Уважаемый читатель! Перед Вами четвертый — и последний в 2015 году — выпуск рецензируемого научного журнала «Ислам в современном мире». С его выходом мы «открыли» все символические врата (их  четыре — по числу печатных номеров год, а кому-то, возможно, покажется, что и по числу четырех основных богословско-правовых школ в исламе — мазхабов) в  мир научных знаний и  представлений об  исламе, его роли и месте в истории, культуре, политических процессах регионов, стран, цивилизаций — как в недавнем прошлом и современности, так и ближайшем будущем. Как Вы, должно быть, обратили внимание, с каждым новым выпуском нашего журнала на его лицевой обложке графически й рисунок очередной двери окрашивался в белый цвет; таким образом, теперь все четыре — распахнуты для наших заинтересованных читателей .

This paper considers the current challenges in the field of modern Muslim education. The author suggests that it is Qur’anic humanism — an idea of a reasonable and creative approach to the world  that should be placed at the centre of the educational system. This thesis goes back to Jadidist ideas about Islam as a ‘science-based religion’, i.e. a religion that integrates both the Revelation and scientific knowledge. The author believes that the renovation of the Muslim educational system should take into consideration the following three traditions that solely Russian Muslims are capable of bringing together: the traditions of classic Islamic education, the traditions of domestic theological schools and the traditions of European science. At the present stage, Muslims are in need of working out a comprehensive strategy for the development of an education system. Therefore, this issue requires a great deal of discussion among Muslim intellectual elites.

This article focuses on the determination of the key development directions of Muslim education in modern Russia. The history of Muslim education in the country and its modern problematics have been given particular emphasis; major objectives, parameters and major executives of the outlined strategic tasks have been defined.

The importance of the religious factor in society’s and the state’s national national security places the problem of a unified Russian system of Islamic education at the center of expert discussions. The concept of the training of advanced specialists in the history and culture of Islam adopted by the Ministry of Education and Science is aimed at the integration of Muslim youth in Russia’s society and at counteraction to religiously motivated radicalism and extremism. The article accentuates the importance of the modernization of Islamic education and the enhancements of its competitiveness as a factor that helps shaping the national identity of Russia’s Muslims. The article concludes that while there are many existential perils, the recreation of the national theological school would benefit the process of Islamic personnel preparation, who would be ready to counteract ideological challenges initiated by destructive forces hidden under pseudo-Islamic slogans.

The concept of the training of advanced specialists in the history and culture of Islam.

The article deals with the specifics of Tatar Muslim socio-cultural practice using as an example the particular socio-cultural realities of Russian Muslim culture. Typical traits of Tatar practice are defined, such as the inclination towards moderateness, the high social status of women, striving for universal literacy, democracy, tolerance, etc. The author comes to the conclusion that a major intellectual and spiritual task for Russian Muslims is understanding their own existence and place among other Muslim cultures.

The article is devoted to the role of Islam and the Muslim Ummah in the development of Russian federal statehood after the collapse of the USSR. The author shows that the most important task for Russia is to preserve its sovereignty and determine its own path for development as one of the independent poles of a multipolar world, with the right to its own integration project in Eurasia. To achieve this, the Russian government should recognize the revival of Islam as a factor in the stable development of the country and see in Islamic culture an important part of Russian society and state.

The importance of the issue under study is specified by the increasing significance of the religious factor in the social, political, religious and cultural life of the global community and of Russia in the 21st century. The aim of the article is to find out and analyze the tendencies of the development of the Waqf system among Tatars at the end of the 20th and at the beginning of the 21st centuries, to determine the possibilities of religious institutions’ financing by means of engaging and adapting such traditional instruments as Waqf to modern conditions. The main method of the research is historical and comparative, when the existence of Waqf property in the Russian Empire until 1917 is compared with the modern state in this sphere according to current Russian legislation. The article highlights the impossibility of unimpaired operation of the institution of Waqf under the conditions of a secular state. Furthermore, the author offers ways of legitimizing separate principles of Waqf in the framework of current Russian legislation. The article may be useful for the further study of institutional history of Russian Islam, as well as in modern social discussions about the role of religion in secular spaces, and also in forming scientific and methodological, regular and legal frameworks to improve government policy concerning religion.

This article is devoted to the analysis of the current state of Shi’a Islam in light of the 6th General Meeting of the “Ahl al-Bayt” (“Family of the Holy Prophet”) World Assembly.

The article presents the basic scientific approaches and principles of the draft study of modern Islamist movements in the world political process undertaken by the Centre for Civilizational and Regional Studies of the Institute for African Studies (RAS) with the participation of authoritative experts from many Russian universities and foreign centers. The questions stood behind the concept of Islamic radicalism such as why, how and where it originated, what historical and social role it performs in the world were assigned by the initiators of the monograph, which has no analogues in the sphere of Islamic studies.

The article discusses the issue of ijtihad in the works of Tatar theologians. There is an analysis of the concept of ijtihad at the beginning of the article. Further, the author analyzes the ideas of Tatar theologians concerning the place of ijtihad in Islamic law. The author quotes from the works of such renowned theologians as G. UtyzImyani, G. Kursavi, S. Mardzhani, M. Bigiyev, A. Bubi, R. Fakhretdinov. As a result of the analysis, the author identifies two major trends in the works of Tatar theologians. Some Tatar theologians advocated for the revival of the Hanafi tradition, while the other part stands by/is for the complete abandonment of previous schools of thought. At the end of the article the author concludes that the issue has again become relevant to the Muslim Ummah of Russia, which has yet to make its choice.

The paper considers the views of the Tatar Muslim modernist, public and religious figure Gataulla Bayazitov, who proves the rationality inherent in Islam in his works. Speaking against the negative attitude of religious dogmatism in relation to rational knowledge, the development of science and technological progress, Bayazitov sets the task of overcoming the cultural isolation of Russian Muslims and bringing them to the achievements of European civilization, while retaining their traditional spiritual values.

In this article political and legal development is analyzed as well as the role of religion in the Republic of Tatarstan (RT) in late 2014 to November 2015. The most important factor in the legitimacy of power in the RT became the fact that the Constitution of the RT contains a statement about the limited sovereignty of the RT, the post of president of the RT and the restoration of republic-wide elections for the RT presidency. At the same time, the leaders of the RT actively cooperated with the representatives of major Muslim, spiritual organizations such as the Muslim Spiritual Administration of Tatarstan on organizing social events, projects in the sphere of education and Muslim festivities.

In the article modern state and religious relations in the North Caucasus are considered. Problems are analyzed and the prospects for cooperation between the state and religious institutions directed towards solving possible social, region-based disputes are defined.

The article describes tariqahs and virds practiced by modern Ingushes. It presents general characteristics of all the religious communities (‘fraternities’) of Ingushetia, and the specifics of the religious practices of the Kadiri and Naqsjbandi Tariqahs. The article also accentuates the peculiarities of Zikr performance in both tariqahs and describes the area where the Tariqahs of kadiri and Naqsjbandi are spread in Inigushetia and in other regions of the Russian Federation, where the adherents of the mentioned Tariqahs reside, as well as outside the country. The article also touches upon the specifics of Sufi practices in the North Caucasus region and in the world.

Based on a literature review and on the assessment of the author’s experience during the round table ‘The psychology of religion: an inter-disciplinary approach’ at Saint Petersburg State University, the article reflects on the current state of Russian and foreign thought regarding the psychology of religion and religious psychology. The psychology of religion is consideredas a branch of psychology, while religious psychology is consideredas a part of theological knowledge. The state of the psychology of religion is examined in various Christian confessions. The author pays particular attention to the state of Islamic psychology in Russia and abroad; the article considers the history and prospects of the discipline and its major fields of research and practical activities. The article also highlights that the development of the psychology of Islam will occur in close cooperation between the specialists in psychology and Islamic theology, while the development of Islamic theology will be a basis for understanding of Muslims’ religious beliefs.

Currently we perceive the system of Muslim education through the prism of those tasks that are set for the educational system of our country in general: through such endeavors we would be able to improve and build a reasonable interaction with the secular educational system. However, purely Islamic educational institutions have their own specifics that should not be ignored. Traditional teaching methods of Islamic disciplines have crystallized throughout the centuries; they proceed from the content of a subject and the logic of its study and always represent the basis of teaching. Traditional teaching basics are not only focused on building knowledge and skills, but also on spiritual and moral molding of personality, i.e. the learning of adab. These methods come from practical skills to intellectual skills and from them — to generic knowledge. The Islamic educational process is characterized by integrity, which manifests itself in the unity of intensional, motivational, organizational, operational and procedural aspects. Today the integrity of ethic norms and educational processes is the subject of scrutiny of pedagogy and didactics. However, the undeniable and unsurpassed legacy in the sphere of the teaching of Islamic disciplines is still insufficiently explored.

This article is dedicated to the study of the history and evolution of Islamic education in independent Uzbekistan. It considers problems of the Islamic secondary school and higher education in the Republic, coming from present day threats and challenges of globalization.

The article describes tariqahs and virds practiced by modern Ingushes. It presents general characteristics of all the religious communities (‘fraternities’) of Ingushetia, and the specifics of the religious practices of the Kadiri and Naqsjbandi Tariqahs. The article also accentuates the peculiarities of Zikr performance in both tariqahs and describes the area where the Tariqahs of kadiri and Kaqsjbandi are spread in Inigushetia and in other regions of the Russian Federation, where the adherents of the mentioned Tariqahs reside, as well as outside the country. The article also touches upon the specifics of Sufi practices in the North Caucasus region and in the world.