Muslim Civilisation

Islam as a religion is central to the lives of over a billion people, but its outer expression as a distinctive civilization has been undergoing a monumental crisis. Buffeted by powerful adverse currents, Islamic civilization today is a shadow of its former self. The most disturbing and possibly fatal of these currents—the imperial expansion of the West into Muslim lands and the blast of modernity that accompanied it—are now compounded by a third giant wave, globalization. These forces have increasingly tested Islam and Islamic civilization for validity, adaptability, and the ability to hold on to the loyalty of Muslims, says Ali A. Allawi in his provocative new book. While the faith has proved resilient in the face of these challenges, other aspects of Islamic civilization have atrophied or died, Allawi contends, and Islamic civilization is now undergoing its last crisis. The book explores how Islamic civilization began to unravel under colonial rule, as its institutions, laws, and economies were often replaced by inadequate modern equivalents. Allawi also examines the backlash expressed through the increasing religiosity of Muslim societies and the spectacular rise of political Islam and its terrorist offshoots. Assessing the status of each of the building blocks of Islamic civilization, the author concludes that Islamic civilization cannot survive without the vital spirituality that underpinned it in the past. He identifies a key set of principles for moving forward, principles that will surprise some and anger others, yet clearly must be considered.

Muslim societies are struggling under the need for modernization and the drift towards Islamic fundamentalism. The balance between these two forces is struck differently in the various Muslim societies depending upon the constellation of groups as historical legacies. However, the tension is real. In this work, Jan-Erik Lane and Hamadi Redissi look at the underlying social consequences of religious beliefs to account for the political differences between major civilizations of the world against a background of the rise of modern capitalism. Offering a timely new appraisal of the political and social impact of Islam, this expanded second edition of Religion and Politics has been fully updated in line with new events and will be welcomed by political scientists and historians alike. In a readable and accessible style, this thought-provoking work raises the question of whether the tenets of Islam might be reconciled with the requirements of post-modernity.

Islam has been one of the most powerful religious, social and political forces in history. Over the last 1400 years, from origins in Arabia, a succession of Muslim polities and later empires expanded to control territories and peoples that ultimately stretched from southern France to East Africa and South East Asia. Yet many of the contributions of Muslim thinkers, scientists and theologians, not to mention rulers, statesmen and soldiers, have been occluded. This book rescues from oblivion and neglect some of these personalities and institutions while offering the reader a new narrative of this lost Islamic history. The Umayyads, Abbasids, and Ottomans feature in the story, as do Muslim Spain, the savannah kingdoms of West Africa and the Mughal Empire, along with the later European colonization of Muslim lands and the development of modern nation-states in the Muslim world. Throughout, the impact of Islamic belief on scientific advancement, social structures, and cultural development is given due prominence, and the text is complemented by portraits of key personalities, inventions and little known historical nuggets. The history of Islam and of the world's Muslims brings together diverse peoples, geographies and states, all interwoven into one narrative that begins with Muhammad and continues to this day.

"Based on a successful series of adult-education programmes broadcast on Canadian radio, organised by members of the Department of Islamic Studies at the University of Toronto."--P. [4] of cover.

"[This is] a subject of such relevance and importance that one wonders why nobody else dealt with it in book form before."—Dr. Wilfried Hofmann Muslim civilization has experienced a decline during the last five centuries after previously having undergone a long period of prosperity and comprehensive development. This raises a number of questions such as what factors enable Muslims to become successful during the earlier centuries of Islam and what led them to their present weak position. Is Islam responsible for this decline or are there some other factors which come into play? M. Umer Chapra provides an authoritative diagnosis and prescription to reverse this decline. M. Umer Chapra is a research advisor at the Islamic Research and Training Institute of the Islamic Development Bank, Jeddah, and author of The Future of Economics and Islam and the Economic Challenge.

Islam as a religion is central to the lives of over a billion people, but its outer expression as a distinctive civilization has been undergoing a monumental crisis. Buffeted by powerful adverse currents, Islamic civilization today is a shadow of its former self. The most disturbing and possibly fatal of these currents--the imperial expansion of the West into Muslim lands and the blast of modernity that accompanied it--are now compounded by a third giant wave, globalization. These forces have increasingly tested Islam and Islamic civilization for validity, adaptability, and the ability to hold on to the loyalty of Muslims, says Ali A. Allawi in his provocative new book. While the faith has proved resilient in the face of these challenges, other aspects of Islamic civilization have atrophied or died, Allawi contends, and Islamic civilization is now undergoing its last crisis. The book explores how Islamic civilization began to unravel under colonial rule, as its institutions, laws, and economies were often replaced by inadequate modern equivalents. Allawi also examines the backlash expressed through the increasing religiosity of Muslim societies and the spectacular rise of political Islam and its terrorist offshoots. Assessing the status of each of the building blocks of Islamic civilization, the author concludes that Islamic civilization cannot survive without the vital spirituality that underpinned it in the past. He identifies a key set of principles for moving forward, principles that will surprise some and anger others, yet clearly must be considered.

This book presents a thematic treatment of Islamic civilisation. Each of the fourteen chapters comprising this book treats at least one of the major themes that are characteristic of this youngest religiously-based civilisation of the world. The author’s thematic approach is primarily meant to promote a better appreciation of the living nature of Islamic civilisation. The book’s content provides ample evidence that Islamic civilisation is not merely a passing historical phenomenon. The various themes it discusses clearly demonstrate the continuing relevance of Islamic civilisation to the present and future humanity.

Islam is one of the Semitic Religions thus one of the greatest religions of the world, and it is not easy to present a complete description of this religion in a Compact Survey, as this book is. It is also not easy to understand the practical life of the Muslims without some knowledge of their religious-social life. For that, one needs to have a complete understanding of the principal institution of Islam. A compact exposition of Muslim institutions covers at least important aspects of Arab-Muslim life. Keeping in mind these facts, I have tried to deal with the origin, background, and the rise of Islam; the dogmas and the superstitions of the faith; the sources and practice of Muslim law, the family life; and Sufism. It packs an immense amount of information even though there are still other aspect to be dealt with. Concerning the life of the Prophet, it is well-known that Muhammad b. 'Abdullah was born about 570 C.E. in Mecca (al-Makkah), the son of a Korashite family. Orphaned early, he grew up under the care of his nearest relatives. His father had already died so he was brought up by his nearest relativeshis grandfather aand his uncle. He was a shepherd during his boyhood age. It is also reported that unlike other boys, Muhammad was thoughtful, rather than playful. At the age of about twenty-five, he became the business adviser of a famed widow named Khadija, who was fifteen years his senior. Eventually he became her third husband. We do not know much about his early religious life. He seems, however, to have begun early to meditate on the values of life, and to have had an unusually nervous, high-strung constitution. At the age of forty, he started receiving the divine