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Editorial Note

This issue of the American Journal of Islam and Society comprises three 
primary research articles, which respectively engage the themes of 
political obedience, the relationship between religiosity and sustainable 
behavior, and the interpretation of texts. First, we have Bachar Bakour’s 
article, “Reconceptualizing Political Obedience in Islamic Thought: An 
Analytical study of Ḥadīth Literature.” Bakour examines the highly 
important question – both historically and today – of obedience to the 
ruler in the Islamic tradition. He focuses on prominent ḥadīth collections, 
most notably Ibn al-Athīr’s Jāmiˆ al-Uṣūl fī Aḥādīth al-Rasūl. Through 
a comprehensive textual and contextual analysis, Bakour extends his 
exploration to include both classical and contemporary works of Islamic 
political thought. Significantly, Bakour delineates a three-tiered classi-
fication of obedience: normative obedience rooted in love and respect 
for just rulers, obedience out of necessity (applied to corrupt rulers in 
Muslim history prior to the collapse of the Caliphate), and a form of 
emergency obedience to leaders in the contemporary era. Bakour notes 
that, on the basis of the maxim, “averting harm takes priority over bring-
ing the benefit,” Islamic law historically has ordered that the despotism 
of the ruler, oftentimes viewed as a fait accompli, is something that ought 
to be endured, until the time becomes ripe for change.

Next, we have the intriguing and exhaustively researched work 
by Sahibzada Muhammad Hamza and Nasim Shah Shirazi, “The Role 
of Religiosity in Shaping Sustainable Behavior: A Global Perspective.” 
Their article provides an important contribution to the current literature 
on sustainable behavior and religiosity by moving beyond small studies 
of local contexts to provide a global analysis over several decades. As 
they do so, the authors consider the relationship between religiosity, 



EdItOrIAL NOtE    3

income, and sustainable behavior in relation to key themes such as envi-
ronmental dominion and environmental stewardship, both of which are 
present in religious traditions to varying degrees. As an area of growing 
interest, which remains understudied, this article provides insightful and 
thought-provoking conclusions about the ethical relationships between 
religiosity and wealth in a modern world increasingly threatened by 
climate breakdown and environmental destruction. Important too is 
the authors’ highlighting of the paradox that economically developed 
states that in recent years have become ardent champions of sustainable 
behaviors and practices are typically those that, historically (and also 
to this day of course), caused major environmental degradation during 
previous industrial revolutions. Today, these nations, which are also 
typically more secular, are generally more likely to be proponents of 
sustainability. In turn, these nations call upon less-developed nations, 
which typically exhibit higher levels of religiosity, to adopt similar 
environmental conservation efforts. In this dynamic, religiosity often 
comes to be labeled an inherently adverse influence on environmental 
stewardship. The authors argue this is a deeply biased inference, which 
they address. 

Our third research article for this issue is Naveed Anjum’s study, 
“Textual Authority and Modern Urdū Exegetical Interpretations: A Case 
Study of Q.4:34.” Here, Anjum provides a thoroughgoing exploration of 
key South Asian exegetes writing in Urdu in the modern period, ranging 
from the 20th century to today. While Anjum’s contribution analyzes the 
work of some figures that readers will likely be familiar with, such as 
Abū al-Kalām Āzād and Abū al-aʿlā al-Mawdūdī, Anjum also engages 
contemporary exegetes in South Asia whose work might be less well-
known including Amīn Aḥsan Iṣlāḥī and Khālid Saif Allāh Raḥmānī. 
Importantly, Anjum’s work also engages scholarship at the cutting edge 
of discussions of Q.4:34 including recent publications by scholars based 
in North America including Hadia Mubarak, Ayesha S. Chaudhry and 
Aysha Hidayatullah, as well as classic studies from the Arab World by 
the likes of Muḥammad al-Ṭāhir Ibn ʿAshūr. Among the study’s many 
insights, Anjum emphasizes the importance of considering contempo-
rary South Asian exegetes’ tafsīr of a verse like Q.4:34 in the context of 



4    AMErICAN JOUrNAL OF ISLAM ANd SOCIEt Y 42:1-2

their approach to the text as a whole, which helps contextualize their 
fine-grained interpretations of this sensitive verse.

Lastly, this issue also includes an insightful forum piece by Ismail 
Hashim Abubakar on scholarly debates in Nigeria around the phenom-
enon of the Boko Haram insurgency. Abubakar notes that academic 
works (especially those published in Europe or the United States) have 
emphasized the link between Boko Haram and Salafism by branding the 
former as “Salafi-Jihadist.” However, in the Nigerian context, Abubakar 
highlights that importantly it was Nigerian Salafi scholars who were 
the ones who successfully engaged the founders of Boko Haram in a 
range of sophisticated arguments and debates. It is these debates that 
Abubakar elucidates, focusing in particular on the interactions between 
the founder of Boko Haram, Muhammad Yusuf, and the Nigerian scholar 
ʿIsa ʿAli Pantami. Taken together, these contributions offer a wide range 
of thought-provoking and insightful points of departures for further 
exploration in a diversity of fields.

David H. Warren
Lecturer of Middle East Studies and Arabic
Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri

Assistant Editor, American Journal of Islam and Society

doi: 10.35632/ajis.v42i1-2.3791