Confronting Inequality. Building Community
Introduction By nature, every person’s life is organised in such a way that for his own existence and achievement of the highest perfection, he needs many things that he cannot provide for himself alone. He needs a certain community that [...]
Is money dirty? Is it wrong to be rich? How can a Muslim build their wealth in a “halal” or “religiously permissible” way? These are some of the questions that Islamic finance companies, especially those that focus on wealth accumulation, [...]
In his Oft-Repenting Ones, Ibn Qudāma (d. 1223) recounts the story of Awlāsī, a pious ascetic from the early centuries of Islam. It so happened that in his youth he stumbled across a sick, homeless man who was lying on [...]
Since the earliest days of Islamic history, Muslims have deliberated over the structure and purpose of the mosque. The Arabic term for mosque, masjid, derives from the Qur’an and translates simply as a place of prostration. In Muslim tradition, as [...]
In the twenty-first century, economists have increasingly recognized the profound issue of wealth inequality that afflicts societies worldwide. This realization holds true not only in non-Muslim countries but extends to the Muslim world, where disparities in wealth are apparent both [...]
Introduction Atop a rural mesa in Northern New Mexico, where the high desert meets riparian woodlands, there is an adobe mosque. Nubian by design, funded by the Saudi royal family, and built by the hands of an incredibly diverse group [...]
Imagine what it would feel like to have AI as your best friend within the next few years. This is what Jim Keller, a former Apple employee and a Silicon Valley guru, predicts.[1] And perhaps one should take such prognostication [...]
In the first year of the Islamic Moral Theology and the Future project (IMTF), authors contributing to the part of the project concerned with communal morality and ethics in Muslim contexts discussed various concepts that undergird the Muslim moral “ideal” [...]
This past fall, on October 20-22, the first conference in support of the “Islamic Moral Theology and the Future” Project was held at George Mason University. With the invaluable support of the AbuSulayman Center for Global Islamic Studies, Maria Dakake [...]
The Muslim umma is internally diverse and reaches across a variety of continents, customs and cultures, yet it retains its sense of unity by virtue of a common set of moral precepts and religious beliefs. This holds true with regard [...]
When the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world in 2020, it caused a plethora of unexpected effects which impacted various aspects of life, including education, employment, travel, health, the economy, and even media consumption, information-seeking, and information-sharing. It also widened the [...]
In my previous contribution to this forum, I proposed a dialogical approach to understanding Muslim virtue ethics that put Islam’s textual tradition into conversation with the lived practices of Muslims. Since virtue ethics is concerned with character formation and the [...]
“Praise be to God I’m no longer on that jāhilī app (aplikasi jahiliah),” the middle-aged man sitting beside me said when he caught a glimpse of me checking Twitter moments before our plane taxied down the runway. For a moment, [...]
In my previous essay I explored how the Islamic tradition lends itself to multiple interpretations regarding the Islamic theology of poverty. While there are traditions that endorse the acquisition of wealth and praise richness, there exist other traditions that seem [...]
Many people have experienced intense anger and fear in the wake of the Covid-19 shutdowns and their subsequent toll on social interaction. During the pandemic, people suffered a loss of control and were confronted by their limitations. At the same [...]
On Modern Islamic Economics Mainstream depictions of economic science and the development of capitalism are by-and-large historically distorted. They ignore power relations and are based upon a particular philosophical understanding of the division of sciences developed under the specific social [...]
My neighbor passed away and I did not hear about it until sometime later. We had not really known each other but had been on greeting terms. The deceased was elderly and ill, and had been in the care of [...]
Over the past six months, the IMTF online roundtable discussion has brought together a number of Muslim voices to explore the area of inquiry concerning Islamic virtues of the self, specifically with regards to their relevance for understanding and confronting [...]
Islamic spirituality, in both its principles and practices, establishes an impetus and a framework to design businesses that support a positive social and environmental impact. Among them is the notion of faqr (poverty), raised by Professor Martin Nguyen in his [...]
Three centuries of white minority rule in South Africa has left the African majority materially and psychologically impoverished. A record of mismanagement and widespread corruption have resulted in the state's failure to meet the needs of the poor, while service [...]