean, Thai, and Tagalog. One notable achievement was the production of a fiftyminute documentary film called “The Book of Signs,” which attempts to explain modern science from the Qur’anic perspective; based on the work of Dr. Maurice Buccaille, a French scientist, it was widely acclaimed.
Muslim minorities are also a focus of RISEAP’s attention. They are part of an evolving Islamic presence that includes new converts to the faith. In this connection RISEAP has assisted them by providing prayer leaders (imams), religious teachers, and advisors, and by securing places for their children in universities abroad. The Muslim minorities of Papua New Guinea and Tonga are among the beneficiaries of this program. RISEAP has also been instrumental in arranging pilgrimages to Mecca from places such as Fiji, Hong Kong, and Japan. Since 1981 the Malaysian Pilgrims Management and Fund Board (Tabung Haji) has assisted RISEAP by making its facilities available to these potential pilgrims. In 1986 RISEAP established its Women’s Movement, further augmenting its da’wah base. Convinced that the Muslim woman has an equally important role to play in the development of the ummah of the Southeast Asian and Pacific region, the organization’s first president, Tunku Abdul Rahman, envisaged that through the participation of women much could be done to alleviate the suffering of Muslims, particularly of Muslim women themselves. Although the Women’s Movement is guided by the same overall objectives subscribed to by the parent organization, it pays special attention to families, the upbringing of children, and the general welfare of Muslims. Its main concern is with Muslim families in areas where Muslims constitute a minority and find it difficult to cope because of differences in lifestyle, eating habits, and clothing. RISEAP’s role is to help these Muslims emphasize the Islamic basis of life, to facilitate their observance of religious rituals and customs, and to create a hospitable environment for them.
Despite its regional focus, RISEAP has not been insensitive to the problems faced by Muslims in other parts of the world. It has been vociferous in articulating concern over the plight of suffering Muslims whenever possible. This dimension of RISEAP was clearly evident when it called upon other countries to overcome problems faced by Muslims in the former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Albania. For Al-nahdah has been highlighting the struggle of Muslims all over the world in its attempt to stir Islamic consciousness among its readers. The recent appearance of the RISEAP Newsletter has further bolstered the image of the organization.
In 1988, RISEAP elected a new president, Haji Taib Mahmud. By then RISEAP had grown in strength: the Islamic Association de Macao, the Western Samoan Muslim League, and Pembina Imam Tauhid Islam of Indonesia were admitted as full members, while the Centre of Islamic Studies of Sri Lanka became a new associate member. Overtures have been made to bring the Chinese Muslim Association of the People’s Republic of China into the fold. In 1990. a RISEAP General Assembly was held for the first time outside Malaysia, when members met in Sydney, Australia, for their biennial conference. The gathering was hosted by the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils. The meeting also saw RISEAP taking up the cause of the Sri Lankan Muslims who were facing persecution at the hands of Tamil separatists. By 1992 RISEAP’s membership had risen to fifty groups.
The RISEAP-PERKIM linkage has always been strong, and it was through the latter’s influence and material help that RISEAP was able to make its presence felt during its early years. Financial support from many Muslim countries enabled RISEAP to operate. In addition to Saudi Arabia, Libya also has been generous in giving aid. Working funds have also been obtained from contributions made by Islamic associations.
RISEAP’s achievement in the field of transnational da’wah has primarily been due to its being a nonpolitical body championing the cause of voluntary Islamic organizations. Its particular brand of Islamic evangelism has struck an accommodation with many Muslim governments. RISEAP’s First General Assembly was attended by representatives from about sixty Islamic organizations from sixteen different countries and territories of the Southeast Asian and Pacific region. Throughout its existence it has dealt with issues that invoke the loyalty of Muslims of all political shades. What has resulted is therefore at least a semblance of mutual cooperation among the countries and territories involved.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ilias Hj. Zaidi. “Muktamar DakwaH Islamiyyah Serantau Bermula Di Kuala Lumpur Hari Ini.” Utusan Melayu, II Januari 1980. Al-nahdah (a quarterly journal of the RISEAP). See vol. 6, no. 3 (1986); vol. 8, nos. 3-4 (1988); and vol. to, nos. 3-4 (1990). RISEAP Newsletter, vol. t, nos. 1-2 (1992).
Wahba. “Dakwah Di Asia Tenggara Akan Lebih Teratur.” Utusan Zaman, 20 Januari 1980.
MOHAMAD ABU BAKAR

REFORM

Batoota — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 15:38:56 +0000

Reform (Latin: reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill’s Association movement which identified “Parliamentary Reform” as its primary aim.
Reform is generally distinguished from revolution. The latter means basic or radical change; whereas reform may be no more than fine tuning, or at most redressing serious wrongs without altering the fundamentals of the system. Reform seeks to improve the system as it stands, never to overthrow it wholesale. Radicals on the other hand, seek to improve the system, but try to overthrow whether it be the government or a group of people themselves.
Rotation in office or term limits would, by contrast, be more revolutionary, in altering basic political connections between incumbents and constituents.
Developing countries may carry out a wide range of reforms to improve their living standards, often with support from international financial institutions and aid agencies. This can include reforms to macroeconomic policy, the civil service, and public financial management.
Religious Reforms are performed in religions and churches.
See Islah

REFERENCE BOOKS

Batoota — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 18:30:20 +0000

REFERENCE BOOKS. Islamic civilization has always attached the greatest importance to the written word, and to books as vital sources of knowledge and guidance.

But systematic access to this knowledge requires not just texts for reading, but also works which can be consulted for answers to specific questions and guidance to relevant material elsewhere. Such reference works were developed on an unprecedented scale in the classical periods of Muslim civilization, and the tradition has continued into modern times. The development of Islamic studies in the West, by Orientalists and others, has also led to the creation of research tools for scholarly reference; some have been adopted or adapted by Muslim scholars or have inspired the further development of reference materials.
Scripture, Traditions, and Law. The first and most important work of reference in Islam is of course the Qur’an itself. The widespread practice of memorizing the text has traditionally enabled relevant passages to be cited by scholars and others in any given situation. In recent times, however, the relative decline of this practice has necessitated other means of access, and concordances and glossaries of Qur’anic words and phrases have appeared. One of the earliest was Nujum al -furqan by Mustafa ibn Muhammad Said, compiled in Mughal India, first published in Calcutta in 1811, and reprinted several times in the nineteenth century, despite its errors and omissions. In 1842 the German Orientalist Gustav Fluegel published his own famous concordance under the same Arabic title, more commonly known as Concordantiae Corani Arabicae (Leipzig, 1842; reprinted several times, most recently in Lahore, 1978). This has remained a standard rapid reference tool. The Arabic words are arranged under their root letters, with references to surah and verse numbers; however, it lacks contextual quotations, a deficiency made good by later compilations. Notable among the latter is Muhammad Fu’ad `Abd al-Baqi’s Al-mu`jam al-mufahras li-alfaz alQur’an. al -Karim (Cairo, 1945 reprint, 1987), which is probably now the most widely used of the monoglot Arabic concordances; unlike Fluegel, it refers to the standard Egyptian recension of the text. Arranged on somewhat different principles is Mahmud Ruhani’s Almu’jam al-ihsa’i li-alfdz al-Qur’dn al-Karim (A Statistical Dictionary of Qur’anic Words, 3 vols., Mashhad, 19871990), which includes separate indexes for the Meccan and Medinan surahs, with word frequency counts, and is arranged in alphabetical order of the forms in the text, rather than by root letters.
The need of millions of non-Arabs for access to the Qur’anic text has given rise to the compilation of concordances and indexes in foreign languages, both Muslim and non-Muslim. In Urdu, for instance, there is Mazhar al-Din Multani’s Miftdh al-Qur’an (Lahore, 197o), and in Indonesian, Nazwar Syamsu’s Dictionary al-Qur’an (Jakarta, 1977). For English readers, Altaf Ahmad Kherie’s A Key to the Holy Quran: Index-cumConcordance (Karachi, 1974-) is thematically arranged and refers to the edition and translation of Abdullah Yusuf Ali; in Hanna E. Kassis’s A Concordance of the Qur’dn (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1983) the Arabic words are given in romanization, arranged by roots, with English meanings, followed by references to and contextual quotations from Arberry’s English translation, and alphabetical indexes of English terms at the end. In Arabic, English, and Urdu is Ahmad Shah’s Miftah-ul-Quran (Benares, 1906, 2 vols.; recently reprinted in Lahore, n.d.).
Many readers of the Qur’an also need dictionaries and glossaries to enable them to understand certain words. In Arabic there is the important Mu`jam alfaz al-Quran al -Karim (Cairo, 1953-1970 2 vols.), prepared by the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo: this gives all the words, arranged by roots, with both definitions and contextual quotations. Most other Arabic glossaries have concentrated on difficult, unusual, or foreign vocabulary. English-speaking readers can consult John Penrice’s A Dictionary and Glossary of the Kor-dn (London, 1873; reprinted several times, most recently in Delhi, 1987), as well as the second part of Ahmad Shah’s Miftah-ul-Quran, mentioned above. More extended didactic treatment of selected words and phrases is given in two recent English-language compilations: Mustansir Mir’s Dictionary of Qur’dnic Terms and Concepts (New York, 1987) and Faruq Sherif’s A Guide to the Contents of the Qur’an (London, 1985).
The great works of exegesis (tafsir) are traditionally regarded as essential to an understanding of the Qur’an. There is also a concordance to the Qur’anic verses as they appear in two of the greatest of these commentaries: Daud Rahbar’s Indices to the Verses of the Quran in the Commentaries of al-Tabari and al-Razi (Hartford, 1962).
Concordances as such may eventually be rendered redundant by the development of electronic handling of the Qur’anic text. The Islamic School in Cleveland, Ohio, provides the complete text on-line, accessible via the main networks, and there are several other such projects underway both in the Muslim world and elsewhere. They can provide the facility, either by on-line database or on disks, to search for any word or group of words, which can then be located in their contexts.
This can apply equally to the Arabic text and to translations. An English version of the Qur’an with subject indexes has been published on CD-ROM in Faisalabad, Pakistan.
The other great canonical source of authority for Muslims, after the Qur’an, is the hadith, or record of sayings and deeds of the Prophet. The vital need for concordances and indexes to this large body of texts was met in earlier times by a number of compilations; the modern reader is most likely to turn to Arent Jan Wensinck’s Al-mu`jam al-mufahras li-alfaz al-hadith alnabawi/Concordance et indices de la tradition musulmane (Leiden, 1936-1988, 8 vols.; reprint, Leiden, 1992) and the same author’s more abbreviated English manual, A Handbook of Early Muhammadan Tradition, Alphabetically Arranged (Leiden, 1927; Arabic version, Miftdh kunuz al-sunnah, Cairo, 1934). An elaborate set of indexes to these works is provided by Muhammad Fu’ad `Abd al-Baqi in his Taysir al-manfa`ah (Cairo, 1935-1939 8 vols.). The four great Shi’i collections are indexed in Muhammad al-Mahdi al-Kazimi’s Miftdh al-kutub alarba’ah (Najaf, 1967). The famous compilation of sayings of Imam `All, especially important for Shi’is, has likewise been provided with a concordance: Muhammad Dashti’s Al-mu`jam al-mufahras li-alfaz Nahj alBaldghah (Beirut, 1986, 146o pp.). There are also computerized databases for hadith, both on disk and on-line. For the literature of sirah, or biographies of the Prophet, there is now a multivolume compendium in English: Muhammad: Encyclopaedia of Seerah, edited by Afzalur Rahman (London, 1981-).
The great traditional codifications of the Islamic law, the shari `ah, based on Qur’an and sunnah, are in a sense themselves reference works, but modern Muslims and others needing practical guidance on Islamic legal matters often require easier access. In Arabic there is the great Egyptian encyclopedia of jurisprudence, Mawsu’at (Jamal `Abd al-Nasir) ft al filth al-Islami (Cairo, 1966-), which is alphabetically arranged. In English there are smaller handbooks of personal and family law: David Pearl’s A Textbook on Muslim Personal Law (2d ed., London, 1987) and Keith Hodkinson’s Muslim Family Law: A Sourcebook (London, 1984), as well as a compendium of specifically Qur’anic laws-Muhammad Valibhai Merchant’s A Book of Quranic Laws: An Exhaustive Treatise with Full Quranic Texts (Delhi, 1981). A useful reference guide to the sources of ShN law is Hossein Modarressi Tabataba’i’s An Introduction to Shi i Law: A Bibliographical Study (London, 1984).
Biographical Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and Historical Tables. The systematic compilation of biographical dictionaries for reference is a long-established practice among Muslims, and the tradition has continued into modern times. Good examples are Khayr al-Din alZirikli’s Al-a’lam (3d ed., Beirut, c. 1970, 11 vols. in 13) and Zaki Muhammad Mujahid’s Al-a`lam alsharqiyah ft al-mi’ah al-rabi’ah `asharah al-hijriyah (Cairo, 1949-1963 4 vols.). In English there is Yaacov Shimoni’s Biographical Dictionary of the Middle East (Jerusalem and New York, 1991), which contains about five hundred biographies of present and recent personalities, mostly rulers and politicians. These are also covered in Political Leaders of the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa: A Biographical Dictionary, edited by Bernard Reich (New York, 1990). For Iran there is a major biographical dictionary covering the last three centuries, Mahdi Bamdad’s Sharh-i hdl-i rijal-i Iran dar Barn-i 12 va 13 va 14-i hijri (2d ed., Tehran, 1978-1979 6 vols.).
There also exist a great many biographical dictionaries, classical and modern, of specific categories of Muslims. Special mention must be made of the favorite category, authors and intellectuals, of whom there are some notable modern bio-bibliographical dictionaries, such as Mehmed Tahir Bursah’s (d. 1926) Osmanli muellifleri (Istanbul, 1915-1924, 3 vols.; reprint, Farnborough, 1971, and on microfiche, Chicago, 1973; modern Turkish ed., Istanbul, 19[71?]-1975) for Ottoman Turkish authors, and `Umar Rida Kahhalah’s Mu`jam almu’allifin (Damascus, 1957-196i, 15 vols.) for Arab ones. An index to the Arabic works in this field is provided by Khaldun al-Wahhabi’s Maraji` tardjim aludaba’ al-‘Arab (Baghdad and Najaf, 1956-1962, 4 vols.). Shi`i authors can be found in Ahmad al-Najashi’s Fihrist asmd musannift al-Shi` `ah, (Qom, 1978), and a wider biographical dictionary of Shi`is is the massive A’yan al-Shi `ah, (Beirut, 1951-1960, 7 vols.) by Muhsin `Abd al-Karlm Amin. A related field is the study of Arabic/Muslim names, of which a noteworthy dictionary and encyclopedia is Mawsu’at al-Sultan Qabus li-Asmd’ al-‘Arab/Sultan Qaboos Encyclopedia of Arab names (Muscat and Beirut, 1991, 8 vols.); there is also an international project for a computerized database of Arabic onomastics and prosopography called Onomasticon Arabicum, coordinated at the Institut de Recherches et Histoire des Textes in Paris.
Much biographical information is also to be found in general encyclopedias of Islamic history and civilization, of which a number are now available. The genre originates in the classical Islamic period, but in modern times the initiative was taken by European Orientalists, who in 1908 launched the Encyclopaedia of Islam (Leiden/London, 1908-1938, 5 vols. including Supplement; reprinted, Leiden, 1987; also published in French and German editions). This is a detailed scholarly reference work on all aspects of Islamic religion, history, thought, and civilization, but it inevitably reflects the non-Muslim, European style of scholarship of the period. In the 1950s a new edition was started (first fasc., Leiden, 1954-), on a much larger scale, which is still in progress: this now includes some contributions by Muslim scholars, written from a Muslim standpoint, but the overall editorial policy is still rooted in the Western Orientalist tradition. Nevertheless, several major encyclopedias prepared and published in the Muslim world are translations or adaptations of it: in Arabic, the Dd’irat al-ma’arif al-Islamiyah (Cairo, 1933; reprint, 1969, 16 vols.) and Ahmad `Atiyat Allah’s Al-qamus alIslami (Cairo, 1963-1979, 5 vols.); in Turkish, the Islam ansiklopedisi (Istanbul, 1940-1988, 13 vols.); and in Urdu, the Urdu dd’irah-i ma’arif-i Islamiyah (Lahore, 1959-, in progress).
In the late twentieth century new initiatives have been launched in Muslim countries to prepare original largescale encyclopedias by and for Muslims. In Iran an institute was established in 1983 to compile and edit such a work in Persian; ten years later it had a staff of about two hundred and had produced the first five volumes of the Dd’irat al-ma’arif–i buzurg-i Islami/The Great Islamic Encyclopaedia (Tehran, 1989-, in progress), which will eventually be completed in about forty volumes. In 1991 the first volume of an Arabic edition appeared (Dd’irat al-ma’arif al-Islamiyah al-kubrd, Tehran 1991-, in progress), and an English version is being prepared at the University of Cambridge. A similar enterprise in Turkey is the Turkiye Diyanet Vakfi Islam ansiklopedisi (not to be confused with the Islam ansiklopedisi mentioned above), which likewise is based in a well-resourced research institute; its first volume was published in 1988, thirty volumes are envisaged, and an English version may eventually appear. These two encyclopedias, unlike the Encyclopaedia of Islam and its derivatives, have been written from the outset from Islamic standpoints (Shi’i and Sunni respectively), but great care has been taken in both cases to ensure that they embody careful research and high scholarly standards.
As well as these large-scale works, there have also been a number of encyclopedias on a smaller scale, usually devoted to one or more aspects of Islamic studies. The Shorter Enyclopaedia of Islam (edited by H. A. R. Gibb and J. H. Kramers, Leiden, 1953, reprinted 1991) contains articles from the first edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam on religious and legal subjects; these are likewise the main themes of Cyril Glasse’s The Concise Encyclopaedia of Islam (London, 1989), although this does also contain some historical and geographical entries. Even more concise is I. R. Netton’s A Popular Dictionary of Islam (London, 1992), a scholarly quickreference source covering a wide range of Islamic (mostly Arabic) terms and names. For the modern Middle East there are a number of encyclopedias covering recent history, politics, and current affairs, such as Mehdi Heravi’s Concise Encyclopaedia of the Middle East (Washington, 1973) and An A to Z of the Middle East (London, 1990. by Alain Gresh and Dominique Vidal.
Particular Muslim peoples are also covered in some large-scale encyclopedias, notably the Encyclopaedia Iranica (edited by Ehsan Yarshater, London, 1982-, in progress), L’Encyclopedie berbere (Aix-en-Provence, 1984-, in progress), and Turk ansiklopedisi (Ankara, 1946-, in progress). For the Arab world, there is the Concise Encyclopaedia of Arabic Civilization (Amsterdam, 1959-1966, 2 vols.) by Stefan and Nandy Ronart, with the emphasis on history.
Useful for historical reference are tables of Muslim dynasties such as the classic and indispensable work of Eduard de Zambaur, Manuel de ginialogie et de chronologie pour l’histoire de [‘Islam (Hanover, 1927, 2 vols.; reprinted, Osnabriick, 1976; Arabic version, Mu`jam alansab wa-al-usarat al-hdkimah ft al-tarikh al-Islami, Cairo, 1951, 2 vols.); a more handy modern guide is C. E. Bosworth’s The Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Handbook (rev. ed., Edinburgh, 198o). Equivalent dates in the AH and CE calendars are supplied by a number of published tables, of which the most popular and convenient is probably G. S. P. FreemanGrenville’s The Muslim and Christian Calendars (2d ed., London, 1977). Computer programs for calculating dates and prayer times are also available on-line from the American Arab Scientific Society (AMASS) Software Library in Boston, Massachusetts.
Atlases, Gazetteers, Directories, and Surveys. Most atlases of the Muslim world concentrate on historical aspects. Well-known examples are the Historical Atlas of the Muslim Peoples (Amsterdam, 1957) by Roelof Roolvink and others, and W. C. Brice’s An Historical Atlas of Islam (Leiden, 1981); also, in Arabic, Husayn Mu’nis, Atlas tdrikh al-Islam/Atlas of the History of Islam (Cairo, 1987). There are also cultural “atlases”-in fact mainly pictorial essays-covering both history and the modern scene: Francis Robinson’s Atlas of the Islamic World since 1500 (Oxford, 1982) and Isma’il R. alFaruqi and Lois Lamya’ al-Faruqi’s The Cultural Atlas of Islam (New York, 1986). An atlas of the modern Islamist movement is Atlas mondial de [‘Islam activiste (edited by Xavier Raufer et al., Paris, 1991). But most of those covering the geography and economics of the modern Muslim world are confined to certain regions, particularly the Middle East, for example, The Cambridge Atlas of the Middle East and North Africa (Cambridge, 1987) and Atlas of the Middle East (edited by Moshe Brawer, New York and London, 1988). This is true also of a massive German project, the Tubinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients (Tiibingen, 1972-, in progress), which includes not only detailed maps but also major historical, toponymic, and geographical studies.
There are numerous directories and surveys of the modern Muslim world or parts of it. Especially noteworthy is Muslim Peoples: A World Ethnographic Survey (edited by R. V. Weekes, 2d ed., revised and expanded, Westport, 1984, 2 vols.). Academic and other educational institutions, libraries, museums, and so on in each country are listed in the International Directory of Islamic Cultural Institutions/Al-dalil al-duwalf lilmu’assassat al-thaqafiyah al-Islamiyah (revised and enlarged ed. by Acar Tanlak and Ahmed Lajimi, Istanbul, 1989); international organizations can be found in Arab and Islamic International Organization Directory (Munich, 1984). For economic and financial information, useful works include J. R. Presley’s Directory of Islamic Financial Institutions (London, 1988) and Economie du monde arabe et musulman (4th ed., Cachan, 1992), and for the Middle East only, the Middle East Economic Handbook (London, 1986), Major Companies of the Arab World and Iran (London, 1976-, periodic) and the MEED Middle East Financial Directory (annual, London, 1976-1990). There is even an Islamic Transport Directory (Colchester, 1987).
The annual Europa surveys and directories of the Middle East and North Africa (London, 1948-) and the Far East and Australasia (London, 1969-, including Muslim countries of South and Southeast Asia) provide much current information on those regions. There is also a useful Middle East Studies Handbook by Jere L. Bacharach (new ed., Seattle and Cambridge, 1984), and The Middle East: A Political Dictionary by Lawrence Ziring (new ed., Santa Barbara and Oxford, 1992). More specialized, but of great importance for modern Muslims, is Ziauddin Sardar’s Science and Technology in the Middle East: A Guide to Issues, Organizations and Institutions (London, 1982).
Language Dictionaries and Reference Grammars. Arabic lexicography has a venerable history, and the many great classical dictionaries cannot be enumerated here. The one most used by modern Arabs and Muslims is probably Ibn Manzur’s Lisan al-‘Arab (new ed., Beirut, 1968, 65 parts in 15 vols.); an abridged and modernized version commissioned by a number of academies and universities has been published under the title Lisdn al-‘Arab al-muhit (Beirut, 1970, 3 vols.). Another popular modern monoglot dictionary is Al-munjid (25th ed., Beirut, 1975). The classic Arabic-English dictionary is E. W. Lane’s Arabic-English Lexicon/Madd alqamus (London, 1863-1893, 8 vols.; reprint, Beirut, 1968, and, in 2 vols., Cambridge, 1984), continued by Worterbuch der klassischen arabischen Sprache (ArabicGerman-English, Wiesbaden, 1970-, in progress); the standard modern work is Hans Wehr’s A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (edited by J. Milton Cowan, 4th ed., Wiesbaden, 1979). For Persian, the monumental monoglot Lughat’namah by `Al! Akbar Dihkhuda (Tehran, 1946-1981, about 26o parts; reproduced on microfiche, University of Chicago Library) must be mentioned, and there are also a number of bilingual dictionaries, as there are for most other Muslim languages.
Glossaries of Islamic terminology are provided by Syed Ali Ashraf’s A Glossary of Islamic Terms (Cambridge, Islamic Academy, 1985), and on a larger scale, A Glossary of Islamic Terminology by Bassam Sulaiman Abughosh and Waffa Zaki Shaqra (London, 1992). There is also a good English-language dictionary of proverbs-A Dictionary of Arabic and Islamic Proverbs by Paul Lunde and John Wintle (London, 1984).
There are many Arabic reference grammars, both classical and modern. For Anglophone students the best is probably William Wright’s A Grammar of the Arabic Language (3d ed., Cambridge, 1896-1898, 2 vols.; many reprints) for classical Arabic, and Vincente Cantarino’s Syntax of Modern Arabic Prose (Bloomington, 1974, 3 vols.) for the modern language. Other Muslim languages are generally less well served, but for Turkish there is Geoffrey Lewis’s Turkish Grammar (Oxford, 1967, reprint, 1985).
Bibliographies and Guides to the Literature. Islamic studies have been relatively well served by enumerative bibliographies, and only those of the highest importance can be mentioned here. Some bibliographies of the bibliographies are listed in the bibliography below.
A good basic guide to the most important material in most languages is Middle East and Islam: A Bibliographical Introduction (edited by Diana Grimwood-Jones, rev. ed., Zug, 1979; Supplement 1977-1983, edited by Paul Auchterlonie, Zug, 1986) although it is now in need of updating. For the great corpus of classical Arabic writings on all subjects, the fundamental work is still Carl Brockelmann’s Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (2d ed., Leiden, 1937-1949 5 vols. incl. Supplement; Arabic version, Tarikh al-adab al-`Arabi, Cairo, 1974-1977 6 vols.). A more recent and more comprehensive account of much of the earlier literature is Fuad Sezgin’s Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums (Leiden, 19671984, 9 vols.; Arabic version, Tarikh al-turath al-`Arabi, Cairo, 1977-, and Riyadh, 1983-). At a much more elementary level, the Anglophone reader in need of a judicious classified selection of major works can consult N. A. Baloch’s Great Books of Islamic Civilization (Islamabad, 1989). Shl’! literature is minutely enumerated in Arabic in the massive Al-dhari-`ah ild tasanif al-Shi `ah, by Muhammad Muhsin al-Tihrani (Najaf and Tehran, 1936-1978, 25 vols.). Printed editions of Arabic literature with biographies of the authors, up to the early twentieth century, are listed in Yusuf Aliyan Sarkis’s Mu’jam al-matbu’at al-`Arabiyah wa-al-mu’arrabah (Cairo, 1928-1931, 2 vols.; reprinted, Baghdad, 1965). Much modern Arabic literature can be traced in Yusuf As’ad Daghir’s Masadir al-dirdsat al-adabiyah (Sidon/ Beirut, 1950-1983, 4 vols. in 5.); English translations are enumerated in Margaret Anderson’s Arabic Materials in English Translation: A Bibliography of Works from the Pre-Islamic Period to 1977 (Boston, 198o). Arabic periodical articles are listed retrospectively in `Abd alJabbar `Abd al-Rahman’s Index Arabicus 1876-1984/ Kashshaf al-dawriyat al-`Arabiyah (Baghdad, 1989, 4 vols.) and currently in Al-kahshaf al-Islami (Nicosia, 1989, quarterly).
Classical Persian literature is recorded in C. A. Storey’s Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey (London, 1927-, in progress); a more general basic retrospective bibliography of Iranian studies is the Bibliographical Guide to Iran: The Middle East Library Committee Guide (edited by L. P. Elwell-Sutton, Brighton, 1983). Turkish literature is less well served, but there is a comprehensive annual current bibliography of Turkish studies, Turkologischer Anzeiger/Turkology Annual (Vienna, 1984-, as separate publication; previously in Wiener Zeitschrift fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes, 6775 1975-1983) Published Urdu literature is covered in Qamus al-kutub-i Urdu (Karachi, 1961-1975, 3 vols.).
For European-language studies of Islamic subjects there are a number of major bibliographies. The Index Islamicus (Cambridge and London, 1958-) has provided a register of articles published since 1906 and monographs since 1976; it continues as a current bibliography of books, articles, and reviews, and is published quarterly and annually in London. Another Index Islamicus volume (by W. H. Behn, Millersville, 1989) lists articles from 1665 to 1905. A useful bibliography of significant English-language publications on Islam as a religion and a civilization is David Ede’s Guide to Islam (Boston, 1983), and a current register of such material is the Index of Islamic Literature (Leicester, 1986-, quarterly). The very important contributions of German-language scholarship are recorded in the Bibliographie der deutschsprachigen Arabistik and Islamkunde von den Anfdngen bis 1986 by Fuat Sezgin and others (Frankfurt a.M., 19901993 , 18 vols. ).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
`Abd al-Rahman, `Abd al-Jabbar. Dald al-mardji` al-`Arabiyah wa-almu’arrabah: Fihrist bibliyughraft (Guide to Arabic Reference Books: An Annotated Bibliography). Basra, 1970. Arranged thematically. Amin, `Abd al-Karim, and Ibrahim Zahidah. Dahl al-mardji` al`Arabiyah. Baghdad, 1970. Another guide to Arabic reference works, thematically arranged.
Anees, Munawar Ahmad, and Alia N. Athar. Guide to Sira and Hadith Literature in Western Languages. London, 1986. Takes a rather negative view of the contributions of Orientalists.
Auchterlonie, Paul. Arabic Biographical Dictionaries: A Summary Guide and Bibliography. Durham, 1987. Includes a section on modern works.
Auchterlonie, Paul, ed. Introductory Guide to Middle Eastern and Islamic Bibliography. Oxford, 1990. Very useful annotated bibliography of the main bibliographies and reference works.
Besterman, Theodore. World Bibliography of African Bibliographies. Revised and updated by J. D. Pearson. Oxford and Totowa, N.J., 1975. Includes bibliographies covering North Africa and other Muslim areas.
Besterman, Theodore. World Bibliography of Oriental Bibliographies. Revised and updated by J. D. Pearson. Oxford and Totowa, N.J., 1975
Geddes, Charles L. Guide to Reference Books for Islamic Studies. Denver, 1985. The most comprehensive bibliography available, with extensive annotations and index, but marred by numerous inaccuracies and misreadings.
Ghali, Wajdi Rizq. AI-mu`jamat al-`Arabiyah: Bibliyujrafiyah shamilah mashrahah (Arabic Dictionaries: An Annotated Comprehensive Bibliography). Cairo, 1971. Supplement in Melanges de l’Institut Dominicain d’Etudes Orientales 12 (1974): 243-287. Thorough listing of 707 Arabic dictionaries: monoglot, diglot, and polyglot. Grimwood-Jones, Diana, et al., eds. Arab Islamic Bibliography: The Middle East Library Committee Guide. Hassocks, 1977. Important comprehensive listing of reference materials, but in need of updating. Includes sections on bibliographies; encyclopaedias and reference works; Arabic grammars; genealogy, biographical dictionaries, and who’s whos; the press and periodicals; maps and atlases; Arabic geographical names; Festschrifts and commemorative volumes; scientific expeditions; Orientalism and Orientalists; institutions; Arabic manuscripts; Arabic papyri; archives; Arabic epigraphy; Muslim numismatics; Arabic printing and book production; libraries; booksellers.
Haywood, John A. Arabic Lexicography: Its History, and Its Place in the General History of Lexicography. 2d ed. Leiden, 1965. Informative and readable account.
Hazai, Gyorgy, and Barbara Kellner-Heinkele. Bibliographisches Handbuch der Turkologie: Eine Bibliographie der Bibliographien vom 18. Jahrhundert bis 1979. Vol. 1. Budapest and Wiesbaden, 1986. Lacks index, which may eventually appear in a later volume. Covers all Turkish- and Turkic-speaking areas.
Meiseles, Gustav. Reference Literature to Arabic Studies: A Bibliographic Guide. Tel Aviv, 1978. Unannotated.
Pearson, James D. Oriental and Asian Bibliography: An Introduction with Some Reference to Africa. London, 1966. Valuable description of the main sources, but now rather dated.
Selim, George D. Arabic-English and English-Arabic Dictionaries in the Library of Congress. Washington, D.C., 1992.
Siddiqi, Muhammad Z. Hadith Literature: Its Origin, Development and Special Features. Edited and revised by Abdal Hakim Murad. Cambridge, 1993. Detailed account of the development of the main bodies of texts and reference works relating to them.
Siddiqui, Abdur Rashid. Islamic Studies: A Select Guide to Bibliographic and Reference Material. Leicester, 1979. Brief, annotated list of English-language material, for the benefit of Muslim readers. Strangelove, Michael. The Electronic Mystic’s Guide to the Internet: A Complete Bibliography of Networked Electronic Documents, Online Conferences, Serials, Software, and Archives Relevant to Religious Studies. On-line database, University of Ottawa, 1992. Contains details of various Islamic and Arabic reference materials available online (see volume i, chapter 12: “Islamic Studies”). A printed version of this chapter may be found in MELCOM International Newsletter 2 (1993) 7-16.
Tasbihi, Ghulam-Husayn. A Comprehensive Survey of Persian Bibliographies in the World/Nigarishi-i jami` bar jahan kitab-shinasi-ha-yi Iran. Tabriz, 1986.
Urdu men havale ki kitaben. Karachi, 1965. Classified bibliography of Urdu reference books.
Vesel, Ziva. Les encyclopedies persanes: Essai de typologie et de classification des sciences. Paris, 1986. Includes an introduction in Persian.

RAWZAH KHAWANI

Batoota — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 17:28:44 +0000

RAWZAH KHAWANI. One of the foremost characteristics of Shi`i Muslims is the veneration they express for the family of the Prophet and his martyred grandson, Imam Husayn. These expressions take various forms the most common of which are public mourning ceremonies such as the rawzah khvani (narrative accounts of the martyrdom of Imam Husayn), ta`ziyah (passion plays) and dastah (processions). The rawzah khvani, specifically, is the remembrance through recitations and chanting of the suffering and death of Imam Husayn and other Shi`i martyrs at the battle of Karbala on the tenth of Muharram (`Ashura’) in AH 61/680 CE, while fighting against the forces of Yazid whom the Shi’i consider an illegitimate, oppressive usurper of the caliphate.

These recitations are performed at various types of religious gatherings weekly throughout the year, especially on the anniversaries of the death dates of the Imams and other saintly figures such as Fatimah, the daughter of the Prophet and wife of ‘Ali, the first Imam. The rituals of lamentation reach their pinnacle of significance during the months of Muharram and Safar when gatherings are held in mosques, husayniyahs, and in the courtyards of the bazaar and private homes to express grief over a death seen not only as a tragic event in itself but as an act of self-sacrifice on behalf of justice and truth.
The name rawzah khvdni is derived from the title of the Rawdat al-shuhadd’ (Garden of Martyrs), the most comprehensive Shi’i martyrology of its time (1502 CE), although its author, Husayn-i Va`iz Kashifi, was a Sunni Muslim. This work and similar later ones, such as Jawhari’s Tufan al-bukd (Tempest of Tears) or the Asrar al-shahadah (Mysteries of Martyrdom) by Tabataba’i are part of a literary genre known as maqtal, a development from a broader genre of eulogizing (manaqib) and elegizing (marathi) poetry. These and still more recent works form the basis of the material used by the reciters (rawzah khvdn) in preparing their narrations.
The rawzah, as it is popularly known in Iran, varies in length from about two hours to sessions lasting through the night. The usual format begins with the reading of verses of the Qur’an followed by a sermon given by a preacher (vd’iz) who offers comments and advice on moral, religious, and social issues and/or the recitation of religious poetry by a panegyrist (maddah) who eulogizes the family of the Prophet and the Imams. The eulogy leads into the rawzah khvani proper, at the conclusion of which is the chanting of dirges (nawhah). Narrators are paid for their services and informally ranked on the basis of their rhetorical skills and the degree to which they can evoke intense emotional responses from their audiences. The rawzah khvan recounts explicit details of the agony and torment suffered by Imam Husayn and his followers, all the while emphasizing their human compassion, kindness, and love for their families. This elicits profuse weeping, cries of lamentation, and not uncommonly (especially among the lower classes) ecstatically induced rhythmic chest beating.
Many of the rawzah are sponsored in thankfulness to God for the fulfillment of a vow and to ensure further blessings since sponsoring or participating in such an event accrues religious merit (savab). Weeping for Imam Husayn, in particular, is believed to ensure his intercession on the Day of Judgment. Tears shed for the Imam are also believed to have curative powers and some individuals collect tears in small bottles that are used to cure various afflictions.
Women also sponsor and participate in gatherings where a rawzah is performed, often by a professional woman narrator. The most popular such occasion is known as a sufrah (a ritual meal held to express gratitude for the fulfillment of a vow) especially that dedicated to `Abbas (also known by his epithet Abu al-Fazl) who was also martyred at Karbala. The rawzah associated with this event focuses in detail on ‘Abbas’s sufferings on the battlefield; participants weep and beat their breasts in sympathy with his tribulations. In return for their pity and empathic compassion ‘Abbas is believed to act as an intercessor and mediator in the granting of wishes or responses to prayers.
With greater literacy and religious understanding, many of the practices associated with the rawzah are undergoing reevaluation by the lay public, and many are criticizing them as un-Islamic and “ignorant” customs. Some of these attitudes reflect the political position taken by Reza Shah (r. 1921-1941) in his ban on what he felt were religious anachronisms incompatible with a modern nation-state; but such attitudes are also an aspect of a reformist Islam that seeks to purify the faith of folk beliefs and practices.
All rituals, however, are polysemic and have many broader social, economic, or political implications. Despite criticism of such practices by the majority of the `ulama’, the rawzah has served them well over the centuries with its ability to evoke and maintain intense emotional passions often used to arouse mass opposition to tyrannical governments, repression, and injustice. Abu Muslim, who led the movement to overthrow the Umayyad dynasty in the eighth century, encouraged his followers by recounting the injustices suffered by Husayn and the family of the Prophet. In the period preceding the Iranian Revolution of 1979, religious gatherings (hay’at-1 mazhabi) were organized daily within the quarters of the city by neighborhood groups and associations or by the guilds within the bazaar. Although they were intended to fulfill various religious goals, they almost always ended in a rawzah khvdni, the not so latent message of which was opposition to the government. In fact, the ubiquity of rawzah khvani, gatherings was instrumental in arousing the populace against the Shah, leading to his downfall and the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The rawzah is thus a vitally important religious ritual embodying the very ethos of Shiism with its focus on tragedy, oppression, suffering, intercession and final redemption; themes which also lend themselves to multiple meanings. Comparable gatherings of lamentation and mourning are found in most Shi’i communities throughout the Muslim world. They have different names and differing sociopolitical functions depending on the local context. In Lebanon and Iraq, for example, it is known as a ta’ziyah majlis (literally “mourning gathering”) or dhikra; in Iraq women’s rawzah assemblies are referred to as qardyd; and among the Shi’is of India, Pakistan, and the Indo-Muslim diaspora it is known as majlis-i a’za or simply majlis.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ayoub, Mahmoud M. Redemptive Suffering in Islam: A Study of the Devotional Aspects of `Ashura’ in Twelver Shi `ism. The Hague, 1978. Important study of the theological and folk beliefs associated with Imam Husayn’s martyrdom.
Chelkowski, Peter. “Popular Shi’i Mourning Rituals.” Al-Serat 12.1 (1986): 209-226. Excellent article by one of the leading authorities on popular ShIN ritual practices.
Mahdjoub, Mohammad-Dja’far. “The Evolution of Popular Eulogy of the Imams among the Shi’a.” In Authority and Political Culture in Shi’ism, edited by Said Amir Arjomand, pp. 54-79. Albany, N.Y., 1988.
Neubauer, Eckhard. “Muharram-Brauche im heutigen Persien.” Der Islam 49 (1972): 249-272. Excellent overview of Shi’i mourning rituals in contemporary Iran.
Qureshi, Regula B. “Islamic Music in an Indian Environment: The Shi’a Majles.” Journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology 25.1 (1981): 41-71.
Thaiss, Gustav. “Religious Symbolism and Social Change: The Drama of Hussein.” In Scholars, Saints, and Sufis, edited by Nikki R. Keddie, pp. 349-366. Berkeley, 1972. Study of the organization of religious gatherings, especially those of the guilds, in modern Tehran, and their role in facilitating the Iranian Revolution of 1979
AZADARI

Rashid Rida

Batoota — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 15:32:36 +0000

RASHID RIDA, MUHAMMAD (23 September 1865 or 18 October 1865 –Egypt, 22 August 1935), Islamic revivalist and reformer. Muhammad Rashid Rida was born in a village near Tripoli, then Syria, to a family that claimed a line of descent from the prophet Muhammad.

After his early education in a traditional religious school, Rida attended an Islamic school established by an enlightened scholar, Shaykh Husayn al-Jisr (d. 1909), who believed that the way to the progress of the Muslim nation was through a synthesis of religious education and modern sciences. Rida thus acquired a thorough education in the doctrine and traditions of Islam and a fair knowledge of the natural sciences and languages (Turkish and French). He studied the works of al-Ghazali (d. IIII) and Ibn Taymiyah (d. 1328), which inspired him with the need to reform the declining conditions of Muslims and purify Islam from degenerate Sufi practices.
By the end of the nineteenth century, a broader movement of reform, the Salafiyah movement led by Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (d. 1897) and Muhammad `Abduh (d. 1905), was underway in Egypt. This movement, provoked by the stagnant and vulnerable conditions of the Muslims, sought to reinvigorate Islam; it stressed the need for the exercise of reason and the adoption of modern natural science, for agitation against tyranny and despotism and resistance to foreign domination, and the promotion of Muslim solidarity. The tenets of this movement were expounded in Al-`urwah al-wuthqa (The Indissoluble Bond), which al-Afghani and `Abduh published in Paris in 1884. Instilling new ideas such as freedom, independence, unity, and the rights of the ruled into the minds of its Muslim readers, Al-`uruwah made a deep impact on Rida; it broadened his idea of reform and brought him to a new stage in his intellectual life.
In 1897, Rida left for Egypt to join `Abduh and he soon became one of his close associates and leading disciples. In Cairo, Rida published his own magazine, Almandr (The Lighthouse), which first appeared in 1898 as a weekly and, subsequently, as a monthly until his death in 1935. The objectives of Al-manor were to articulate and disseminate the ideas of reform and preserve the unity of the Muslim nation. Rida was a prolific writer, producing more work than `Abduh and alAfghani. Besides editing most of the articles that appeared in Al-manor, he wrote several books on various Islamic issues.
Rida, as did `Abduh, believed in the compatibility of Islam and modernity. `Abduh emphasized ijtihad (independent judgment) in an effort to reinterpret Islamic doctrines and give Islam a new vitality, but Rida, faced with more ominous challenges, insisted on certain criterid for Islamic reform. Rida’s time witnessed the disintegration of the Islamic caliphate, the fragmentation of the Muslim world, and the ascendancy of the advocates of wholesale adoption of Western models, who tried to take `Abduh’s reinterpretations of Islamic doctrines to secular conclusions (probably contrary to his intentions).
Concerned with the unity of the Muslim community and the preservation of its identity and culture, Rida viewed the original Islamic sources, the Qur’an, sunnah, and ijma’ (consensus of the companions of the Prophet) as the basis of reform. Rida, however, distinguished between acts of worship (`ibadat) and matters concerning interaction with others (mu’amalat). Since the `ibadat organize human behavior, were revealed in the Qur’an, and were laid down by authentic hadith, they cannot be changed. But human relations, in the absence of an explicit, authentic, and binding text can be reinterpreted according to the interest (maslahah) of the community. Ijtihad can be exercised in light of achieving the common good of the Muslim community. By emphasizing maslahah and ijtihdd, Rida allowed room for human legislation.
Throughout his intellectual career, Rida was preoccupied with the issue of reform. He believed the decline of the Muslim nation was due to the stagnation of its scholars and the tyranny of its rulers. He viewed European dominance over the Muslims as a result of the Tatter’s weakness, which he attributed to the Muslims’ inability to master the sciences, form organized political institutions, and restrict the power of their governments. Considering education a precondition for political reform and independence, Rida urged the Muslim peoples to acquire the commendable aspects of Western civilization, such as science, technical skill, and wealth. His emphasis on education was manifested in his founding of the School of Propagation and Guidance in 1912; here Rida attempted to combine modern education with religious teachings.
Central to Rida’s scheme of thought was the concept of the caliphate and its indispensability to the coherence of the Muslim community. On the eve of the breakup of the Ottoman caliphate in 1923, Rida wrote a treatise, The Caliphate or the Supreme Imamate, which included an elaborate discussion of the caliphate and a plan for its restoration. Realizing the obstacles surrounding the revival of a proper Islamic caliphate of ijtihad, Rida proposed a caliphate of necessity, a temporary one, to preserve the solidarity of the Muslims. Essential to this caliphate were the issues of shura (consultation), ahl alhall wa-al-`aqd (“those who bind and loose”), and ijtihad to ensure the adaptability of Islamic laws and the sovereignty of the Muslim nation.
Rida’s ideas, particularly in the interwar period, gave an Arab emphasis to the Islamic reform movement. As a result of the repressive policies of the Turkish government in 1911, Rida held the non-Arab peoples, namely the Turks, responsible for the decline of the Muslim world. Glorifying the role of the Arabs in history, he placed them at the center of a revived Islamic state; Rida also participated in several parties and associations advocating Arab independence and freedom.
Rida contributed greatly to the preservation and dissemination of the ideology of Islamic reform. He perceived clearly the challenges and threats that led to the disintegration of the Muslim nation and constituted a link between al-Afghani and `Abduh and the succeeding generations of Muslim activists and thinkers who appeared in the third decade of the twentieth century. He developed his own thought and attempted to elaborate a specific and systematic doctrine of Islamic laws and policies. Rida’s ideas shaped modern Islamic thought with moderate and activist features that influenced later Muslim thinkers.
[See also Modernism; Salafiyah; and the biographies of `Abduh and Afghani.]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adams, Charles C. Islam and Modernism in Egypt: A Study of the Modern Reform Movement Inaugurated by Muhammad `Abduh. London, 1933. Classic biographical source on Rashid Rida and the Manar school.
Arslan, Shakib. Al-Sayyid Rashid Rida wa-ikha’ arba’in sanah (Rashid Rida and Forty Years of Brotherhood). Damascus, 1937. Excellent biographical source on Rashid Rida by one of his close friends. Enayat, Hamid. Modern Islamic Political Thought. Austin, 1982. Excellent analysis of Rashid Rida’s perceptions of the Islamic state and the caliphate.
Hourani, Albert. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798-1939. London, 1970. Provides indispensable background to Rashid Rida and his thought.
Kerr, Malcolm H. Islamic Reform: The Political and Legal Theories of Muhammad `Abduh and Rashid Ridd. Berkeley, 1966. Thorough analysis of Rashid Rida’s interpretations of legal doctrines and the caliphate.
Khadduri, Majid. Political Trends in the Arab World: The Role of Ideas and Ideals in Politics. Baltimore and London, 1970. Introduction to the basic intellectual components of the school of Islamic revival. Al-manar (1898-1935). Rida’s periodical and a necessary source for understanding his thought and the political and intellectual currents of the time.
Rashid Rida, Muhammad. Al-khilafah, aw, al-Imamah al-`Uzma (The Caliphate, or, The Supreme Imamate). Cairo, 1923.
Rashid Rida, Muhammad. Tdrikh al-ustadh al-Imam al-Shaykh Muhammad `Abduh (The Biography of Imam Muhammad `Abduh). 3 vols. Cairo, 1931. Excellent biography of Muhammad `Abduh and a significant source on the Islamic reform movement.
Rashid Rida, Muhammad. Mukhtardt siyasiyah min majallat Al-mandr (Political Selections from Al-mandr). Introduction by Wajih Kawtharani. Beirut, 198o. Excellent analysis of Rashid Rida’s thought and well-selected texts from Al-mandr.
Safran, Nadav. Egypt in Search of a Political Community. Cambridge, Mass., 1961. Critical and contextual study of Rashid Rida and his intellectual contributions.
Shahin, Emad Eldin. “Muhammad Rashid Rida’s Perspectives on the West as Reflected in Al-manor.” Muslim World 79.2 (April 1989): 113-132.

Rabitat al-Alam al-Islami (Rabta al)

Batoota — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 15:20:52 +0000

The Muslim World League (Rabitat al-Alam al-Islami, Arabic: رابطة العالم الاسلامي‎‎, is Pan-Islamic religious charitable organization based in Makkah, Saudi Arabia that propagates Islamic teachings. The organization was funded by the Saudi government from its inception in 1962, with that contribution growing to approximately $13 million by 1980. Because of the Saudi funding, the League is widely regarded as promoting Wahhabism. The Oxford Dictionary of Islam says that “the group has acted as a mouthpiece for the Saudi Arabian government, which finances it.”

Abdallah Ben Abdel Mohsen At-Turki is the General Secretary. The organization propagates the religion of Islam, encouraging Dawah and conversion of non-Muslims, and promotes apologetics against criticism of Islam. The organization funds the construction of mosques, financial reliefs for Muslims afflicted by natural disasters, the distribution of copies of the Quran, and political tracts on Muslim minority groups. The League says that they reject all acts of violence and promote dialogue with the people of other cultures, within their understanding of Sharia, but they are no strangers to controversy, having been the subject of several ongoing counterterrorism investigations in the U.S. related to Hamas, al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
The League founded the International Islamic Relief Organization in 1978.
The Muslim World League was founded in accordance with a resolution adopted during the meeting of the General Islamic Conference, which was held in Mecca on the 14th of Dhul Hijjah 1381 Hijra, corresponding to the 18th May 1962.
Objectives
1-Formation of Islamic public opinion regarding the various issues of concern to Muslims, within the guidance of the Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah
2-Combating ideological incursions and aberrant thought.
3-Advocating the freedom of preaching to the path of God.
4-Striving to protect Mosques and Mosque properties against attack.
5-Preserving Islamic endowments.
6-Defending the rights of the Muslim minorities.