This article asks how Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Māturīdī (d. 333/944) and the Māturīdiyyah are received within the Deobandi milieu—whether as a tradition of kalām, as a curricular background, or as a marker in theological demarcation and explicit theological self-definition. It first reconstructs the channels through which Māturīdī patterns of reasoning were transmitted and institutionalized in South Asia, especially through Ḥanafī scholarly networks and the Naqshbandiyyah-Mujaddidiyyah. It situates these trajectories within the dars-i niẓāmī. The latter is shown to treat kalām largely as a necessary minimum embedded in a broader ma‘qūlāt-profile, rather than as an autonomous arena of sustained debate. Accordingly, the article is concerned less with reconstructing a comprehensive Deobandi kalām system than with tracing how Māturīdī belonging appears across textual legacy, teaching presence, and communal self-ascription. The core of the article then turns to Deobandi self-articulation: a reading of al-Muhannad (1907) and Qārī Muḥammad Ṭayyib’s (d. 1983) programmatic account of “Diyōbandiyyat” highlights how Deoband asserts Ḥanafī affiliation while making Māturīdī belonging especially visible in programmatic formulations of identity and the marking of Sunni belonging, rather than through sustained systematic elaboration of doctrine. In conclusion, the article argues that Māturīdī identification gains its sharpest contours where modern Salafi polemics compel explicit theological positioning.
This research paper is a qualitative content analysis of a community-led model employing a socio-religio-academic mentoring (SRAM) approach to counter violent extremism (CVE) in the United Kingdom and Pakistan. The primary objective of the research is to identify the elements of the SRAM strategy within the community-led model. The analysis of content was employed to identify primary components of the SRAM approach, including social, religious, and academic mentoring to develop critical thinking, resilience as an identity, and empowerment within the community. The comparative results encourage policymakers and practitioners to adopt ethical, inclusive, and adaptive interventions in both Western and Muslim-majority societies. This study would be recommended to improve the implementation of the SRAM approach in academic institutions in Pakistan, where community and religious leaders should be engaged in the curriculum planning so that mentoring-based modules could be integrated with traditional classroom delivery of content, increasing its relevance to specific contextual factors and value-based learning.
This study investigates the intricate dynamics of interreligious dialogue encounters within the Muslim minority context of Sri Lanka, focusing on the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU), a body of Muslim theologians. Amid historical tensions and conflicts among diverse religious groups in the region, the ACJU plays a pivotal role in fostering understanding and collaboration among religious communities. This study aims to examine the Muslim minority’s efforts to preserve their religious identity and promote harmonious relationships with other religious communities through an in-depth investigation of their experiences, drawing on a range of primary and secondary sources. Using qualitative methodology, the research investigates the dynamics of interreligious discourse initiated by the ACJU through interviews and textual analysis. The study applies descriptive, analytical, and critical methods throughout. By exploring the perspectives of religious leaders, community members, and scholars engaged in these dialogues, the research offers insights into the challenges, achievements, and growth of interreligious exchanges in the Sri Lankan socio-religious context. It also examines how the ACJU balances between retaining Islamic identity and actively participating in interreligious endeavours. The findings highlight the importance of these activities in reducing religious tensions, encouraging cooperation, and contributing to the peaceful coexistence of Sri Lanka’s multireligious fabric.
The first- and second-generation Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) of the United Nations were thought to be inadequate in responding to the changing nature of the post-9/11 wave of global terrorism. Therefore, member states confronting the threat are implementing country-specific CVE interventions as a part of their non-kinetic responses. Pakistan, a country ranked second in 2025 in the global list of worst-hit countries, has adopted a combination of non-kinetic CVE measures, including deradicalization, rehabilitation, and counter-narrative. The paper critically examines these interventions in light of the DDR-CVE convergence model presented by Richard and recommends combining these state-led initiatives with the third-generation UN DDR programmes to develop a futuristic Demobilization and Disengagement of Violent Extremism (DDVE) framework tailored to the local context.
This article provides a systematic comparative analysis of Khalwatī devotion to ‘Alī b. Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661), showing how the order developed a distinctive and sustained model of Ahl al-Bayt veneration within Sunni Sufism. In Khalwatī discourse, ‘Alī appears not only as the fourth caliph but as a supreme spiritual figure: the gateway to esoteric knowledge, the exemplar of futuwwah ethics, and a central authority in Sufi chains of transmission, endowed with divine secrets and an enduring spiritual legacy. The study compares the image of ‘Alī in the writings of Sayyid Yaḥyā Shirvānī (d. 870/1466), the second master of the Khalwatiyyah, with Anatolian Khalwatī texts produced between 1550 and 1800. Read against the backdrop of Ottoman–Safavid confessional polarization, it examines how Anatolian Khalwatīs mobilized ‘Alī’s authority to claim spiritual legitimacy. While centred on the Khalwatiyyah, the article also situates its argument within the wider Ottoman Sufi landscape by noting comparable Sunni forms of Ahl al-Bayt devotion in other orders, most notably the Mawlawiyyah (and related currents such as the Malāmiyyah), during the same period. The research traces key epithets and roles ascribed to ‘Alī, “the last of the four caliphs,” “the heir of the Muhammadan truth,” “the seal of the saints,” “the guardian of the world of secrets,” “the exemplar of futuwwah,” and “the chief of Sufi chains of transmission.” The findings show a consistent spiritual perception of ‘Alī across centuries and regions, and clarify, through the Khalwatī case, the broader significance of Ahl al-Bayt devotion within Sunni Sufism.
Ṭāhir al-Mawlawī (d. 1951) was a writer, poet, Sufi, educator, journalist, translator, and also a Mevlevi shaykh. His multifaceted identity influenced his approach to writing the sīrah of Prophet Muḥammad (peace be on him) and secured him a unique place in the literature. His books, newspaper essays, and magazine articles on the life of the Prophet bear traces of a synthesis that combines classical Islamic historiography with modern pedagogical and literary sensibilities. While classical Arabic texts and early modern Ottoman heritage generally stand out in sīrah studies, less attention has been paid to authors who worked on sīrah writing and reinterpreted this genre under the conditions of political and cultural transformation in the late Ottoman and early Republican periods. This gap makes the study of Ṭāhir al-Mawlawī’s texts meaningful and relevant. Evaluating sīrah not only as a transmission of religious knowledge but also as a tool for education and identity construction, Ṭāhir al-Mawlawī addresses readers of all ages in his writings and aims to draw attention to these values. His choice of sources, personal Sufi depth, and the rhetorical power provided by his literary competence add different dimensions to the sīrah narrative. Thus, sīrah ceases to be merely a historical narrative recalling the past and becomes a dynamic literary genre that seeks answers to current social needs. His narrative strategies and pedagogical orientation set a precedent for subsequent sīrah writers, influencing later authors in their efforts to interpret Prophetic events in dialogue with contemporary social realities. In this context, Ṭāhir al-Mawlawī’s sīrah writing can be considered a hybrid model that blends classical Islamic historiography with modern pedagogical concerns and literary style.
The issue of non-Muslim leadership within the Islamic community remains a highly debated topic in several Muslim countries, particularly those with diverse religious populations. While Muslim jurists have historically agreed that the head of state should be a Muslim, the political changes witnessed in Muslim societies and the establishment of modern nation states during the post-colonial era have led to the emergence of differing opinions regarding the permissibility of non-Muslim leadership. This study investigates Indonesia as a case study, considering its societal context marked by significant political and intellectual polarization. This context is characterized by ideological divisions among writers and the presence of competing organizations within the political sphere. To address this issue, this paper explores two main areas: firstly, it highlights the historical background surrounding the emergence of this problem both internationally and locally, and secondly, it evaluates the textual and jurisprudential evidence presented by proponents of non-Muslim leadership legitimacy. The evaluation of inference methods used to justify the legitimacy of a non-Muslim leadership reveals the adoption of an arbitrary approach in interpreting textual and jurisprudential evidence, which involves both selectivity and distortion.
This paper closely examines the representation of the Prophet Muḥammad (peace be on him) in four widely used introductory textbooks on Islam authored by leading Western Islamicists William E. Shepard, John L. Esposito, Daniel W. Brown, and Alexander Knysh. These texts, published by leading academic presses and widely adopted in university curricula, serve as the primary intellectual entry point through which students and non-specialist readers gain an understanding of Islam. Despite their prominence, relatively little attention has been paid to how the sīrah of the Prophet is constructed in these texts. This article attempts to fill this gap by addressing three interrelated questions: What frameworks are used to render the Prophet comprehensible within these textbooks? How is the sīrah translated, condensed, and reconfigured in textbook form? And what methodological and epistemological assumptions inform these portrayals? In addressing these questions, the study does not seek to adjudicate questions of accuracy or normative adequacy. Rather, it aims to illuminate the discursive structures, methodological choices, and epistemic commitments that shape contemporary academic representations of the Prophet. The analysis draws on a well-established distinction between the “historical Muḥammad” as constructed in modern Western historiography, and the “Muḥammad of faith” as preserved within the Islamic tradition. By situating textbook representation at the intersection of these paradigms, this study examines the epistemological tensions that arise when a sacred biography is presented within a secular academic framework. The paper concludes that many academic representations continue to oscillate between reductive historicism and sympathetic engagement, often reproducing what Matthew Dimmock terms “the misrepresentation of a biography.”
This article examines Maqāmi‘ al-Ḥadīd, a little-studied treatise by Aḥmad Riḍā Khān (d. 1921), one of the most influential Sunni scholars of colonial India, as a polemical critique of philosophical doctrines deemed heretical by Islamic orthodoxy. Through a detailed analysis of Khān’s refutation of eight propositions drawn from the Aristotelian-Avicennian philosophical tradition, the study highlights Khān’s broader antagonism towards philosophy as a discipline he saw as corrosive to Islamic belief and religious certainty. By situating Maqāmi‘ al-Ḥadīd within the wider context of Khān’s writings and the colonial educational reforms of nineteenth-century British India, the article suggests how his rejection of philosophy may be part of a larger intellectual and pedagogical resistance to a broader colonial modernity. Khān’s critique reflects deep anxieties about epistemological authority, the integrity of Islamic knowledge, and the threat of secular rationalism to Muslim identity and religious life. In challenging recent portrayals of Khān as exhibiting a significant affinity for philosophy, this article argues instead that his polemics against philosophy were a conscious act of intellectual and cultural preservation in an era of profound transformation.
This paper critically examines modernity and prevailing conceptions of development, highlighting their role in the degradation and destruction of nature. It argues that over the past four centuries, nature has been reduced from a sacred and living realm to a lifeless object, valued primarily for its material utility to humankind. Drawing on Wael Hallaq’s (b. 1955) critique of modern Western modernity, the paper explores how a worldview detached from religious, moral, and ethical constraints has enabled the domination and exploitation of nature. According to him, modernity, armed with secular scientific knowledge, empowered modern humans to control and manipulate the natural world. Building upon Hallaq’s argument, this paper further contends that modernity stripped nature of its spiritual and sacred dimensions, reconstituting it as an inert entity devoid of intrinsic value or rights. In contrast, the paper foregrounds Islamic environmental ethics, emphasizing the divinely ordained rights of natural beings, including animals and birds. Islamic teachings assert that the value and rights of non-human creatures are granted by God rather than determined by human utility. Consequently, human engagement with nature must be guided by moral responsibility and justice, ensuring that the rights of all creatures are respected and preserved. This study thus contributes to ongoing scholarly debates on modernity, religion—particularly Islam—and environmental ethics.
One of the key problems of publications in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies is running the risk of producing an academic discourse that is somewhat disconnected from reality. This paper analyses freedom-related publications from the IslamicInfo and Index Islamicus databases to highlight this concern. Here, it is suggested that important ideas and moments of freedom movements in the modern history of Arabs and Muslims have been overlooked by Western publications. While the Saudi Arabian database IslamicInfo (1931–2024) indexed writings that emphasized freedom as a desired then appropriated right, Index Islamicus (1930–2024) presents a century of research in which Arab-Muslim societies were denied freedom as a reality, a dynamic, or an aspiration. The publications indexed in the two databases are compared and examined in relation to the significant political shifts that have occurred in the Arab world.
