At a time when more nuanced understandings of Muslim countries and
their legal and social practices are urgently needed in the West,
the appearance of this collection is especially welcome. In these
illuminating and accessible essays, the contributors explain how
Islam sees itself in terms of social policy, how it treats women,
and how it encourages charity, education, and general social
welfare. The essays encompass many regional cultures and draw on
court records and legal debates, field work on government
ministries, and an extensive reading of Islamic law. In his
overview of waqf (similar to the Western idea of a foundation, in
which an endowment is set aside in perpetuity for specified
purposes), Ahmad Dallal explains how charity, a central organizing
principle in Islam, is itself organized and how waqf, traditionally
a source of revenue for charitable purposes, can also become a
source of tension and conflict. Donna Lee Bowen, in her essay on
the position of women in Islamic law, points out the crucial
differences between the Islamic principles of family equity and the
Western notion of individual equality. In a subsequent essay, Bowen
addresses the problems surrounding family planning and the dilemmas
that have arisen within the Muslim world over differing ideas about
birth control. The two final essays look at specific instances of
how the modern state has treated Islamic social policy. Gall
Richardson examines zakat, an Islamic tax used to assist the poor,
and its administration in Pakistan. Carol Underwood, meanwhile,
explores public health policy in Iran, both before and after the
Islamic revolution that deposed the Shah. Addressing some of the
most profound misunderstandings between Islamic and Western
societies, Islam And Social Policy will be of vital interest not
only to scholars and policymakers but to anyone concerned with
Islam's critical place in the modern world. Stephen P. Heyneman is
a professor of international education policy at Vanderbilt
University. From 1976 to 1998, he helped design and implement
education policies for the World Bank. He is the editor or author
of a number of reports on international education, economic and
social policy.
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