From the beginning of the Islamic era, Muslim societies have experienced periods of renewal (tajdid). Since the eighteenth century, Muslim societies across the world have been subject to a prolonged and increasingly deeply felt process of renewal. This has been expressed in different ways in different contexts. Amongst political elites with immediate concerns to answer the challenges of the Wes...

Over the past two decades, tens of thousands of migrant domestic workers in Kuwait have developed new-found ‘Islamic piety’. Occurring in a much maligned and understudied region*the Arabian Peninsula*this widespread phenomenon has either been elided, cynically dismissed or the motivations for these conversions and their sociohistorical conditions of possibility assumed. Domestic workers’ own ar...

In the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, the UN Security Council passed a resolution targeting transnational sources of terrorist funds. At least one offshore Islamic bank was shut down, and American officials, ignorant about Islamic finance, viewed any “Islamic” bank with heightened suspicion. The Bush Administration targeted Al-Baraka in particular, confu...

A hinterland in the old world of Islam, the early history of diffusion of Islamic civilization in Bengal is shrouded with mystery. Though the maritime and trade contacts between Arab world and Bengal can be traced during the early period of Islam, the religious and cultural interaction between these two far-fetched lands started growing only after the Muslim conquest of the region in the early ...

In the Western world, consumers complain about the soaring of non-interest bank fees during the recent years, the post global financial crisis in particular. Commercial banks charge a variety of non-interest fees for their transactions. This paper empirically tests whether the free charges are significantly different between conventional commercial banks and interest free Islamic banks. The ave...

Caring from Islamic perspectives is not well versed in Eurocentric nursing literature. There is widespread misunderstanding of the concept and practice of Islam within the context of health care and nursing practice. The areas of contention, in the context of health care systems, are whether the western paradigm to nursing care and management are applicable to Muslims and non-Muslims in both Is...

I has approximately 1.5 billion followers worldwide, the majority of which live in the Islamic states, and an appreciable number live in non-Islamic states.1,2 In both environments, the Muslims maintain a “Code of Life”, in which they adhere to the instructions of Islam and respect it’s guidance in their daily living. Islam provides a “Code of Conduct” drawn from Al-Sharea’h, also known as the ...

There is considerable debate on the meaning of Islamic Medicine, and its relationship to other medical doctrines, especially Western medicine. Previous definitions of Islamic Medicine affirm that it is any practice of medicine which does not contradict the basic tenets of the Islamic doctrine. In this article the author suggests that Islamic Medicine should adhere to the theoretical and philoso...

INTRODUCTION The population of the world reached seven billion in 2012. Pakistan's population stands at more than 180 million, is growing rapidly, and has the highest unmet need for family planning (FP) in isolated rural areas. The low usage of contraception in the rural areas of Pakistan correlates with the level of isolation, poverty, illiteracy, and to a large extent, religious misinterpreta...

When Muslims thought of establishing milk banks, religious reservations were raised. These reservations were based on the concept that women's milk creates 'milk kinship' believed to impede marriage in Islamic Law. This type of kinship is, however, a distinctive phenomenon of Arab tradition and relatively unknown in Western cultures. This article is a pioneer study which fathoms out the contemp...