Assalamulaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu:

This treatise is to serve as the underlying methodology for IslamPolicy.com –It is dedicated to every hungry and oppressed slave of Allah

presently suffering under the mental and physical slavery of manmade law and tyranny.

From it we hope to contribute to the Islamic Awakening, and that it may blot out some of our bad deeds and serve as a positive weight for us on the Day when no man will answer for

anyone but his self.

IslamPolicy.com – On Crafting Islamic Policy: the Methodology of Islamic Social Science

Welcome to IslamPolicy.com. The basic objective of our organization is to analyze contemporary social, political, economic, cultural, and religious phenomena through an Islamic lens and in so doing document and propagate the validity of Islamic concepts and models as solutions for societies today. This article is intended to offer an elaboration of the methodology behind the site. At the same time it is also to serve as a means by which to stir intellectual interest and guide Islamic revival. It is a progressive article intended to guide present and future organizational endeavors.

We live in an exciting world full of potential, real, necessary, and unpreventable change. The secular order that has predominated affairs has stagnated and its alleged principles of enlightenment continue to fail in reaching the majority of humanity. As citizens across the globe, in developed and developing communities alike, express the conscious realization that the touted ideologies that drive policy in the world are not having a positive effect, an oligarchic and powerful establishment clings to control working diligently to preserve the dominant order. This situation exists despite the fact that it has only been two decades since western academics declared an End of all History when theorists like then neoconservative Francis Fukuyama argued as the United Soviet Socialist Republic collapsed that,

What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.

The globalization of this idea has since been manifested practically in many ways, from the development of international institutions and legal frameworks that embody its main concepts to military intervention that claims to enforce democratization and political stability under these ‘universalized’ norms. However it is arguable whether any of the democratic nations born in the aftermath of the Cold War are truly democratic or liberal at all. It can so too be argued that with the birth of an ‘authoritarian democracy’, the world’s oldest democracies, comprising the epicenters of a globalized system, have become themselves more authoritarian. The only way to understand this process, touted initially as an end of history and later termed as the process of ‘globalization,’ is to analyze the outcomes. Our methodology is to do so through an Islamic lens, thus documenting and denouncing the very notion of Western ideological ‘universalization.’

Today people across the globe are connected in multifaceted ways, but all too often the phenomena associated with globalized trends are expressed through functions that help erase borders and boundaries but manage to preserve and enforce preexisting inequalities on a periphery by maintaining and advancing Western power centers that serve as the epicenter of a world order actually representative ofneo-imperialist domination.

It is in the spread of Western ideas and concepts throughout the world that we realize a new expression of hegemony, no matter the consistent evidence that suggests such hegemonic influence has yet to stimulate an increase in the values attributed to Western liberal democracy at all. In fact, twenty years after such hubristic claims about the end of mankind’s ideological evolution, the entire world seems to be searching for alternative ideologies with many struggling relentlessly to wrest themselves from what has become the failure of ‘globalization’ practiced as neo-imperialism. As a consequence of the

historical realities of colonialism and the accurate assessment that little has altered in structure today, people everywhere have mobilized around criticism of the contemporary order. Few ideologies however have been able to mobilize comprehensive paradigmatic alternatives. The religion of Islam represents perhaps the most comprehensive of all radical alternatives. Perhaps, quite logically, as a consequence it stands as public enemy number one today.

The religion of Islam (or shariah) is a complete paradigm. About one quarter of the world’s population claims Islam as their religion and it is practiced in diverse ways, but the Islamic way of life not only represents a religious call for each individual to comprehend the reality that they were in fact created (in opposition to Darwinist materialism), but as a result of that awareness calls on each and every individual to behave righteously and to work for justice in the world and with their lives as a consequence. In the Quran, Allah (the Most High) says,

It is He Who has sent His Messenger with guidance and the Religion of Truth, to proclaim it over all religion, even though those who associate partners with Allah may detest (it). (9:33).

It is this verse that we emphasize heavily as it is in this verse that we realize the purpose of the Prophet Muhammad (saws), whom Muslims consider the last and final Prophet that Allah the only Creator will send to humanity. Allah informs us in His perfect book that Muhammad is a guide and that he (saws) was sent with the religion of Islam and the revelation to make it superior over all other ways of life.

The phrase utilized here in Arabic is, (liyudhirahu aladdini)… the verb ‘dhahira’, means to make manifest, and with the preposition here (ala) the meaning of the verse is that the religion of Islam was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (saws) to overcome other ways of life (deeni). The word deen is most often translated as religion however the Arabic meaning is much more comprehensive and has its root conceptualization in submission to an authority and authoritative ideology that represents a complete way of life or social order. Therefore, a more appropriate translated definition for deen should be ‘submission to Allah, the only Creator and Ruler in totality, under the comprehensive system that He has revealed and that is Islam’. This is why we say that the deen of Islam is what believe in, live by, and die for; it is a complete way of life.

Once this principle is understood alongside the vast topics covered in the Quran, a book that addresses all things, it becomes apparent that the intended objective of the Prophet Muhammad’s message was andis not merely to establish spiritual pathways toward the divine, theological realm but also to implement a worldly system that expresses the benign intent of the Creator for His creation as well. Because most differentiate between religious realms and other fields of human experience, it is our intent to present the religion of Islam in this comprehensive manner and to explore some of the divine and pragmatic solutions it holds for the affairs both of this world and the next. Our efforts, in an era of impending human tragedy are to call to the Islamic order as a clear and comprehensive alternative solution that may rescue and resolve some of the impending problems in the world, especially in communities that are primarily Muslim.

It is recorded in the preserved sayings (hadith) of the Prophet Muhammad that he said,

Allah made the eastern and western parts of the earth draw near for me [to see], and the rule of my Ummah will extend as far as I saw.

Additionally Imam Ahmad recorded from Tamim Ad-Dari that he said, "I heard the Messenger of Allah saying,

This matter (Islam) will keep spreading as far as the night and day reach, until Allah will not leave a house made of mud or hair, but will make this religion enter it, while bringing might to a mighty person (a Muslim) and humiliation to a disgraced person (who rejects Islam). Might with which Allah elevates

Islam (and its people) and disgrace with which Allah humiliates disbelief.

The contemporary reality is eerily reminiscent of this prophesy. Today the religion of Islam and its key components and principles, howsoever disastrously misunderstood, have entered almost every home in the world despite it being declared not so long ago that Islam would never rise again1. While creating numerous obstacles, this also creates the potential for substantial dialogue about a way of life many in the world are substantially ignorant of. We seek to help clarify some of those misunderstandings and alleviate the fears of Islam by engaging in dialogue about the comprehensive Islamic system.

There are also severe complications and obstacles to an increasing Islamic influence presented by the contemporary reality in Muslim lands as well. As World War I drew to an end, the Muslim world was split up into secular nation states and colonial properties; its people were informed that the religion of Islam could not and should not play a major role in the affairs of society. To preserve foreign norms and structures, authoritarian regimes were imposed via direct and indirect colonialism as Muslims retained the ability to refer to Islamic texts and precepts in personal law and individual affairs but were deliberately denied reliance on the role that the Islamic system played in shaping the state and the collective realities of the people. To stabilize this new society, an elite handed the resources and wealth of the entire nation and pushed the idea that Islam itself was responsible for the decline of a civilization that remained prominent for fourteen centuries. Today massive propaganda at the hands of these elite networks relentlessly works to prevent a return to understanding Islam as a complete political, economic and social system. Yet today we see still witness the rapid and quite unexpected renaissance within the Islamic world calling for a return to the traditional reliance on the Islamic order. Thus we seek as well to document, discuss and interpret that revival as well.

Today Islamic revival has been witnessed as the Muslim world increasingly returns or at least pondersan increased role for Islamic principles in forming the architecture of its societies. This phenomenon is occurring alongside the immaculate rise of people that are expressing interest in and converting to Islam.

It is recorded for example that British Official Lord Curzon remarked after the defeat of the Ottoman Khilafah that, “"The point at issue is that Turkey has been destroyed and shall never rise again, because we have destroyed her spiritual power: the Caliphate and Islam."

In nations across the globe the message has influenced nearly every community. These realities alongside the reality that Islamic terrorism has generated a great deal of publicity for the faith have truly inserted Islam into each and every home.

While Islam is on the rise, we also find ourselves living in a world of remarkable change, seemingly slipping towards a crescendo that will inevitably birth a world order completely different, for better or worse, than the world we experience today. Thus the seeming decline of western dominance and influence throughout the world and the simultaneous Islamic revival, place two civilizations at conflict. While it would be an oversimplification to suggest that we can simply delineate between Islam and the West with physical and intellectual borders and while also recognizing that the rapid alteration of reality in the world is not mutually exclusive to these two phenomena, our methodology is drawn from the belief that Islam not only offers a comprehensive alternative to the order of the day, but that in its rich history, large following and diversity lay the potential for a renaissance that may truly rescue the world from potential civilizational decline and decay. It is from this basic worldview that we derive the specifics of our methodology.

On Method and Methodology

A method is a systematic arrangement and order of thoughts. A methodology, on the other hand, is a philosophy of research, a set of axioms and principles that guide a seeker toward understanding particular phenomena. Islam is distinct in this respect from other ideological methods in that what is considered as evidence within the methodology of arriving at conclusions under Islamic thought is unique from other systems. In the Islamic system, the exemplarily model for humanity is represented by the Quran and the Sunnah, the latter being the immaculate preservation of the sayings, actions, and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad (saws) through the unique and distinguishable utilization of what is known as isnaad or chain of transmission. Thus the epistemological basis and fundamentals of all knowledge from an Islamic perspective are derived from these primary sources: the Quran, the preserved speech of Allah, completely perfect and the Sunnah more complete than the preservation of every other religious text on the planet but not necessarily perfect.

Despite the substantial amount of time and alteration that has accrued since the time of the Prophet Muhammad (saws), an Islamic methodology must be rooted in a reliance on the divine texts which cover virtually every aspect of human knowledge. Therefore, the root of Islamic knowledge must be the Quran and the principles found therein. The Prophet Muhammad (saws) received the Quran and it was perfected; in his explanation, elaboration and embodiment of that message we have the sunnah (sayings, deeds and actions) of the Prophet and the corpus of hadith that represent the core codified evidences of the religion. From that core foundation spurt forth the additional view that consensus (ijmaa) and the opinions and practices of those that were with the Prophet (sahaba) are legitimate proofs as well. This was succinctly and clearly expressed by the great scholar Imam al-Laalikee (d. 418) who in his work, An Explanation of the Belief of the People of the Sunnah , reported that,

This translates as:

To proceed, surely that which is obligatory upon Muslim is knowing the creed of Islam and what Allah has made obligatory upon the successors in the Earth, his slaves, understanding monotheism and His divine attributes and characteristics and believing in His Messengers with evidence and surety, and arriving in this way via evidences and clear proofs. And among the mightiest statements and clearest of proofs and understandings is:

1) The Book of Allah (the Quran), the Clear Truth

2) Then the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad

3) And his Companions, the chosen, righteous ones

4) Then the ijma (agreed consensus) of the salaf us saalih (righteous ones coming after)

Then holding fast to all of that until the Day of Judgment; then turning away from innovations of Islam

and from listening to them – from what those who have gone astray have invented.

With this as the underlying ideological basis, IslamPolicy.com proceeds to embark upon understanding the aforementioned contemporary complexities of the human experience first and foremost by understanding the constant principles of the Islamic creed derived from the clear proofs and the understandings held within the other sanctioned sources. Current realities can and will only then be analyzed, compared, and juxtaposed against these evidences in an effort to aid the ongoing process of intellectual revival and in promoting advancements of connection between the constants of the Islamic system and the understandings and practices of the contemporary era. It is our belief that this effort is especially necessary amidst the tragic complications facing the world today, so that an alternative ideology can be presented that is emancipating for both individuals and collectives searching for meaning and solutions amidst the impending tragedies of the current arena.

With the contemporary decline of civilization generally and the readily apparent threat the contemporary order may collapse altogether at any moment, we can thereafter take the theoretical out of the realm of simple intellectualization and give it the worldly component that marked the messages of all Prophets

and the legacies of many great men. Our present situation is as the once bold and courageous Saudi dissident Safar al Hawali once remarked that,

We, the youth of Islam, were able to dismantle the circle of subservience to the West, reject its deceiving civilization, know its conspiracies, but so far we do not know the reality of who we are . . . I am surprised that the vanguards of the Islamic call think that the religion of the people of Sunna and Jamaa is about theoretical propositions relating to the unknown world rather than about a call for reform and change.

Our task continues to be similar and to many our solution is idealistic, but having a collective audience that realizes the present reality is corrupt and that is willing to sacrifice in order to critique the fallacies of the present order while reforming and reviving Islam in the present, we must also recognize that it is imperative we mark the direction we are going as a necessary next step in the direction of the fulfillment of objectives. Thus, the sophistication of the argument requires not just careful analysis and reliance on a carefully selected methodology but also the practical efforts it takes to translate those efforts into calls for and eventually the implementation of specific policies that may reform the order and Islamize societies everywhere.

The internal dimension of such a definition requires that we advance the widespread notion that any and all philosophy and axiomatic basis that roots itself in sources other than the divine sources aforementioned is considered foreign to the Islamic intellectual approach and must be rejected. While it is permissible and encouraged to survey diverse ideas and concepts from within the cumulative body of human intellectual and scientific endeavors, the creed of Islam and a practical survey of the actual results accrued by the Muslim community once they relied on ideologies foreign to the texts of Islam mandates that we adhere strictly to a derivative based solely on this Islamic method. The innovations of foreign ideologies occur once Muslims insert new concepts into the religion altogether but is also prevalent where a foreign ideology is relied upon and then, knowing that Islamic validity must be documented, a random, wild and oftentimes unqualified search for evidence in the divine texts to support innovated ideas produces the even more dangerous manipulations associated with the attribution of Islam to ideas that clearly contradict the bases of the proper way.

Thus, one of the never-ending struggles of Islamic revival must also be to eradicate such innovations. This is why Imam Laalikee, having explained the pure sources of evidence in proper order, felt it necessary to continue in the same work to explain the real consequences of relying solely on the intellect and purely intellectual sources for theological, scientific, political and philosophic inquisition. So he alluded to a reality that plagues the movement today as well where he (may Allah have mercy on him) said,

Which translates as,

The result of using the intellect alone in matters of the shariah (divine legislation)It is a persistent idea in managing the Kingdom of Allah with his defeated intellect and his upside down understanding: making the ugly uglier with his delusive imagination or making the best better with his thinking (or with regard to oppression and his foolishness without insight or balancing it at times) as it comes to his mind or as his shaytan whispers to him or his incapacities to create the acts and doings of worship, or in the obligating that Allah bestow rights to His worshipers (but with Allah are all the rights). His legislation was incapacitating him through his ignorance of His (Allah’s) great power and

the Most High is not obliged necessary rights but He possesses the rights and required obligations upon His worshippers and He is the Bestower upon them in His generosity and His kindness.

And if he returned the affairs to Him and he saw its value and he made for Him the volition in His sovereignty and His power and he didn’t make any Creator of anything besides Him (Allah) – he would be safe from shirk (polytheism) and opposition to Him.

So he is working diligently in his night and day in refuting the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of Muhammad (saws) and he is discrediting both of them or opposing the Quran and Sunnah with far away interpretations or sending his opinion upon what does not agree with his methodology (with disgusting doubts) until he agrees with the Book and the Sunnah upon his methodology.

And if he took the path of the believers and followed the path of the Tab’ieen (early predecessors of the Prophet Muhammad’s generation) he would have built his doctrine upon them (Quran and Sunnah) and followed them.

But he is stopped and devoid of good. So that is his condition but if he goes back to its roots and if he did not build up his innovations upon it as well and objected to them both (Quran and Sunnah) with doubt and denial and he hit each of them without insight and he welcomed their origin with empty rhetoric and seeing without thinking and took in jest without consideration without considering this a mockery of the ayat of Allah, His wisdom and defiance of the religion and Sunnah of the Messenger (saws) and countering both of them with his opinion.

Thus it must be stated that while interpreting present reality and commenting upon the contemporary affairs, the reliance must always be rooted in Allah (swt) alone and therefore opinion derived from the divine texts by educated individuals not surpassing their capabilities and qualifications. Opinions must not arise that originate solely from the intellect and then seek support in the divine texts for foreign aims and objectives. Indeed this is a methodological sincerity that must be constantly weighed and reflected upon in order to preserve the integrity of the project. Rather, documenting and calling to the shariah in the contemporary arena must document the usefulness of Islamic concepts and their value today by documenting the principles and positions of Islam itself and then interpreting today’s reality through those positions.

Higher Objectives and Purpose of Islam

In order to achieve this discussion of the contemporary reality in light of the Islamic methodology, it is necessary to widen the all too common perception that Islam is relegated to a creed and way of life thatcan be understood comprehensively through a solely deductive process of deriving the literalist proofs from a text and applying them via analogy to the world. It is necessary today, especially when looking at the state of affairs in the world and as they pertain to the Muslims specifically, to expand understanding of the principles, intentions, and objectives of the shariah without altering or compromising any of its clear and constant perspectives.

While Islamic jurisprudence is, broadly speaking, preoccupied with the literal interpretation of the divine texts as a method of arriving at evidence for the commands, prohibitions, encouraged, discouraged and neutral aspects of daily individual and social affairs, another aspect of the Islamic system is clearly the practice and promotion of a set of values and principles which guide the specific

rules and legislations and mark the objectives of the shariah. These principles represent what has been termed the science of maqaasid.

These maqaasid have traditionally been categorized as the necessary universals (kulliyat daruriyyah); or the guiding principle that Islamic legal mandates exist in order to protect and preserve religion (deen), life, intellect, progeny, property, and honor. The methodology for identifying these principles is not deductive but inductive (istiqraa) and involves the process of looking at a series of specific evidences to arrive at the principles that give us an understanding of the intent of the Creator in His revealing theshariah to man. The term istiqraa is derived from the root qara’a and iqtar’a which means to follow up and carry out a minute examination of something and Ibn Taymia defined the practice as “using the particular instances as evidence for the general conclusion.” Rather than analyzing the specifics of the shariah, identifying the maqaasid is the scholars’ searching for the principles that stand behind the law, the reason for Islamic restrictions, the underlying objective of the law itself.

The punishments, practices, and components of the Islamic way of life, most often arrived at from a literalist understanding of the texts therefore exist for a purpose and represent the intent of the Creator for the creation. Allah describes this in numerous places in the Quran. For example He says,

57:25 Indeed We have sent Our Messengers with clear proofs, and revealed with them the Scripture and the Balance (justice) that mankind may keep up justice. And We brought forth iron wherein is mighty power (in matters of war), as well as many benefits for mankind, that Allah may test who it is that will

help Him (His religion), and His Messengers in the unseen. Verily, Allah is All-Strong, All-Mighty.

Many scholars have argued that the last effort to reinvigorate and advance the widespread intellectual superiority of the Muslim world and the methodology that relies on the Quran and Sunnah in all fields of knowledge involved the awareness, development and propagation of the maqaasid. However, for many modern Muslims, the term has been used to support objectives and principles that clearly contradict the divine texts; thus as scholars in the past also argued, today so-called reformists claim that the divine texts are not sufficient and therefore they bring in philosophy and theory from other sources, under the guise of searching for higher objectives in the shariah outside the realm of proper methodology claiming that there is no source for information in the divine texts about certain phenomena existent today or that the reality of today is no longer conducive to maintaining what is clearly a stagnant part of the religion. In reality, utilizing the principles of maqaasid alongside the other sciences of Islam allows one to realize all too quickly that this assessment is just not true. In fact, the maqqasid are dependent on and derived from the clear texts and therefore there can be no serious contradiction between the two. We say, again, as Ibn Taymia said in response to the people during his time that claimed, “the texts and the meanings implicit in them are, compared to the vast expanse of the shariah, like a handful of water from the sea." So he said,

This is wrong. The correct opinion which the majority of Muslim scholars adopt is that the texts satisfy the majority of rulings regarding people's actions. Some of them say that it satisfies all that, but those who deny this do not seem to comprehend the general meanings of Allah's statements and those of His Messenger. Nor do they seem to understand their comprehensiveness

of the rulings concerning people's actions. For Almighty Allah sent Muhammad (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) with the ability to produce eloquent, comprehensive words. He used comprehensive words which represent universal rules…Therefore, texts do actually cover rulings relating to people's actions.2"

Ibn Taymia was also the first scholar to depart from the mere categorizations of maqaasid into five or six categories. It was his expansion of the maqaasid into alternative realms like the fulfillment of contracts, sincerity to seeking the Hereafter, preservation of kinship, and others that is ultimately responsible for the wide array of conversation about the topic in the contemporary arena. Whilst we are not scholars, we do feel that both documenting and conversating about the higher objectives of the shariah is a beneficial means of reviving the great intellectual traditions of Islam, countering propaganda against the shariah by non-Muslims and the manipulations and philosophical deviations of people that seek to alter traditional understandings. Exploring documents and utilizing the maqaasid aidin our own analysis and efforts to understand worldly phenomena, craft policy, and establish reform through an Islamic lens. Thus the methodology is not to arrive at conclusions on our own, but to document the understanding of scholars of the past and present with regard to these realms and propagate widespread awareness of them and then to seek to stimulate debate, additional awareness and the widespread promotion of Islam as a comprehensive solution for all of humanity by communicating about contemporary phenomena through this Islamic vantage point.

It is our intention that this approach can help to sophisticate the call to Islam as a solution to the ills and afflictions facing humanity today as well as spur the widespread understanding of Islam as far more than a religion, but as a comprehensive way of life. Presenting Islam in such a revitalized and inquisitive way will no doubt lead to invigorated dialogue, debate and even controversy but will also hopefully generate new ideas about the current reality based upon principles completely in-line with the Islamic creed, thus documenting the validity of Islam for all times and in all places, increasing reliance on Islam in interpreting current affairs, and formulating a coherent, specific set of policies that Muslims can strive to see implemented today.

West’s Encyclopedia on American Law defines policy as –

1) A plan or course of action, as of a government, political party, or business, intended to influence and determine decisions, actions, and other matters

2) a) course of action, guiding principle, or procedure considered expedient, prudent, or advantageous: Honesty is the best policy. b) Prudence, shrewdness, or sagacity in practical matters.

Islamic policy is thereby defined as ‘a course of action derived from the evidences of Islam representing a recommended procedure intended to have a positive influence in practical matters.’ Policy differs from rules or law. While law, in our case the shariah, can compel or prohibit behaviors, policy merely guides actions toward those that are most likely to achieve a desired outcome, thus policy represents a call to a way of life conducive to Islamic norms. Policy formation serves as a recommendation and is based on a rational analysis of the dynamic circumstances surrounding and affecting specific

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phenomena. Thus, crafting policy is not setting rules and law, it is providing a guidance that can, in turn, be rejected or adopted, maintained in its entirety or subject to alteration and debate. The purpose if Islampolicy.com will be to insert fresh analysis and thereby policy ideas into the public forum that are based on the tenets, principles, history, and general discourse of Islam.

Policy analysis is a key component of the world today. Yet, there is virtually no example of policy being crafted through an Islamic lens. Where political groups do exist that call for an increased role for Islam in social, economic and public affairs there is a very limited array of detailed, specific information. In fact, there are more examples of blatant adulteration of the true intention of Islam when it comes to its worldly implementation. Many groups have documented the principles upon which Islamic policy is crafted, but for diverse reasons little has been said with regard to specifics. This is at least partially because there is a lack of sophisticated capability and energy directed to this area.

While it is certainly true that the communication of specific policy may represent an idealistic and impractical collective of ideologies. Discounting the validity of search efforts, discounts the power of ideas altogether, and thus reduces the realm of human behavior to the simply material and predictive. Policy decisions are made by people within dominant institutions and governments and a prerequisite is generally that secular norms are adopted, thus the policy analyst most often lies outside the realm of actual capacity to implement any set of ideas that departs from the status quo.

Contemporary scholarship notes this reality and the need for policy analysis to influence those with the capacity to effect change. Blum, Heinemann, Kearney and Patterson (2009) 3explain,

Yet despite the development of sophisticated methods of inquiry, policy analysis has not had a major substantive impact on policymakers. Policy analysts have remained distant from the power centers where policy decisions are made. It now seems clear that to be politically influential, policy analysis must be practiced as an integral part of its broader cultural context. It is not, and cannot be, a separate “scientific” endeavor inherently entitled to the deference of politicians and citizens. Its practitioners must understand that they are both in and of a particular kind of political world and that to maximize their policy effectiveness they must acknowledge the characteristics of that world—that its decentralized, poorly coordinated political institutions enshrine and implement the values of a paradoxical political culture.

Thus the crafting of policy must be scientific and sophisticated but also connected realistically to thepossibilities of the present political arena. Where policy analysis must succeed is in the ability to document and promote its findings and insert them into the realm of policy-making. Thus, in order for policy analysis to be effective, an activist component must also exist that works on inserting those findings and recommendations into real world, political processes and promoting the adoption of specific policies by specific Islamist groups.

It is not uncommon for individuals and organizations to attempt to shape public policy through education, advocacy, or activism. Shaping policy is obviously different under Western-style democracies than in other forms of government. The Islamic world is shrouded by the reality that the majority of its peoples find themselves under authoritarianisms of one type or another. Thus the process

is different and distinct, but the rising reliance on Islam in the Muslim world and the demands of people across the globe to wrest themselves from oppressive government means that it is as important to influence the general population people and populations as well. The process of influencing policytherefore requires influencing the mass and those with political, economic, and social power while being aware of the continuous process of competing interest groups vying to influence policymakers.

Policy seeks to understand and explain the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ of a phenomenon and then provides guidelines for solutions both as a reaction to conditions in the present and as a proactive means of directing a collective toward an advantageous strategy. Islamic policy formation must exert utmost effort to understand the ‘what’s’ and ‘why’s’ of the current arena but by using the methodology aforementioned and relying on the epistemological basis that lie in the traditions of Islam. Crafting Islamic policy therefore requires the reliance on Islam but also the tools of scientific inquiry that have developed over collective human history. Thus it is at once localized in its root base in Islam but not xenophobic to the degree that it rejects the value of any and all knowledge discovered extraneously. This conceptualization is especially necessary today in the scientific and technological realms.

On the Scientific Method

Because we draw from the constants of divine decree, it does not mean that there is no room for contemporary scientific analysis; indeed a proper understanding of Islam demands it. A primary belief of Muslims is that because Allah is the author of both the Quran and the physical principles that drive the universe there must be no contradiction between the revelation and what is obtained through accurate scientific inquiry. While contemporary scientists separate scientific domains into two categories or cognitive fields: 1) belief fields where knowledge rests on belief – belief in something that cannot necessarily be observed directly in the sensorial realm and 2) research fields in which knowledge rests on observation, the Islamic model seeks to document the validity and value of both by merging each arena in harmony with the other and thereby allowing the search for justice and truth in science to be guided by divine prerequisites that are so too being confirmed by sensorial scientific observation.

Separating cognitive fields leads to fundamental axioms within contemporary science that reject social phenomena like political ideologies and religion, or ideological concepts that necessitate belief in an unseen and unpredictable world and are not considered science in an empirical sense. Drawing axioms for inquisition from Islam and relying on rationality to confirm them creates a completely different paradigm that make the human, in his limited capacity, also a humble servant chasing after the divine.

The principles and laws of contemporary, secular science are arrived at only after they can be observed, witnessed and corroborated with sense certainty. However, the religion of Islam claims that the miraculous nature of the divine revelation, the Quran, can also be essentially proven with near certainty. The Quran says,

41:53 Soon will We show them our Signs in the horizons (outside of themselves) and in their own selves until it becomes manifest to them that

this (Islam) is the truth.

In fact, the texts of Islam contain numerous references and subsequent command to reflect upon both belief fields and research fields in ascertaining that the religion of Islam is truthful and so the religion is replete with references from natural science like biology, embryology, astronomy and the social sciences including principles of economics, politics, psychology and more. With the divine revelation as a guide, we are not only able to ascertain observable principles contained therein with relation to the physical universe and movements of matter within spacetime, but also in a way that is quite particular to the Islamic system and worldview, we may use the Quran as a criterion with regard to the belief fields ofknowledge as well and conduct analysis of social systems and the role that concepts like values, ethics, morality, values and law play in shaping the actual realities within societies.

Therefore the principles of human relations and behavior (i.e. prohibition of usury and rampant speculation, the prohibition of alcohol, the covering of the women, capital punishment, etcetera) can be weighed objectively with contemporary academic tools and against the principles of the Quran, thus contributing to the increased validation and justification for reference to an Islamization of knowledge.

While scientists of the natural and social sciences claim to rely primarily on empiricism (to rely on observation alone), the counter claim made is that ideological realms like arts, values, ethics, religion and thus ideas have no impact on the material world and fall outside the scope of empirical science, but the unique perspective of Islamic investigation is that empirical studies will never contradict the divine legislation. What bewilders the open-minded investigator of this religion is the bold claim that if there were even one contradiction on the Quran, then all would be free to disbelieve in its messages.Allah says,

Do they not consider the Qur'an (with care)? Had it been from other than Allah, they would surely have found therein Much discrepancy and contradiction. (4:82)

From this bold claim arises not only the statement of Quranic compatibility with rationality but the challenge and authorization that man also seek discrepancy and contradiction in the message. Therefore, we recognize that whether we initiate a scientific process with empirical data collected from observation alone and relate it to information in the Quran or we originate analysis of the empirical realm within the deductive and inductive realms of the sciences of shariah aforementioned and then work through to specific analysis, we come to the awareness that the Islamic paradigm is not only comprehensive but that it provides a compatibility with what mankind possesses of knowledge unto today.

These principles are most often rejected by those that assume an epistemological basis from the natural sciences. As errors in understanding Allah have arisen from a sensorial and reductionist understanding of the Islamic texts, so too has a process of discovery and inquisition disappeared from the intellectual processes of the Muslim nation so that today we embrace Western rationalist scientific dogma and accept norms that contradict the divine texts of the shariah based on existentialist sensory realities. Today the world is waking up to the prospects in science and society as well as to the processes of deliberate scientific stagnation on continents, in countries and along areas where neo-imperialism retains control. Reviving the scientific spirit can only provide a benefit as it always has for the world as a whole. The existentialist view leads to theories of natural selection and sensorial observation that relegates man to beast and cannot produce the needed scientific breakthroughs that may aid humanity today.

As a matter of fact, no scientific breakthrough has ever occurred through simple sensorial observation. Take as a famous, modern example Einstein’s study of the speed of light and his culminating theory of relativity: his development and proof of a constant for light necessitated the discovery that time and space were relative. Thus it is not actually light that functions according to natural laws within the universe, but rather light that shapes the universe itself, meaning the material reality of the world shapes itself to higher principles associated with light’s movement and not the other way around. Studying the universe as shaped by the light is akin to studying the effect and ignoring the cause. It is impossible to arrive at this conclusion unless hypothesis are conducted in the mind and arrived at intellectually. There is no way that simply looking outside at the sensorial world will give the evidence needed to arrive at such advanced conclusions. Thus man, in his ability to hypothesize and think and then alter his or her environment is distinct from every other specie of known creation.

In the same way light shapes the universe and is not shaped by it, Islam offers principles and divine universals as the ideas of a human being drive their action and thus their influence of the real world. When Islamic principles are understood and help to form the principle ideologies and thereafter practices of a society, the universe wherein they exist is shaped according to them. Their benefits can thus only be weighed in practical terms in so far as they are the principles of the society. Today, because we study a universe shaped by principles that promote greed, materialism and existentialist pleasure-seeking we end up believing that the world we analyze and experience each and every day is existent before the principles and ideas that craft it. Thus, contemporary civilization views itself as having been a reaction to natural realities and less a result of the ideas that form behaviors, most of them today unfortunately barbaric, anachronistic and absent rationality.

Careful analysis of the Islamic system and its evidences represent a truly remarkable proof in their own right, a proof that expands into every cognitive field and that intends to enlighten humanity's sense of purpose in understanding a fraction of the divine. Through this alternative process of discovery, the spiritual realm is connected to the material and man is potentially humbled by scientific understandingrather than emboldened and made haughty by it. Thus the claim of Islamic analysis is that mere empiricism alone is not a satisfactory method for science in isolation. While contemporary scientists differ, most great scientific minds also understood that simple observation and empirical analysis alone could yield no great breakthrough in scientific discovery. For example, the genius Albert Einstein once remarked,

If, then, it is true that the axiomatic basis of theoretical physics cannot be extracted from experience but must be freely invented, can we ever hope to find the right way? I answer without hesitation that there is, in my opinion, a right way, and that we are capable of finding it. I hold it true that pure thought can grasp reality, as the ancients dreamed.

Thus ideas and principles drive enlightened observation and analysis. Hypothesis, crafted in the mind and thus immeasurable in any quantitative sense, can be verified by objective external analysis. One does not arrive at any competent hypothesis however when simply observing the existential reality however; the universe is much too complicated and we have come to know too much about it. If pure thought can grasp reality, then we can think of the ideas and concepts of the divine texts as ideas of pure thought that in fact can drive the search to understand and the process of inquisition. While this basis for investigation was known by Muslims throughout the ages, decline due to the adoption of innovations

and reliance on sources outside the realm of divine decree ushered in a period of intellectual decay and religious ritual over religious rigor. We must revive this process of discovery today as a crucial component of Islamic revival and as a necessary reaction to the issues plaguing humanity.

While the epistemological basis of the Muslim mind is that knowledge is rooted in the Quran and Sunnah, the consequential ontological conception that drives Islamic sciences, both social and natural, is that man is fundamentally distinct from the beast. Allah draws distinction between the two in the Quran. For example He (swt) says,

The Merciful, it is He who taught the Quran, Created Man and Taught him speech

Thus the ontological difference between man and the rest of creation is the ability to speak, understandand thus use the intellect to make discoveries about the universe that allow them to advance the trek of humanity and civilization in ways that are superior to the rest of creation. The Quranic notion of man as vicegerent (khilafah) thus places man in a unique position within the universe. Allah informs us in the Quran that (Amaanah) trust of free will and choice was offered (see Tafsir Ibn Kathir) to the heavens, to the earth and to the mountains, but they refused to undertake it and were afraid, but man undertook it. Allah then comments on how foolish a decision this was (Quran 33:72). Man in his capacity to create is distinct from all else; elsewhere Allah informs us about the angels that witnessed Allah’s creation of man and declaration that he would relegate the human being to Earth.

Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: "I will create a vicegerent on earth." They said: "Wilt Thou place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood?- whilst we do celebrate Thy praises

and glorify Thy holy (name)?" He said: "I know what ye know not." (2:30)

Man, while endowed with certain unique capacities, degree of choice and intellectual capability, is also burdened by the reality that he or she will be called to account for the utilization of such endeared faculties, thus discovering the reality of creation requires the simultaneous appreciation and proper perspective of balance in between the potential, creative capacity of the human being and the limitationsof his discovery of truth. Therefore, the Muslim mind is reliant on the ontological basis that the principles included in the texts of the Quran and hadith are divine and that the obligation is to establish them and enforce them in the practical world. The real world political, social, scientific and other struggles therefore become a process of dancing with the divine and the purpose of one’s life to seek awareness of the Creator via a process of interaction with the creation. Because Islam addresses phenomenon from all cognitive fields and areas of existence, this ontological identification and basis becomes crucial in analysis of truly beneficial and productive theoretical allegiances and subsequentlygives birth to ideas that drive real world existence. Thus, the theories associated with the ontological assumption that man is and evolved beast and nothing but sensorial reaction to external stimuli form the theoretical perspectives that drive imperialist practices, but when man is dedicated toward understanding

the higher divine nature of his own experiences and conceptions and the root of action and effort is based in the ontological root that man possesses a higher order, real world consequences birthcivilizations that embody justice and positive advancement.

Thus Ibn Taymia said,

The affairs of the people will go straight with the presence of justice which may be mixed with some types of sin more than they will go straight in the presence of oppression and injustice in the rights of the people, even if it is not mixed with other sins. Thus, it has been said: "Allah establishes the just state even if it is disbelieving, and does not establish the oppressing state, even if it is Muslim." It has been said: "The affairs of this world last with justice and kufr, but they do not last with oppression and Islam."

The bankruptcy of the day lies not so much in the false practices within the society but in the axiomatic, ontological assumptions that man is beast and subsequently behaves like one. The goal is to advance theoretical underpinnings so that typical axioms can be challenged and so that justice can be established by enhancing knowledge of Islam via the Islamization of knowledge.

A simple survey of history shows that conflict and controversy are the dominant themes and that there are short, sudden periods of renaissance and progress; the history of Islamic societies is so too replete with such ebbs and flows. As a result, the definitions and axioms of scientific inquiry alter over time. The post-World War II world witnessed a transfer from the language of geopolitics and imperialism to the contemporary language associated with globalization and international security. This new reality may have ushered in the alteration of definitions but in essence, the traditional practices of imperialist geopolitics remained the same in substantial ways. Most of the imbalances and structures of inequality remain and parochial attitudes, whether geographic, linguistic, academic, political, economic, or other, were maintained despite the transfer of imperialist patriarchy from its old epicenter in Europe to the United States. Today, the lens through which students of all sciences interpret the world is largely affected, wherever they are, by the theoretical foundations of the post-World War II world, no matter the bias or privilege through which that dominant theoretical position formed.

As a result, the globalization of this parochial attitude has influenced the perceptions of people all over the world. Because the imbalances of the imperialist era remain however, a substantial amount of criticism has rejected key components of this ideological globalization. Increasingly, peoples from non-Western cultural and national backgrounds seek to redefine the parochial paradigm, classifying the contemporary era as “neo-imperialist” or “neo-colonial” and seeking to indigenize concepts of scientific study so to pose alternative perspectives of and thus competing narratives for the interpretation of phenomena.

One alternative effort from the Muslim world is in efforts to Islamize knowledge. Contemporary efforts at the Islamizaton of knowledge have however largely produced only a means by which parochial attitudes deemed appropriate by Western powers are deliberately adopted as the referral source and the Islamic texts are interpreted in a way that coincides with the norms of the contemporary order. In practice this takes place via the mere tagging of a particular concept with an Arabicized name and thereby legitimizing not Islam but secularism through Islamic terminologies. This is evident in political organization where terms like ‘shura’ meaning ‘consultation’ have been equivocated with contemporary

understandings of democracy. This practice is also evident in the economic realm where the ‘shariah-compliant’ banking industry has developed a set of products derived almost completely from modern finance yet attributed to Islam via their classification with Arabic terms.

Any real movement for the Islamization of knowledge must be derived from the methodology mentioned within this treatise. In many ways the process of Islamization has become a front for the maintenance of a status quo, networks of privilege and authority that increasingly, due to the cultural renaissance of Islamic identity, have to rely on encountering the rapidly enhanced influence of Islam on society. This is as true in traditionally Muslim societies as it is in societies where Muslims represent an increasing minority. Thus our objective is both to participate within this paradigm while at the same time attempting to alter the present course in a direction that relies on Islamic principles and then shapes policy around them rather than adopting practices foreign to Islam and shaping them so that they appear to conform to the principles of the Islamic system. This is a fundamental distinction that must constantly be reflected upon. The perhaps idealistic intentions are therefore nothing less than to contribute to promoting and advancing a perceived yet subconscious paradigm shift that may ultimately revive the sort of axiomatic reliance, cognitive awareness, and widespread implementation of universal principles as expressed by Islam in the real world. It is no less than a call for a complete paradigm shift where the accumulative body of human knowledge remains but the axioms and principles which shape that knowledge are advanced and where one dominant conceptual worldview is replaced with another.

Every system of law has its principles and methodologies upon which it is built. Islam is no different but is perhaps unique in the amazing rapidity with which it spread and the subsequent stability and continuity that exists still today in its values, ideology, and institutions when compared to the jurisprudence of other civilizations. For over 1400 years, reliance on the preserved texts, the Quran and Sunnah, and the understandings of those texts held by the Prophet Muhammad (saws), his companions, especially the Khulafah Rashideen (first four caliphs), and the early generations of Muslims have been preserved, taught, and passed down throughout many generations in a manner which makes it possible to connect contemporary students to the same universal principles understood from the inception of the divine message. Where innovation is recognized as progress in western mindsets, the ultimate goal of Islamic understanding is quite opposite; innovation in Islamic tenets is looked upon as a deviation from what will remain ideal, preserved and perfect for the rest of history. For this reason in every time and place, no matter changes in customs, culture, technology or society at large, the contemporary reality must always be understood within the stagnant universal principles emphasized in the Quran and Sunnah and preserved, promoted and oftentimes revived throughout history.

The modern world has witnessed the coerced “secularization” of Islamic societies, the imposition of nation state structures, secular governance, capitalist economies and scientific and technological alteration has caused quite a confrontational Islamic backlash. However, contrary to other reactions against modernization, Islamic revival movements are anti-modern at the same time they are an expression of modernity. The increased influence of political Islam is also not something new. Science and technological advance have always been a part of Islamic society and it is only in the last hundred years that Islamic law was not the predominant reference point in politics. We thus seek to identify, understand and separate the principles of modernization compatible with Islam against those that are incompatible. In order to achieve this, an awareness of the classical understandings of Islam must be revived alongside detailed analysis of the contemporary reality. It is an age old tradition. The great jurist Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

The mufti or judge is not able to issue a fatwa or verdict without understanding two things:

(i) Understanding and having a good grasp of reality: he should have a good understanding of what is happening, on the basis of circumstantial evidence and other signs, so that he has a full understanding of it.(ii) Understanding what is required in the light of these circumstances, which means understanding the ruling of Allah that He issued in His book or on the lips of His Messenger concerning this reality, then he should apply the one to the other.

The shariah is intended to create a complete social order, therefore within the corpus of legislation in the Quran and Sunnah we find a set of principles and objectives, a series of general orders. These principles encapsulate social, political, economic, and intellectual aspects and represent universal axioms which are not only discoverable by humankind but are meant to be understood so that specific norms, customs, and laws can be shaped around them. The implementation of the Islamic system requires that the society is organized around the Islamic system and that policies are crafted that consider realizing the specifics of the law and the higher objectives for which the law is established. Only then, the Islamic model emphasizes, will mankind have peace.

Islam Policy proceeds thereby to continue this call and intends to advance in such a manner that the viral nature of the Islamic worldview can create the type of conditions under which a tipping point of transition can occur and the ideas of Islam can spread to influence every household. Syed Qutb, Islamist theoretician and initiator of this call in the modern era explained in Milestones that the vanguard must, “preserve and develop the material fruits of the creative genius of Europe, and also provide mankind with such high ideals and values as have so far remained undiscovered by mankind, and which will also acquaint humanity with a way of life that is harmonious with human nature, which is positive and constructive, and which is practicable.” Coincident to this call, which remains true unto today, we continue.

The way of life offered by Islam is a revolutionary endeavor; building a society around belief in God is alone a revolutionary platform today. However, the fabric of civilization is rapidly eroding around us today and while many agree that Islam should play a greater role within society, most have reduced action in that direction to pragmatic compromise and alteration, thus changing the very nature of the message or reducing the Islamic system to theological disputation and relishing Islamic revolution to an intellectual exercise absent efforts to shape the world according to its principles. It is our opinion that there must be a balance between the theological and the practical and there must be no compromise of pragmatism, the conditions of the world necessitate it.

Finally, we ask that Allah accept this work as worship of Him, that He (swt) guide it and make it a benefit in this world and the next. If anything good comes from it, then it was from Allah. And all evil or misguidance is from none other than the Shaytan. We ask that Allah protect us from his whispers, and improve our condition. Amin!