AL-MAJALLA: MAJALLA

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Sunday, May 31, 2026

The Movement of Life and the Balance of Health: Ibn Sīnā on Exercise, Regimen, and the Preservation of the Body (Ancient Wisdom Collection)

Sunday, May 31, 2026 No comments

This volume presents a curated and thematically organized translation of selected passages on riyāḍa (exercise) from the Canon of Medicine (al-Qānūn fī al-ṭibb) of Ibn Sīnā. Drawing on Books I-IV of the Canon, it brings together both the systematic chapters in which exercise is treated as a central component of regimen, and the numerous dispersed references in which it appears as a governing principle in physiology, pathology, and therapy.In Ibn Sīnā's medical thought, exercise is a foundational mechanism of life. It sustains the body's internal balance by promoting transformation, aiding digestion, and preventing the accumulation of harmful residues. Its proper use-defined by moderation, timing, and adaptation to individual condition-extends across all domains of medicine: from the preservation of health and the development of the body, to the treatment of disease and the regulation of daily life. This volume traces that breadth, showing how a single principle operates across multiple levels of a unified medical system.

Ibn Sīnā (980-1037), known in the Latin tradition as Avicenna, was one of the most influential physicians and philosophers of the medieval world. His Canon of Medicine remained a central medical text in both the Islamic world and Europe for centuries. Combining clinical observation with philosophical rigor, he articulated a comprehensive vision of the human body as a dynamic system governed by processes of balance, transformation, and motion.By assembling and translating these passages, this volume offers both a focused study of riyāḍa and an entry point into Ibn Sīnā's broader medical philosophy-one that continues to invite reflection on the nature of health, the role of movement, and the enduring continuity of knowledge across time and civilizations.

القانون في الطب The Canon of Medicine (Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb)

Sunday, May 31, 2026 No comments

الكتاب القانون في الطب موسوعة طبية عظيمة ألّفها العالم

الموسوعي الفارسي ابن سينا (أفيسينا) في أوائل القرن الحادي عشر الميلادي. ويتكوّن الكتاب من خمسة كتب شاملة، يقدّم من خلالها عرضًا منهجيًا موسوعيًا للمعرفة الطبية، جامعًا بين الخبرات التجريبية للتراث الطبي اليوناني والروماني والهندي والإسلامي. يشمل القانون المبادئ الأساسية للنظرية الطبية، وعلم الأدوية، وعلم الأمراض، والتشخيص، والمعالجة، إلى جانب صيدلية واسعة من العقاقير المفردة والمركبة. وقد حاز هذا العمل شهرة واسعة بفضل وضوحه وتنظيمه ودقّته العلمية، وظلّ مرجعًا طبيًا رئيسيًا في العالمين الإسلامي والأوروبي لأكثر من ستة قرون. كما ساهم في وضع مناهج التعليم الطبي في العصور الوسطى، ورسّخ قواعد الممارسة السريرية، وطرق حفظ الصحة وتركيب الأدوية. أصبح هذا العمل متاحًا الآن في خمسة مجلدات.المؤلفابن سينا (980-1037م)، المعروف في الغرب اللاتيني باسم أفيسينا، فيلسوفًا وطبيبًا وعالمًا فارسيًا تركت مؤلفاته أثرًا بالغًا في تطوّر الفكر العلمي والفلسفي في كل من العالمين الإسلامي والأوروبي. يُعتبر أحد أبرز أعلام العصر الذهبي الإسلامي، وقد ألّف أكثر من 450 كتابًا في مجالات متعددة، من أبرزها الفلسفة، والطب، والفلك، والمنطق، والرياضيات. وتُعدّ مؤلفاته الأهم، القانون في الطب وكتاب الشفاء، مثالًا بارزًا على مزجه بين الفلسفة الأرسطية والبحث العلمي التجريبي. وقد مثّلت منهجيته الدقيقة في التشخيص والتجريب والممارسة الطبية الأخلاقية نقطة تحوّل في تاريخ الطب. ولا يزال إرثه حاضرًا بقوة في تاريخ العلوم الطبية، وفي تقاليد الفكر العقلي والبحث الإنساني.

Friday, September 06, 2024

Law and Governance in Islamic Societies

Friday, September 06, 2024 No comments

Law and Governance in Islamic Societies is a translation from Arabic of two lectures by Abd al-Wahāb Kallāf (d. 1956). The materials were originally published in Arabic in two different books. One was published in 1971 under the title Khulāsat Tārīkh al-Tashrī` al-Islāmī. The other was published nearly ten years later under the title al-Sulutāt al-thalātha fī al-islām.

This revised translation is based on the Arabic text of al-Sulutāt al-thalātha fī al-islām, which was published in 1980, but also checked against some of Kallaf's ideas published in his other works, including `Ilm uṣūl al-fiqh, al-ijtihād wa-'l-taqlīd, and fiqh al-siyāsa al-shar`iyya.

About the author:

Abdul Wahhab Khallaf (1888 - 1956) is one of the most prominent jurists and expert in modern Sunni Islamic thought.

Born Abd al-Wahhab Abd al-Wahid Khallaf in the city of Kafr al-Zayyat in March 1888. He received a traditional religious education that led to his completion of the memorization the Qur'an. He joined al-Azhar in 1900. He completed his studies at the Sharia School in 1915 and was one of the first students to join the prominent institution since it was founded in 1907.

Abdul-Wahhab Khallaf became a Sheikh and worked at al-Azhar's Sharia Judiciary School immediately after his graduation, and he remained there until the start of the 1919 Revolution. During the revolution, he moved to take a judicial position in the Sharia courts (1920). He was appointed director of mosques in the Ministry of Endowments in 1924, and to the Courts Inspection Department in 1931.

In 1936, he was appointed to a professorship of Islamic law position at Cairo University, and he remained affiliated with the institution until his passing due to illness in 1956.

Monday, April 01, 2024

Islamic Law and Jurisprudence: mecelle-Ottoman Civil

Monday, April 01, 2024 No comments

The civil code of the last dynasty that ruled the Islamic community (umma), the Ottoman Sultanate, is a rich body of text for those interested in understanding the connection between legal principle and legal code. The document, formally known as the mecelle (majalla), is based on Hanafism that originated during the second Islamic century (8th century)-a school of jurisprudence that is rooted in reason (ra'y) as opposed to tradition (hadith), making it a remarkable source for learning about the origins and evolution of classical Islamic law from the formative period to the fall of the caliphate system (20th century).

Islamic Law and Jurisprudence is an updated translation of the Ottoman Civil Code. This body of law was applied in Muslim-majority countries in Southwest Asia, North Africa, and the Balkans before, during and immediately after the end of the British and French colonization of Muslim majority countries.

Tuesday, July 05, 2022

Ibn Khaldun'is Muqaddima, as translated by Franz Rosenthal (in 1958-69)

Tuesday, July 05, 2022 No comments

Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah--Prolegomenon, translated by Franz Rosenthal in 1958;

this eBook is based on the the one-volume abridged version of Rosenthal’s translation that appeared in 1969.

Thursday, June 29, 2017

What is Islamic art?

Thursday, June 29, 2017 No comments

by Dr. Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis

The Dome of the Rock, the Taj Mahal, a Mina’i ware bowl, a silk carpet, a Qur‘an—all of these are examples of Islamic art. But what is Islamic art?
Islamic art is a modern concept created by art historians in the 19th century to facilitate categorization and study of the material first produced under the Islamic peoples that emerged from Arabia in the seventh century.
Today, the term Islamic art describes all of the arts that were produced in the lands where Islam was the dominant religion or the religion of those who ruled. Unlike the terms Christian art, Jewish art, and Buddhist art—which refer only to religious art of these faiths—the term Islamic art is not used merely to describe religious art or architecture but applies to all art forms produced in the Islamic world.
Thus, the term Islamic art refers not only to works created by Muslim artists, artisans, and architects or for Muslim patrons. It encompasses works created by Muslim artists for patrons of any faith, including—Christians, Jews, or Hindus—and the works created by Jews, Christians, and others, living in Islamic lands, for patrons, Muslim and otherwise.
One of the most famous monuments of Islamic art is the Taj Mahal, a royal mausoleum, located in Agra, India. Hinduism is the majority religion in India; however, because Muslim rulers, most famously the Mughals, dominated large areas of modern-day India for centuries, India has a vast range of Islamic art and architecture. The Great Mosque of Xian, China is one of the oldest and best preserved mosques in China. First constructed in 742 CE, the mosque’s current form dates to the 15th century CE and follows the plan and architecture of a contemporary Buddhist temple. In fact, much Islamic art and architecture was—and still is—created through a synthesis of local traditions and more global ideas.

Islamic art is not a monolithic style or movement; it spans 1,300 years of history and has incredible geographic diversity—Islamic empires and dynasties controlled territory from Spain to western China at various points in history. However, few if any of these various countries or Muslim empires would have referred to their art as Islamic. An artisan in Damascus thought of his work as Syrian or Damascene—not as Islamic.
As a result of thinking about the problems of calling such art Islamic, certain scholars and major museums, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, have decided to omit the term Islamic when they renamed their new galleries of Islamic art. Instead, they are called “Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia,” thereby stressing the regional styles and individual cultures. Thus, when using the phrase, Islamic art, one should know that it is a useful, but artificial, concept.
In some ways, Islamic art is a bit like referring to the Italian Renaissance. During the Renaissance, there was no unified Italy; it was a land of independent city-states. No one would have thought of themselves as an Italian, or of the art they produced as Italian. Rather, a person would have self-identified as a Roman, a Florentine, or a Venetian. Each city developed a highly local, remarkable style. At the same time, there are certain underlying themes or similarities that unify the art and architecture of these cities and allow scholars to speak of an Italian Renaissance.
Themes
Similarly, there are themes and types of objects that link the arts of the Islamic world together. Calligraphy is a very important art form in the Islamic world. The Qur’an, written in elegant scripts, represents Allah’s—or God’s—divine word, which Muhammad received directly from Allah during his visions. Quranic verses, executed in calligraphy, are found on many different forms of art and architecture. Likewise, poetry can be found on everything from ceramic bowls to the walls of houses. Calligraphy’s omnipresence underscores the value that is placed on language, specifically Arabic.
Geometric and vegetative motifs are very popular throughout the lands where Islam was once or still is a major religion and cultural force, appearing in the private palaces of buildings such as the Alhambra, in Spain, as well as in the detailed metal work of Safavid Iran. Likewise, certain building types appear throughout the Islamic world: mosques with their minarets, mausolea, gardens, and madrasas—religious schools—are all common. However, their forms vary greatly.

One of the most common misconceptions about the art of the Islamic world is that it is aniconic; that is, the art does not contain representations of humans or animals. Early examples of religious art and architecture, such as the Dome of the Rock and the Aqsa Mosque—both in Jerusalem)—and the Great Mosque of Damascus—built under the Umayyad rulers—did not include human figures and animals. However, the private residences of sovereigns, such as Qasr ‘Amra and Khirbat Mafjar, were filled with vast figurative paintings, mosaics, and sculpture.

The study of the arts of the Islamic world has also lagged behind other fields in art history. There are several reasons for this. First, many scholars are not familiar with Arabic or Farsi—the dominant language in Iran. Calligraphy, particularly Arabic calligraphy, as noted above, is a major art form and appears on almost all types of architecture and arts. Second, the art forms and objects prized in the Islamic world do not correspond to those traditionally valued by art historians and collectors in the Western world. The so-called decorative arts—carpets, ceramics, metalwork, and books—are types of art that Western scholars have traditionally valued less than painting and sculpture. However, the last fifty years has seen a flourishing of scholarship on the arts of the Islamic world.
Arts of the Islamic world

In this article, we use the phrase “Arts of the Islamic World” to emphasize that the art discussed was created in a world where Islam was a dominant religion or a major cultural force but was not necessarily religious art. Often, when the word Islamic is used today, it is used to describe something religious; thus using the phrase Islamic art could be mistakenly interpreted to mean that all of this art is religious in nature. The phrase Arts of the Islamic World also acknowledges that not all of the work produced in the Islamic world was for Muslims or created by Muslims.

Sunday, January 08, 2017

The Mejelle: Ottoman Legal Code

Sunday, January 08, 2017 No comments

Mejelle

(mecelle)

Buy mejelle (mecelle)

PART I

DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION OF ISLAMIC JURISPRUDENCE

Article 1. The science of Islamic jurisprudence consists of a knowledge of the precepts of the Divine Legislator in their relation to human affairs.

The questions of Islamic jurisprudence either concern the next world, being known as rules relating to worship, or to this world, being divided into sections dealing with domestic relations, civil obligations and punishments. Thus God decreed the continuation of the world until the appointed time. This, however, can only occur by mankind being perpetuated which is dependent upon marriage of male and female with a view to procreation. Moreover, the continuation of the human species is assured by individuals associating together. Man, however, in view of the weakness of his nature is dependent upon food, clothing, housing and the industries for his subsistence. In other words, in view of the fact that man is a civilized being, he cannot live in solitude like the other animals, but is in need of co-operation and association in work with his fellow men in order to live in a state of Civilization. Every person, however, asks for the things which he likes and avoids things which are disagreeable to him. As a result, it has been necessary to establish laws of a nature likely to maintain order and justice as regards marriage, mutual help and social relations, which are the basis of all civilization.

The first division of Islamic jurisprudence is the section dealing with domestic relations. The second is the section dealing with civil obligations. In view of the fact that the continuance of civilization on this basis necessitates the drawing up of certain matters relating to punishments the third section of Islamic jurisprudence deals with punishments.

As regards the section dealing with civil obligations, the questions which are of the most frequent occurrence have been collected together from reliable works and set out in this Code in the form of Books. These Books have been divided into Chapters and the Chapters into Sections. The questions of detail which will be applied in the Courts are those questions which are set out in the following Chapters and Sections. Muslim jurists, however, have grouped questions of Islamic jurisprudence under certain general rules, each one of which embraces a large number of questions and which, in the treatises on Islamic jurisprudence, are taken as justification to prove these questions. The preliminary study of these rules facilitates the comprehension of the questions and serves to fix them in the mind. Consequently, ninety nine rules of Islamic jurisprudence have been collected together as follows, before commencing on the main work and form Part II.

Although a few of them, taken alone, admit of certain exceptions, their general application is in no way invalidated thereby, since they are closely interrelated.

Buy mejelle (mecelle)

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Physicians’ Contractual Responsibility According to Sharī`ah and Law

Sunday, January 08, 2017 No comments

Physicians’ Contractual Responsibility According to Sharī`ah and Law

Dr. Adnan A. al-Smadi; Professor of Islamic Law

مسؤوليّة الطبيب التعاقدية بين الشريعة والقانون

د.عدنان أحمد الصمادي

Depression and Fear among Muslim Families in Southern California

Sunday, January 08, 2017 No comments

Depression and Fear among Muslim Families in Southern California

A Post September 11, 2001 Analysis

By Ian Chand, Ph.D. and Sandy Moghadam, M.S.

April 2004

Islam: “No one of you is a believer until he desires for brother or a sister that which he desires for

himself”.

Christianity: “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so

to them.”

Judaism: “What is hateful to you do not do to your fellow man.”

Buddhism: “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.”

Hinduism: “Do naught unto others what would cause you pain if done to you.”

Taoism: “Regard your neighbor’s gain as your own gain and your neighbor’s loss as

your own case.”

Abstract

The authors of this article aim to raise cultural awareness and cultural sensitivity to

marriage and family therapists by providing knowledge gained from a study of the impact of

September 11, 2001, on Muslim families in Southern California. The authors will look at the

depression and fear as related to such factors as culture, religion, ethnicity, and gender.

Findings reflect the Muslim people experience varying levels of depression and fear when

faced with traumatic events, such as the horrific events of September 11, 2001. The data in

this study were collected and multiple regression statistical analysis were used to examine

the significance or the extent to which factors contributed to imbalances in mental well

being of Muslim families in Southern California. Findings may be helpful to marriage and

family therapists when treating Muslim families.

The Effects of September 11 on Muslim Families in California: A Qualitative

Sunday, January 08, 2017 No comments

The Effects of September 11 on Muslim Families in California: A Qualitative Study

By Ian Chand, PhD, Sandy Moghadam, M.S., Mark Morton, M.S., and Scott Johnson, M.S.

April 2004

Abstract

This study examines the impact of September 11 on Muslim families in Southern California. The researchers employed a grounded-theory influenced qualitative analysis to a series of open-ended question presented to120 Muslim participants. The findings reflect the immediate emotions experienced directly after the terrorist attacks, opinions regarding the longer-term impact on a range of age groups, as well as suggestions about what should be done in response. Suggestions are presented regarding how these findings may be helpful to marriage and family therapists when meeting with Islamic families.