The influence of progressive Muslim theologian Musa Jarullah Bigeev (1875–1949) on the Tatarcommunity in Finland during the first half of the twentieth century is the focus of this article. Bigeevwas very popular among the Tatar bourgeoisie in Russia and the diaspora abroad. Already at anearly stage of his career he became widely known as the “Muslim Luther”. We briefly describe thescientific biography of this theologian, his relations with the Tatars in Finland and personal memoriesfrom visiting the country. The main part of the study presents an analysis of the perceptionof his ideas by a few important community leaders in Finland, Weli-Ahmed Hakim, ZinnetullahAhsen Böre and Habibur-Rahman Shakir, as reflected in their correspondence and publications.This article also provides examples of Bigeev’s recommendations to the community on variousissues of their ethno-confessional life, transmitted through letters to its leaders. The recommendationsinclude a range of aspects from the establishment of an organization and development of thecommunity’s education system to questions of religious practice and personal spiritual growth.His ideas contributed to the adaptation of the Tatars to Finnish society and simultaneously to thepreservation of Tatar culture, language and identity.

This article continues a series of publications of the commented translation into Russian of the interpretation to the Surah “al-Fatiha” (No. 1) by the founder of classical Muslim exegesis Muḥammad ibn Jarīr aṭ-Ṭabari (839–923) from the book Jāmi‘ al-bayān fī ta’wīl al-Qur’ān (The Comprehensive Exposition of the interpretation of the Qur’ān). This part contains sections devoted to 1–3 ayats of this surah. Based on examples of pre-Islamic literature and traditions of the “ancient fathers” of the Ummah, the etymology and interpretation of the following words used in them are given here: ḥamd “glory”, rabb “Lord”, ‘alamūn “worlds”, malik “King” and dīn “retribution”. The paper also discusses the word order and the reason for the repetition of the Basmala words “al-raḥmān al-raḥīm” “Merciful, Compassionate” in the 2nd ayah.

The article deals with three main approaches of Tatar religious reformers of the early 20th century to the problem of the Quranic usury ban. They all believed of the traditional scholastic Muslim doctrines as being outdated and hampering the economic development of the community. They offered their own modern interpretations on the basis of various methods of reading the sacred texts. Their solutions varied from the restriction of the ban to accepting the only particular kind of usurious transactions, existed in pre-Islamic Arabia; from legalization of the common credit and banking institutions to the ideas of creating a Muslim bank that accumulates the capitals of the entire community.

Аннотация. Статья посвящена ана-лизу одной из последних работ выда-ющегося татарского богослова Мусы Бигиева Аль-джамиʻа аль-исламийа аль-ʻилмийа («Исламский научный университет»), в которой им была представлена концепция подготовки высококвалифицированных мусуль-манских богословов, готовых взять на себя ответственность по вынесению богословско-правовых заключений, отвечающих современным потребно-стям мусульманского сообщества. Ключевые слова: Муса Бигиев, исламское образование, исламский университет, история татарской богословской мысли, мусульманское богословие.

This article is dedicated to the issues of relations between the state and Islam in Arab countries (Algeria, Egypt, Syria) and in Russia in the contemporary era. Despite the fundamental diff erences between political systems and diff erent experiences in relations between the state and religion, all these societies are facing similar threats and challenges in recent years, causing certain parallels between policies towards Islam. This work is based on both published materials and around 20 interviews with experts, politicians and religious leaders from the researched countries recorded by the authors. The research allowed to defi ne common and diff erent traits of implemented political strategies, made it possible to show the infl uence of such processes as securitization of religion administrating, growing individualization of faith practicing, integration of religious institutions in the civil society structures on the transformation of StateIslam relationship models.