Vision of AJISS

Abstract

When the International Institute of Islamic Thought and the Association of Muslim Social Scientists decided to launch AJ/SS sixteen years ago, they had a shared vision of the condition of the Ummah, the crises facing it, and the resolution of those crises. These were the three challenges that inspired the work of HIT and AMSS the last two decades. As we write the editorial for the first issue of the seventeenth volume of AJ/SS, we recall those challenges and that vision of Islam and discover that they are still deeply relevant today. The first challenge was to understand Islam and then interpret that understanding. Today, more than ever before, Islam is considered a great religion, an egalitarian faith, and a holistic way of life by Muslims and others. More and more people are realizing the extent to which Islamic values and the Shari'ah, which are just and universal in character, may contribute to solving the problems of contemporary civilization. They also recognize that Islamic guidance, which integrates revelation and reason, answers eternal questions about living righteously on earth and establishing a just and rational 'umriin (civilization). Both HIT and AMSS believe that Muslim scholars and intellectuals will serve Islam and humanity if they articulate a comprehensive worldview premised on Islamic ontology, epistemology, and methodology. This worldview will enable Muslims to institutionalize and observe Islamic ideals and central principles such as tawhid, 'umriin and tazkiyah, enable non-Muslims to interpret life, nature, and human phenomena, and have sufficient elements shared between them to facilitate a universal discourse that can bring the fruits of Islam to all humanity. The second challenge concerned diagnosing the contemporary condition of the Muslim Ummah. Despite the Islamic values and principles that it possesses and the human and natural resources it enjoys, the Ummah has been in decline for several centuries. Muslims have been subjected to incomparable defeats and humiliation. In today's global media they are ...