The article deals with the teaching about the permanence of God’s creative activity, which was traditionally considered heterodox, but which is increasingly spreading in modern theology. It gives a detailed analysis of the Qur’anic base of this teaching, rational and philosophical arguments in its favor, as well as the criticism, put forward by its supporters, against the Kalam, i. e. the doctrine of temporal fi nitism

A convincing refutation of stereotypes about Islam as a religion of implacably hostility to the adherents of other faiths serves as an example of life, activity, and evolution of thinking that was demonstrated by an outstanding political leader of the Indian national liberation movement Abul Kalam Azad (1888-1958). Initially he was an ardent follower of Aligarh movement which stood for Muslim education and their cooperation with the colonial authorities. From 1911 to 1916 Azad is an active promoter of Muslim nationalism, Caliphate movement. From 1920 until the end of life Azad was a tough critic of the separatist Muslim nationalism, one of the most prominent leaders of the Indian National Congress Party, Minister of education of secular Republic of India. History of Azad’s personal evolution convincingly testifi es to the dynamic nature of Islamic teaching which calls for renunciation of dogmatic views and maintaining the constant desire to discover the deep world outlook meanings

The article reviews and analyses the ideas of one of the most influential contemporary Islamic scholars, Yusuf Al-Qaradawi (born 1926). The main areas of his work are being mapped out. The paper also investigates Al-Qaradawi’s pioneering ideas in the field of fiqh, and takes note of pragmatic and contextual nature of his legal theory. The scope of the article also includes critical characterisation of the most problematic aspects of Al-Qaradawi’s work. Inner dynamic character of his thought is being particarly highlighted. The author comes to conclusion that a number of conсeptions authored by Al-Qaradawi possess an enduring significance for any adherent of Islam, including those critical of some specific views presented by Egyptian thinker. Those conceptions concern Islamic solidarity, tolerance to minor divergences of opinion, facilitation of religion.

 The present article is devoted to the study of famous Egyptian Islamic mystic (Sufi ) Ibn ‘Aṭā’ Allāh al-Iskandarī’s views in the context of Ibn ‘Arabi’s teaching of “wahdat al-wujud” (the Unity of Being). Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah al-Iskandari (d. 709/1309) was third great shaykh of the Sufi  order of the Shadhiliyya, founded by Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili (d. 656/1258). Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah wrote works on Sufi sm that had become a part of classical Sufi  legacy. His ‘Kitab al-Hikam’ (The Book of Wisdoms), a small collection of Sufi  aphorisms, is considered to be genuine masterpiece. He played also the important role in the establishment of institutional framework of the Sufi  order of the Shadhiliyya in Egypt. So, the spiritual legacy of him is embodied both in his disciples and in his books.

The aim of this article is to explore the infl uence of the Ibn ‘Arabi’s ideas on Shadhiliyya tradition, especially on Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah al-Iskandari’s thought. The famous medieval Islamic thinker Ibn ‘Arabi (1165–1240) was one of the most infl uential Islamic thinkers. His intellectual talents and his deep infl uence on Muslim thought are indisputable. There is no doubt that Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah was familiar with Ibn ‘Arabi’s doctrines. The author considers that some ideas and theories that had become a part of Ibn ‘Arabi’s philosophy afterwards entered into early Shadhili tradition before Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah and were gradually transformed in accordance with sober form of Sufi sm. According to the author’s viewpoint, several factors forced the Shadhili shaykhs to reject metaphysical doctrines of Ibn ‘Arabi and preferred doctrines of sober form of Sufi sm, like teaching of the prominent Muslim theologian, philosopher and mystic al-Gazali (1058–1111). 

The article deals with the work of one of the most outstanding representative of modern Muslim reformation but still has not been thoroughly studied in our country, Egyptian sheikh Ali Abdarraziq (1888-1966), the author of a famous book “Islam and the Foundations of Political Power” (1925). He was the fi rst Muslim theologian who evoked the idea of desacralization of caliphate and argumented the statement that Divine Law, in its essence, has nothing to do with the organization of political power.

In the first part the personality of Ali Abdarraziq is presented in the historical context, with a focus on a pressing struggle for the restauration of Caliphate abolishedin 1924 due to Kemalist reforms. Against this restauration, namely, Abdarraziq directed his book. Here is analyzed the sharp discussion raised by the book in wide circles of Egyptian society, its critics and court trial organized by the ulemas of al-Azhar.

The work of Abdarraziq is to become the most disputable since the times of book-printing in the Arab countries. It infl uenced greatly the following Muslim thought and till now acts a so-called guiding star for the modernists-secularists in all the Islamic world.

‘Abd al-Rahman Jami is known mostly as a poet. Nevertheless, his contribution to Islamic philosophy is also considerable. He was a follower of Ibn Arabi — the founder of the philosophical tasawwuf, whose works were very infl uential in the classic Iranian thought. The philosophy of Jami was outlined in a number of his works, among them are the commentary to the “Fusus al-Hikam” by Ibn Arabi and a short treaty “The commentary to the ruba‘yat” that contains 49 ruba‘i by Jami with his own commentary. This is one of his most important works, explaining the matter of wahdat al-wujud. This article gives an excursus to this treaty, making an accent at the Jami’s interpretation of the necessary being at the context of his epoch of thought. We try to show, that his philosophy, on one hand, deals very much with the works by Ibn Arabi and Suhrawardy, inherits their concepts and problems, so it cannot be properly understood apart from their works. On the other hand, Jami has his own point of view to the philosophy concepts of his teachers. For instance, he gives us a typology of beings, that includes three stages. The fi rst, the lowest one is the stage of a beings whose being is diff erent to their selfness (dhat). They are the things, that surround us every day and passively accept being from an external source. The second one is the being whose selfness is diff erent to its being, but its reality (haqiqa) cannot be seen apart from it. It’s an active matter (the mentioned “source”), that gives being to the beings of the fi rst stage. And the third stage is the simple being, the same to the God’s selfness, that unites the fi rst and the second stages.

The article deals with theoretical approaches to the essence of Caliphate as they were formulated by Middle Eastern and South Asian Islamic thinkers. The distinguishing characteristics of Pan-Islamic and Pan-Ottoman conceptions and their perception in the Muslim communities of Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire and among the Sunni Muslims of South Asia are analyzed. The study explores the historical and cultural background of the appeal of Caliphatist values for Muslims of various ethnic origins.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the ideological features of the movement of Arab nationalism, which took shape and became popular after the Second world war. Particular attention is paid to the ideas that contributed to the unifi cation of the Arab population throughout the Arab region. These ideas led to the formation of nationalist projects that were aimed to some extent at consolidating the Arab population within one or several countries. Among the most successful nationalist projects are the Egyptian, Iraqi, Syrian, and Algerian and Libyan projects.

In this article the author studies the specifi cs of correlation between ethnic and religious identities in Dagestan of the Post-Soviet period. It is emphasized that, despite the supranational and integrating character of Islam, the modern ethnically marked social and economic problems infl uence on the relations between ethnic communities more their common religious ideology.

The article is devoted to the system classifi cation of religions on the basis of various criteria, the most important of which is the communication one. As the cross-cultural method shows, there is no word «religion» in many languages o  f the world, but there is its equivalent, denoting the connection of man with God and supernatural forces. The system classifi cation of religions is more a system of classifi cations than a classifi cation, which based on ideal, hypothetical models. It based on the object of worship (the religion of Nature, the religion of Tradition, the religion of Revelation), on the sources of the doctrine (the religion of the scriptures), on the methods of obtaining information, or, in the religious paradigm, religious knowledge /hidden truths (prophetic, non-prophetic, etc.). The author tries to fi nd conjugations between these classifi cations. The system-communication method is one of many possible ways of scientifi c knowledge of religion, which allows us to divide complex social essences and phenomena into composite elements, and each of them in their close interconnection and interaction with other elements of systematic knowledge, taking into account the specifi city of religious communication.

The article examines the phenomenon of “Western Sufi sm”, the complex of spiritual practices and movements, widely spread in Europe and the US in the 1960–1970th. The history of the relationship between the Western society and the Muslim esoteric tradition dates back to the Middle Ages, when the Muslim world had a signifi cant impact on Europe, drawing inspiration and knowledge from the Islamic culture. During the colonial era, Sufi sm was viewed by Europeans primarily as “ethnographic exotics”, but in the 1960–1970th together with the general interest in eastern mystical teachings and the advent of “alternative” religious movements, Sufi sm (or Neo-Sufi sm) acquires the status of Western cultural category, ceasing to be identifi ed with an exclusively Islamic tradition and taking an increasingly universalistic character. Its new adherents become people of diff erent religious beliefs and nationalities.

The article deals with the process of development of Islamic education in the Republic of Bashkortostan since the renaissance of religious life in the post-Soviet period. Conceptual changes in the system of religious education, which take place under the infl uence of modern trends and social challenges, are analyzed on the example of a particular region. The author points out the results of transformations in the sphere of Islamic education in Bashkortostan. Russia has a state program for the development of Islamic education, the main goal of which is the development and strengthening of the national system of Islamic education, which can reduce the number of people wishing to study in foreign Islamic centers. All levels of Muslim education are represented in Bashkortostan now. However, the process of creating and implementing a unifi ed concept of Islamic education in the republic, as well as in the country as a whole, is not yet completed.

It is the geometric and vegetal ornamental motifs that dominate in the works of traditional arts and crafts of the Bashkir people. The Bashkirs are Muslims. Therefore, the popularity of abstract ornamental forms in their artistic creativity is often associated with the religious prohibition against images of human beings, animals and birds. However, a comparative historical study of the Bashkir ornaments shows that basic types of geometric and vegetal motifs and also their compositions were formed long before the adoption of Islam by the ancestors of the Bashkirs. Anthropomorphic, ornitomorphic and zoomorphic images were still preserved in the Bashkir art and had very stylized geometric shapes in accordance with the general structure of the composition, type and graphics of the ornament. The preservation of these images in the art was favoured probably not only by a high degree of stylization, but also by the fact that for a long time the Bashkirs, despite the Islamization, remained committed to many remnants of the pre-Islamic worldview with its totemic cults. It can be stated that the adoption of Islam could not ‘edit’ the traditional decorative art of the Bashkirs and exclude archaic motifs and compositions. Old compositions were revised in terms of the new religion. Thus, the fl oral and foliate ornament became associated with the Garden of Eden. New motifs, such as the images of mosques, qumgan (a special jug) and the Crescent, found their way into the Bashkir ornaments together with the new worldview and rituals. Traditional embroidery could be supplemented with embroidered texts in Arabic script. The decorated objects included those directly associated with the Muslim traditions (scullcaps, prayer rugs 'namaslyk', calligraphy pictures 'shama’il').