This article presents an attempt to interpret the conceptual basics of traditional Muslim ethics and its significance for the development of humanity in the 21century. The basic proposition of the article is the statement that future ethics should be guided by those fundamental anthropological ideas that are presented in Revelation, i.e. in the Qur’an and other religious scripts. The essence of the Qur’anic teaching about man is formulated as the concept of ‘Qur’anic humanism’, which, being considered from the positions of ethics, intends the pursuit of creativity of self, the pursuit of knowledge, the pursuit of spiritual light and the orientation to traditional values in every sphere of life. Besides, Qur’anic humanism affords grounds for a broad interreligious dialogue, which is reflected in the concept of transcendent divine mercy. It is demonstrated in the article that the 21century defies the people of faith, its challenges cannot be resolved within the settings of isolationism and exclusionism. That is why the consolidation of the representatives of the main religious traditions is required, as well as a consolidated philosophic reflection on the existing problems, including those in the sphere of ethics.

The article deals with the general Muslim and local practices of the Eid al-Fitr festivities in Ingushetia. It describes the events organized in the Republic of Ingushetia on the eve and during the festival on governmental and individual levels. The ethnographic specifics of the local traditions are shown considering the changes that have occurred over the pafew decades due to governmental ideological guidelines and realities of the day.

The article deals with Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali’s conception of monotheism (tawhid). Quranic teaching is multidimensional, so in the history of Islamic thought there were various classifications of types of tawhid. Al-Ghazzali elaborates four-stage classification. According to al-Ghazzali, on the firstage man recognizes monotheism on words, but internally doesn’t agree with it. On the second stage he recognizes monotheism on words and internally, but doesn’t know it in experience. On the third stage he opens his heart for experiential knowledge and recognizes that God is the only Actor. On the fourth stage he understands that everything except God is false, so everything is perishing in front of His Face. This highestage of tawhid is described by al-Ghazzali as «annihilation in the faith in God». In the article author shows that al-Ghazzali’s conception of monotheism is essentially Quranic, but conceptualization of its certain aspects is made with help of terminology of Kalam, Falsafa and philosophical Sufism.

The article discusses the image of the medieval Muslim thinker Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728/1328), who made a significant and lasting contribution to the development of Muslim theological and legal thought. The focus is made on the formation and spreading of Ibn Tay-miyyah’s image in the contemporary Russian cyberspace. The author examines a number of Russian websites, forums and blogs and summarizes the keynotes of the internet debates associated with the intellectual legacy and personality of Ibn Taymiyyah.

The paper analyzes the data about the acquaintance of Russian people with the text of the Holy Quran in the 16th and 17th centuries. Muslims often used Quranic suras in diplomatic ceremonies of adjuration (i.e. oath rite). Translators and interpreters of the Muscovite Ambassadorial Office (Posolskiy Prikaz) were conversant enough with the Quranic terminology used in diplomatic documents and therefore were able to translate whole ayahs from Arabic into Russian. Thus, we can find the very first Russian translation of the sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ in the records of relations with the Ottoman Empire as early as in 1572.

The history of interaction between Russian and Finnish Muslims is rich in facts, unknown not only to an average reader, but also to specialists. A bulk of archival records that has been declassified over the layears sheds light on various previously unknown facts. The author attempts to show that the relations that had been established between Soviet and Finnish Muslims during the World War II continued in 1950th-1980th.

The article considers the specifics of the reproduction of religious autonomy in a rural Muslim community. The author presents a case-study of the Srednyaya Yelyuzan village, Penza Oblast. A comprehensive study, which involves the archival data on the history of the village and qualitative methods, allows us to retrace the village’s religious autonomy as a form of social  self-organization of rural Muslim Tatars. The study of the role of such social institutions as the traditional family, mosque and Muslim community, the activities of spiritual leaders helps to identify the sustainability factors of religious practices and values in different socio-political contexts: Russian Empire, Soviet atheism and post-Soviet religious pluralism.

The article examines the issues of the assessment of the number of Muslim population in Russia. It accentuates the importance of recognizing the Islamic factor in the domestic and foreign policy of Russia. Using the example of the North-Western Federal District, the article explores the specifics of the state-Islam relations. The author also analyses topical tasks of Muslim organizations at present. 

The article describes the main reasons for the adoption of an updated policy document “Social doctrine of the Russian Muslims” and also notes its features. The social doctrine of the Russian Muslims is positioned as a tool for self-organization of the Muslim Ummah, which control the expression of the interests of the community of believers and their opinion on the key issues. The relevance of the basic ideas of social doctrine is not only seen from the perspective of consolidation of the Muslim community, but also in the context of the integration of Islam as a social institution in the socio-political structure of Russian society. The author raises the question of the need to develop effective mechanisms to implement the main provisions of the social doctrine in the activities of Muslim religious organizations.

The article analyzes one of the latework of the outstanding Tatar theologiMusa Bigiyev “Al-jami’a al-Islamiya al-’ilmiya” (Islamic Scientific University), where he introduces a concept for the training of highly qualified Muslim theologists, who would be ready to take responsibility for passing legal theological resolutions that would meets the modern needs of the Muslim community.

The article substantiates the urgency of studying the fundamentals of Islamic culture in educational organizations of the Russian Federation, it presents methodological  and methodical positions of the author.

The article considers training and methodological materials for the course “Islam: history, culture and practice”. The course has been taught during the firyear of the implementation of the program for the training of specialists with indepth knowledge of history and culture of Islam at the Faculty of Asian and African Studies, St. Petersburg State University. In order to achieve  high-quality training, the latedevelopments in the field of education have been used, in particular the Blackboard e-learning system. Combination of innovative approaches to the organization of educational process and traditional forms of teaching activities provides positive results and allows us to talk about strong students’ intereto the subject and their motivation to acquire new knowledge as well as skills of self- education and self-study.

The article considers the importance of the religious component in the modern conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The countries represent Shiite and Sunny branches of Islam, therefore some researches claim that there is a new phase of religious confrontation, trigged by the January, 2016 events. Yet the author concludes that the religious component is not a crucial one for the situation. Considering some Western experts’ opinions, it is inferred that religion is no more than a disguise to hide domestic and foreign political endeavors.

The article considers the national movement of the local indigenous people in Xinjiang in the second half of the 1940s and the influence of Islam on this process. The nationalimovement that involved uprisings was due to a number of complex socio-economic and political factors. In this article, the author reflects on the influence of Islam and Islamic clergy on the political processes of the region. Religion has traditionally played an important role in the lives of the indigenous peoples of the Northweof China. Sunni Islam influences the tradition of social and domestic relations, interethnic interaction and it is the ideological basis of the national struggle for liberation. The article infers that essentially the EaTurkestan Republic in Xinjiang (1945-1949) was an Islamic state. However, in the face of opposition of the Kuomintang, the CommuniParty of China and the Soviet Union, an alternative national and religious scenario in was never to be implemented.

The article deals with the public activities of the enlightened rulers of the Medieval Muslim East. The authors analyze the events that took place in the Central Asia during the Timurid period. The article examines the years of the rule of Ulugh Beg, Baysunkar-mirza, Babur and Navoi. It is concluded that their multitalented personalities contributed to high achievements of the state.

The author points out that Internet resources and social networks take ever larger place among those media resources that are used by specialists and influence social consciousness of the Russians. New media has become a new progressive stage; it affects the solution of acute social problems of mankind. The article also discusses the role of new media in covering contemporary political conflicts.

The article considers the reflection of socio-communicative practices of the mosque’s activities in the field of education, in its interaction with universities, in particular, with the Institute of International Relations and World History of the Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod, where paradigmatic approaches of social communication are successfully implemented. According to the classical paradigmatic approach, communication is understood as information transfer from a source that affects the audience. The paradigm of interaction analyzes communication as the result of interaction of equal actors. Thus, the dialogue is the key problem of the formation of the communicative integrity of mutual understanding.

The article covers the international conference “Islam and interreligious cooperation” that was organized on January 27, 2016 in Omsk. The author substantiates the urgency and topicality of the event and compares it to a large international forum “The Islamic civilization on the eve of the 21century” held in 1994. The article presents the main idea of the conference and its conclusions.