First Principles Of The Islamic State

Abul A'la Mawdudi laid down the foundations of modern Islamic economics. Drawing upon Islamic sources, Mawdudi spelled out a new paradigm for economic analysis and policy, wherein economic pursuits take place in the context of moral values and are directed towards the achievement of personal and social objectives. Integral to this approach is the concept of an interest-free economy that attempts to make efficiency and equity inseparable and interdependent. The creation and distribution of wealth thus become instrumental in promoting individual and social wellbeing, opening up pathways to development, social justice, and human welfare. This comprehensive anthology collects all of his major writings and provides a historic as well as an essential introduction to Islamic economics. Abul A'la Mawdudi (1903-1979) was a leading Muslim intellectual and a chief architect of the Islamic revival in the twentieth century. In 1941 he founded Jama'at-i-Islami, a political party in Pakistan, which he led until 1972. He authored more than a hundred works on Islam, both popular and scholarly, and his writings have been translated into some forty languages.

Dahlan offers an alternative vision of Islamic governance through the history and promise of the Hijaz, the first state of Islam. The Hijaz, in the west of present-day Saudi Arabia, was the first Islamic state in Mecca and Medina. This new interpretative history offers a fresh vision of Islamic governance and law as a positive force for political reform in the Middle East and beyond. Applying key Islamic principles of public good to contemporary life, Malik Dahlan challenges two dominant narratives. He reclaims the development of Islamic statecraft as the wellspring of collective identity and statesmanship in the Arab world, simultaneously influenced and disrupted by Westphalian statehood models and Enlightenment notions of self-determination. He equally rejects the appropriation of Islamic governance and the Caliphate concept by both the post-modern, non-territorial Al-Qaeda and the neo-medievalist ISIS. Celebrating the history and untapped potential of a region where Arab leaders built the ideological foundations of an emerging polity, The Hijaz is a compelling alternative analysis of governance in the Arabian Peninsula and the global Islamic community, and of its interaction with the wider world.

The expert essays in this volume deal with critically important topics concerning Islam and politics in both the pre-modern and modern periods, such as the nature of government, the relationship between politics and theology, Shi'i conceptions of statecraft, notions of public duty, and the compatibility of Islam and democratic governance.

CNN's terrorism analyst examines Osama bin Laden's global terrorist network, al-Queda, discussing its operations and mission, the planning and execution of specific terrorist acts, and future threats from militant Islamic movements.