Dr. Jackson’s new book, Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering, is out. A follow up to his successful Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking toward the Third Resurrection, Black Suffering seeks to shed light on the dilemma of Islam in the Blackamerican community, especially as it relates to tackling the issue of adversity and affliction in the black community. Jackson wishes to highlight the challenge that Islam must over come if it wishes to enjoy any longevity in the black community.

For the Muslim, therefore, it is essential to find a Quranic/Islamic grounding for the protest-oriented agenda of black religion.

That is the task Dr. Jackson undertakes in this pathbreaking work. The book is published by Oxford University Press, it is available on Amazon.com as well.

You may read Jihad and the Modern Word, part 2 of 2, in this month’s Ascent Magazine, the magazine published by the Harvard and MIT Students on Islam and Society.

B. Jihad in the Classical Juristic Tradition

Turning to the post-Prophetic era, classical jurists unanimously divided jihad into two main modalities. The first we may refer to as “aggressive jihad,” which is pro-active, and according to the majority, constituted a communal requirement to be carried out at least once every year. The second modality was the “defensive jihad,” which was waged whenever Muslim lands were attacked. This jihad was actually a much more serious affair than its counterpart, inasmuch as many of the stipulations and restrictions governing aggressive jihad were dropped in the case of defensive jihad. For example, the Muslim ruler did not have to announce the obligation to join the defensive jihad nor conscript soldiers for its prosecution. Similarly, all those groups who were normally exempt from participating in the aggressive jihad, e.g., women, minors, the elderly, young men who had not been granted permission by their parents, were required to participate in defensive jihad. For our purpose of trying to determine the credibility of the claim that Islam is a religion of peace, we may ignore the defensive jihad. For no one would accuse Islam, or any other religion for that matter, of not being a peaceful religion simply because it insisted on defending itself. We shall thus restrict the remainder of our discussion to the aggressive jihad.

Part 1 is also available.

In the wake of Imam W. D. Mohammed’s death [may God have mercy on his soul and grant him peace and Paradise], Dr. Jackson presents to us a most erudite article regarding not only the imam’s passing but a clarion call to entire America Muslim community as to the milestone we’ve reached and where we ought to be heading. Enjoy the article here.

In a recent article published in Issue 6 of the Michigan State Law Review, Dr. Jackson published a concise essay on literalism both in the Islamic juridical interpretation as well as the influence and assumptions of Western thoughts concerning religion on Islam. Here’s a small excerpt:

It was in the nineteenth century that the “scientific” study of Islam approached maturity in the West. This was also the period during which the hegemonic rise of the hard sciences and “higher criticism” in religious studies opened a new chapter in the age-old conflict between “reason” and revelation. Among the most important by-products of this development was the rise of religious Fundamentalism, in which Christian—more specifically Protestant—scholars and theologians moved to erect a dike of literalism around the Bible to stave off doctrinal erosion and compromise. To their opponents, secular and Christian “progressives” alike, literalism came to represent the antithesis of both modernity and reason. This attitude would soon permeate the academy where it informed the study of religion in general and Islam more particularly. As the Western academy settled into its new “post-religious” identity, almost every criticism that could be directed at religion in general was assumed a fortiori to apply to Islam. Literalism, in this context, as the Believer’s last-ditch effort to find refuge from the deluge of modern secularism, came to be identified with any and every serious commitment to Islam.

For the complete article, click here. Hat tip to Hood for the info.

It’s funny, how this article makes me think and recount on the many encounters I have had [and continue to] with groups of people with curious notions of diversity. In America and in today’s world, perhaps with a hat tip to globalization, diversity has not come to mean the acceptance of those who look different, think different and act different than you but rather it is a carefully masked system of unification. That, in their minds, diversity is a process by which we will all eventually think and feel and experience the world the same. How arrogant this is! As usual, Dr. Jackson has a noteworthy piece. Read on it here.

This article seems to be a continuation of Dr. Jackson’s topic he spoke of last year at NYU: Public minimum and private maximum. Read about it here.

I found this article of particular interest as it examines perhaps two “competing” ideologies regarding the notion of salvation. Read it here.

More from Dr. Jackson’s blog at OnFaith. Read it here.

Here is an enlightening post that Dr. Jackson wrote on his blog recently.

I would highly recommend reading the new book, September 11 In History, A Watershed Moment?, edited by Mary L. Dudziak. The book features a very well written essay by Dr. Sherman Jackson, Islam(s) East and West: Pluralism between No-Frills and Designer Fundamentalism (Duke University Press). Highly recommended. Order from Amazon or Duke.