Explore the vast range of titles available.

This article explores the underlying ideas conveyed by the literary representations associated with Luqmān b. ʿĀd and Luqmān the Sage in classical Arabic sources. It avoids conflating them or collapsing all portrayals of Luqmān b. ʿĀd into a single composite figure. At the same time, it resists imposing a rigid dichotomy between these representations, instead examining possible mutual influences and conceptual continuities. To assess the range of divergent Luqmān images in light of the Qurʾānic tradition, the article treats them as manifestations of diverse local and regional narrative currents, woven together within a broader pan-Arabic reservoir of motifs.

The last stop on the Muslim pilgrimage is the Kaʻba. Like all other holy and religious places, the Kaʻba has survived due to the repairs it has undergone since its construction. However, the Kaʻba has been rebuilt at times when it was destroyed for various reasons. Since the interruption of the pilgrimage would undermine the legitimacy of the caliph, Muslims attached great importance to rebuilding the Kaʻba in such cases. The Kaʻba was last rebuilt by the Ottoman Sulṭān Murād IV after the flood of 1039/1630. However, the rebuilding process has not been without its controversies. Although the Ottoman Empire attempted to rebuild the Kaʻba out of necessity, some scholars objected to this initiative. Ibn ʻAllān, one of the leading Shafiʻi muftis of Mecca, followed the rebuilding work day by day and did not hesitate to intervene when necessary. Riḍwān Agha, who carried out the rebuilding of the Kaʻba, was able to overcome Ibn ʻAllān’s objections with fatwas from the muftis of the four sects (four Sunni schools of law) and thus completed the building work. After the Kaʻba was rebuilt, Turkish works on its history began to be produced. In this way, the public was informed that the Kaʻba could be rebuilt if necessary, and attempts were made to anticipate and prevent any potential reactions. This study aims to contribute to the history of the Kaʻba by analysing its rebuilding after the flood of 1039/1630 through debates between scholars (ʻulamāʼ) and administrators (umarāʼ) during this period. Access to the details of this issue from the works of the ʻulamāʼ who witnessed the rebuilding makes this paper unique.

This article reconstructs Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s (d. 1210) systematic treatment of the jinn in his Great Exegesis (al-Tafsīr al-Kabīr) and his summa The Sublime Objectives in Metaphysics (al-Maṭālib al-ʿĀliya min al-ʿIlm al-Ilāhī). In these works, al-Rāzī treats the jinn not as a marginal curiosity but as a test case for probing core metaphysical categories such as substance, embodiment, and divine action. His analysis unfolds through a sequence of guiding questions. Do the jinn exist at all? If not, we arrive at (1) the Denialist View. If they do exist, they must be either immaterial or material. The first yields (2) the Immaterialist View. The second raises the further question of whether bodies differ in essence or share a single essence. If they differ, we arrive at (3) the Non-Essentialist Corporealist View. Notably, these first three views are associated, in different ways, with various figures in the falsafa tradition. If they share a single essence, this produces the Essentialist Corporealist position, which then divides according to whether bodily structure is metaphysically necessary for life and agency. If not necessary, this produces (4) the Essentialist Corporealist—Structural Independence View, associated with the Ashʿarīs. If necessary, it leads to (5) the Essentialist Corporealist—Structural Dependence View, associated with the Muʿtazilīs. Al-Rāzī rejects (1) and (5), but he leaves (2), (3), and (4) as live possibilities. While he shows greater sympathy for (4), his broader purpose is not to settle the matter but to map the full range of theological and philosophical options. Al-Rāzī’s comprehensive exposition reflects the wider dialectic between falsafa, Ashʿarī theology, and Muʿtazilī theology, showcasing a sophisticated willingness to engage and entertain multiple metaphysical possibilities side by side. The result is an exercise in systematic metaphysics, where the question of the jinn, as liminal beings, becomes a means for interrogating broader ontological commitments in Islamic theology and philosophy.

This article explores Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī’s political thought in relation to modern debates on secularism and Islamic reform. While often invoked by Islamist thinkers to support their anti-secular stance, al-Afghānī’s reflections on reason, religion, and constitutional politics show that he engaged with modernity in a more nuanced way than is commonly recognized. This article examines al-Afghānī’s writings and their reception. It argues that his thought was not about choosing a side between religion and secularism. Instead, his thought is better understood as a pragmatic anti-colonial strategy aimed at the revival of Muslim civilization. This reframing challenges the widely cited genealogical narrative that links him to later Islamists. His attempt to reconcile religious traditions with the imperative for reform provides valuable insights into the responses of Muslim reformers to modernity—insights that remain highly relevant today.

Since the 1980s, hundreds of predominantly working-class African-American Muslims have travelled or relocated to the rural yet renowned city of Medina Baye, Senegal. They were invited there by Shaykh Hassan Cisse, a Senegalese Islamic scholar and leader in the Tijani tariqa (Sufi order). This article focuses on the experiences of African-American and fellow diaspora Black Muslims living and learning with African Muslims in the Tijani hub of Medina Baye. It interrogates the assumptions, expectations and misunderstandings that characterize relationships between the two groups. I argue that, as members of the Tijani tariqa, diaspora Black disciples become integrated within the local system of collective care modelled by African disciples. Complicating analyses of African–diasporic exchanges that tend to differentiate and hierarchize the interconnected economic hardships facing diaspora Black and continental African communities, I argue that the relationship between these groups illustrates the role of Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse’s branch of the Tijani tariqa as a counterhegemonic social movement offering new paradigms of social and economic reciprocity that enable Black Muslims on both sides of the Atlantic to mitigate the contemporary impacts of racial capitalism and global apartheid.

A comparison between the function of Islam in the lives of Al-Hajj Umar Taal and El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) suggests that Shabazz’s example of translating his Islamic obligations into the secular philosophy of Pan-Africanism reflects more promise toward the interest of interreligious Pan-African unity. During the nineteenth century, figures like Edward Blyden and Duse Muhammad Ali both presented the compatibility of Islam with Pan-Africanism. However, the practical examples of the steps needed to obtain interreligious unity require continued exploration. The author begins with an examination of the question of jihad and the “religious other” in Islam as understood by some. Secondly, the author focuses on Umar Taal to explore the way his understanding of Islam affected his relationship with both Muslim and non-Muslim Africans he encountered in nineteenth-century West Africa. Subsequently, the author analyzes how Malik El-Shabazz understood Islam to relate to the quest for Pan-Africanism. Using concepts from the critical theory of religion, the author will argue that Shabazz’s determinate negation of elements of his religious commitments that might hinder unity among people of African descent is instructive for the construction of an interreligious Pan-African unity.

This article examines the conceptions of divine revelation held by two prominent figures in Islamic thought, Ibn Sīnā and Al-Ghazālī, through a comparative lens within the context of metaphysical and epistemological processes. Ibn Sīnā views divine revelation as a metaphysical process occurring at the highest level of intellect. According to him, divine revelation is an abstract reflection of divine knowledge transmitted to the prophet’s imaginative faculty through the Active Intellect. This process, explained within a philosophical framework, is grounded in the development of human intellectual capacity. In contrast, Ghazālī defines divine revelation as a mystical experience and considers it a divine encounter beyond the limits of human reason. For Ghazālī, divine revelation manifests as an expression of God’s attribute of speech and occurs solely by divine will. Moreover, this experience cannot be fully comprehended by reason. Ghazālī’s approach, imbued with Sufi depth, regards divine revelation as an integral part of spiritual growth. This article explores the fundamental similarities and differences between these two thinkers’ understandings of divine revelation and metaphysics. By analyzing how Ibn Sīnā’s reason-based approach intersects and diverges from Ghazālī’s intuition and inspiration-based Sufi approach, this study provides an in-depth examination of how the concept of divine revelation has been shaped within Islamic theology and philosophy, highlighting the contributions of both thinkers to the discourse on divine revelation.