Crisis in the Muslim Mind 1565641388

Table of contents :
FOREWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
PREFACE TO THE ARABIC EDITION . . . . . . . . Xiii
PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION xvii
CHAPfERONE
Contemporary Islamic Asdlah:
The Only Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The Historical Roots of the Crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
The Crux of the Crisis and
the Future of the Ummah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
CHAPTER1WO
The Traditional Methodology .
of Islamic Thought: Assessment and Critique . . . 35
Shari'ah and Non-Shari'ah Sciences . ........ 38
Neglect of the Social Sciences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
The Conflict Between Reason and Revelation ... 46
Our Intellectual Heritage:
Past1 Present, and Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
CHAPTER THREE
Principles in the Methodology
of Islamic Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
The Basic Concepts:
The Purposeful Nature of Creation . . . . . . . . . 79
Objectivity of Truth .................... 81
Freedom ............................ 83
Tawakkul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Causality" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Islamic Methodology: Means and Application . . . 98
CHAPI'ER FOUR
Requirements for Establishing
the Islamic Civilizational Sciences . . . . . . . . . . 105
Classifying Islamic Texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Dimensions of Existence ........ . ..... . .. 113
The Impartiality of Truth .............. . .. 119
CHAPTER FIVE
The Premises of the Social Sciences . . . . . . . . . 123
Islamization and the Science of Education . . . . 125
Islamizatlon and Political Science .......... 132
Islam, Science, and Technology .. .......... 141
CHAPTER SIX
Islam and the Future ..... .. ............. 145
Islamizatlon and Academic Institutions ...... 149
The Future Course of Humanity" .......... .. 153
Islamization is the Issue of the Ummah ... .. . 158

Citation preview

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ISLAMIC THOUGHT

AbdulHamid A. AbuSulayman Translation by:

Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo

Crisis in the Muslim Mind examines the intellectual and historical roots of the malaise that has overspread the Ummah and threatens to efface its identity. First published in Arabic in 1991 this important work (in an abridged English translation) is designed to familiarize educated and concerned Muslims with the nature of the crisis confronting them, and to suggest the steps necessary to overcome it.

CRISIS IN THE MUSLIM MIND

Across the Muslim world today, if anything is self-evident, it is that the Ummah is badly in need of reform. On this point it can be stated with confidence that Muslims are agreed. Poverty and injustice characterize the face of Muslim lands from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Pollution and corruption are the order of the day in the societies where the gulf between them and the developed countries of the world has never been wider. Politics in the Muslim world are all too often the politics of desperation, economics the economics of deprivation, and culture the culture of despair.

AbdulHamid A. AbuSulayman

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