Thameem Ushama

International Islamic University Malaysia | iium · Department of Usul al-Din and Comparative Religion

Sri Lanka is a multi-religious, multi-ethnic, and multicultural country. The Buddhists form the ethnic majority group, while Hindus, Muslims, and Christians are minority groups. The records show that Muslims have a long history of peaceful coexistence with other ethnicgroups in Sri Lanka. However, after the civil war ended in 2009, hostilities agai...

This article presents a brief study of how the Centre for Fundamental Knowledge (now defunct) at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) accelerated the knowledge of its academics to benefit its students by exegetically comprehending the Qur’ān through weekly discussions. The article is divided into two sections. Ḥalaqah and ᶜIbādah Ca...

This paper explores the socio-political and religious thoughts of Alija Izetbegović, a Bosnian intellectual-turned-politician and one of the Islamic thinkers in ex-Yugoslavia in the 20th century. It applies descriptive and analytical methods to examine the contributions of Izetbegović in the socio-historical context, with particular reference to th...

Sri Lanka has people of many ethnicities, faiths, and languages cohabiting peacefully. The Tamils, Muslims, and Christians comprise the remaining community members, while Buddhism makes up most of the population. Even though Buddhist and Muslim relations have been amicable for the past century, there has been a surge in anti-Muslim sentiment and vi...

This article examines Shaltūt's wasaṭiyyah approach to reform Al-Azhar from his early working days until he was appointed as the Shaykh al-Azhar. In understanding the context of Shaltūt's reform, this study begins by highlighting Shaltūt's predecessors, particularly al-Marāghī and al-Ẓawāhirī's achievements towards reform at Al-Azhar. This study al...

This study examines both the historical and current views on the Buddhist-Muslim relationship to enlighten the community about both communities' interactions

This article describes the life, education, and thoughts of Muhammad Shahrūr, whose discourse on Islam generated confusion and much in the way of polemical debate. His controversial bias favoured modernity, influenced by modern Western epistemology, traditions, and secularism. The author applies qualitative content analysis to select writings. The...

The paper examines Jamāl al-Bannā’s religious thinking. After providing a concise review of his circumstances, education and transformation of thought, a qualitative content analysis of his work reveals bizarre patterns of exposition. The paper reviews his positions on orthodox Qur’ānic exegeses, punishments for apostasy and adultery, and views on...

This paper investigates the socio-political and religious thought of Alija Izetbegović, a Bosnian intellectual-turned-politician, as one of the most important Islamic thinkers in ex-Yugoslavia in the 20thcentury. Using the descriptive-analytical method, the intellectual contribution of Izetbegović is studied in the socio-historical context with par...

This paper critically analyzes the late Muḥammad ᶜĀbid al-Jābirī’s postmodernist influence on contemporary Muslims. The author qualitatively reviews the content of his historicist approach to the Qur’ān and Islam’s heritage. Al-Jābirī questioned the Qur’ān’s universal message in addition to its authenticity and validity. An Arab Muslim who sparked...

This paper presents a brief study of the history of terrorism, including political, intellectual, cultural, social, economic, individual, and spiritual causes. In addition to analytical historicity, the writer applies qualitative content analysis of Qur'anic verses and prophetic traditions that are relevant to the Islamic intellectual discourse on...

This study clearly establishes that Islam is a religion of magnanimous tolerance. Qualitative content analysis is applied to Qur'anic verses (Islamic Scripture) and the Prophet's Sunnah as well as to works from Muslim exegetes of global renown for their piety, integrity, commitment and sacrifice for the cause of the religion. The study explores the...

This study analyses the historical evolution of contemporary Muslim controversies over the historical roots of extremism by applying qualitative content analysis to relevant Qur'ānic verses, prophetic traditions and offerings from early schools of Islamic thought. The study begins by defining Arabic term ghulūw with regard to religious extremism an...

This paper reviews the history of Sumaniyyah doctrines in the Arabic-Islamic discourse. The author collates diverse materials on Sumaniyyah from various Arabic sources to analyze and characterize them. Beginning with the term's origin, Sumaniyyah's etymology, homony my and historical background are explored to clarify similarities and differences b...

Global media's highlights on Muslim extremism surge as security problems and turmoil accelerate. Events related to religion within and without the Muslim world arc variously interpreted, sometimes positively but more often negatively, and many are misled as seeds of hatred, dissension and mistrust are sown. This occurs in both western and Muslim so...

This paper analyses whether Islam is a religion of ease or hardship. It defines the Arabic terms used in theScripture and Prophetic Traditions. It employs the method of content analysis of relevant verses of the Scriptureand statements of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) that refer to the feature of ease and removal ofhardship in religion and i...

Sayyid Qutb's views on fiqh (jurisprudence) have been the subject of significant critique. This paper seeks to understand the bases of such criticisms through a qualitative content analysis of his exegesis and other writings. We begin with a brief survey of the views of scholars who have spoken in favour of and against him, followed by a brief biog...

This paper strives to analyse the roots, causes and nature of extremism in Muslim life from a contemporary Muslim perspective. Its scope is limited to historical, ideational and psychological roots of contemporary extremism among Muslim individuals and organizations, regardless of whether they live as the majority or minority in their country. It e...

This article strives to present a brief analysis of Islamic religious sources and examines whether the claim that Islam is immoderate is true or false, especially in relation to the method of moderation applied in religious teachings, requirements and human relations and substantiates that it is a religion of flexibility, goodness, ease, moderation...

Realizing the need for contemporary understanding of the Qur'Én by exploring scientific method or approach, the paper analyzes issues with regard to the Qur'Én's inimitable ellipticism. It highlights some of the aspects of the inimitable features of the Text including the views of some Muslim scholars with regard to the use of scientific method and...

This article analyses the meaning of the terms tarjamah, al-tarjamah al-harfīyyah and al-tarjamah al-ma'nawīyyah which are widely used in Arabic works while discussing the issue of translation of the Quran. It discusses the issue of salāh in translation, as there is a common belief that it is valid with translation of the Quran, elaborates the view...

Introduction The world of the 20th Century witnessed some great scholars who had contributed extensively for the promotion of Islam and to establish it as a complete code of life. Mawdudi had secured a respectable place in it. He had shown in practical terms how Islam could be pressed into the service of the modern people and their day-to-day probl...

Based upon sample survey and interviews, this study attempts to find out the views of Malaysian non-Muslims about Islam and Muslims in Malaysia. Such a study is warranted because of the plural nature of Malaysian society whose stability depends upon harmonious relations between various ethnic and religious groups The survey sample is composed of va...

The phenomenon of al-naskh discussed over the ages still remains as one of the most outstanding issues in understanding the legal rulings of some of the verses of the Qur`an. This article presents a brief analysis of the meaning of the terms, examines the scopes, explores the benefits, and investigates the conditions for the occurrence of al-naskh...