Purpose This paper attempts to explore the transformations taken by madrasah, especially in preparing students both in religious and academic field. Besides, this paper aims to demonstrate measures taken by madrasah in instilling the religious and racial cohesion far from conservatism and extremism that has always been labeled to their students. Design/methodology/approach This paper is qualitative in nature. It is a library research and uses historical method in collecting the data. Some relevant literatures and data have been analyzed and presented in this paper. Findings Madrasah in Singapore has always been perceived in a negative nuance because of its ineffectiveness and irrelevant roles in economic building. The conservative and traditional madrasah education system is also seen to impede Singapore’s religious and racial cohesion. The struggle increases prior to the implementation of compulsory education (CE) policy in 2001, where madrasah was almost forced to closure. Originality/value Islamic education in Singapore can be observed evolving through three phases: colonial period where it adopted the secular system, post-colonial with the traditional system and, currently, the transformation period with its integrated syllabus.

Logic (Manṭiq) began to appear and has developed in Islamic society through the translation of Greek works into Arabic. This discipline which was considered the basis of philosophy was also used by Islamic scholars in developing knowledge. Today, logic is offered as one of the courses for Usuluddin studies at the Institute of Higher Education (IHE). Based on previous studies, it was found that the students were still unable to understand and master this field of knowledge. Although some of them understand the theory, but their level of mastery needs to be improved. Thus, this study aims to identify the challenges faced by lecturers in the process of teaching and learning logic. In this study, the researcher used a qualitative approach by presenting a case study as a research design. Purposive sampling was used involving the university lecturers who teach logic and are located in the Klang Valley. Data was obtained through semi-structured interviews and then analyzed using a thematic approach (thematic analysis). The results of the study show that the challenges faced by lecturers in teaching logic are more focused on their theoretical nature and difficulty to understand. At the same time, lecturers need to be creative in presenting examples and address the issue of students’ limitations in understanding the relationship between logic and other sciences. This study also identified the need to diversify teaching methods among lecturers, such as through a blended learning approach as an effort to attract and encourage students to master the subject.

Purpose This study aims to demonstrate al-Biruni’s originality in the study of religion and the exploration of religious truth, while his firm stance on his religion effectively advocated his need to understand others more accurately. Design/methodology/approach This study is a review of al-Biruni’s literature that uses content analysis method in establishing al-Biruni’s approach in understanding other religions through three main methodologies. From these approaches, this paper advocates al-Biruni’s firm stance toward his own faith despite using a scientific study on Hindu, which is in contrary to other phenomenological scholars who find that religious truth is relative in nature. Findings Al-Biruni’s methods have proven that researchers are not necessarily required to dispose off their religious identity and commitment to faith, while simultaneously achieving objectivity and accuracy. Al-Biruni’s approach to understanding others may be seen as a remarkable early model of interfaith, intercultural and inter-civilizational dialogue seeking, eventually, to promote a harmonious co-existence within a highly polarized cultural and religious context. This inquiry demonstrates al-Biruni’s scholarly depth in his attempt to harmonize his methodology with the study of religious phenomena in compliance with Islam. Originality/value This study signifies al-Biruni’s intellectual background with his mastery of first-hand information as a solid basis and grounds for the effective understanding of others in a descriptive, systematic and comparative manner. This paper also signifies al-Biruni’s methods of understanding others without having to dispose off one’s religious identity and commitment to faith which could be exemplified by other religious scholars.

Background and Purpose: Inter-religious harmony is crucial in maintaining peaceful co-existence and national stability of a multiracial and multi-religious society. The existence of minor racial or religious tension in the society can escalate to a crisis and jeopardise inter-religious relations in this age of new media. The failure to preserve religious harmony may expose the society to conflict and chaos. Thus, this article aims to discuss and elaborate the fundamental elements in sustaining harmony among multi-religious society from Islamic perspective in the age of new media.   Methodology: This research employs the qualitative research design. The research method used is content analysis, and the library data that comprises the physical and online books and articles on topics related to religious harmony and new media, was collected from the years 2010 until 2021. Using deductive reasoning, the challenges of new media in the area were identified and solutions proposed.   Findings: The findings indicated that the challenges of interreligious harmony in the age of new media are the rapid spread of atheism, religious pluralism, misperception of a religion due to its intra-faith issues, mistaken identity of a religionist versus racist, misunderstanding of ‘izzah as arrogance and misrepresentation of Islam. These challenges can be reduced by applying the fundamental elements to sustain interreligious harmony in Islamic perspective, namely ta`āruf (knowing each other), tafāhum (mutual understanding), ta`āwun (mutual cooperation), takāful (mutual protection), tasāmuḥ (mutual tolerant) and acceptance. Besides, Muslim educators or murabbiyun have to be the prosumers of the new media to continuously teach Islam, and instil iman and adab among fellow Muslims.   Contributions:  This article contributes to the foundation of peaceful co-existence in a multi-religious context because the fundamental elements discussed form the basis of fiqh al-ta’ayush or the understanding of co-existence, especially in the age of new media.   Keywords: Basis of religious harmony, inter-religious relation in Islam, fiqh al-ta’amul, fiqh al-ta’ayush, religions in the age of new media.   ite as: Mohd Khambali @ Hambali, K., Ghazali, A., & Senin, N. (2022). Fundamental elements in sustaining inter-religious harmonious relations under Islamic perspectives in the age of new media. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 7(2), 147-165. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol7iss2pp147-165