Arnold Yasin Mol
Arnold (Yasin) Mol is Lecturer in Comparative Theology and Philosophy at the Islamic University of Applied Sciences Rotterdam (IUASR) and Coordinator of its Research Institute. He is Lecturer and Doctoral Researcher in Islam and Comparative Philosophy at Leiden University Institute for Philosophy and Leiden University Center for the Study of Religion (LUCSoR), and Associate Fellow at Leiden University Center for the Islamic Thought and History (LUCITH). He is also Researcher at the healthcare NGO Landelijk Steunpunt Extremisme (LSE, Dutch National Center for Extremism).
His doctoral research is on the concept of human nature i.e., theo-philosophical anthropology, in early Islamic thought with a special focus on the dialectical theology (Kalām) of Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (333/944) and his school. Through this research he is formulating the specialized field of Kalāmic anthropology within the discipline of comparative world philosophies. His research interests and teaching revolves around Islamic thought, philosophy of religion, comparative worldviews, intellectual history, and ethics.
He has multiple publications on the subjects of Islamic intellectual history, Islamic theology, tafsīr studies, Islamic ethics, human rights discourse, Islamic reformism and extremism, and religious studies (including Brill, Oxford University Press, Routledge, De Gruyter, ABC-Clio, Journal of Islamic Ethics, Al-Bayan Journal of Quran and Hadith Studies, Journal of Shi’a Islamic Studies, Al-Burhan Journal of Quran and Sunnah Studies), and has provided and organized talks, consultations, and lectures at multiple universities, (non-)governmental organizations, international institutes and conferences (including Erasmus University, Osnabrück University, Freiburg University, Georgetown University, Oxford University, Vrije Universiteit, ISAR Istanbul, Oxford University etc.), and is a frequent public speaker in local and international media.
He has degrees in Islamic Theology and Religious Studies (Leiden University) and Christian Theology (Fontys University for Applied Sciences/Tilburg University), and studies the traditional seminary (madrasa, Dars-i-Nizami) with Turkish, Arabic, and Deoband scholars.
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Ab de Jong (Leiden University) and Dr. Ahab Bdaiwi (Leiden University)
Address: Leiden, The Netherlands
His doctoral research is on the concept of human nature i.e., theo-philosophical anthropology, in early Islamic thought with a special focus on the dialectical theology (Kalām) of Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (333/944) and his school. Through this research he is formulating the specialized field of Kalāmic anthropology within the discipline of comparative world philosophies. His research interests and teaching revolves around Islamic thought, philosophy of religion, comparative worldviews, intellectual history, and ethics.
He has multiple publications on the subjects of Islamic intellectual history, Islamic theology, tafsīr studies, Islamic ethics, human rights discourse, Islamic reformism and extremism, and religious studies (including Brill, Oxford University Press, Routledge, De Gruyter, ABC-Clio, Journal of Islamic Ethics, Al-Bayan Journal of Quran and Hadith Studies, Journal of Shi’a Islamic Studies, Al-Burhan Journal of Quran and Sunnah Studies), and has provided and organized talks, consultations, and lectures at multiple universities, (non-)governmental organizations, international institutes and conferences (including Erasmus University, Osnabrück University, Freiburg University, Georgetown University, Oxford University, Vrije Universiteit, ISAR Istanbul, Oxford University etc.), and is a frequent public speaker in local and international media.
He has degrees in Islamic Theology and Religious Studies (Leiden University) and Christian Theology (Fontys University for Applied Sciences/Tilburg University), and studies the traditional seminary (madrasa, Dars-i-Nizami) with Turkish, Arabic, and Deoband scholars.
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Ab de Jong (Leiden University) and Dr. Ahab Bdaiwi (Leiden University)
Address: Leiden, The Netherlands
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Keywords: Philosophical anthropology, religious anthropology, Islamic anthropology, human nature, global philosophy
Doctoral Thesis
Book(chapters)
Articles
“Māturīdīsm, with its unique approaches to epistemology, metaphysics, and moral philosophy, provides an important source for the remapping of Islamic intellectual history, but also as an important voice for the insightful and contributing perspectives which Kalāmic anthropology can bring to the modern world.”
https://www.leidenarabichumanitiesblog.nl/articles/why-māturīdism
Keywords
Islam and human rights – ḥuqūq Allāh wa-ḥuqūq al-ʿibād – Islamic reform – Islamic jurisprudence – Islam and modernity
حقوق الإنسان" والاجتهاد الموصول بالتراث
أرنولد ياسين مول
طالب دكتوراه بجامعة ليدن وباحث بمعهد إحياء العلوم الإسلامية التقليدية (irtis.org.uk)
الخلاصة
بعد الحرب العالمية الثانية، وضعت الأمم المتحدة–بالتعاون مع غالبية دول العالم–قانونًا دوليًّا جديدًا استند إلى مفهوم غربيٍ لفكرة الحقوق. قدم هذا المشروع الإنساني الدولي أسسًا أنثروبولوجية جديدة كانت محل خلاف حول مدى توافقها مع الإسلام، سواءٌ في نظر المسلمين أم غير المسلمين. يوضح هذا المقال كيف أن تحليل هذه الاختلافات حول الإسلام وخطاب حقوق الإنسان، يساعدنا على تقديم أفكارٍ جديدة حول مواضع التوافق والاختلاف، وما يحتاج منها إلى تجديد وإصلاح. يميز المقال بين خطابين يتصلان بمجال حقوق الإنسان: الأول، الخطاب الإسلامي لحقوق الإنسان، وهو خطاب داخلي يستخدم مصطلحات إسلامية، ولا يخضع لضغوط خارجية أو أيديولوجية، والثاني هو خطاب "الإسلام وحقوق الإنسان" الذي تبلور مع ظهور الأنظمة الحديثة لحقوق الإنسان التي مثلت ضغطًا خارجيًا مستمرًا على المسلمين لإصلاح "الفقه الإسلامي،" مما أوجد صيغة اعتذارية تتحدث عن خطاب حقوق الإنسان على أنه "خطاب الآخر." يقترح المقال–بناء على تقييم المكونات المختلفة التي تشكل "الفقه الإسلامي" و"خطاب حقوق الإنسان"–تأويلاً جديدًا لكيفية بناء خطاب إسلامي حديث في مجال حقوق الإنسان يتجاوز النزعة الاعتذارية ويحافظ–في الوقت نفسه–على الاستمرارية.
الكلمات المفتاحية
الإسلام وحقوق الإنسان – حقوق الله وحقوق العباد – الإصلاح الإسلامي – الفقه الإسلامي – الإسلام والحداثة
Keywords: Philosophical anthropology, religious anthropology, Islamic anthropology, human nature, global philosophy
“Māturīdīsm, with its unique approaches to epistemology, metaphysics, and moral philosophy, provides an important source for the remapping of Islamic intellectual history, but also as an important voice for the insightful and contributing perspectives which Kalāmic anthropology can bring to the modern world.”
https://www.leidenarabichumanitiesblog.nl/articles/why-māturīdism
Keywords
Islam and human rights – ḥuqūq Allāh wa-ḥuqūq al-ʿibād – Islamic reform – Islamic jurisprudence – Islam and modernity
حقوق الإنسان" والاجتهاد الموصول بالتراث
أرنولد ياسين مول
طالب دكتوراه بجامعة ليدن وباحث بمعهد إحياء العلوم الإسلامية التقليدية (irtis.org.uk)
الخلاصة
بعد الحرب العالمية الثانية، وضعت الأمم المتحدة–بالتعاون مع غالبية دول العالم–قانونًا دوليًّا جديدًا استند إلى مفهوم غربيٍ لفكرة الحقوق. قدم هذا المشروع الإنساني الدولي أسسًا أنثروبولوجية جديدة كانت محل خلاف حول مدى توافقها مع الإسلام، سواءٌ في نظر المسلمين أم غير المسلمين. يوضح هذا المقال كيف أن تحليل هذه الاختلافات حول الإسلام وخطاب حقوق الإنسان، يساعدنا على تقديم أفكارٍ جديدة حول مواضع التوافق والاختلاف، وما يحتاج منها إلى تجديد وإصلاح. يميز المقال بين خطابين يتصلان بمجال حقوق الإنسان: الأول، الخطاب الإسلامي لحقوق الإنسان، وهو خطاب داخلي يستخدم مصطلحات إسلامية، ولا يخضع لضغوط خارجية أو أيديولوجية، والثاني هو خطاب "الإسلام وحقوق الإنسان" الذي تبلور مع ظهور الأنظمة الحديثة لحقوق الإنسان التي مثلت ضغطًا خارجيًا مستمرًا على المسلمين لإصلاح "الفقه الإسلامي،" مما أوجد صيغة اعتذارية تتحدث عن خطاب حقوق الإنسان على أنه "خطاب الآخر." يقترح المقال–بناء على تقييم المكونات المختلفة التي تشكل "الفقه الإسلامي" و"خطاب حقوق الإنسان"–تأويلاً جديدًا لكيفية بناء خطاب إسلامي حديث في مجال حقوق الإنسان يتجاوز النزعة الاعتذارية ويحافظ–في الوقت نفسه–على الاستمرارية.
الكلمات المفتاحية
الإسلام وحقوق الإنسان – حقوق الله وحقوق العباد – الإصلاح الإسلامي – الفقه الإسلامي – الإسلام والحداثة
This article is part I of the book review, reflecting on Ramon Harvey’s methodology. Part II will analyze his proposed interpretations of the Qurʾānic verses.
The Qur’an and the Just Society is an important attempt towards providing a hermeneutics of continuity as a response to what Ramon Harvey[1] calls, “the Qur’anic pledge for perpetual relevance.” In modern thought, it is religion, the search for meaning, which makes us humans unique within the realm of life. The Qurʾān, as a religious text, is therefore a text that represents our uniqueness; it defines us as homo religiosus. Therefore, the pursuit for a perpetual Qurʾānic relevance could also be seen as a pursuit for what makes us humans relevant. In classical thought, human uniqueness was defined by our intellect, and more importantly, by our capability for virtue. Religion was a vehicle to guide people towards the highest virtues of truth and justice. Religion helped us to be truly human, to be homo ethicus. Reading the Qurʾān as an ethical text is therefore reading it exactly how classical tradition understood it to be read. It is reading it according to why the Qurʾān was revealed to mankind, {We sent Our messengers with clear signs…so that people could uphold justice} (Q. 57:25). Harvey’s attempt towards a hermeneutics of continuity synthesizes both the modern and classical concept of human uniqueness by providing an ethical reading of the Qurʾān which is meaningful to modern humans.
https://www.landelijksteunpuntextremisme.nl/publicatie/handreiking-bekering-en-radicalisering/
Keywords: Western Islamic theology, three-publics theology, theological method
Presented at the International Workshop "Positionality in the Study of Islamic Theology" (7-8 September 2023), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berliner Institut für Islamische Theologie
https://www.islamische-theologie.hu-berlin.de/de/international-workshop-positionality-in-the-study-of-islamic-theology-7-8-september-2023
cosmological hermeneutics of the Qurʾān (the Avicennian turn in Tafsīr)
to show how shifts in contextualized scientific knowledge affect
theology and hermeneutics in reading Scripture. This can show us how
integrating shifts in scientific understanding was applied in Sunnī
orthodox exegesis. I will look at pre-Avicennian exegetes, such as al-
Māturīdī, and post-Avicennian exegetes, such as al-Rāzī, to see what
types of biogenesis readings are present in their exegeses. Through a
comparative analysis we can see how exegesis functioned as a dialogical
hermeneutics between different natural cosmologies and constructive
theologies
Abstract:
Spiritual or pastoral care is a form of practical theology aimed at the fostering of faith, existential meaning-making, and the mental wellbeing and character development of the individual believer. This person-centred approach requires the combination of psychological hermeneutics, moral theology, and spirituality, and can be found in almost all major religious traditions. With the disenchantment of the Western worldview and the urbanisation of social life, the (post-)modern experience of the world was formed which mainly entailed the fragmentation of existential meaning-making, and thereby the ability to foster faith and mental wellbeing. As a response, Christian spiritual care adapted to the new needs and cognitive paradigms while at the same time adopting the new insights from modern psychology. This shift eventually triggered, especially in Northern Europe, a reconceptualization of much of Christian spiritual care into a form of (post-)modern theology, and thereby also decreased its effectiveness to respond to the fragmented (post-)modern Self. With both the presence of Muslims in the West and the globalization (‘urbanisation’) of the Muslim world, this fragmented experience of reality has also entered the Muslim worldview. Islamic spiritual care therefore has to respond to the new needs and cognitive paradigms of the increasingly urbanised Muslim communities. For Islamic spiritual care to be an effective practical theology it must provide an integral form of Muslim meaning-making that speaks to the urbanised experience without mimicking it, as a fragmented self can only be ‘defragmented’ by a worldview that is not itself fragmented. For Islamic spiritual care to remain a faithful representation of the traditional Islamic worldview, which provides the most coherent and established form of Muslim meaning-making, it must differentiate between adapting its psychological hermeneutics to the urbanised setting and adopting the cognitive paradigms of the urbanised setting itself, as the latter would entail a similar reconceptualization into a (post-)modern theology as has occurred in Christian spiritual care.
Keywords & phrases: Islamic spiritual care; hermeneutics; cognitive paradigms; urban Muslims; (post-)modern theology.
International Conference on 25th - 27th March 2020 in Osnabrück
In the last twenty years, research on the history of Islamic Law has shifted from the Early Period to the Middle Periods, approaching all kinds of dii erent genres and topics. Besides fatāwā-collections and commentaries (sharḥ and ḥāshiya), the treatise-literature (rasāʾil) seem to be a predominant medium of discussing socially relevant questions. Treatises are short texts on current topics, which are not covered in the standard textbooks or were only covered in a very rudimentary and general sense. Still ignored widely in secondary literature in general, few studies have addressed topics such as tobacco and coo ee consumption in the Ottoman Empire, the waqf system and the punishment of heretics etc. Since this literature covers topics that discuss contemporary social practices, it provides valuable information about how scholars and intellectuals responded to those practices, hence, ree ects the intersection between theory and practice. erefore, the following questions should stand in the middle of the studies: What topics of practical law or theology were discussed more intensely at a given time and location? What were the social and theological contexts of these discussions? Who was involved in these discussions? What was the motivation of the author? What were their arguments? What do these texts say about contextuality, exibility and pragma-tism of Islamic law? What conclusions can be drawn from this data for the treatise-literature (rasāʾil)? We welcome papers on single or a number of treatises and counter-treatises written in Islamic Law and eol-ogy (qh, kalām, taṣawwuf etc.). ey should address the content of the treatise as well as the social, political and intellectual context of its author and the audience, in order to fully understand the author-text-context relation. e conference focuses on the 13th to the 19th centuries with a main interest in the Ottoman and Mamluk Empires, and it aims to add to our understanding of the reality of Islamic theology and law in its historical and social context. Nevertheless, the investigation of treatises from other geographical areas are welcomed as well.
Abstract: The tafsīr tradition is, as an accumulative and overarching science, a direct reflection of the trends emerging in other Islamic sciences. Exegesis on verse Q.11:117 became an important marker for Islamic theology: (A) The exegesis of the Muʿtazila, as represented by alZamakhsharī (d. 538/1144): God transcends any form of injustice, therefore when He destroys a people it is caused by their own theological injustice i.e., unbelief/idolatry/major sins. (B) The exegesis of the Sunnī orthodox, as represented by the Later Ashʿarī scholars al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210) and al-Bayḍāwī (d. 685/1286): God does not destroy a people for their theological injustice i.e., unbelief/idolatry, but rather provides them respite when they are just towards others, which functioned as an uṣūli foundation for the preference of human rights (ḥaqq alʿibād) over divine rights (ḥaqq Allāh). Al-Zamakhsharī and al-Bayḍāwī became central references to the Ottoman tafsīr tradition, both in the Ottoman curriculum, and in original exegetical works such as by Abū al-Suʿūd al-Efendī (d. 982/1574) and Ismāʿīl Ḥaqqī (d. 1127/1715), and the multivolume supercommentary works by Shaykh Zādah (d. 951/1544), alKhafājī (d. 1069/1658), and ʿAṣām al-Dīn al-Qūnawī (d. 1195/1781). This paper seeks to discuss how the Ottoman tafsīr tradition engaged the different exegetical approaches to Q.11:117, and how Māturīdī theology provided the possibility for a unique synthesis of alZamakhsharī and al-Bayḍāwī wherein divine respite becomes grounded in divine wisdom and justice.
By admin | 28th August 2017
8th Annual Academic Symposium
City: Leicester, UK
Below is the abstract for the symposium. The Academic Symposium are for members and invitees only.
Ḥuqūq paradigm in uṣūl and tafsīr as ground for an authentic Islamic human rights discourse
One of the major concerns in the applied politics of Muslim-majority countries, Muslim global citizenship, and the fight against Islamophobia, is the way Islām relates to human rights. After WWII and the founding of the United Nations, multiple human rights treaties have been developed and signed and/or ratified by Muslim-majority countries. But these international HR treaties were seen by many as Western secular rights scheme, violating certain Sharīʿa rulings. As a response the Cairo declaration was formulated and used as the key document by the OIC. Other responses include a partial or complete embrace of the UN treaties based on Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿa or comparing them to source documents as the prophetic ‘constitution of Medina’ (as done by the Marrakesh declaration). The problem with all of these efforts is that they all approach human rights discourse as something alien to Islām that needs be adopted (and adapted) to be Islamically acceptable. What the majority of these engagements ignore or are unaware of is the existence of a pre-Enlightenment human rights discourse in Islamic thought: the Ḥuqūq paradigm of divine and human rights (ḥuqūq Allāh wa ḥuqūq al-ʿibād) present in uṣūl al-fiqh, fiqh al-furūʿ and tafsīr. This paradigm is the earliest developed rights scheme in history, with both elaborate rights articles and its grounding in universal human nature. These ḥuqūq have until now been hardly researched and catalogued, while they provide an unique source for the Muslim global community to engage human rights discourse in an authentic way. The ḥuqūq provide important issues to be considered:
An Islamic grounding of universal rights
An elaborate pre-Enlightenment scheme of rights which can be developed further
An authentic Islamic source to compare and engage with modern HR schemes
An important pedagogic tool to ground human rights discourse in general Muslim thought
Keywords: Tafsīr studies, human rights discourse, uṣūl al-Fiqh, Islām and human rights, Islām and international law
een meervoudigheid aan geaccepteerde en getolereerde interpretaties en bronnen), en pluralisme buiten de religie, een extern pluralisme: die bepaalt de omgang met andere religies maar ook verketterde stromingen.
With the rise of Islamism in the 20th century and the later emergence of Jihadi-Salafi groups performing attacks inside and outside Muslim lands, the majority of institutional and famous Muslim scholars have rejected their methods and claims of it being a legitimate Jihad as proscribed by the Sharia. When Western forces colonized the majority of Muslim lands in the 19th and early 20th century, many resistance movements (e.g. Mahdi movement in Sudan) were deemed legitimate in their claim of Jihad. Later conflicts, as the establishment of Israel, the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, and the American invasion of Iraq, were all seen as attacks on Muslim lands and so fighting in defense of those lands was considered by resistance fighters to be a legitimate cause for Jihad. But many Jihadist groups applied tactics and targets that scholars have deemed as unlawful according to Sharia law. The increased use of bombs and Muslim victims and noncombatant non-Muslim victims, many notable Muslim scholars declared public statements and fatwa’s against the Jihadi groups’ methods and claims. In our analysis we will discuss the rise of Islamism and its violent offshoots, and the counter responses given by Islamic scholars through fatwa’s and letter-declarations. Our specific focus will be on the “Letter to Baghdadi”, a letter written against the claims and acts of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the current leader of the self-declared caliphate of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and his adherents. To understand the background to what the Letter responds too, we will first review the rise of Islamism at the beginning of the 20th century and the extremist offshoots it produced. Afterwards we will provide an extensive analysis and commentary on the Letter.
bestaan er al eeuwen verschillende vormen van joods-christelijk-islamitische culturen. De mogelijkheid van zo’n gedeelde cultuur betreft dus niet een bestaansvraag, maar of een afgebakende Abrahamitisch cultuurbeeld nog past in een multireligieus land als Nederland. Kijkende naar de Islam in Nederland kan er al gezegd worden dat het een Nederlands wereldbeeld is.
Teacher Arnold Yasin Mol spoke with documentary maker Inna Kurochkin from I-News (Ichkeria News) in a long-form interview about various themes. Ustadh Mol teaches, among other things, Philosophy of Religion and Comparative Theology at the Islamic University of Applied Sciences Rotterdam (IUASR).
In the interview they discuss various aspects of Islamic culture and religion, such as the function of religious symbols and architecture, the history and interpretation of the Qurʾan, rivalry between civilizations and the emergence of Islamophobia throughout history.
Through this interview, I-News wanted their mainly Orthodox Christian audience in Georgia and other Russian-speaking areas to gain a better understanding of Islam and Muslims.
Produced by Inna Kurochkin (I-News)
students, and constantly expanded and adapted it towards the new situations Muslims were living in, forming it into a school of thought (madhab) which provided a way of life grounded in both past and
present. As a school and intellectual tradition they formulated a coherent orientation within the Islamic worldview. This talk will lay out the unique aspects of the Ḥanafī-Māturīdī orientation, and my own personal journey in researching and learning the school.
Dit zijn de vier rechtsbronnen van Islam, met andere woorden ‘al adillah al arba’. Daarnaast gebruiken sommige rechtsscholen nog een aantal aanvullende principes op de bovengenoemde vier bronnen, Urf (gewoonterecht) en idijtihad (interpretatie). Deze maken het islamitisch recht soms flexibeler. Moderne moslims van deze tijd hebben soms een andere kijk op de totstandkoming van de jurisprudentie en kampen ook met hedendaagse vraagstukken.
We zullen ons in het eerste deel van deze documentaire concentreren op de volgende kernthema’s: Wat bestudeert Fiqh en Oesoel al-Fiqh als wetenschap? En wat houden de vier rechtsbronnen precies in?
Voor Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 333 AH/944 CE) 1 zijn er twee manieren van exegese (tafsīr) bedrijven, (1) tafsīr, wat volgens hem gebaseerd is op de profetische Sunna en de meningen van de profetische metgezellen (Ṣaḥāba) die de reden van openbaring (sabab al-Nuzūl) aangeven waaruit de geopenbaarde bevel (amr) en intentie (murād) gehaald kunnen worden; en (2) tāʾwīl, de rationele interpretaties van de geleerden, de fuquhāʾ, die via de rationale interpretatie en uitwerking (bi-rā'y) deze bevel en intentie tot het uiterste brengen qua betekenis. De islamitische traditie heeft meerdere versies geconstrueerd over hoe, waar en wanneer de Qurʾān aan Mohammed geopenbaard werd. In deze vertaling en uitleg van ’Abū Mansūr al-Māturīdī’s exegese (tafsīr) van Qurʾān hoofdstuk (sūrah) 97 zien wij verschillende discussies over Laylat al-Qadr terugkomen. Wat betekent de naam, wat is er in neergezonden, waarom is het specialer dan 1000 maanden, waarom is er vrede in deze nacht, wanneer is het?