Abstracts no. 28

Oct 28, 2019 Zani i Nalte English 0

---

Islamic Sciences

1. The Strategic Role of the Medina Charter

Prof. Dr. Muhamed Mustafi, Faculty of Islamic Sciences, Skopje

The importance of major decisions depends on the strategic role of the decision to make them, and any such decision shall be positively or negatively evaluated by the results that will follow their implementation.

The Medina Charter was the Prophet’s (pbuh) strategic step to form and operate a city-state which had to be established from scratch. The strategic outcome was maximally positive because it laid the foundation for a new society which had a new inspiration in organizing life and aimed at the world. Success depended on the implementation of the Medina Charter and the Muslims’ serious commitment to move forward within an organized and disciplined society. This Charter’ s strategic role provided the starting point for a new movement that would spread throughout the world as the desert sand spreads in the air, but with divine inspiration.

Key words: Medina Charter, strategy, purpose, impact 

2. Organizing the community according to the example of Suleyman (a.s.)

Prim. Dr. med. sc. Ali F. Iljazi, Kosovë

Allah Almighty created man as a social being. Every person, especially the believer, should strive to live in the community and endeavor for its well-being.  There are numerous Qur’an verses and hadiths of the Prophet (pbuh) that encourage us to live and work in community. However, most of us do not know how to live in community and how to fulfill this obligation in order to achieve many benefits guaranteed for life and work in community. Nevertheless, as with any other issue, if one resorts to the Qur’an and the authentic hadiths of the Messenger of Allah, s.a.s, one will find answers to this question as well.

Studies

3. Ibn al-‘Arabi’ about the station (maqam) of gratitude

Atif Khalil

Prof. Asoc. Dr. Atif Khalil, Religious Studies Department, University of Lethbridge, Canada

The role and function of gratitude (shukr) in Islam has received little extensive analysis until now. This is despite the central place of gratitude within the faith. As Toshihiko Izutsu observed, “Islam as a religion is … an exhortation to gratitude towards God.” The present essay aims to contribute to our knowledge of shukr within the realm of Islamic ethics by focusing on Ibn al-‘Arabi’s treatment of this virtue, with a particular emphasis on the relation between divine and human gratitude, or the “interplay” or even “dialectic” of gratitude between God and what the Andalusian mystic believed to be His theophanic self-revelation in the human being. The essay begins with an overview of the semantics of shukr within the Arabic language and the use of the term in the Qur’ān, and then proceeds to a treatment of the levels of this station (maqam) in Ibn ‘Arabi. While the mystic deals with a cluster of broadly related themes in the two chapters, constraints of space limit the present analysis to what we might designate the levels of human gratitude, and the particular manner in which these levels relate to divine shukr.

History

4. Cham Albanians in violent migration flows

Prof. Dr. Selman Sheme, Department of Geography, University of Tirana

According to the 1991 census conducted by the Patriotic Foundation “Chameria”, the population of Cham origin settled in the Republic of Albanian reaches 204.255 inhabitants.

Based on the rate of natural population growth in our country in the last 28 years, estimated according to demographic theories of population reproduction, it turns out that the Cham population in our country nowadays should be over 300.000, or around 11 percent of the country’s registered population in 2011.

The Cham Albanians who live in the mother country maintain the traditions, the customs inherited though centuries (the law of traditions), their ancient dialect, songs and dances, their characteristic outfits, unique culinary, the folklore, and above all, the determination to return to their own lands.

Ethnic cleansing of Chameria created a dangerous precedent for ethnic cleansings in the Balkans. It significantly altered the ethnic balances in the Greek-Albanian relationships in favour of the Greeks and created a problem that would influence the conscience of the Albanian people for a long time. The ethnic cleansing of Chameria prompted and strengthened the pressures of the Greek state on the Albanian state and nation, thus advancing the plans and activities for the annexation of the South of Albania.

Based on the European convention and the Universal Declaration, the Greek state must carry out its legal and constitutional obligations in its treatment of the Cham and Arvanitas populations as ethnic minorities in Greece. Meanwhile, repatriation of the Cham population that resides in the mother country and return of their properties in Chameria would improve the demographic and economic satiation in the region. Only in this way can integration and democratization of the Balkans Region be achieved.

Translation

5. Mus’hafs on top of spears

Turki Ahmed

From the moment when mus’hafs were raised on top of spears, it can be said that religion officially became a decisive factor in political conflicts between parties. Everyone uses it as a powerful and profitable pawn in the political game, which essentially remains a game whose primary objective is power. Whether this power is called caliphate, kingdom, principality or presidency, it is the same. Names and designations change and vary according to periods of history, while the essence remains the same, unchangeable.

Here lies the main problem of politics, as people have given themselves over to names and have ignored the body, have engaged with the husk and appearance disregarding the core and content.  

Personality

6. Dr. Vehbi Hoti, a life in the service of national education

Prof. Dr. Njazi Kazazi, a Didact of Albanian Language, Shkodra 

Prof. Dr. Vehbi Hoti is a prominent Albanian figure who has dedicated his whole life to education and pedagogy. Since 1965 to 2018, he devoted himself to education in general, more specifically, working as a lecturer at the University of Shkodër “Luigj Gurakuqi” for 49 years.

Retrospective

7. What is the Qur’an?

One of the characteristic virtues and attributes of the Holy Qur’an is the power it has to transform and elevate man from the depths of ignorance, darkness and barbarism to the highest peaks of knowledge, light and spirituality. This book of sufficient philosophy is unmatched in its reformation of human society and assurance of true happiness, harmony and brotherhood among individuals.

This book is a sufficient philosophy and a complete law which has teachings that suit all different human states. It educates the wild man by teaching him the first human and social rules, which distinguish him from animals; thus, it turns the wild into a man; then it endows this man with high morals making him a good and moral person. The Qur’an also gives teachings which lead one’s morality to the height of happiness and peace transforming the high morals of one’s soul into spirituality and holiness.

---