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

This issue of Al-Fikr al-Islāmī al-Muʿāṣir (Contemporary Islamic Thought Journal) engages the themes of divine attributes, sociology, theology, and legal identity. The issue opens with an editorial titled “Islamic Culture: Process and Transformation,” highlighting the subject of Islamic culture in the context of current affairs or social reality (al-wāqiʿ), as well as addressing the confusion surrounding this notion's historical and epistemological development.

This issue is comprised of four research articles. The first research article, titled “‘Affirming What God has Affirmed of Himself’: A Critical Examination of the Formation of This Saying in the First Three Hijri Centuries,” is by Hassan al-Khattaf, Professor of Doctrine and Logic at the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies at Qatar University. The second research article, titled “Development of the Rational Method in Ash^ʿarī Kalām (Scholastic Theology): Motives and Features,” is by Mohammed ech-Chahbi, a PhD in Islamic Doctrine and Thought from the Laboratory of Religious and Human Sciences and Societal Issues at the Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences in Sais-Fez, Morocco. The third research article, titled “Towards an Effective Legal Identity Based on the Provisions of Islamic Jurisprudence in Civil Transactions,” is by Nisreen Mahasneh, Professor of Civil Law at Qatar University.  The fourth and final research article, titled “The Sociology of Islamic Art: An Analytical Reading of the Social Functions and Meanings of the Islamic Visual Text,” is by Mazen Asfour, Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of Jordan.

This issue features an opinion essay titled “Methodology for Addressing Contemporary Challenges Facing the Muslim Family: Milk Banks as a Model,” authored by Dr. Zainab Alwani, Founding  Director and Professor of Islamic Studies at Howard University School of Divinity.

Additionally, this issue includes two book reviews. The first is Dr. Husam Mustafa Allaham’s review of Intellectual Education in the Context of Civilizational Advancement, a collective work edited by Dr. Fathi Hasan Malkawi. The second is Dr. Majed Abughazalah’s review of Integrated Japanese Education: Suggestions and Lessons Learned, authored by Dr. Nasser Youssef.

Lastly, this issue includes several brief reviews prepared by Esal Saleh Hawamdeh.