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Laylat al-Qadr as Sacred Time: Sacred Cosmology in Sunni Kalam and Tafsir

In this analysis we will show how the Islamic tradition constructs a sacred cosmology wherein a sacred space and sacred time are defined. In Sunni Islam only a few sacred spaces on earth exist, the majority belong to the world unseen (alam al- ghayb) and are not accessible for the common human. But when there is a transfer between the seen and unseen world a sacred time is created which is accessible for the whole of creation. The most clear example of the creation of sacred time is Laylat al-Qadr, which is seen as sacred due to the sending down of the Qur’an and fate (qadar). But as the Qur’an doesn’t indicate when this night is, intertextual interpretations were constructed…

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Rise of Islamism, Extremism, and Islamic Counter Responses

Encyclopedia entry on the Rise of Islamism, Extremism, and Islamic Counter Responses. Arnold Yasin Mol, “Rise of Islamism, Extremism, and Islamic Counter Responses”, Great Events in Religion: An Encyclopedia of Pivotal Events in Religious History, ed. F. Curta and A. Holt (ABC-Clio, 2017)

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The denial of supernatural sorcery in classical and modern Sunni tafsir of surah al-Falaq: A reflection on underlying constructions

One of the main trends in Islamic modernism is the pursuit of rational exegesis of the Qur’an. As a response to this trend many of these Sunni Islamic modernists have been accused of being neo-Mu’tazilites because of their use of independent reason, the historicizing of the Qur’an, the emphasis on metaphorical interpretation of verses with supernaturalistic contents, the de-emphasizing of tradition, and the use of non-Islamic sources and thought. The similarities between modernists and classical rationalistic schools are seen in their exegeses on verse 113:4 wherein the dominant traditional interpretation of supernatural sorcery is denied. This paper tries to show that the reason why many forms of Islamic modernism are labelled as modern versions of Mu’tazilism is not because modernists…

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