Divine Covenant explores the Qur'anic concept of divine knowledge through scientific, theoretical paradigms - in particular natural law theory - and their relationship with seven Islamic scholarly disciplines: linguistics, hadith, politics, history, exegesis, jurisprudence, theology. By comparing scholarship within these disciplines with current state-of-the-art, the study shows how the Qur'anic concept of divine Covenant reflects natural law theory, relates to a range of other legal, political, and linguistic Qur'anic concepts, informs the canon's entire literary structure, and has implications for a new, legal theory of 'Islamic origins'. The book makes the case that the Islamic disciplines share political economy, institutional framework, and decisive theoretical topics with the Qur'an. The latter include the natural law-related issues of human rights, constitutional separation of powers, and social contract. The book surveys the scholarly deliberations of these topics within the parameters of each discipline and in changing contexts. In addition, consequences of the modern nation-state institutional order for early modern and contemporary Qur'anic studies are mapped. It is argued that the early and medieval Islamic disciplines offer scientifically valuable knowledge because they refer to the same institutional framework as the Qur'an. The disciplines are also important parts of European political history, where they have inspired social contract theory inclusive of diverse religious identities.

In Constructing Civility, Richard Park bridges Christian and Islamic political theologies on the basis of an Aristotelian ethics. He argues that modern secularism entails ideological commitments that can work against the promotion of public civility in pluralistic societies. A corrective outlook on public life and the public sphere is necessary, an outlook that aligns with and recovers the notion of the human good. Park develops a framework for a universally applicable public civility in multifaith and multicultural contexts by engaging the central concepts of the "image of God" (imago Dei) and "human nature" (fitra) in Roman Catholicism and Islam. The study begins with a critique of the social fragmentation and decline of public life found in modernity. Park's central contention is that the construction of public civility within Christian and Islamic political theologies is more promising and sustainable if it is reframed in terms of the human good rather than the common good. The book offers an illustration of the proposed framework of public civility in Mindanao, Philippines, an area that represents one of the longest-standing conflicts between Christian and Muslim communities. Park's sophisticated treatment brings together theology, philosophy, religious studies, intellectual history, and political theory, and will appeal to scholars in all of those fields.

The chapter about idol worship in Maqrizi's Universal History includes excerpts from books that are no longer extant. They make it harder to argue against the import or even the very existence of pre-Islamic idol worship.

The Holy Quran presents an irrefutable basis and belief system for the establishment of a stable and harmonious life in this world, and a triumphant return to Paradise in the Next. There are misunderstandings about the very source-springs of human well-being the belief in the spiritual realities of existence, the infinite love for the Holy Messenger, and the unity regarding the implementation of the divinely revealed programme for human society.Young people all over the world, Muslim as well as non-Muslim, are brought up and educated in an environment permeated by scientific materialism. It is modern learning which programmes their minds and causes them to reject anything they find incompatible with what they have been taught about man and life on the earth. This book will clarify the misunderstandings and confusions about Islamic spirituality on scientific grounds.Scientific orthodoxy refers to magnetic sensitivity in human beings, electromagnetic energies that permeate our atmosphere, the flow of positive and negative ions in the atmosphere affecting human brain activity, the function of the pineal gland and many other empirical sources of transcendent experience that are yet to be investigated. This magnetic energy basis of spiritual experience, which the scientific camp has been forced into revealing, has proved to be a welcome development of modern science from the point of view of Islamic spirituality.The younger generation of modern times will have their belief reconfirmed by the study of the scientific facts cited in this book. The scientific reality of Islamic spirituality is demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt.

Why does religion inspire hatred? Why do people in one religion sometimes hate people of another religion, and also why do some religions inspire hatred from others? This book shows how scholarly studies of prejudice, identity formation, and genocide studies can shed light on global examples of religious hatred. The book is divided into four parts, focusing respectively on: theories of prejudice and violence; historical developments of antisemitism, Islamophobia, and race; contemporary Western antisemitism and Islamophobia; and, prejudices beyond the West in the Islamic, Buddhist, and Hindu traditions. Each part ends with a special focus section. Key features include: - A compelling synthesis of theories of prejudice, identity, and hatred to explain Islamophobia and antisemitism. - An innovative theory of human violence and genocide which explains the link to prejudice. - Case studies of both Western antisemitism and Islamophobia in history and today, alongside global studies of Islamic antisemitism and Hindu and Buddhist Islamophobia - Integrates discussion of race and racialisation as aspects of Islamophobic and antisemitic prejudice in relation to their framing in religious discourses. - Accessible for general readers and students, it can be employed as a textbook for students or read with benefit by scholars for its novel synthesis and theories. The book focuses on antisemitism and Islamophobia, both in the West and beyond, including examples of prejudices and hatred in the Islamic, Hindu, and Buddhist traditions. Drawing on examples from Europe, North America, MENA, South and Southeast Asia, and Africa, Paul Hedges points to common patterns, while identifying the specifics of local context. Religious Hatred is an essential guide for understanding the historical origins of religious hatred, the manifestations of this hatred across diverse religious and cultural contexts, and the strategies employed by activists and peacemakers to overcome this hatred.

Moses Mendelssohn (1725-1786) is considered the foremost representative of Jewish Enlightenment. In No Religion without Idolatry, Gideon Freudenthal offers a novel interpretation of Mendelssohn's general philosophy and discusses for the first time Mendelssohn's semiotic interpretation of idolatry in his Jerusalem and in his Hebrew biblical commentary. Mendelssohn emerges from this study as an original philosopher, not a shallow popularizer of rationalist metaphysics, as he is sometimes portrayed. Of special and lasting value is his semiotic theory of idolatry. From a semiotic perspective, both idolatry and enlightenment are necessary constituents of religion. Idolatry ascribes to religious symbols an intrinsic value: enlightenment maintains that symbols are conventional and merely signify religious content but do not share its properties and value. Without enlightenment, religion degenerates to fetishism; without idolatry it turns into philosophy and frustrates religious experience. Freudenthal demonstrates that in Mendelssohn's view, Judaism is the optimal religious synthesis. It consists of transient ceremonies of a "living script." Its ceremonies are symbols, but they are not permanent objects that could be venerated. Jewish ceremonies thus provide a religious experience but frustrate fetishism. Throughout the book, Freudenthal fruitfully contrasts Mendelssohn's views on religion and philosophy with those of his contemporary critic and opponent, Salomon Maimon. No Religion without Idolatry breaks new ground in Mendelssohn studies. It will interest students and scholars in philosophy of religion, Judaism, and semiotics.