Category Archives: Islamic Sciences

Islam and Contemporary Issues

Development, Gender and Sexuality, India, Islamic History, Islamic Law, Islamic Sciences, Qur'an, Terrorism Issue, Traditions (hadith literature)

By Asghar Ali Engineer, April, 2009

A few days ago I was invited to speak in a Prophet Day’s function. There were other speakers as well. As usual the speakers before me indulged in rhetoric ‘Islam is the solution’ and also said the world economy has failed and slowed down as it is based on gambling and interest. Another person said Islam declared human rights 14 hundred years ago whereas UNO declared it only sixty years ago. Yet another speaker said Islam has given equal rights to women and made it obligatory for them to seek education. Also it was emphasized that Islam is religion of peace.

All this provoked me to say all this is true and I can add much more to it but have we ever seriously reflected why Islamic world is in such turmoil today. Why Muslims have totally failed to adopt these teachings in practice. I said if one caste a critical glance at Islamic world today one finds exactly opposite of what Qur’an teaches. If Qur’an lays great emphasis on knowledge, Islamic world from Indonesia to Algeria has more illiterates than any other community. Continue reading Islam and Contemporary Issues →

Darwin at 200

Islamic Sciences, Teaching Resources

Today is a momentous day, especially if we turn back the clocks 200 years exactly. On February 12, 1809 two freedom fighters were born at opposing ends of the Atlantic: Lincoln and Darwin. Abraham Lincoln freed America from the intolerable idea of human slavery; Charles Darwin freed the human mind from the dogmatic shackles that viewed scientific inquiry as heresy. I have been preparing a paper on Darwin’s reception by Muslims for an upcoming conference at Hofstra University on “Darwin’s Reach” March 12-14. As you might suspect, the initial reaction was not very positive. Of course information about Darwin’s new theory of natural selection did not come through any scientific venues but through the negative filter of Protestant missionaries. Branded a materialist and atheist, there was little enthusiasm in the late 19th century for a challenge to the traditional view of Adam and Eve. Continue reading Darwin at 200 →

Issues in the Islamic Calendar

Islamic Rituals, Islamic Sciences


Full Moon on lunar eclipse and Venus, dated June 18, 2008 – Photo by Mohamad Soltanolkotabi

by Khalid Chraibi

“The sun and the moon follow courses (exactly) computed;”

(Koran, Ar-Rahman, 55 : 5)

“It is He Who made the sun to be a shining glory and the moon to be a light (of beauty), and measured out stages for it; that ye might know the number of years and the count (of time).” (Koran, Yunus, 10:5)

“The ulamas do not have the monopoly of interpretation of the shariah. Of course, their advice must be sought in the first place on shariah matters. (But) they do no make religious law, in the same way that it is not the law professors who make the law, but parliaments.” (Ahmed Khamlichi, Point de vue n° 4)

Issue # 1: Why do Muslims observe the new moon to determine the beginning of months?

When the Messenger was asked by his Companions for a method to determine the beginning of the month of fasting, he told them to begin fasting with the observation of the new moon (on the evening of the 29th day of sha’aban) and to end fasting with the new moon (of the month of shawal). “If the crescent is not visible (because of the clouds), count to 30 days”. (1)

At that time, the Bedouins didn’t know how to write or how to count. They knew nothing about astronomy. But, they were used to observe the stars, at night, in order to find their way in the desert, and to observe the birth of the new moon to determine the beginning of months. The Messenger’s recommendation fitted perfectly with the specifics of their situation.

Issue # 2: Why is the new moon visible, at its birth, in some regions of the world only? Continue reading Issues in the Islamic Calendar →

Milking the Camel

Animals, camels, Film and Video, Islamic Sciences, Orientalism, United Arab Emirates

One of the most common Orientalist tropes about the Middle East is the image of the camel, the ship of the desert. Bernard Lewis angered Edward Said by comparing one of the Arabic terms for revolution (thawra) to a camel’s rising, a point made in the old Arabic lexicons. But the camel strikes back on Sharjah Television. On the program “Medicine and Islam” the benefits of camel’s milk are spelled out, including some rather grand claims.

The video on Islamic Tube is accompanied by the following article from the Khaleej Times:

SHARJAH. A research body here is seeking global tie ups to produce drugs to treat deadly diseases including Aids from the unique antibodies found in camel`s milk. Continue reading Milking the Camel →

Can the Umm al Qura calendar serve as a global Islamic calendar?

Islam and Christianity, Islam in America, Islamic Rituals, Islamic Sciences, Saudi Arabia

by Khalid Chraibi

Over the past 50 years, the Arab League, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and other similar bodies presented their member States with over a half-dozen proposals aiming at the establishment of a common Islamic calendar. Although none of these proposals was adopted, efforts in search of a solution that could be satisfactory to all interested parties continue to this day. For its part, the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) was also regularly confronted with the responsibility of telling its Muslim American audience when to start fasting, when to celebrate «eid al-Fitr», «eid al-Adha», etc. After several years of study of the legal issues involved, it reached a decision, which it announced in August 2006, to use henceforth a pre-calculated Islamic calendar, taking into consideration the sightability of the new moon anywhere on Earth. (1)

First, it retains the well-known principle of unicity of horizons (matâli’) which states that it is sufficient to observe the new moon anywhere on Earth, in order to declare the beginning of a new lunar month, applicable in all areas in which the information is received. Second, it uses the International date line (IDL) or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as its conventional point of reference to conduct its analysis. Continue reading Can the Umm al Qura calendar serve as a global Islamic calendar? →

Brain Drain

Immigration Issues, Islamic Sciences

by Michael Woods

The United Nations Development Program, in a report published last year, described in often painful detail some of the factors that have contributed to the decline of science and the rise of extremism in Arab societies. Among them are:

Increases in average income have been lower in the Arab world than anywhere else for 20 years, except for the poorest African countries. “If such trends continue…it will take the average Arab citizen 140 years to double his or her income, whole other regions are set to achieve that level in a matter of less than 10 years,” the report noted. One in 5 Arabs lives on less than $2 a day.

Arab unemployment is the highest in the developing world.

Surveys show more than half of young Arabs want to leave their countries and live in the United States or other industrialized countries where opportunities are better. Continue reading Brain Drain →

Iraq after a Millennium

Iraq, Iraq War, Islamic Sciences, Travel

There is an old saying, renewed whenever we reflect on contemporary politics: the more things change, the more they remain the same. A little over a millennium ago, the widely traveled scholar Shams al-Din Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad al-Muqaddasi wrote a geographical compendium of the world. He is as opinionated as any op-ed columnist, but also an astute observer of the foibles of his own time. So how did al-Muqaddasi, who had traversed much of the known Islamic world in his time, view Iraq? Here is his assessment; c’est la vie!

This is the region of men of refinement, the fountainhead of scholars. The water is delightful, the air marvelous; it is the chosen place of the khalifs. It produced Abu Hanifa, the jurist of jurisprudents; and Sufyan, the best of the Quranic Readers. From here came Abu ‘Ubayda, and al-Farra‘, and Abu ‘Amr, author of a system of Quranic reading. It is the birthplace of Hamza, and al-Kisa’i: of virtually every jurist, Reader, and litterateur; of notables, sages, thinkers, ascetics, distinguished people; of charming and quick-witted people. Here is the birthplace of Abraham, the Compansion of God, thither journeyed many noble Companions of the prophet. Is not al-Basra there, which can be compared to the entire world? and Baghdad, praised by all mankind? sublime al-Kufa and Samarra? Its river most certainly is of Paradise; and the dates of al-Basra cannot be forgotten. Its excellences are many and beyond count. The Sea of China touches its furthermost extremity, and the desert stretches along the edge of it, as you see. The Euphrates debouches within its limits.

Yet it is the home of dissension and high prices, every day it retrogresses; from injustice and taxes there is trouble, and distress. Its fruits are few, its vices many, and the oppression of the people is heavy.

[Excerpt from al-Muqaddasī, The Best Divisions for Knowledge of the Regions. Translated by Professor Basil Collins. Reading: Garnet Publishing, 2001.]

Out-of-Print CCAS Occasional Papers now Available Online

Anthropology/Sociology, Islamic Sciences, Teaching Resources, Terrorism Issue

By L. King-Irani, Georgetown Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, October 22, 2007

Dissemination of information and analyses within and beyond the scholarly community is a key priority for the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. The Center’s Multimedia, Research and Publications office publishes a prestigious Occasional Paper series featuring works by scholars, journalists, policy makers and field experts three to four times each year. This series now includes nearly 100 works covering a wide variety of subjects and perspectives on the Arab world. In addition, the series also includes transcripts of discussions among key players in the U.S. and the Arab world, such as Uncovered: Arab Journalists Scrutinize Their Profession, which features prominent Arab journalists’ analyses of press freedom and responsibility across the region. Forty of the Center’s Occasional Papers are now online.

The following six Occasional Papers have just been added to the group available in PDF format, two of them, Talal Asad’s The Idea of an Anthropology of Islam, and the late Hanna Batatu’s The Egyptian, Syrian and Iraqi Revolutions: Some Observations on Their Underlying Causes and Social Character, have been among the most popular and requested Occasional Papers over the last two decades. Continue reading Out-of-Print CCAS Occasional Papers now Available Online →