Editorial Note 

The members of the editorial staff of the AJISS were very encouraged by 
the response from readers after the release of Volume 2, Number 1 of the 
journal. Apparently many readers were impressed by the new name and the 
new format. Some readers see the new name of the journal as a challenge 
to Muslim social scientists to take a stand on important human issues and 
to conduct their research and analyses within an Islamic framework. One reader 
reminded me of an article written by James M. Gustafson on “Man In Light 
of Social Science and the Christian Faith.” Apparently this Christian author 
was concerned about some of the same philosophical and epistemological issues 
that stir us in this journal. This is to say, as a Christian thinker, Gustafson 
claims the right “to interpret man from the Christian perspective as well, 
and. . .sees things in this light that the lights from the social science do not 
expose.” Regardless of how some of the social scientists in the academic com- 
munity view statements like that of Gustafson’s, the fact remains that those 
who believe in a sublunar world (Dunya) and a transcendenA world (al-Akhira) 
will always adopt critically the methods and research findings of the secular 
social science. 

In this volume we have a number of interesting and infromative articles 
that raise a host of issues about the Islamic experience. The lead article is 
written by Roger Garaudy, a French Muslim who takes a critical look at the 
Western philosophical tradition from the perspective of a Muslim student of 
human knowledge. His analysis is a part of the beginning of Western Muslim 
attempts to probe deeply into their own intellectual tradition in light of their 
understanding of their Muslim intellectual heritage. FoIlowing Garaudy’s paper 
are several other papers dealing with Ibn Hazem, Amir Ali, Ibn Khaldun and 
Mawlana Mawdudi. The Ibn H e m ’ s  piece treats us tc a careful analysis 
thinker’s thought on Qiyas in Islamic law; Amir Ali’s article addresses the 
Muslim thinkers views of Islam early in this century; the Ibn Khaldun essay 
gives us an alaysis of the North African Muslim’s under.,tanding of percep- 
tion theories of his time; the Mawdudi piece treats us to a careful analysis 
of the Pakistani Muslim writer’s tafsir of the Holy Qur’an. The article of Z.I. 
Ansari provides an analysis of the life and activities of Imam M r i t h  Deen 
Muhammad, the successor of the late Honorable Elijah Muhammad and one 
of the leading MusIim figures in America today. 



Under Researach Notes we have several pieces. The lead article in this section 
is a long piece by AMSS President, Dr. Abdul Hamid Abu Sulayman, who 
gives a detailed rationale for the Islamization of Political Science. Prof. M.A. 
Ojo, chairman of the Department of International Relations at the University 
of Ife, Nigeria, gives us a Nigerian perspective on the Maitatsine, a heretical 
Islamic group in Nigeria whose activities have caused much violence and suf- 
fering in that African country. We also have one other piece which focuses 
on Islam and health. Though most social scientists in the West pay little at- 
tention to this aspect of social science, MISS sees it as very critical in 
understanding the human condition.