Submissions | Al-Fikr al-islāmī al-muʿāṣir (previously Islamiyat al-Ma'rifah)

Author Guidelines

An article should be no less than 6,000 and no more than 8,000 words, including the footnotes, the abstract and references in both Arabic and English, the appendices, and the tables; and it must not have been published or submitted for publication anywhere else.
The Journal publishes descriptive and field research and studies, with special focus on epistemological and methodological topics within an Islamic framework, as well as topics relating to the Islamic foundational principles (ta’ṣīl) of knowledge.
The submitted material should include:

An introduction of about 500 to 1,000 words, explicating the article’s topic, its objectives, significance, and a review of related literature.

A conclusion of the same size as the introduction, summarizing the article and its most important findings and recommendations. A summary here means a focused overview of the basic ideas the author would like to draw the reader's attention to. The findings consist of the author’s contribution and most significant contribution to the research area; it must not be a mere repetition of some issues mentioned or discussed.

The recommendations state the questions raised in the research that open new horizons for future research; as well as indicate decisions people concerned could adopt in order to reform and improve the status quo.

As for the article body text, it is organized into a number of sections, preferably, 3-5, with appropriate subheadings numbered with words: first, second, and third, ... If any section is to be divided into further subheadings, Arabic numerals are used: 1, 2, 3, …

The author prepares an abstract both in English and in Arabic of no more than 100 words, submitted with the article for purposes of indexing in international indexing systems.
The author follows the Journal’s citation guidelines, which are set according to international standards, namely the APA style. It is preferable to cite recent references (published in the last ten years, except for original sources, of course) which comprise, in addition to published books, specialized scholarly periodicals and related academic dissertations.
In addition to listing the Arabic references, the author is asked to transliterate Arabic references into the English alphabet (Romanization). The "Romanized" references should be listed with the non-Arabic references in alphabetical order.
The typesetting and editing instructions listed below should be taken into consideration, and it is always preferred to upload the material onto the Journal’s website: https://citj.org.
The author should provide an academic biography for the readers, which will appear in a footnote on the first page. It is preferable that the author’s details include higher education degrees earned, specialization, job title, location, and email address.
After an article is accepted for publication, the following should be taken into consideration:

The page size should be 17 x 24, with margins of 2cm on all sides.
The manuscript should be free of linguistic or typographical errors.
All Arabic references should be translated and romanized where necessary.

Example: Arkoun, M. (1992). Al-Fikr al-Islāmī: Naqd wa Ijtihād [Islamic Thought: Criticism and Ijtihād]. Algiers: Al-Mu’assasah al-Waṭaniyyah li al-Kitāb.

References are alphabetically ordered, and the list of references should not be numbered.

Fourth: Guidelines for Preparation of Book Reviews

The general data of the book being reviewed should be cited in the original language of the book in the following order: Title of book. Name of author (Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication), page number, and any other data such as the translator, editor, etc.
Identifying the author of the review in a maximum of 25 words as follows: name, qualification, and job title.
Defining the nature of the type of review on the following bases:
- The first type of review (a general review) aims at introducing the book, determining what scholarly contribution it provides, and demonstrating the intellectual and technical expertise of its author. The reviewer is not normally expected to make an addition beyond the book’s content, or go into detailing the conclusions of the thesis (or theses) of the book, except as required by the general evaluation of the book, or to determine the extent of the author’s success in achieving his/her goals.
- The second type of review (a more critical review) includes what is in the first type of review, but also expands the research of the book's theses, either by developing them or presenting alternative theses. This type of review usually adds extensive analyses of some of the issues at hand and presents the distinct contribution of the reviewer, documented and supported with additional sources not originally cited in the book being reviewed.
A brief bio of the author of the book reviewed in about 25 words.
A review should include a description of the contents of the book: the number of sections or chapters, their titles, and the contents of the introduction and the conclusion.
The purpose of the book and its significance for the reader.
A synopsis of the general topic and main ideas; that is, the basic premise discussed in the book and its annexes, in addition to the results that the book arrives at.
An evaluation of the book and its contribution to the field researched.
Any points of weakness in the book and points that need more elaboration and scrutiny.
A mention of any other references with which the reader can compare the book or supplement his/her knowledge of the topic researched.
The size of the review article should not exceed 3,000 words.

Fifth: Guidelines for Brief Reviews

This section is intended to introduce the Arab reader to some recent publications in Arabic or international thought, presumably within the interests of the Journal’s readers. It is possible to introduce books in languages other than Arabic.
The introductions are limited to books published not earlier than one year ago.
The size of the brief review is 50 to 100 words.
The general documentation data of the book under review are cited in the original language of the book as follows: Book title. Author’s name. Other data such as translator or editor, etc., (Place

Sixth: Guidelines for Reports on Conferences and Seminars

Providing a brief bio of the author who has prepared the report, including name, qualification, and job title in no more than 25 words maximum.
Documentation of the date and place of the conference, number of attendees, the type of conference (seminar, session, workshop, etc.), and number of papers submitted.
Statement of the general idea of the conference, its subject, topics, general objectives, and its main themes.
Introducing the topic of each paper in 50 words maximum.
Providing a summary of the ideas and discussions.
Presenting an overall evaluation of the conference.
The size of the report should be about 1,500 words.

Seventh: General Remarks Regarding Typesetting and Editing of Manuscripts

In typesetting the material, use MS Word, Traditional Arabic font size 16. The same font type and size, in bold, should be used for subheadings.
If any material in English is included, it shall be placed without brackets, in Times New Roman font size 13, in lowercase letters (except for proper names, of which the first letter only is capitalized).
A full stop is placed at the end of each paragraph and footnote.
The documentation of Qur’anic verses is after the text of the verse in the text body, not in the footnotes. The documentation should appear between square brackets with the name of the surah followed by colon, and verse number(s); example, [Al-Baqarah: 78-79], without space before or after the annotation.
Punctuation marks of annotations are not separated from the linguistic material between them with spaces; thus, (-correct-) and (- incorrect -).
If consecutive dots have to be used in the middle or at the end of a sentence to indicate skipped material or more examples, the number of dots should always be three.
Exclamation (!) and interrogative marks (?) are used only one at a time. It is not allowed to put double punctuation marks like (??). However, it is allowed to use one question mark and one exclamation mark together (?!). These punctuation marks are substitutes for the full stop at the end of a sentence.
Use of boldface, underlining, or italics should not be used in the body of the text.
Numbers indicating footnotes whether in the text body, footnotes, or endnotes are in superscript (a little higher than the citation itself) and should not be placed between brackets.
When using brackets or quotation marks of any type: (...), <...>, [...], or “ ”, to mark the beginning or end of quotations, a space should not separate the bracketed or quoted material from the brackets, parentheses, or quotation marks; this is “correct”, whereas this is “ incorrect ” .
The slash (/) can be used to separate the Hijri and Gregorian dates; for example, (2003CE/1424AH), without spaces before or after it. Likewise, the same mark can be used to separate the different solar month names (in Arabic) according to different regions; for example, .(مارس/آذار)
When the sentence or paragraph ends with quoted text, a full stop is placed at the end of the quoted text before the quotation mark; for example, “... We hope that this clarification is sufficient.” If the quotation material does not end with the sentence, then the quote end is marked and the sentence continues until it ends with a period or a comma.
The letter ﻫ is used to indicate the Hijri year in this form ﻫ The letter can be found in the symbols. The regular letter ﻫ from the keyboard should not be used.
No space should be left between the letter م to indicate Gregorian year and the year number. The same applies to the letter ﻫ indicating Hijri year.
No space should be placed between punctuation marks and material preceding them, while a space should be placed between any punctuation mark and the material after them.
Two consecutive spaces should not be placed anywhere in the paper.
When the letter ز falls after the ن, the letter ن must be extended; for example, نز is wrong while نـز is correct.
Author’s name is included in the research paper without any title; such as, doctor, professor, Dr., or Prof.
The letter (ﻫ) for Hijri dates is always used, while (م) for Gregorian dates is used only when both Gregorian and Hijri dates are mentioned.
It is preferable to copy the Qur’an verses from a programmed text with diacritics; or, if that is not possible, the verses should be typed, preferably with a full stop between one verse and the other. It is possible to place a comma between two ideas in the same verse when the verse is long. The verses are distinguished by using the verse quotation marks [ ] before and after them.
A colon is used before the text of a statement (Al-Shāfiʿī says: The statement is ...); or after the phrase “for example” or “like”; for example, (This meaning is like the poet’s

saying: Not all that a person wishes for ...); or after enumeration with words as in (First: the fundamental principles of Fiqh, ...).

When using serial numbers, number size 12 should be used, followed by a period and not anything else; such as : or -.
When mentioning the year of death of a scholar, the word “died” should be used, as in (died 790 AH).
Verses of poetry are centered on the page, aligned, and justified.

POLICIES AND GUIDELINES

JOURNAL IDENTITY AND OBJECTIVES

Majallat Al-Fikr al-Islāmī al-Muʿāṣir (Journal of Contemporary Islamic Thought) is an open platform for intellectual dialogue and debate of ideas and views that aims to realize the following:

Systematic reform of thought among Muslims, through integration of knowledge and restoration of ijtihād.
Promotion of awareness, research, and education in Muslim societies.
Development of critical scientific methodologies and tools for rigorous revision and investment of Islamic knowledge that will respond to and/or benefit from current breakthroughs and progress in human knowledge.

The Journal seeks to achieve these goals through focusing on the following domains:

Issues in knowledge and epistemology, especially those pertaining to the holistic vision of knowledge and systematic thought and research.
Education and scientific research in Muslim societies and the development of educational tools and strategies.
Methodologies for dealing with the foundational origins (uṣūl) and Islamic and human heritage.

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

Majallat Al-Fikr al-Islāmī al-Muʿāṣir (Journal of Contemporary Islamic Thought (JCIT)) is committed to the wide dissemination of knowledge and research. Therefore, in keeping with what is now standard good practice in academic publishing, JCIT has become open access (OA). This means that everyone has free and unlimited access to the full-text of all articles published in JCIT. Print subscriptions for individuals and institutions are still available (at the rates provided below). JCIT will continue to be free of charge for authors and will require no fees for manuscript processing and/or publishing materials.

PUBLICATION ETHICS

Authors’ Responsibilities

Authorship of the article: The authors named on the submitted manuscript must be significant contributors to the conception, design, and interpretation of the research. Any contributors who do not qualify for authorship should be acknowledged and the nature of their contribution to the research clearly outlined. An author submitting an article that has multiple authors must verify that all co-authors have approved the final version of the article and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Originality, plagiarism, and acknowledgement of sources: Authors must submit entirely original works and appropriately quote and/or cite the work and/or words of others. Authors must list all references cited in the manuscript.

Disclosure and conflict of interest: Authors must disclose in their manuscript any financial support received or other substantive conflict of interest that may be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project must be disclosed. Authors must not publish the same research in more than one journal.

Participation in the peer-review and editorial process: Authors will participate in the peer review and editorial process and are expected to collaborate with the Co-Editors in the production of the final published version of their manuscript. They will be expected to implement revisions, where required, and give their approval of the version to be published. The author should not identify oneself in any form in the body of the article, in order to ensure complete anonymity.

Ensuring accuracy and integrity of the article: Authors will be accountable for ensuring the accuracy or integrity of all and any part of their work. They will be expected to provide corrections for any inadvertent errors in published articles. Corrections will be a separate publication linked to the original paper. A note announcing that an updated version was uploaded will also be added to the article and to the abstract page. For more serious errors and malpractice, the article will be retracted. This means complete removal. This measure will be taken only in cases of gross ethical misconduct, such as plagiarism. Potential retractions will be fully investigated by the Editorial Team, who will seek the expert support of the Editorial Board. Final approval of the retraction will be made by the Editor-in-Chief.

Peer-review Process

Articles submitted to the Journal are subject to strict peer-reviewing. All articles considered for publication will be sent for peer-review. All articles will be anonymized while under review and all reviews will be treated confidentially. At least two reports per manuscript are collected. A third review will be solicited if the first two differ substantially.

Editorial decisions are made as follows:

Accept manuscript as submitted without further revisions.
Accept manuscript after revisions based on reviewers’ comments. Authors shall be given 4 weeks for minor revisions.
Request major revisions. Only one round of major revisions will be allowed. The revised manuscript needs to address all suggested revisions which should be completed within 8 weeks. Discretionary extensions may be granted in agreement with the Co-Editors. The revised manuscript will be returned to the reviewer for further comments.
Reject and encourage resubmission: The manuscript has serious flaws but could potentially make an original contribution. Authors will be encouraged to re-submit a fully revised manuscript.
Reject: The manuscript is academically flawed and makes no original contribution.

Reviewers’ Responsibilities

Qualifications: Reviewers shall be experts in the relevant fields. Reviewers must hold a PhD or a senior academic post and must have recent publications in the field of the submitted manuscript. Any selected reviewer who feels unqualified to review the manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible must notify the editor and excuse oneself from the review process.

Disclosure and conflict of interest: Reviewers must declare any conflict of interest for the consideration of the Editorial Team. Reviewers cannot have published with the authors in the past five years.

Contribution to editorial decisions: Reviewers assist the Editorial Team in making editorial decisions and may also serve the author in improving the article. The reviewers’ obligations include: (1) indicating the originality and significance of the article to the relevant field; and (2) pointing out any relevant published work not yet cited by the author.

Standards of objectivity: Reviews should be conducted respectfully and objectively. Personal criticism of the author is disallowed. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Confidentiality: Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shared or discussed with others except as authorized by the Editorial Team.

Editorial Team Responsibilities

The Editorial Team: The Editorial Team includes the Editor-in-Chief, Co-Editors, Assistant Editor, Book Review Editor, the Editorial Board, and the International Advisory Board. For the full names and contact details of the Editorial Team, Editorial Board, and International Advisory Board, please visit our website.

The Editor-in-Chief holds ultimate responsibility for the Journal and its quality. S/he is not directly involved in the editorial process, which is the responsibility of the Co-Editors. As the head of the Editorial Team, the Editor-in-Chief will assist the Team with strategic decisions about the Journal's scope, reach, and profile. The initial term for the Editor-in-Chief position is three years and can be renewed.

Editorial Board Members will occasionally be asked to review one or two manuscripts per year. They will be approached for input or feedback regarding the Journal’s editorial policy and regulations. Their main role is to promote the Journal and raise its profile within the academic community. The initial term for an Editorial Board membership is three years and can be renewed.

Manuscript Review: Once a manuscript is submitted, it is received by the Co-Editors who will: determine whether the manuscript is appropriate and within the scope of the Journal, assign reviewers to assist in the evaluation of the manuscript, coordinate a final editorial decision, communicate with the review team and author, manage revisions and copyediting, schedule accepted manuscripts for final publication, and resolve any issues.

Investigating Misconduct: The Co-Editors shall prevent the publication of articles where research misconduct becomes evident before, during and/or after the publication process. The Journal or its Co-editors shall not (under any circumstances) ignore, encourage, or knowingly allow such misconduct to take place. In the event the Journal’s Co-Editors are made aware of any allegation of research misconduct, they shall deal with allegations appropriately. Where such misconduct has been proven at any stage, the Journal shall inform the author and retract the article. Where only minor mistakes have been made, publication of corrections online, or in the following issue in the case of a published article, shall be made.

Involvement and cooperation in investigations: The editors should take reasonably responsive measures when ethical complaints have been presented concerning a submitted manuscript or published article.

Confidentiality: The editors and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest: Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.

Copyright

When an article is accepted for publication, copyrights of the publication are transferred from the author to the Journal, and reserved for the Publisher. Permission will be required from publishers for any work for which the author does not hold copyright and for any substantial extracts from work by other authors. The copyright holder giving permission may instruct the author on the form of acknowledgement to be followed. Alternatively, we recommend following the style: “Reproduced with permission from [author], [book/journal title]; published by [publisher], [year]”.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a serious form of academic malpractice. It includes copying text, ideas, images, or data, even from an author’s own publications, without crediting the original source.

All text used from another source must be between quotation marks and the original source must be cited. Additionally, language, concepts, ideas, and interpretations drawing from previous studies must explicitly cite the original source.

If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript will be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, a retraction will be made.

GUIDELINES FOR THE PREPARATION OF SUBMISSIONS

An article should be no less than 6,000 and no more than 8,000 words, including footnotes; it must not have been published or submitted for publication anywhere else.
The Journal publishes descriptive and field research and studies, with special focus on epistemological and methodological topics within an Islamic framework, as well as topics relating to the Islamic foundational principles (ta’ṣīl) of knowledge.
The submitted material should include:

An introduction of about 500 to 1,000 words, explicating the article’s topic, its objectives, significance, and a review of related literature.

As for the article body text, it is organized into a number of sections, preferably three to five, with appropriate subheadings numbered with words: first, second, and third, ... If any section is to be divided into further subheadings, Arabic numerals are used: 1, 2, 3, …

The author prepares an abstract both in English and in Arabic of no more than 100 words, submitted with the article for purposes of indexing in international indexing systems.
The author follows the Journal’s citation guidelines, which are set according to international standards, namely the APA style. It is preferable to cite recent references (published in the last ten years—unless they are primary sources), which comprise published books, specialized scholarly periodicals, and related academic dissertations.

Example: ʻAlwānī, T. J. F. (2017). Min Adab al-Ikhtilāf ilá Nabdh al-Khilāf (al-Ṭabʻah al-ūlá.). al-Maʻhad al-ʻĀlamī lil-Fikr al-Islāmī.

The author should Romanize the Arabic sources and include them in the list of English sources (while keeping the separate list of Arabic sources).
The typesetting and editing instructions listed below should be taken into consideration, and it is always preferred to upload the material onto the Journal’s website: https://citj.org.
The author should provide a brief academic biography for the readers, which will appear in a footnote on the first page. It is preferable that the author’s details include higher education degrees earned, specialization, job title, location, and email address.

Example: PhD, Comparative Religion, Temple University (1989). Associate Professor, Department of Usul al-Din, International Islamic University of Malaysia. Email: katib@yahoo.com.

After an article is accepted for publication, the following should be taken into consideration:

The page size should be 17 x 24, with margins of 2cm on all sides.
The manuscript should be free of linguistic or typographical errors.
All Arabic references should be Romanized (according to the IIIT transliteration system).

Example: Arkoun, M. (1992). Al-Fikr al-Islāmī: Naqd wa Ijtihād . Algiers: Al-Mu’assasah al-Waṭaniyyah li al-Kitāb.

References are alphabetically ordered, and the list of references should not be numbered.

GUIDELINES FOR THE PREPARATION OF BOOK REVIEWS

The general data of the book being reviewed should be cited in the original language of the book in the following order: Author, A. (Year of publication). Title of Work (# edition if other than first edition). Publisher.

Example: Al-Alwani, T. (2017). Min Adab al-Ikhtilāf ilā Nabdh al-Khilāf. Amman: International Institute of Islamic Thought.

Identifying the author of the review in a maximum of 25 words as follows: Name, Job title, Institution affiliation.

Example: Ahmad Abd al-Jabbar, Associate Professor, Department of Usul al-Din, International Islamic University of Malaysia.

Defining the nature of the type of review on the following bases:
- The first type of review (a general review) aims at introducing the book, determining what scholarly contribution it provides, and demonstrating the intellectual and technical expertise of its author. The reviewer is not normally expected to make an addition beyond the book’s content, or go into detailing the conclusions of the thesis (or theses) of the book, except as required by the general evaluation of the book, or to determine the extent of the author’s success in achieving his/her goals.
- The second type of review (a more critical review) includes what is in the first type of review, but also expands the research of the book's theses, either by developing them or presenting alternative theses. This type of review usually adds extensive analyses of some of the issues at hand and presents the distinct contribution of the reviewer, documented and supported with additional sources not originally cited in the book being reviewed.
A brief bio of the author of the book reviewed in about 25 words.
A review should include a description of the contents of the book: the number of sections or chapters, their titles, and the contents of the introduction and the conclusion.
The purpose of the book and its significance for the reader.
A synopsis of the general topic and main ideas; that is, the basic premise discussed in the book and its annexes, in addition to the results that the book arrives at.
An evaluation of the book and its contribution to the field researched.
Any points of weakness in the book and points that need more elaboration and scrutiny.
A mention of any other references with which the reader can compare the book or supplement his/her knowledge of the topic researched.
The size of the review article should not exceed 3,000 words.

GUIDELINES FOR BRIEF REVIEWS

This section is intended to introduce the Arab reader to some recent publications in Arabic or international thought, presumably within the interests of the Journal’s readers. It is possible to introduce books in languages other than Arabic.
The introductions are limited to books published not earlier than one year ago.
The size of the brief review is 50 to 100 words.
The general documentation data of the book under review are cited in the original language of the book as follows: Book title. Author’s name. Other data such as translator or editor, etc., (Place

Example: Al-Turāth wa Athrahu fī Binā’ al-Ḥaḍir wa Ibṣār al-Mustaqbal. Abd al-Salam Rayah (Amman: Markaz Maʿrifat al-Insān li al-Dirasāt wa al-Abḥāth wa al-Nashr wa al-Tawzīʿ), p. 218.

GUIDELINES FOR REPORTS ON CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS

Providing a brief bio of the author who has prepared the report, including name, qualification, and job title in no more than 25 words maximum.
Documentation of the date and place of the conference, number of attendees, the type of conference (seminar, session, workshop, etc.), and number of papers submitted.
Statement of the general idea of the conference, its subject, topics, general objectives, and its main themes.
Introducing the topic of each paper in 50 words maximum.
Providing a summary of the ideas and discussions.
Presenting an overall evaluation of the conference.
The size of the report should be about 1,500 words.

GENERAL REMARKS REGARDING TYPESETTING AND EDITING OF MANUSCRIPTS

In typesetting the material, use MS Word, Traditional Arabic font size 16. The same font type and size, in bold, should be used for subheadings.
If any material in English is included, it shall be placed without brackets, in Times New Roman font size 13, in lowercase letters (except for proper names, of which the first letter only is capitalized).
A full stop is placed at the end of each paragraph and footnote.
The documentation of Qur’anic verses is after the text of the verse in the text body, not in the footnotes. The documentation should appear between square brackets with the name of the surah followed by colon, and verse number(s); example, [Al-Baqarah: 78-79], without space before or after the annotation.
Punctuation marks of annotations are not separated from the linguistic material between them with spaces; thus, (-correct-) and (- incorrect -).
If consecutive dots have to be used in the middle or at the end of a sentence to indicate skipped material or more examples, the number of dots should always be three.
Exclamation (!) and interrogative marks (?) are used only one at a time. It is not allowed to put double punctuation marks like (??). However, it is allowed to use one question mark and one exclamation mark together (?!). These punctuation marks are substitutes for the full stop at the end of a sentence.
Use of boldface, underlining, or italics should not be used in the body of the text.
Numbers indicating footnotes whether in the text body, footnotes, or endnotes are in superscript (a little higher than the citation itself) and should not be placed between brackets.
When using brackets or quotation marks of any type: (...), <...>, [...], or “ ”, to mark the beginning or end of quotations, a space should not separate the bracketed or quoted material from the brackets, parentheses, or quotation marks; this is “correct”, whereas this is “ incorrect ” .
The slash (/) can be used to separate the Hijri and Gregorian dates; for example, (1424/2003), without spaces before or after it. Likewise, the same mark can be used to separate the different solar month names (in Arabic) according to different regions; for example, .(مارس/آذار)
When the sentence or paragraph ends with quoted text, a full stop is placed at the end of the quoted text before the quotation mark; for example, “... We hope that this clarification is sufficient.” If the quotation material does not end with the sentence, then the quote end is marked and the sentence continues until it ends with a period or a comma.
The letter ﻫ is used to indicate the Hijri year in this form ﻫ The letter can be found in the symbols. The regular letter ﻫ from the keyboard should not be used.
No space should be left between the letter م to indicate Gregorian year and the year number. The same applies to the letter ﻫ indicating Hijri year.
No space should be placed between punctuation marks and material preceding them, while a space should be placed between any punctuation mark and the material after them.
Two consecutive spaces should not be placed anywhere in the paper.
When the letter ز falls after the ن, the letter ن must be extended; for example, نز is wrong while نـز is correct.
Author’s name is included in the research paper without any title; such as, doctor, professor, Dr., or Prof.
The letter (ﻫ) for Hijri dates is always used, while (م) for Gregorian dates is used only when both Gregorian and Hijri dates are mentioned.
It is preferable to copy the Qur’an verses from a programmed text with diacritics; or, if that is not possible, the verses should be typed, preferably with a full stop between one verse and the other. It is possible to place a comma between two ideas in the same verse when the verse is long. The verses are distinguished by using the verse quotation marks [ ] before and after them.
A colon is used before the text of a statement (Al-Shāfiʿī says: The statement is ...); or after the phrase “for example” or “like”; for example, (This meaning is like the poet’s

saying: Not all that a person wishes for ...); or after enumeration with words as in (First: the fundamental principles of Fiqh, ...).

When using serial numbers, number size 12 should be used, followed by a period and not anything else; such as : or -.
When mentioning the year of death of a person, the abbreviation “d.” should be used along with the Hijri and Gregorian years. Example: (d. 790/1388).
Verses of poetry are centered on the page, aligned, and justified.

POLICIES AND GUIDELINES

JOURNAL IDENTITY AND OBJECTIVES

Majallat Al-Fikr al-Islāmī al-Muʿāṣir (Journal of Contemporary Islamic Thought) is an open platform for intellectual dialogue and debate of ideas and views that aims to realize the following:

Systematic reform of thought among Muslims, through integration of knowledge and restoration of ijtihād.
Promotion of awareness, research, and education in Muslim societies.
Development of critical scientific methodologies and tools for rigorous revision and investment of Islamic knowledge that will respond to and/or benefit from current breakthroughs and progress in human knowledge.

The Journal seeks to achieve these goals through focusing on the following domains:

Issues in knowledge and epistemology, especially those pertaining to the holistic vision of knowledge and systematic thought and research.
Education and scientific research in Muslim societies and the development of educational tools and strategies.
Methodologies for dealing with the foundational origins (uṣūl) and Islamic and human heritage.

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

PUBLICATION ETHICS

Authors’ Responsibilities

Peer-review Process

Editorial decisions are made as follows:

Accept manuscript as submitted without further revisions.
Accept manuscript after revisions based on reviewers’ comments. Authors shall be given 4 weeks for minor revisions.
Request major revisions. Only one round of major revisions will be allowed. The revised manuscript needs to address all suggested revisions which should be completed within 8 weeks. Discretionary extensions may be granted in agreement with the Co-Editors. The revised manuscript will be returned to the reviewer for further comments.
Reject and encourage resubmission: The manuscript has serious flaws but could potentially make an original contribution. Authors will be encouraged to re-submit a fully revised manuscript.
Reject: The manuscript is academically flawed and makes no original contribution.

Reviewers’ Responsibilities

Confidentiality: Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shared or discussed with others except as authorized by the Editorial Team.

Editorial Team Responsibilities

Copyright

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a serious form of academic malpractice. It includes copying text, ideas, images, or data, even from an author’s own publications, without crediting the original source.

If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript will be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, a retraction will be made.

GUIDELINES FOR THE PREPARATION OF SUBMISSIONS

An article should be no less than 6,000 and no more than 8,000 words, including footnotes; it must not have been published or submitted for publication anywhere else.
The Journal publishes descriptive and field research and studies, with special focus on epistemological and methodological topics within an Islamic framework, as well as topics relating to the Islamic foundational principles (ta’ṣīl) of knowledge.
The submitted material should include:

An introduction of about 500 to 1,000 words, explicating the article’s topic, its objectives, significance, and a review of related literature.

The author prepares an abstract both in English and in Arabic of no more than 100 words, submitted with the article for purposes of indexing in international indexing systems.
The author follows the Journal’s citation guidelines, which are set according to international standards, namely the APA style. It is preferable to cite recent references (published in the last ten years—unless they are primary sources), which comprise published books, specialized scholarly periodicals, and related academic dissertations.

Example: ʻAlwānī, T. J. F. (2017). Min Adab al-Ikhtilāf ilá Nabdh al-Khilāf (al-Ṭabʻah al-ūlá.). al-Maʻhad al-ʻĀlamī lil-Fikr al-Islāmī.

The author should Romanize the Arabic sources and include them in the list of English sources (while keeping the separate list of Arabic sources).
The typesetting and editing instructions listed below should be taken into consideration, and it is always preferred to upload the material onto the Journal’s website: https://citj.org.
The author should provide a brief academic biography for the readers, which will appear in a footnote on the first page. It is preferable that the author’s details include higher education degrees earned, specialization, job title, location, and email address.

Example: PhD, Comparative Religion, Temple University (1989). Associate Professor, Department of Usul al-Din, International Islamic University of Malaysia. Email: katib@yahoo.com.

After an article is accepted for publication, the following should be taken into consideration:

The page size should be 17 x 24, with margins of 2cm on all sides.
The manuscript should be free of linguistic or typographical errors.
All Arabic references should be Romanized (according to the IIIT transliteration system).

Example: Arkoun, M. (1992). Al-Fikr al-Islāmī: Naqd wa Ijtihād . Algiers: Al-Mu’assasah al-Waṭaniyyah li al-Kitāb.

References are alphabetically ordered, and the list of references should not be numbered.

GUIDELINES FOR THE PREPARATION OF BOOK REVIEWS

The general data of the book being reviewed should be cited in the original language of the book in the following order: Author, A. (Year of publication). Title of Work (# edition if other than first edition). Publisher.

Example: Al-Alwani, T. (2017). Min Adab al-Ikhtilāf ilā Nabdh al-Khilāf. Amman: International Institute of Islamic Thought.

Identifying the author of the review in a maximum of 25 words as follows: Name, Job title, Institution affiliation.

Example: Ahmad Abd al-Jabbar, Associate Professor, Department of Usul al-Din, International Islamic University of Malaysia.

Defining the nature of the type of review on the following bases:
- The first type of review (a general review) aims at introducing the book, determining what scholarly contribution it provides, and demonstrating the intellectual and technical expertise of its author. The reviewer is not normally expected to make an addition beyond the book’s content, or go into detailing the conclusions of the thesis (or theses) of the book, except as required by the general evaluation of the book, or to determine the extent of the author’s success in achieving his/her goals.
- The second type of review (a more critical review) includes what is in the first type of review, but also expands the research of the book's theses, either by developing them or presenting alternative theses. This type of review usually adds extensive analyses of some of the issues at hand and presents the distinct contribution of the reviewer, documented and supported with additional sources not originally cited in the book being reviewed.
A brief bio of the author of the book reviewed in about 25 words.
A review should include a description of the contents of the book: the number of sections or chapters, their titles, and the contents of the introduction and the conclusion.
The purpose of the book and its significance for the reader.
A synopsis of the general topic and main ideas; that is, the basic premise discussed in the book and its annexes, in addition to the results that the book arrives at.
An evaluation of the book and its contribution to the field researched.
Any points of weakness in the book and points that need more elaboration and scrutiny.
A mention of any other references with which the reader can compare the book or supplement his/her knowledge of the topic researched.
The size of the review article should not exceed 3,000 words.

GUIDELINES FOR BRIEF REVIEWS

This section is intended to introduce the Arab reader to some recent publications in Arabic or international thought, presumably within the interests of the Journal’s readers. It is possible to introduce books in languages other than Arabic.
The introductions are limited to books published not earlier than one year ago.
The size of the brief review is 50 to 100 words.
The general documentation data of the book under review are cited in the original language of the book as follows: Book title. Author’s name. Other data such as translator or editor, etc., (Place

GUIDELINES FOR REPORTS ON CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS

Providing a brief bio of the author who has prepared the report, including name, qualification, and job title in no more than 25 words maximum.
Documentation of the date and place of the conference, number of attendees, the type of conference (seminar, session, workshop, etc.), and number of papers submitted.
Statement of the general idea of the conference, its subject, topics, general objectives, and its main themes.
Introducing the topic of each paper in 50 words maximum.
Providing a summary of the ideas and discussions.
Presenting an overall evaluation of the conference.
The size of the report should be about 1,500 words.

GENERAL REMARKS REGARDING TYPESETTING AND EDITING OF MANUSCRIPTS

In typesetting the material, use MS Word, Traditional Arabic font size 16. The same font type and size, in bold, should be used for subheadings.
If any material in English is included, it shall be placed without brackets, in Times New Roman font size 13, in lowercase letters (except for proper names, of which the first letter only is capitalized).
A full stop is placed at the end of each paragraph and footnote.
The documentation of Qur’anic verses is after the text of the verse in the text body, not in the footnotes. The documentation should appear between square brackets with the name of the surah followed by colon, and verse number(s); example, [Al-Baqarah: 78-79], without space before or after the annotation.
Punctuation marks of annotations are not separated from the linguistic material between them with spaces; thus, (-correct-) and (- incorrect -).
If consecutive dots have to be used in the middle or at the end of a sentence to indicate skipped material or more examples, the number of dots should always be three.
Exclamation (!) and interrogative marks (?) are used only one at a time. It is not allowed to put double punctuation marks like (??). However, it is allowed to use one question mark and one exclamation mark together (?!). These punctuation marks are substitutes for the full stop at the end of a sentence.
Use of boldface, underlining, or italics should not be used in the body of the text.
Numbers indicating footnotes whether in the text body, footnotes, or endnotes are in superscript (a little higher than the citation itself) and should not be placed between brackets.
When using brackets or quotation marks of any type: (...), <...>, [...], or “ ”, to mark the beginning or end of quotations, a space should not separate the bracketed or quoted material from the brackets, parentheses, or quotation marks; this is “correct”, whereas this is “ incorrect ” .
The slash (/) can be used to separate the Hijri and Gregorian dates; for example, (1424/2003), without spaces before or after it. Likewise, the same mark can be used to separate the different solar month names (in Arabic) according to different regions; for example, .(مارس/آذار)
When the sentence or paragraph ends with quoted text, a full stop is placed at the end of the quoted text before the quotation mark; for example, “... We hope that this clarification is sufficient.” If the quotation material does not end with the sentence, then the quote end is marked and the sentence continues until it ends with a period or a comma.
The letter ﻫ is used to indicate the Hijri year in this form ﻫ The letter can be found in the symbols. The regular letter ﻫ from the keyboard should not be used.
No space should be left between the letter م to indicate Gregorian year and the year number. The same applies to the letter ﻫ indicating Hijri year.
No space should be placed between punctuation marks and material preceding them, while a space should be placed between any punctuation mark and the material after them.
Two consecutive spaces should not be placed anywhere in the paper.
When the letter ز falls after the ن, the letter ن must be extended; for example, نز is wrong while نـز is correct.
Author’s name is included in the research paper without any title; such as, doctor, professor, Dr., or Prof.
The letter (ﻫ) for Hijri dates is always used, while (م) for Gregorian dates is used only when both Gregorian and Hijri dates are mentioned.
It is preferable to copy the Qur’an verses from a programmed text with diacritics; or, if that is not possible, the verses should be typed, preferably with a full stop between one verse and the other. It is possible to place a comma between two ideas in the same verse when the verse is long. The verses are distinguished by using the verse quotation marks [ ] before and after them.
A colon is used before the text of a statement (Al-Shāfiʿī says: The statement is ...); or after the phrase “for example” or “like”; for example, (This meaning is like the poet’s

saying: Not all that a person wishes for ...); or after enumeration with words as in (First: the fundamental principles of Fiqh, ...).

When using serial numbers, number size 12 should be used, followed by a period and not anything else; such as : or -.
When mentioning the year of death of a person, the abbreviation “d.” should be used along with the Hijri and Gregorian years. Example: (d. 790/1388).
Verses of poetry are centered on the page, aligned, and justified.

POLICIES AND GUIDELINES

JOURNAL IDENTITY AND OBJECTIVES

Majallat Al-Fikr al-Islāmī al-Muʿāṣir (Journal of Contemporary Islamic Thought) is an open platform for intellectual dialogue and debate of ideas and views that aims to realize the following:

Systematic reform of thought among Muslims, through integration of knowledge and restoration of ijtihād.
Promotion of awareness, research, and education in Muslim societies.
Development of critical scientific methodologies and tools for rigorous revision and investment of Islamic knowledge that will respond to and/or benefit from current breakthroughs and progress in human knowledge.

The Journal seeks to achieve these goals through focusing on the following domains:

Issues in knowledge and epistemology, especially those pertaining to the holistic vision of knowledge and systematic thought and research.
Education and scientific research in Muslim societies and the development of educational tools and strategies.
Methodologies for dealing with the foundational origins (uṣūl) and Islamic and human heritage.

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

PUBLICATION ETHICS

Authors’ Responsibilities

Peer-review Process

Editorial decisions are made as follows:

Accept manuscript as submitted without further revisions.
Accept manuscript after revisions based on reviewers’ comments. Authors shall be given 4 weeks for minor revisions.
Request major revisions. Only one round of major revisions will be allowed. The revised manuscript needs to address all suggested revisions which should be completed within 8 weeks. Discretionary extensions may be granted in agreement with the Co-Editors. The revised manuscript will be returned to the reviewer for further comments.
Reject and encourage resubmission: The manuscript has serious flaws but could potentially make an original contribution. Authors will be encouraged to re-submit a fully revised manuscript.
Reject: The manuscript is academically flawed and makes no original contribution.

Reviewers’ Responsibilities

Confidentiality: Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shared or discussed with others except as authorized by the Editorial Team.

Editorial Team Responsibilities

Copyright

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a serious form of academic malpractice. It includes copying text, ideas, images, or data, even from an author’s own publications, without crediting the original source.

If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript will be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, a retraction will be made.

GUIDELINES FOR THE PREPARATION OF SUBMISSIONS

An article should be no less than 6,000 and no more than 8,000 words, including footnotes; it must not have been published or submitted for publication anywhere else.
The Journal publishes descriptive and field research and studies, with special focus on epistemological and methodological topics within an Islamic framework, as well as topics relating to the Islamic foundational principles (ta’ṣīl) of knowledge.
The submitted material should include:

An introduction of about 500 to 1,000 words, explicating the article’s topic, its objectives, significance, and a review of related literature.

The author prepares an abstract both in English and in Arabic of no more than 100 words, submitted with the article for purposes of indexing in international indexing systems.
The author follows the Journal’s citation guidelines, which are set according to international standards, namely the APA style. It is preferable to cite recent references (published in the last ten years—unless they are primary sources), which comprise published books, specialized scholarly periodicals, and related academic dissertations.

Example: ʻAlwānī, T. J. F. (2017). Min Adab al-Ikhtilāf ilá Nabdh al-Khilāf (al-Ṭabʻah al-ūlá.). al-Maʻhad al-ʻĀlamī lil-Fikr al-Islāmī.

The author should Romanize the Arabic sources and include them in the list of English sources (while keeping the separate list of Arabic sources).
The typesetting and editing instructions listed below should be taken into consideration, and it is always preferred to upload the material onto the Journal’s website: https://citj.org.
The author should provide a brief academic biography for the readers, which will appear in a footnote on the first page. It is preferable that the author’s details include higher education degrees earned, specialization, job title, location, and email address.

Example: PhD, Comparative Religion, Temple University (1989). Associate Professor, Department of Usul al-Din, International Islamic University of Malaysia. Email: katib@yahoo.com.

After an article is accepted for publication, the following should be taken into consideration:

The page size should be 17 x 24, with margins of 2cm on all sides.
The manuscript should be free of linguistic or typographical errors.
All Arabic references should be Romanized (according to the IIIT transliteration system).

Example: Arkoun, M. (1992). Al-Fikr al-Islāmī: Naqd wa Ijtihād . Algiers: Al-Mu’assasah al-Waṭaniyyah li al-Kitāb.

References are alphabetically ordered, and the list of references should not be numbered.

GUIDELINES FOR THE PREPARATION OF BOOK REVIEWS

The general data of the book being reviewed should be cited in the original language of the book in the following order: Author, A. (Year of publication). Title of Work (# edition if other than first edition). Publisher.

Example: Al-Alwani, T. (2017). Min Adab al-Ikhtilāf ilā Nabdh al-Khilāf. Amman: International Institute of Islamic Thought.

Identifying the author of the review in a maximum of 25 words as follows: Name, Job title, Institution affiliation.

Example: Ahmad Abd al-Jabbar, Associate Professor, Department of Usul al-Din, International Islamic University of Malaysia.

Defining the nature of the type of review on the following bases:
- The first type of review (a general review) aims at introducing the book, determining what scholarly contribution it provides, and demonstrating the intellectual and technical expertise of its author. The reviewer is not normally expected to make an addition beyond the book’s content, or go into detailing the conclusions of the thesis (or theses) of the book, except as required by the general evaluation of the book, or to determine the extent of the author’s success in achieving his/her goals.
- The second type of review (a more critical review) includes what is in the first type of review, but also expands the research of the book's theses, either by developing them or presenting alternative theses. This type of review usually adds extensive analyses of some of the issues at hand and presents the distinct contribution of the reviewer, documented and supported with additional sources not originally cited in the book being reviewed.
A brief bio of the author of the book reviewed in about 25 words.
A review should include a description of the contents of the book: the number of sections or chapters, their titles, and the contents of the introduction and the conclusion.
The purpose of the book and its significance for the reader.
A synopsis of the general topic and main ideas; that is, the basic premise discussed in the book and its annexes, in addition to the results that the book arrives at.
An evaluation of the book and its contribution to the field researched.
Any points of weakness in the book and points that need more elaboration and scrutiny.
A mention of any other references with which the reader can compare the book or supplement his/her knowledge of the topic researched.
The size of the review article should not exceed 3,000 words.

GUIDELINES FOR BRIEF REVIEWS

This section is intended to introduce the Arab reader to some recent publications in Arabic or international thought, presumably within the interests of the Journal’s readers. It is possible to introduce books in languages other than Arabic.
The introductions are limited to books published not earlier than one year ago.
The size of the brief review is 50 to 100 words.
The general documentation data of the book under review are cited in the original language of the book as follows: Book title. Author’s name. Other data such as translator or editor, etc., (Place

GUIDELINES FOR REPORTS ON CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS

Providing a brief bio of the author who has prepared the report, including name, qualification, and job title in no more than 25 words maximum.
Documentation of the date and place of the conference, number of attendees, the type of conference (seminar, session, workshop, etc.), and number of papers submitted.
Statement of the general idea of the conference, its subject, topics, general objectives, and its main themes.
Introducing the topic of each paper in 50 words maximum.
Providing a summary of the ideas and discussions.
Presenting an overall evaluation of the conference.
The size of the report should be about 1,500 words.

GENERAL REMARKS REGARDING TYPESETTING AND EDITING OF MANUSCRIPTS

In typesetting the material, use MS Word, Traditional Arabic font size 16. The same font type and size, in bold, should be used for subheadings.
If any material in English is included, it shall be placed without brackets, in Times New Roman font size 13, in lowercase letters (except for proper names, of which the first letter only is capitalized).
A full stop is placed at the end of each paragraph and footnote.
The documentation of Qur’anic verses is after the text of the verse in the text body, not in the footnotes. The documentation should appear between square brackets with the name of the surah followed by colon, and verse number(s); example, [Al-Baqarah: 78-79], without space before or after the annotation.
Punctuation marks of annotations are not separated from the linguistic material between them with spaces; thus, (-correct-) and (- incorrect -).
If consecutive dots have to be used in the middle or at the end of a sentence to indicate skipped material or more examples, the number of dots should always be three.
Exclamation (!) and interrogative marks (?) are used only one at a time. It is not allowed to put double punctuation marks like (??). However, it is allowed to use one question mark and one exclamation mark together (?!). These punctuation marks are substitutes for the full stop at the end of a sentence.
Use of boldface, underlining, or italics should not be used in the body of the text.
Numbers indicating footnotes whether in the text body, footnotes, or endnotes are in superscript (a little higher than the citation itself) and should not be placed between brackets.
When using brackets or quotation marks of any type: (...), <...>, [...], or “ ”, to mark the beginning or end of quotations, a space should not separate the bracketed or quoted material from the brackets, parentheses, or quotation marks; this is “correct”, whereas this is “ incorrect ” .
The slash (/) can be used to separate the Hijri and Gregorian dates; for example, (1424/2003), without spaces before or after it. Likewise, the same mark can be used to separate the different solar month names (in Arabic) according to different regions; for example, .(مارس/آذار)
When the sentence or paragraph ends with quoted text, a full stop is placed at the end of the quoted text before the quotation mark; for example, “... We hope that this clarification is sufficient.” If the quotation material does not end with the sentence, then the quote end is marked and the sentence continues until it ends with a period or a comma.
The letter ﻫ is used to indicate the Hijri year in this form ﻫ The letter can be found in the symbols. The regular letter ﻫ from the keyboard should not be used.
No space should be left between the letter م to indicate Gregorian year and the year number. The same applies to the letter ﻫ indicating Hijri year.
No space should be placed between punctuation marks and material preceding them, while a space should be placed between any punctuation mark and the material after them.
Two consecutive spaces should not be placed anywhere in the paper.
When the letter ز falls after the ن, the letter ن must be extended; for example, نز is wrong while نـز is correct.
Author’s name is included in the research paper without any title; such as, doctor, professor, Dr., or Prof.
The letter (ﻫ) for Hijri dates is always used, while (م) for Gregorian dates is used only when both Gregorian and Hijri dates are mentioned.
It is preferable to copy the Qur’an verses from a programmed text with diacritics; or, if that is not possible, the verses should be typed, preferably with a full stop between one verse and the other. It is possible to place a comma between two ideas in the same verse when the verse is long. The verses are distinguished by using the verse quotation marks [ ] before and after them.
A colon is used before the text of a statement (Al-Shāfiʿī says: The statement is ...); or after the phrase “for example” or “like”; for example, (This meaning is like the poet’s

saying: Not all that a person wishes for ...); or after enumeration with words as in (First: the fundamental principles of Fiqh, ...).

When using serial numbers, number size 12 should be used, followed by a period and not anything else; such as : or -.
When mentioning the year of death of a person, the abbreviation “d.” should be used along with the Hijri and Gregorian years. Example: (d. 790/1388).
Verses of poetry are centered on the page, aligned, and justified.

Peer-review Process

Editorial decisions are made as follows:

Accept manuscript as submitted without further revisions.
Accept manuscript after revisions based on reviewers’ comments. Authors shall be given 4 weeks for minor revisions.
Request major revisions. Only one round of major revisions will be allowed. The revised manuscript needs to address all suggested revisions which should be completed within 8 weeks. Discretionary extensions may be granted in agreement with the Co-Editors. The revised manuscript will be returned to the reviewer for further comments.
Reject and encourage resubmission: The manuscript has serious flaws but could potentially make an original contribution. Authors will be encouraged to re-submit a fully revised manuscript.
Reject: The manuscript is academically flawed and makes no original contribution.

Copyright Notice

When an article is accepted for publication, copyrights of the publication are transferred from the author to the Journal and reserved for the Publisher. Permission will be required from the publisher for any work for which the author does not hold copyright and for any substantial extracts from work by other authors. The copyright holder giving permission may instruct the author on the form of acknowledgment to be followed. Alternatively, we recommend following the style: “Reproduced with permission from [author], [book/journal title]; published by [publisher], [year]”.

No commercial reproduction is allowed without the express permission of the publisher.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

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