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When one works in the field of Shari'ah studies, a field widelyperceived as holding little excitement (for those who pursue careers init and for those who don't), one rarely encounters a book that sendsone into the poetic ecstasy of a Keats, for example, on the occasion ofhis first looking into Chapman's Homer. Nonetheless, in any intellectualenterprise there are joys that perhaps only the initiated, so tospeak, may truly share. In fact, in the field of Shari'ah studies, as inmany of the fields related to the study of classical Islamic disciplines,the esoteric delights to be tasted these days are many, particularly inview of the continual stream of carefully edited works from theclassical period ... especially when so many of them were believedlost, eaten by worms in some dreary desert setting or sent tumblingtoward eternity in the bloody waters of the Tigris when Baghdad wasoverrun by Mongol hordes. But, to return to the present, it is certainlynot everyday that something really significant happens in the field. InThe Search for God's Law, that significant something has happened.Less than a decade ago, a distinguished western scholar lamentedin the Journal of the American Oriental Society that "despite the greatinterest shown in U$iil al fiqh by Orientalists throughout the world, nogeneral and systematic work dealing with this most important Islamic ...

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With the revival of Islamic finance, the translation of this seminal workon fiscal matters is a significant landmark. While such Islamic thinkers asBaqir al-Sadr, Abu’l A`la al-Mawdudi, and others were formulating thethinking that eventually engendered Islamic banks and finance houses,most of the classical reference works in Arabic remained obscure andunpublished. Over the past 50 years, however, much has changed.Of course, the Qur’an and Sunnah provide a wealth of material ontransactions (mu`amalat). However, during the first few centuries, Muslimjurists expended great energy on the subject, especially as Muslimsencountered business practices and legal customs that differed from thosefound in seventh-century Arabia. That this body of law was ignored forseveral centuries, however, is part of the legacy of colonialism and, in part,a very natural phenomenon. After the colonial and other powers marginalizedIslam’s social and cultural institutions, it is not surprising that fiqhwas relegated to academic settings. Moreover, in order for it to becomevibrant once again, it required practitioners who were conversant with theclassical discipline as well as cognizant and appreciative of the world’snew realities.Beginning with the theoretical musings of such thinkers as Baqir al-Sadr, Mawdudi, and Qutb, the growth of Islamic banks and investmenthouses in the decades of the seventies and eighties provided the incentivefor more practical studies; and a new generation of Muslim jurists beganwork in earnest on modern finance. What began as a handful of smallbanks in the Gulf in the 1970s, developed in the 1980s into over 100 such ...

llris seminar was the second in a series of seminars held jointly bythe International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) in cooperation withthe Kuwaiti Department of Awqaf. The inaugural session of the seminarwas addressed by the Minister for Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, Jam'an al'Azimi, who stated that the topic of the seminar sufficed to indicate itsimportance. The following speaker, the Secretary of the Ministry, Khalidal Zir, underlined the fact that while everyone agreed on the need to returnto the pristine teachings of the Qur'an and the Sunnah, it was not aneasy matter to determine how, in practical tenns, this might be achieved.This is why, the Secretary said, this seminar was convened.Taha Jabir al 'Alwani, President of the International Institute ofIslamic Thought, after making his opening remarks, delivered a paperentitled The Horizons of Change and Its Approaches, in which he statedthat the Arab world had very recently reached a critical stage. Manyanalytical studies of various aspects of the Arab situation, he added, hadbeen conducted from several different perspectives. Undoubtedly, on thebasis of these studies, the outlines of an alternative civilizational projectmay emerge. It is for this reason that the topic of the seminar, "Methodologiesof Change in the Contemporary Islamic World," is of such overwhelmingimportance.Muhammad al Ghazali, the noted Muslim 'alim and author, thenspoke on behalf of the seminar participants. Prefacing his remarks bynoting the importance of Kuwait in the Arab and Muslim worlds, alGhazali explained that it is the duty of Muslims everywhere to work togetherto further the cause of Islam. This is why, he added, the cooperationof the Kuwaiti Ministry with the International Institute of IslamicThought was such a commendable undertaking.The seminar was comprised of four distinctive themes. The first onedealt with defining the concept of change within the Islamic paradigm,beginning with the Qur'an, the Sunnah, and the historical experience ofIslam. This concept may be studied in light of the theories and opinionsof the classical scholars of Islam. In addition, it may prove beneficial tostudy it in conjunction with such similar concepts within the Islamic paradigmas tajdid, reform, revival, awakening, revolution, modernization,development, and progress. Topics for discussion included the following: ...