Social Justice in Islam

Abstract

The dynamics of Islamic revival/activism have been the subject of renewed interest in the aftermath of the 9/ I I tragedy. Most of this interest has been confined to media sound bites that present little or no appreciation for the linkages between cause and effect, despite appeals by some conscientious commentators for balanced analysis. Deina Abdelkader's Social Justice in Islam, therefore, is a fresh contribution to studies on Islamic revivalism in its contemporary context. Even though the study covers the period from 1988 to 1993, its examination of revivalist (or, as Abdelkader prefers, activist) sentiment and activities in Egypt, Algeria, and Turkey through the dual lens of maqasid al-Shari 'ah (aims of Shari'ah) and the legal doctrine of maslahah (public good) is timely, for it connects popular sentiment to expression. The legal convention of maslahah and the paradigm of the maqasid serve as baselines from which the author seeks to create a method to understand the revivalists' thoughts and actions, as well as the feedback mechanisms created by them to understand how they must function in future contexts. Abdelkader uses statistical analyses to examine the data in order to study the relationship between the maqasid and the levels of activism measured in each country. This lends her work credibility beyond the use of anecdotes, which is needed in contemporary social science research. The work is comprised of seven chapters followed by appendices that present the data collected for Egypt, Algeria, and Turkey. The chapters focus on theories of Islamic activism, the relationship between activism and public expectations, and the research methodology used. A glossary of Arabic tenns is included, as well as an extensive bibliography. A preface is pr<r vided by Taha Jabir al-Alwani. Abdelkader's first task is to review theories of lslamic activism/revival in order to provide the reader with an understanding of its real causes. She reviews three approaches used in the study of l slamic activism/revival: the modernization/economic development approach, which focuses on the dynamics of modernization; the popular discontent approach, which examines the sources and degree of mobilization oflslamic activism/revival; and the cultural studies approach, which emphasizes the customs and traditions ...