In this study Al-Faruqi presents the meaning and message of Islam to the wider world community. Key elements of the faith are summarized and explained in an overall theme of seven parts consisting of 21 chapters. Yet the chapters represent far more than a simple description of Muslim peoples and orthodox practice. Al Faruqi was a great thinker, formidable in logic, and relished intellectual engagement on every level, particularly when it came to Islam and other Faiths. And it is this unique reasoning process that is reflected in this work, Al-Faruqi’s signature contribution, which not only expounds on Islam as spiritual faith and action, but also on Islam the great experience.In this study Al-Faruqi presents the meaning and message of Islam to the wider world community. Key elements of the faith are summarized and explained in an overall theme of seven parts consisting of 21 chapters. Yet the chapters represent far more than a simple description of Muslim peoples and orthodox practice. Al Faruqi was a great thinker, formidable in logic, and relished intellectual engagement on every level, particularly when it came to Islam and other Faiths. And it is this unique reasoning process that is reflected in this work, Al-Faruqi’s signature contribution, which not only expounds on Islam as spiritual faith and action, but also on Islam the great experience.
There can be no doubt that the essence of Islamic civilization is Islam; or that the essence of Islam is tawhid, the act of affirming Allah to be the One, absolute, transcendent Creator, Lord and Master of all that is. These two fundamental premises are self-evident. They have never been in doubt by those belonging to this civilization or participating in it. Only in recent times have missionaries, Orientalists, and other interpreters of Islam subjected these premises to doubt. Whatever their level of education, Muslims are apodictically certain that Islamic civilization does have an essence, that this essence is knowable and capable of analysis or description, that it is tawhid. Analysis of tawhid as essence, as first determining principle of Islamic civilization, is the object of this Occasional Paper.
There can be no doubt that the essence of Islamic civilization is Islam; or that the essence of Islam is tawhid, the act of affirming Allah to be the One, absolute, transcendent Creator, Lord and Master of all that is. These two fundamental premises are self-evident. They have never been in doubt by those belonging to this civilization or participating in it. Only in recent times have missionaries, Orientalists, and other interpreters of Islam subjected these premises to doubt. Whatever their level of education, Muslims are apodictically certain that Islamic civilization does have an essence, that this essence is knowable and capable of analysis or description, that it is tawhid. Analysis of tawhid as essence, as first determining principle of Islamic civilization, is the object of this Occasional Paper.
In dealing with any aspect of Islamic civilization, its final raison d'etre and creative base must be seen as resting on the Qur'ān. Islamic culture is, in fact, a "Qur'ānic culture"; for its definitions, its structures, its goals, and its methods for execution of those goals are all derived from that series of revelations from God to the Prophet Muhammad. Without that revelation, the culture could not have been generated; without that revelation, there could have been neither an Islamic religion, an Islamic state, an Islamic philosophy, an Islamic law, an Islamic society, nor an Islamic political or economic organization. Just as surely as these aspects of Islamic culture may be rightly seen as Qur'ānic in basis and motivation, in implementation and goal, the arts of Islamic civilization should also be viewed as aesthetic expressions of similar derivation and realization. Yes, the Islamic arts are indeed Qur'ānic arts. How then are the Islamic arts to be seen as "Qur'ānic" expressions in color, in line, in movement, in shape, and in sound? This is the subject of this work.
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