Unlike the creed sent by Allah through the Prophet Muhammad, the creator of culture is a human being’s creative activity guided by Knowledge. Faith and Knowledge diff er in their relations to Time and the changes involved. The alienation between culture and religion, and especially their rigid opposition, are damaging for the society. The article refers to examples of the fruitful interaction between Faith and Knowledge, thanks to the Muslim’s «keen sense of the reality of Time, and the concept of Life as a continuous movement in Time» that they had borrowed from the Prophet, who thought “in terms of life and movement with a view to create new patterns of behaviour for mankind” (M. Iqbal), as well as the creative use of ijtihad.

The expression “Arab reason” is quite multifaceted: it poses different problems at the same time: the problem of reason as such and its connection with the Arab language and Arab culture. In order to understand the complexity of the task or at least part of it we need to immerse ourselves in different layers of culture: in religion of Islam, theology, science of law, philosophy, poetry and folklore. Historical and cultural view on the “reason” makes it possible to highlight its epistemological aspects, its ambiguity and even plurality of the familiar phenomenon of “reason”. The perspective on the “reason” in close connection with the changes happening in Arab culture and nations that entered the Caliphate allows you to see its preserved connection with the pre-islamic worldview. It allows you to see remnants of consciousness of the “jahiliyya” era and the emergence of new forms of perception, understanding of the world, such as the “science of faith”, logic, philosophy, natural sciences and society.

The name of Dhu-l-Nun al-Misri is well known for the readers, who are interested in Sufi sm. Being one of the representatives of the early period of Islamic asceticism and mysticism, his aphorisms are very often cited in the late Sufi writings. Dhu-l-Nun is attributed as a founder of the Sufi doctrine of ahwal and maqamat. Here is presented the first Russian translation of the mystical commentary on Sura “al-Baqara” by Dhu-l-Nun al-Misri, which is provided also by commentaries of the later Sufi authors.

The article deals with the problem of determining the primordial in the philosophy of Nasir Khusraw, the Isma‘ili thinker of the 11th century. It seems to be an obvious answer that «the primordial is God», but this statement becomes impossible in Isma‘ilism due to the absolute separation of the transcendent incomprehensible God from the world manifested in intelligible and sensuous diversity. The article deals with the origins of the problem of the relationship of the single original and the multiple world, gives a brief overview of solutions to this issue by different schools of Arab Muslim philosophy. Within the framework of Isma‘ilism, two schemes of the process of creation of the universe were proposed, one of which was actively developed by Nasir Khusraw. According to the views of the Isma‘ili philosopher, the basis of all things is the word of God: it has an absolute being and potentially contains all things. The consequence of the word of God is the Universal Mind, which is endowed with the necessary being and has knowledge of all things. The Universal Soul, which emerges from the Universal Mind, has the power to create and thereby materializes the knowledge of the Universal Mind in the diversity of the material world. So, what can be called the initial? God, in fact, is taken out of the field of reasoning, He only speaks His word. The word of God is the cause of all things, but it does not give existence to the world. The world is created by the universal Soul, it is its Creator, but the Universal Soul itself is the creation of the Universal Mind, the consequence of the word of God. In Nasir Khusraw’s doctrine of being it is impossible to distinguish a single primordial, its functions are distributed between the word of God, his inseparable consequence the Universal Mind and the Universal Soul which derived from the Mind.

The present article focuses on analyzing the methodology of one of the most prominent representatives of Islamic feminism, Amina Wadud. The author highlights the close link between the social status of an exegete, his/ her personal experience and the hermeneutic approach, formulated by him/ her. The essential components of the hermeneutic project by Anima Wadud are emphasized as a main theme of research. Combining intratextual and historical approaches is justified as being necessary for meaningful reconstruction of the “Qur’anic ethos”. It is also shown that feminist exegesis is only possible if the interpretation of the Qur’an as a “closed” text is replaced by the assertion of it being a complete discourse, “opening” within the logic of readers’ questions. The dependence of the exegeses by Amina Wadud on the conceptual body of the project by Fazlur Rahman — namely, on the idea of contextual ij tihad, the theory of “double shift” and the holistic method of interpretation, — was deeply studied during the research. The author accentuates the two primary presuppositions of the American feminist, namely: the image of God as “the One Who does not oppress” and of human being as God’s “deputy”. In conclusion, the author turns to the main theme of feminist critique of traditional tafsirs — the urge to deconstruct “patriarchy” as a covert system of idolatry and “masculinization” of God.

Sound symbolism plays an important role for artistic devices and rhetorical techniques of the Qur’an. On the lexical material from four-consonant roots that could be described as an extremely archaic layer of the Arabic vocabulary, the article discusses ideophones (words that express an idea or convey a certain impression through their sound) in the Qur’anic Arabic. The article also describes their morphological structure and etymology of ideophones in the Qur’an. Semantic analysis and classification of these lexical units show that words of the language of the Qur’an, derived from four-consonant roots, dominantly describe the characteristics of movement, sound and visual sensations. The abundant set of sound-symbolic vocabulary in the language of the Qur’an reflects a cohesive, holistic worldview. Within that worldview a human being did not contrast himself with the environment and other living beings, but felt that he was a whole entity with them. He perceived sounds and other phenomena of the surrounding world as manifestations of otherworldly forces and supernatural beings, and this vision determined the sacred nature of the vocabulary that described these phenomena and its special rhetorical persuasiveness, as well as the emotional impact on listeners of the Qur’anic text. Moreover, a comparison with similar phenomena in other cultures allow us to suggest that sound-symbolic vocabulary was of the great importance for creating the performative function of the Qur’anic text, which was perceived as having special power to influence the world.

The article is the first part of a study of the factual validity of the doctrine of jizya, which is dominant in traditional political theology, as a tribute from Non-Muslims, established by the Prophet Muhammad. Challenging the authenticity of the traditions underlying this teaching, the author begins by discussing the main paradigmatic precedent — the agreement of the Prophet with the Christians of the city of Najran. This part is devoted to the analysis of relevant traditions in the light of the classical formal hadithological methodology, which focuses on the degree of reliability of isnad (chain of transmitters); the content of these traditions will be the subject of the next part. The study is conducted in line with the Reformist Modernist discourse, focusing on the disclosure of the truly humanistic spirit of prophetic Islam and the pacifist-pluralistic attitude of the Qur’anic message.

The article deals with the status of Christian population of Sofia under the Ottoman rule and legal pluralism. The aim of the investigation is to analyze the degree of integration of Christians to the Ottoman system of law and to understand the reasons of Christian’s access to the Shari‘a courts. The legal status of Christians in the Ottoman Empire was defined by the so-called Millet system. The Orthodoxies in Ottoman Empire had three ways of resolving their disputes: they could turn to the Episcopal court, the communal court or the Ottoman court, which made a decision according to Shari‘a and Kanun. As it could be argued, on the contrary to popular belief, Christian’s going to Shari‘a courts were not rare. They had the opportunity to choose what kind of court to prefer for resolving their personal and family disputes.

The article is devoted to the development of the Muslim community of the Republic of Tatarstan (RT) at the end of 2018 and 2019. Here the author continues a series of publications exploring the Muslim community of Tatarstan in 2000s and 2010s. The leadership of the Muslim Spiritual Administration of the Republic of Tatarstan (DUM RT) is based on its own version of “traditional Islam”, where Sufism and the Maturidite ‘aqidah of the Hanafi madhhab occupy the principal place. In the Republic of Tatarstan, as well as all in other republics within the Russian Federation, the role of Islam in spiritual, educational and cultural spheres is growing due to the abolition of compulsory studying of titular languages in secondary schools. The spiritual administration of Muslims of the Republic of Tatarstan (DUM RT) continues to maintain a monopoly among Muslim organizations in the Republic of Tatarstan. Nevertheless, the activity of representatives of radical organizations banned in the Russian Federation is still to observe in the Republic. Law enforcement agencies are actively fi ghting with them; it leads to the elimination of their cells in the Republic of Tatarstan, arrests and sentencing with real terms.

Russia interested in alternative partnership finances as early as the 90s of the XX century. The first attempts to apply the principles of Islamic finance were made by individual banks. The second wave of initiatives began after the global financial crisis of 2008–2009, with increasing interest in 2014 in the face of a complicating foreign policy situation and the imposition of economic sanctions. In such conditions, it became necessary to search for alternative sources of attracting investment, which, inter alia, became Islamic finance. From 1992 to the present, Russia has gained some experience in Islamic finance. This article provides a comprehensive review of the more than 25-year history of the development of the Islamic financial market in Russia in the context of the analysis of its problems and prospects. After introducing the main definitions, concepts, features and principles of Islamic finance, as well as citing numerical and geographical data on the industry, the author describes all the initiatives for the development of Islamic finance in Russia, divided into 4 levels: international, federal, regional and individual. The history of the development of the Islamic financial market in Russia is presented in chronological order with a division into industry components and Russia’s experience in developing each of them — Islamic banking, Islamic insurance and the Islamic capital market. At the end, a brief analysis of the current state of the Russian Islamic financial micro-market is made and the main opportunities that Islamic finance can give Russia are also indicated.

The article discusses the manifestations of liberal Islam that are currently observed in Germany. The questions to what extent Islam has adapted to the new environment and values, and what methods and practices are proposed by German Muslims in order to make Islamic traditional norms compatible with fundamental Western values are raised. As examples are taken the concept of “EuroIslam” by Bassam Tibi, as well as the activities of German Islamic activists Seyran Atesh, Rabeya Müller and Halima Krausen are taken as exampl.