Editorial

Abstract

The first decade of the 15th century Hijrah is over. It saw the establishment of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) and was marked by the development of cooperation and collaboration between various Islamic organizations and institutions around the world. The results have been most encouraging. This collaboration has contributed toward the initiation of an era of discussions and debates on the Islamization of knowledge and the development of a methodology for the reconstruction of Islamic thought. Among the consequences has been the unfolding of various intellectual forums. One such intellectual forum for the last five years has been the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences (AJISS) published jointly by the IIIT and the Association for Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS). We are greatly encouraged by its steadily increasing circulation and by the enhanced participation of social scientists as well as lay scholars. 'AbdulHamid AbuSulayman, now Rector of the International Islamic University (IIU). Malaysia, continues to send us his inspiring selection and commentary of Qur'anic verses as the "Guiding Light:' In this issue, for the first time, we are induding a paper by Taha Jabir al 'Alwani, the President of the IDT and author of several scholarly titles in Arabic. This paper is the English rendering of his lecture delivered in Rabat, Morocco at a conference held under the aegis of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO). He sketches a brief argument for establishing an Islamic alternative in thought and knowledge, not only for the benefit of Muslims, but for the common good of humanity. Another first is the paper by Eric Winkel, a multi-lingual political scientist of the faculty of IIU Malaysia, who provjdes us with an analysis of Habermas and Foucault. This paper entitled "Remembering Islam . . . " brings these postwar leaders of the Frankfurt school of anarchist and radical critique into the discussion of the Islamic paradigm. Winkel explains the characterization of Habermas and Foucault of existing epistemologies as "pernicious, pervasive and truth distorting," and shows how their own vision of the possible future world is extremely restricted and inadequate. He suggests that we remember that Islam, as the divine guidance of Allah, provides the basis for a truly emancipatory meta critique. Moving from philosophical issues to the more concrete, Ausaf Ali's paper on " . . . Islamization of Social and Behavioral Sciences" argues for a moral ...