Articles

The economy of the Islamic State, according to Sadr, is divided between that of the individual as the vicar of God (khalifah), and the ruler as the witness (shahid) who presides over the application of the laws of God. The economic structure of the Islamic State thus consist of private property and public property. However, one should not think that the economic structure of the Islamic State is some sort of combination of capitalism and socialism. Sadr strongly rejects this misconception.

[Paper presented at the Muslim Institute conference on ‘The Future of Muslims in Britain’, London, 14 July, 1990.]

This manifesto is the outcome of a process of consultation, writing and revision over several months. It is now being offered for wider debate in the Muslim community. We hope that a number of regional consultation conferences will be held all over the country in the next few months. To set that process of consultation in motion, the Muslim Institute has arranged a one-day conference on “The Future of Muslims in Britain”.

This 'letter' was sent by Martyr Sayyid Qutb, the Egyptian writer of renown, to Ayatollah Kashani of Iran as a confirmation of the emerging unity of the Muslim Ummah. It was published by the journal al-Risalah (No. 951, Dhu al-Hijjah 24, 1370/September 25, 1951) nearly 38 years ago from Cairo.

This paper outlines Dr Siddiqui’s understanding of Muslim history, developed over several decades, which are the essence of his political ideas. For Muslims struggling everywhere to change the political and social problems confronting us, this paper offers exciting insights and ideas, and suggestions for conceptualizing the problems facing us. It is especially useful for those in the 'Sunni' part of the Ummah, as it places the Islamic Revolution in Iran in the broader context of Islamic history and enables its essence to be understood outside the Shi’i context of Iran’s particular experience.

How events can spiral out of control in the Middle East is illustrated, yet again, by Turkey’s sudden outburst of rage against Syria.

Here is "The Message of Hijab from a Muslim Woman" one of the most valuable works of Sister Zahra Rahnavard. It carries a message in all the domestic, social, political, cultural and other fields for you, O woman! For you who form half of the body of the human society. For you who possess the capability and capacity to move towards the achievement of a supreme and sublime objective. Such movement may turn you into an unparalleled innocent person, in the same way as it did with Fatimah, the venerable daughter of the holy Prophet, peace be upon him.

Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maudoodi (1908 – 1979) is the best-known modern Muslim writer and activist and his books, both in their original Urdu and in translation are probably more widely read in all countries than any other contemporary Muslim author. As founder of the Jama’at-e-Islami in Lahore in 1941, he is unique among Muslim scholars in that he was also a man of action who, through his political movement, strived to the limits of his mental and physical strength to implement into practical life all that he wrote.

[Kalim Siddiqui, Political thought and behaviour of Muslims under colonialism, London: The Muslim Institute, 1986. This was the keynote paper presented at the Muslim Institute World Seminar on ‘Muslim Political Thought during the Colonial Period’, London: August 6-9, 1986. It was reprinted as the introduction to Kalim Siddiqui (ed), Issues in the Islamic Movement 1985-86, London and Toronto: The Open Press, 1987, and in Zafar Bangash (ed), In Pursuit of the Power of Islam: Major Writings of Kalim Siddiqui, London and Toronto: The Open Press, 1996.]

(This is a translation of President Sayyid Ali Khamene’i's speech delivered at the opening session of the First International Conference on Iqbal, held at Tehran, March 10-12, 1986, on the occasion of the 108th birth anniversary of the poet of the Subcontinent)