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The making of civilization for a religion is very much dependent on the existence of Sages who developed a language of universality. By the same taken, it can be suggested that a given civilization owes its existence, as well as its dynamism and continuity, to such great personalities. Mevlânâ is a good example in that respect. Because Mevlânâ is one of the greatest men who have survived throughout the ages representing plurality and multiplicity of Islamic civilization he was born into and continue to be the one of the best known, if not the best known, sage in different cultural and religious territories. But despite the degree of his popularity, the concepts, definitions and descriptions he used or he developed within the Sûfi paradigm he belongs to have been widely misunderstood as in the case of reason. The popular maxim about the concept of reason in sûfi thought try to make us believe that the reason in Sûfism is categorically negated and Mevlânâ represents no exception in that regard. The purpose of this paper is to open to discussion this very maxim and suggest that the concept of reason in Mevlânâ as well as in Sûfi thought in general is not negated as popularly believed. Although it may seem to an ordinary mind a bit paradoxical, sûfi approach to reason, in fact, open up new horizons to reason by calling its limits into question. In other words, in Mevlânâ, and in Sûfism in general, reason is such an important concept that without its guidance Sûfi experience has no value on its own right. The paper will also bring into attention that the Sûfi teaching and that of Mevlânâ may offer to the problems in contemporary thoughts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to enquire into the function of `argument from beauty' for the existence of God. The paper begins with the idea of cosmos and its logical dimensions; next, It discusses the thoughts of some contemporary philosophers about the beauty; then, with a clearer knowledge, It attempts to compare their thoughts to the traditional Islamic ones in this subject; and, finally, It seeks a synthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Muslim Arab women touted for years as passive, submissive and fatalistic by the westerners. However, thanks to the Arab awakening against the oppressive regimes in the Middle East and Nord African countries this perception has quite changed. During the Arab Spring women were an integral partner in the struggle, demanding political changes and democracy to achieve democracy, justice, and political rights. They have become the most important actress of the political struggle but what impact did the Arab Spring has on women's rights? What are the policies of the new Islamic administrations on the women's rights? Is Islam a barrier for this? This paper aims to study Islam and women's rights, women's struggle for their political and civil rights and the change of their image with the Arab Spring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kutadgu Bilig which is accepted as a first siyasetname of Turk-Islam literature is not just an advice book and it is also not a didactic religion book. Yusuf Has Hacip, the writer of the book, aimed to create a life philosophy which makes human beings to be happy on earth and afterlife. When the background of the book is analyzed, decisiveness of the system of Islamic essences is noticed. Studying the book completely under this perspective goes beyond this work. Because of that, this paper is aimed to study death and the belief of afterlife which are the basic notions of life philosophy and the reference points that formalize these notions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yûsuf Xass Hâcib of Balasagun was the first important figure of Turkish language, literature, and culture in the early Islamic period. His Kutadgu Bilig (Wisdom of Royal Glory) was the first Turkish work of the period. Since its discovery, the work has been and is still studied. In this paper, general information about the author and his work is given and some properties of its language and cotent are studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attempts to seek legitimate for the theories of imamate articulated by religious and political Islamic sects led them to focus on the Quran and the prophetic tradition (sunnah), the most reliable proofs. According to the Kharijites, the leader (imâm) must be determined by way of consultation (shûrâ) and come to the power with the free election of Muslims. The imam, according to the Kharijites, is fallible and legitimate as long as he did not deviate from the oath of allegiance and justice. Otherwise, obedience to him is not necessary and hence he must be discharged. In this paper, we tried to deal with the Kharijite theory of imamate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper stress that solutions of creed and improved doctrines towards some problems being the most important thing in the tradition of theological thinking are not absolute and undebatable, but it is going to be more appropriate that they are considered human efforts, or manners of approach, Because, the classical theology is an human science that rise and developed under partical historical and cultural realities, but not a sacred and dogmatic one. In the Mediaval world of Islam, science of theology was able to meet expectations, demands, and needs in that era. And today, in order to reform a discipline of theology being based on Islam as parallel to theological developments, it is necessary to gain courage to bring to account products of opinion and solutions of creed in sphere of theology. Because, it had reached an inevitable situation to closely examine products which are put forward in tradition of theological thinking by using method of historical and linguistical critisism. İt is must be essential to reconstruct imagination of relation of God to universe, and meanwhile, in particular, relation of God to man in direction of changed conditions and developed needs in the light of main message and principles of the Holy Qur'ân. Because, progress, improvement, and change is inevitable in historical and social facts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the rise of the modern Western culture and its superiority are felt in the Muslim World, a paralel movement began to emerge and reached its maturity and this movement is called Islamic modernization. Just like middle age thinkers, the represantatives of this movement, inside or outside, to rise above tradition, offer a project to return to the religious theaching and read ironically every new cultural acquisitions in the religious teaching. They leave middle age thinkers' God-centered world view intact, but islamise everything new, created or produced in the West. It so seems that middle age thinkers ' modernist followers try to discard almost everything filled in the Qur'anic verses by middle age thinkers, disregarding their special context, and replace them with the items taken from the Western culture. In this paper, we try to find the answer, how they justified their views, and what are their functions, and what are their effects on modern Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Haşabiyya state, as far as the available sources (transmitted by Mas'udi, Muruj al-da- hahab and al-Dahahabi,Tarik al-islam) tell us, was founded in Nişibin by some adherents of al-Mukhtar after his death, at one time counting about 2000 horsemen. İts declared İmam was Muhammed İbn al-Hanefiyya, and his son Hasan was its leader at one time. it was fought by the Zubayrids at first and was finally defeated by 'Abdalmalik b.Marwan in 71/690. Hasan b. Muhammed b. Hanefiyya was their own contemporary, living in Nişibin during the state of the Haşabiyya, and being a source of information as an eye-witnes at the Kitab al-İrja 'of al-Hasan b. Muhammed b. Hanefiyya. At the Kitab al-İrja', Hasan b. Muhammed b. Hanefiyya labeled them Saba'iyya. Mukhtariyya or Haşabiyya between the death of al-Mukhtar in 67/686 and the fall of their satate in Nişibin in 71/690 would have been called stage of Nişibin of Kaysaniyya. This study focuses to Nişibin period of Kaysaniyya. Furthermore, the paper aims to show the ideal and political effects on the Kaysaniyya history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the conclusion reached by classical Muslim scholars, the Koran is the reflection of Allah's eternal logos and knowledge. The purpose of the revelation of the Koran is to ensure that a worshipping order which would provide happiness in this world and the Hereafter be rooted in the hearts of the believers and then transformed into lifestyle. Accordingly, in addition to a belief system, the Koran contains a number of principles and rules that are applicable in real life. These principles are universal and eternal truths which are not subject to chance over time since they are based on Allah's knowledge. But after the effect of modernism on Muslim world, this view (non-changeability) has been questioned. According to this new view, although the Koran is containing universal messages, it is, at same time, a historical word and a historical text. These two opinions are discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to discuss four basic approaches to the relation between Koran and science, namely reductionist, conflictory, separationist, and conformist. It argues that the first three approaches lead us to some religious, philosophical and epistemological problems with respect to the relation above. However, the so-called conformist approach seems to be more plausible and acceptable provided that certain criteria and data are taken as basis. At this point, it will tackle with some problems as follows: What is the basic paradigm upon which the relation between Koran and science is possible and legitimate? To what extend is this relation compatible with the essence of religion and science? It will discuss the problem whether claiming that some Koranic verses or notions refer to some scientific facts is legitimate and reasonable. Moreover, it will indicate some unacceptable understandings and interpretations in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to classify the Islamic Law Concerning religious belief freedom with respect to its special characteristics. Islamic scholars have different views when concerning the subject of freedom of religious belief Naturally, historical thinking has substantial effect in these different approaches. But more importantly, the criteria of interpretation of the applicable Islamic Law need to be considered. Two important criteria are "belief" and "person". Most of the differences among Islamic scholars can be explained by the difference in importance placed to either one of these two criteria. These differences can be observed clearly in cases involving crime and punishment, the citizenship status of non-Muslims, the argument of justification for war and the consequences of religious conversion. Therefore, the main reason why Islamic scholars reach different conclusions in these matters is not in the ambiguity of Islamic Law but the differences in its interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, it is dealt with the problem of what the basic characteristic of Islamic philosophy is. According to some orientalists, the answer is eclecticism. But, for them, eclecticism means to be a worthless patchwork from the philosophical perspective. We argue, first, that eclecticism has more than one version, and some of them have a great philosophical value. A philosophical system can at the same time be both eclectic and also original. Then we accept with some Muslim philosophers that the major schools of Islamic philosophy can be considered to be eclectic systems; but their eclecticism is a valuable kind of critical, original and systematic eclecticism. Finally, we point out that there are a lot of eclectic elements in modern science and philosophy, too. Therefore, the original eclectic structure of Islamic philosophy is not a heritage that should be rejected or neglected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to articulate modern approaches (Watt, Braithwaite, Cupitt, Halefullah etc.) toward the reality of Qur'anic narratives critically and proposes that those narratives are not based on merely imaginative constructions. Nevertheless, regarding the classical understanding of narratives which opposes modern approaches, it claims that narratives are of outstanding significance for human life, as it is presented by modern approaches, hence it is possible that some imaginative constructions play their roles within the Qur'anic narratives. Accordingly, both imaginative constructions and the reality should be taken into considerations in case of understanding the narratives from different perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to examine the connotations of colors used in the Qur'ân. Just as the grammatical language, the colors are means of communication. The Qur'ân uses colors as a way of telling something literally. For instance, while such colors as black, yellow, and blue imply bad things, white and green colors imply good things. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]