1,720,956 research outputs found
Isra’ and Mi‘raj from Modern Perspective: An Analytical Study of Fazlur Rahman\u27s views
Full text linkThis paper examines the concept of Isra’ and Mi‘raj from a modern perspective, giving special reference to Fazlur Rahman, a modernist and a controversial figure in Western academia. According to Islamic orthodoxy, Isra’ and Mi‘raj refer to two segments of the Prophet Muhammad\u27s miraculous night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem and his subsequent ascension to heaven. The historicity of the journey, as well as its authenticity, however, has continued to be debatable. While a majority of Muslim scholars consider the journey real and physical, Rahman argues that it is just a dream or vision, contending that a physical ascension to heaven is by no means possible. Furthermore, he denies the possibility of seeing angels physically condemning all traditions related to that as fictions. Indeed, this theory has generated criticism within academia and beyond. This paper critically analyses Rahman\u27s views in the light of the authentic traditions, demonstrating that the journey is real and physical. Similarly, it establishes that Prophet Muhammad\u27s Ascension is not a concocted narration as Rahman claims, but an authentic historical fact which constitutes an integral part of the Prophet’s message.
Reconciling Faith and Reason: Al-Bouti’s Defence of Roger Garaudy in the Context of Apostasy and Islamic Jurisprudence
Full text linkThis paper is, in a way, an assessment of an apologia of the offence of hadd written by Muhammad Said Ramadan al-Bouti (1929-2013) to defend Roger Garaudy (1913-2012) against the accusation of apostasy. It analyses the evidence presented by al-Bouti to support his arguments for exonerating Garaudy. Al-Bouti was a prominent Syrian scholar and one of the most influential Islamic jurists in the contemporary Arab world, and a Shafi’i jurist who believed in applying independent reasoning in his interpretation of rulings. In his efforts to preserve the Sufi concept of ‘interior form’ and ‘exterior behaviour’, al-Bouti combines the spirituality of Sufism with traditional legal rulings of fiqh to derive the power of a believer’s conformity with the Sharia. It was this hypothesis of reconciling Islamic mysticism with fiqh that helped his work to gain currency in the Islamic world. Roger Garaudy (1913-2012), on the other hand, was a French Marxist philosopher who converted to Islam in 1982/83, at the age of 70. His conversion to Islam was perceived in the West as indicating “the superiority of Islam over the West”. For this reason, the attack of Western scholars on him was interpreted as part of the West’s attack on Islam. However, Garaudy faced widespread criticism in the Muslim world after publishing his book Islam, to the extent that Muslim authors began to question the orthodoxy of his beliefs. The strongest assault came from the Saudi journal al-Mujallah in 1996, after Garaudy was interviewed by its correspondent in Paris. The article claims that Garaudy’s conversion to Islam was more or less superficial. This paper introduces brief details of al-Bouti’s life and his intellectual impact. Similarly, it highlights the Garaudy affair, his impact in the Muslim world, and the historical origin of the kufr accusation. Finally, it explores the main argument of al-Bouti in his defense case, making particular reference to the al-Mujallah article.
QUR'ĀNIC INTERPRETATION POLITICIZED: ASMA BARLAS’ TEXT REREADING
Full text linkThis paper examines the role of Muslim feminist scholars in thereinterpretation of the Qur'ān within the discourse of Islamicfeminism with particular reference to Asma Barlas, a controversial'Qur'ān-only' feminist. In pursuance of their identity struggle, Muslimfeminists adopted new gender sensitive methodology of text rereadingto prove their worth. This is particularly true for Barlas whoconcisely argues that traditional exegetes manipulated Quranicinterpretation in their favour to oppress women and to establish their'male-centric' authority. In other words, classical methodology oftafsir is patriarchal, misogynistic and anti-woman. Hence,re-contextualization of the Qur'ān through adopting new genderorientated methodology of interpretation is not only desirable, butalso necessary. For Barlas, this will ensure active participation ofwomen in tafsir and create a link between Quranic hermeneutics andthe project of gender equality. This paper critically analyses Barlas’sviews within the Islamic paradigm and examines to what extent shedid break with patriarchal tradition in tafsir. Furthermore, itconcludes that Barlas' rereading of text is nothing, but a biasedattempt to politicise Quranic interpretation and to providetheological legitimacy to a secular orientated discourse, Islamicfeminism
Islamic Modernism and Tafsir in Nineteenth Century Egypt: A Critical Analysis of Muhammad Abduh’s Exegesis
Full text linkThe aim of this paper is to examine the concept of Islamic modernism in nineteenth-century Egypt as expressed in Tafsir al-Manar, placing particular emphasis on Muhammad ‘Abduh (1849-1905). The major focus of the paper is human reason (‘aql) as perceived by ‘Abduh and reflected in Tafsir al-Manar. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Quranic exegesis gained new momentum with the emergence of Islamic modernism. In Egypt, ‘Abduh used tafsir as a major vehicle to disseminate his revolutionary thoughts. The central concept of his reform was that Islam could not face the challenges of modernity and the West unless Muslims learnt modern and other rational sciences. ‘Abduh abandoned the traditional formula of tafsir in favour of the rationalist approach, which he believed was essential in order to demonstrate the viability of Islam to the modern period. Traditional exegetes, he argued, had wasted too much effort on delving into the ‘technicalities’ of grammar, theological disputes and other extraneous material. Tafsir, he maintained, had to be presented in a style adaptable to the demands of the society. Moreover, for the present situation of Muslims to be improved and for Islamic modernism to be sustained, the Quran had to be rationally interpreted. This paper examines the concept of Islamic modernism in nineteenth century Egypt, as expressed in Tafsir al-Manar, making particular reference to Muhammad ‘Abduh (1849-1905). It evaluates his contributions to modern tafsir and analyse his rational approach in the interpretation of the Quran.
 
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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