The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences Vol. 6, No. 2, 1989 Editorial In keeping with our tradition, this issue starts with the Guiding Light contributed by Dr. ‘AbdulHm-d AbiiSulaymiin, Rector of the International Islamic University in Malaysia. We reflect on the direction we have taken with an English rendering of T5hl Jiibir A1 ‘Alwlni’s paper which was presented as a keynote address at the Fourth International Seminar on Islamic Thought at Khartoum, Sudan. A1 ‘Alwiini defines thought here as the product of all sources of knowledge, of education, experience, ability and social concepts and trends. In the case of Muslims it is formulated both by Revelation and by man’s inherent intellectual capacity. He discusses a balanced approach to the role of reason and revela- tion during the earlier generations of Muslims. He shows how deviations have led to laziness, indifference and apathy. The social sciences and humanities in the disciplines of psychology, sociology, education, economics, politics, media and others, he writes, shape the contemporary man. All these reflect the Western mind. The role of Islamic universities is to enhance the Muslim commitment to give Islamic character to the methodologies, principles, results and aims of social sciences. In his paper, Al ‘Awfuii pleads for a complete revision of “Shari’ah studies: its methods and materials, and the orientation of researchers and teachers. He argues for adding humanities and social sciences to the syllabus of thefiquhii’to enable them to understand various aspects of life so they may interact with it. A1 ‘Alwiini also summarizes the achievements of the first three international conferences on Islamic thought organized by the Institute. From thought we proceed to an issue of economics. A.H. M. Sadeq deals with the importance of mobilization of resources for economic or noneconomic development. The economic development in particular requires investible sources for capital formation and for acquiring all other factors of produc- tion. He shows how the Islamic code of life provides an enormous incentive and a favorable framework for efficient mobilization and utilization of resources, both material and human. The Islamic way of living has great potential for savings and an efficient institutional setting for their mobilization and utilization. Sadeq cautions the Muslim countries that in accepting investible resources from external sources Muslim countries should direct carelid study to its sociocultural and politico- economic implications. The best choice of action, he suggests, is for Muslim countries to cooperate among themselves for resource use. vi The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences Vol. 6, No. 2, 1989 In earlier issues of the AJZSS, we have discussed the role of ‘Ulama in India, Pakistan and Iran. Here, we have S.E. Eltayeb giving us detailed in- sight into the role of the Algerian ‘Ulama in liberating the consciousness of the masses and preparing them m r d l y and psychologically for political libera- tion from France. In fact, the liberation of the Algerians started with their liberation fiom the influence of the corrupt practices and distortions of Islam which were related to the ceremonies of the mmbouts. Eltayeb discusses in detail the reformist efforts to promote a religious renaissance through em- phasis on the independence of the Islamic creed, social reform through Islamic education, masjids, and clubs of the ‘Ulama, and cultural revivalism through the use of the press and independent schools. Salahuddin h s u f takes up the issue of prejudice against Islam in early Nigerian newspapers. The article attempts to trace how Christian missionary polemics against Islam k a m e entrenched in the Nigerian press and how it has been sustained and perpetrated. The caverage and analysis about Islam, he asserts, did not mirror intellectual honesty nor knowledge of hcts. Fathi Qsman’s paper, which was originally presented in a seminar held at the Institute and which forms the worlung paper fix the A M S s first seminar on history, distinguishes between the terms ‘Islamic history’ and ‘Muslim history’. The preference of the brm ‘Muslim history’ emphasizes the human natwe of this histary and underlines the fact that particular events may be g d , bad, positive or negative, and may or may not comply with Islamic ideology. The Islamization of the discipline of history does not mean that we will be selective in our historied kcts and attempt a rewriting of history, defend- ing what we like and omitting what we dislike. W will try to understand why unIslmnic practices happened, not to deny that these practices existed. Muslim history is not infdlible or immune to the natural laws of human societies. The study of nature tlnd human factors in Muslim history underlines the role dhuman inteiligenee and action which is q u i d by the @rib and the Sunnah for success in this life and the lwma€kz. &man a d m a t e d a mom e m p m k m i v e edvemge of the sowces of Muslim history, bath written and oaJ in diverse lanpqps ofthe Mudim world. Our juristic literature is ~ e h in materials for our m i & histmy. Tk tion d the mventianal division of eras a d prioas aS Muslim hiswry. c o a t i a u i t y , V ~ ~ ~ a a d ~ S i n M ~ h i s a o r y ~ S ~ r t ~ ~ matepials, The rigors of Wth criticism a d d p* 1 l&. w shsuld fl-tmmwk i s kn&a and ma*Ms drswrn am fmm his&xicd fws. wi: wilt have to evolve mukti-bsd cpitmia b &m&? the histsrie;al w e l w m htmpre&th of histay so 10% as tke retigtiom ar Ww Ishaq I%whimk cl€xa&s ofemm and d as a is s- * in his paper m I*ioat. ofohe Di%cypah ofx5&keah. The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences Vol. 6, No. 2, 1989 vii He has outlined the crisis in education in the western and the Muslim world. The Muslim world, he says, suffers from a duality in the educational system. On the one hand, the old Islamic education system survives in traditional schools unresponsive to modern trends, and on the other, the Westedmodern curricula are oblivious of the Islamic perspective. The Muslim educators themselves are Westernized, teaching materials are not suited for Islamic education, and the Islamic studies conducted in the West are superficial. This emphasizes the importance of the Islamization of educators, courses and curricula. This should be achieved through proper em- phasis on the universal values of Islam. He discusses the setting up of priorities in the Islamization of the discipline of education in modern times. He has drawn a list of strategies and methods for the task of Islamization of educa- tion that could be considered an agenda of research for our educators. The review section is led by M. Khalid Mas’ud’s review article on David S . Power’s book Studies in Q u r h and Hadith: f i e Formution of the Islamic Law of Inheritance. This is a long awaited critique of some powerful claims. Mas‘ud has shown us instances of how the author seems to accept evidence without critically examining the sources. We have five more books reviewed in this section. In talking about book reviews, we are glad to report that the Institute and the Islamic Foundation of Leicester, U.K. will be jointly publishing the Muslim ubrld Book Review and the Index of Islamic Litemture. This way our readers and writers can have access now to a journal dedicated exclusively to book reviews. We have been able to secure reports of five conferences of interest to Muslim social scientists. The section on views and comments continues to enrich us in carrying forward the debates. The listing of abstracts of doctoral dissertations has brought notices of some relevant research activities. The cumulative index of our six volumes should give us an overview of the wealth of topics covered in our Journal during the last six years. The ar- ticles are indexed by several indexing agencies in the world. We will be looking fbrward to greater cooperation and help from individual scholars and institutions to make our Journal available to readers and re- searchers in different parts of the world. Suggestions are very welcome. Sayyid M. Syeed