Islamic Studies Published

The latest issue of Islamic Studies, a research journal of Islamic Research Institute-IIUI, is now published.

Contents

A Comparative Study of the Intended Sacrifice of Isaac/Ishmael in the Bible and the Qur’┐n
AYAZ AFSAR

Ibn ‘Arab┘’s Metaphysics of the Human Body
QAISER SHAHZAD

Modern Historiography: The Relevance of the Crusades
KHURRAM QADIR

Documents

Islam at Universities in England: Meeting the Needs and Investing in the Future

Book Reviews

David R. Smock. Ed. Interfaith Dialogue and Peacebuilding.
MUHAMMAD KHALIFA HASAN AHMAD

Elma Ruth Harder in consultation with Muzaffar Iqbal. ConcentricCircles: Nurturing Awe and Wonder in Early Learning — A Foundational Approach
SHABANA MIR

Arthur John Byng Wavell. A Modern Pilgrim in Mecca and a Siege in Sanaa
MURAD WILFRIED HOFMANN

Saba Mahmood. Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject
JUNAID S. AHMAD

Tim Wallace-Murphy. What Islam Did For Us: Understanding Islam’s Contribution to Western Civilization.
UZMA ABID ANSARI

Muhammad Arif Zakaullah. The Cross and the Crescent
MADIHA YOUNAS

Annual Table of Contents

Abstracts

1. A Comparative Study of the Intended Sacrifice of Isaac/Ishmael in the Bible and the Qur’┐n
AYAZ AFSAR

This article is an attempt to make a comparative study of the story of the intended sacrifice of Isaac/Ishmael in the bible and the Qur’┐n. The texts are analysed from a narratological perspective without concerning ourselves with the question as to which one has a better composition or definitive version. The focus is on considering not only to look at what the texts tell but also to find out how they tell it. The analysis shows that the texts are significantly different in the presentation of subject matter, characterization and worldview. It is suggested that further analysis on the same grounds may give a more accurate and exact relationship between the two scriptures.

2. Ibn ‘Arab┘’s Metaphysics of the Human Body
QAISER SHAHZAD

In his important study Religion and the Order of Nature Seyyed Hossein Nasr has pointed out that it is in Ibn ‘Arab┘ that one finds the most elaborate picture of the sacredness of body in the Islamic tradition. The present article relates doubly to Nasr’s work. Inasmuch as it discusses Ibn ‘Arab┘’s views on human body, it aims to carry forward Nasr’s discussion. It differs, however, from the latter in taking into account the variety of approaches to human body in the traditional doctrines by concentrating on the views that are disparaging to human body. What emerges from such contrast is the existence of considerable variety among the traditional mystico-religious views on human body. We try to show that Ibn ‘Arab┘’s views on human body, which are extraordinarily positive, are immersed in his unique understanding of the Qur’┐n. In the conclusion an explanation of the difference in attitudes to body in Christianity and Judaism-Islam is offered in the light of Frithjof Schuon’s work.

3. Modern Historiography: The Relevance of the Crusades
KHURRAM QADIR

Historiography in the modern West, particularly during the last century, has made many contributions to the study of the Crusades whereas Muslim scholars are few and far between. Muslim contributions to this subject generally come from lands that suffered from the event directly or they emanate from pens of Muslims who work in research institutions of the West today. A view that gained converts among Muslims since the birth of Israel, which registered a surge among the intelligentsia of Pakistan when Iraq was attacked, is that military advances of the West are an attempt to achieve the unfinished agenda of the Crusades. However, not much seems to have been written on the subject in the Muslim world. In contrast, European historians have contributed considerably to the subject in recent times. Some of the works have been reconciliatory and some defied the apologetic trend regarding the “modern crusade.” The present paper seeks to compare three British works in the light of general trend of scholarship on this subject in the English language.