Malcolm X: The Struggle For Human Rights

ISLAM AND DIPLOMACY provides a wide-ranging discourse on the relevance of Islam to global well-being and human security from legal, spiritual, moral and historical perspectives. As prevailing realities in the Middle East and many other parts of the world amply demonstrate, the tools of modern secular diplomacy are not always adequate to address violent sectarian or religious clashes and social tensions, nor to suggest long-term workable solutions for them. This book expounds the largely untapped potential of a faith-based diplomacy and suggest integrating religious norms as an added impetus to conventional diplomacy for the benefit of global peace and harmony. it is also demonstrates that Islam possesses a rich tradition of legal, spiritual and ethical values prioritizing peace and human security. Islamic heritage is also sufficiently nuanced to offer flexible paradigms for addressing problems of coomunal identity that may well be beyond the reach of traditional diplomacy, such as ethnic conflict, tribal warfare, and religious hostilities.

This book offers a detailed presentation of the theory of Muslim law (usul al-figh). Often regarded as the most sophisticated of the traditional Islamic disciplines, Muslim jurisprudence is concerned with the way in which the rituals and laws of religion are derived from the Qur’an and the Sunna – the precedent of the Prophet. Revelation, which is given to man to restore unity and help him achieve a just and devout order in society as well as in the soul, must be interpreted so as to render it practicable in every culture, while not betraying its spirit and immutable provisions. To achieve this, additional sources of legal authority are recognized, including consensus (ijma), analogical deduction (qiyas), public interest (maslaha) and local customary precedent (urf). In employing these, the jurist guards the five principles which it is the purpose of Islamic law to uphold, namely, the right to life, sound mind, property, lineage and religion.