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Redefining Pre-Islamic Marriage Beyond the Sexual Paradigm

The Political Economy of Kinship Fatima Abdul Rahman Abstract Marriage is so closely associated today with romantic attachment, sexual intimacy, and individual choice that these features can easily be mistaken for universal characteristics of the institution. The marriage practices preserved in accounts of pre-Islamic Arabia invite a different interpretation. In societies in which kinship, lineage, property, protection, political alliance, and honor were closely intertwined, marriage could serve purposes that cannot be adequately explained through sexuality alone. Polygyny further complicates the modern assumption that every marital relationship represents a singular romantic and sexual bond, while practices associated with the appropriation of widows, ẓihār, and marriages arranged by families reveal relationships whose initiating logic could lie elsewhere. The Qur’anic regulation of marriage and kinship subsequently altered important aspects of this order by defining prohibited relationships, limiting customary claims over women, and establishing specified rights in property and inheritance. Examining these practices together reveals not simply a different history of marriage, but a different way of organizing social relationships, and exposes the danger of projecting the assumptions of the modern marital system onto societies governed by very different arrangements of kinship and power. The Political Economy of Marriage Few social institutions appear more familiar to modern people than marriage. In contemporary societies, particularly those in which monogamy is the prevailing legal and social norm, marriage is ordinarily imagined as a relationship between two individuals whose emotional and sexual attachment provides its central rationale. Economic considerations, family expectations, religion, social status, and political or […]

Call for Papers — Islam Today Journal

Bridging Classical Islamic Thought and Modern Progress Islam Today Journal invites scholars, researchers, scientists, and professionals to bring classical Islamic thought into conversation with the knowledge, discoveries, and challenges of the modern world. We seek to bridge tradition and modernity—not as opposing worlds, but as sources of insight that can inform, challenge, and enrich one another. Our goal is a wider interdisciplinary conversation that is intellectually rigorous, historically informed, and useful for understanding and addressing the realities of our time. We welcome original research and scholarly contributions that connect Islamic intellectual traditions with contemporary developments in science, medicine, technology, economics, philosophy, society, governance, education, and human development. If your work can connect the intellectual resources of the past with the possibilities and challenges of the present, we invite you to join the conversation. Submit Your Work Making a Submission Questions? Find Answers to Common Questions Editorial Team Meet the Editorial Team Dr. Ahmed E. Souaiaia, professor at University of Iowa, USA Editor-in-Chief, Islam Today Journal

ITJ Circular (2026, 1): Call for Papers, Library Collections…

ITJ Circular (2026, 1) 📑 Call for Papers Islam Today Journal Islam Today Journal invites original scholarly submissions that engage critically with classical Islamic thought, institutions, and intellectual traditions, as well as their encounters with the modern world. We welcome interdisciplinary approaches from history, philosophy, political thought, sociology, sciences, and any field that touches on Islamic events and ideas. Detailed submission guidelines and deadlines are available on the ITJ website. 📚 ITJ Library Collections New Titles and Collections The ITJ Library Collections continue to expand with new contributions from contemporary scholars and rights holders. Recent additions include titles in Classical Islamic Thought Collection (CITC), Critical Islamic Studies Collection (CISC), Modern Islamic Thought Collection (MITC), and Current and Contemporary Authors Collection. For Current and Contemporary Authors Collection, which consists of materials that are deposited by authors who hold the rights to their work are made available exclusively to registered readers for research and educational purposes. Authors interested in depositing their work are invited to contact the editorial team for submission instructions. 🎓 Islam Today International Conference (ITIC) Abstracts & Panel Proposals The Islam Today International Conference (ITIC) welcomes individual paper abstracts and full panel proposals that address the 2026 conference’s core themes: the historical depth, contemporary relevance, and future trajectories of Islamic thought and institutions. Paper abstracts should clearly state the research question, methodology, and scholarly contribution. Panel proposals should include a unifying rationale, participant details, and individual paper abstracts. ITIC aims to bring together scholars, researchers, and thinkers […]

AI, Copyright, and Academic Research Production

In a significant policy decision, Australia’s Attorney-General Michelle Rowland has ruled out introducing a text and data mining (TDM) exception to the country’s copyright law—a move that would have permitted artificial intelligence (AI) developers to freely scrape and use copyrighted creative works for AI training without compensating rights holders. This proposal, initially floated by the Productivity Commission in its August interim report, was met with strong opposition from creatives, authors, journalists, and cultural institutions, who argued it would amount to the “theft” of intellectual and cultural property by big tech firms. The government’s rejection of the TDM exception has been widely celebrated as a victory for creators and a reaffirmation of the value of Australia’s cultural output. While the final Productivity Commission report—due in December—may still include the recommendation, the immediate decision, coupled with the reactivation of the Copyright & AI Reference Group (CAIRG) in late October, signals a shift toward a licensing-led framework for AI development. This approach emphasizes negotiated, consensual use of copyrighted materials rather than blanket exemptions. For the academic community, this decision carries both reassurance and complexity. On one hand, it upholds strong copyright protections that safeguard scholarly output, teaching materials, and research publications—many of which are protected under the same legal regime as creative works. This is especially important in an era where AI systems increasingly ingest academic content without attribution or compensation, potentially undermining the economic and moral rights of researchers and institutions. On the other hand, academics engaged in AI research or computational […]

Ibn Khaldun: The Visionary Who Anticipated the Modern Social Sciences

In the vast expanse of Islamic intellectual history, few figures have achieved the lasting significance of Ibn Khaldun, the fourteenth-century North African historian, philosopher, and jurist who lived a life as complex and eventful as the civilizations he studied. The 2016 article “A Review of Ibn Khaldun and His Scholarly Contributions” by Li Yanwei and Zhang Meimei, published in the Journal of Ningxia Normal University (Social Science), offers a sweeping account of his extraordinary journey and the timeless relevance of his ideas. Through their study, Ibn Khaldun emerges not merely as a chronicler of his age but as a thinker who understood the deep structures of history, power, and human society centuries before the birth of sociology or modern historiography. Born in 1332 in Tunis to a distinguished Andalusian Arab family, Ibn Khaldun’s early years were marked by privilege, rigorous education, and tragedy. Trained in the Qur’an, law, logic, and Arabic literature, he inherited both a rich cultural heritage and a profound curiosity about the world. When the Black Death swept through North Africa in 1348–49, claiming his parents, the young Ibn Khaldun turned to public service, beginning a career that would take him across the political landscape of the Maghreb and al-Andalus. He served as a court secretary, judge, diplomat, and minister, enduring imprisonment, exile, and repeated reversals of fortune in an age of political instability. Yet these experiences, far from embittering him, became the raw material of his insight into how societies rise and decline, how solidarity binds […]

Islam and Corporate Social Responsibility

Islam and Corporate Social Responsibility presents an insightful and timely re-examination of how faith-based ethics can enrich and redefine modern corporate conduct. In an era marked by growing public scrutiny of business practices, environmental degradation, and widening social inequalities, the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has emerged as a global priority. Yet, as this study compellingly argues, the ethical foundations that guide responsible corporate behavior are far from uniform—and Islam offers a deeply rooted and comprehensive moral framework for rethinking what it means to do business responsibly. At its heart, this work bridges two worlds: the modern corporate paradigm, with its emphasis on sustainability and stakeholder accountability, and the Islamic worldview, which integrates economic activity within a moral and spiritual order. By grounding CSR in the ethical teachings of the Qur’an and Hadith, the study demonstrates how principles such as zakat (charity), adl (justice), ihsan (compassion and excellence), and khalifah (stewardship) together form a coherent and actionable framework for ethical economic life. These principles are not ancillary to business—they define its social purpose, orienting economic activity toward human welfare and collective balance rather than mere profit maximization. Employing a descriptive qualitative methodology, the research carefully analyzes both Islamic textual sources and contemporary corporate practices, tracing how moral principles can be translated into practical strategies for governance, transparency, and sustainability. Through this approach, the study reveals how Islamic ethics naturally align with global CSR objectives, while offering a more integrated and spiritually grounded conception of responsibility—one that emphasizes accountability before […]

Reimagining Work

Reimagining Work offers a profound and timely exploration of one of humanity’s most enduring questions: what is the true nature and purpose of work? In an age when automation, financialization, and global inequality challenge the moral foundations of economic life, this study returns to first principles—reconsidering how civilizations have understood work as both a material and ethical force. At its core, Reimagining Work situates the concept of labor within a comparative dialogue between Ibn Khaldun—the fourteenth-century North African historian, philosopher, and founder of the science of civilization (ʿilm al-ʿumrān)—and leading Western economic thinkers such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Max Weber, and John Maynard Keynes. Through this dialogue, the study illuminates not only the intellectual lineage of economic thought but also the deep divergences that shape modern understandings of value, productivity, and human purpose. Drawing on the Systems Thinking Framework, the work challenges the reduction of labor to a mere factor of production. Instead, it presents work as a structuring principle—a force that organizes societies, sustains moral orders, and determines how wealth and meaning are distributed within civilizations. Ibn Khaldun’s pre-Enlightenment vision, which places work at the center of social and spiritual life, offers a striking contrast to the evolution of Western economic paradigms that increasingly separate capital from human labor. The study’s comparative approach reveals how, over time, Western thought progressively abstracted value from work—transforming it from a human act of creation and cooperation into an instrument of accumulation. In contrast, Ibn Khaldun’s conception of work as the original […]

Faith as a Journey in Islam

Ibrahim and the Discovery of the Self Abstract Faith (īmān) in Islam is not a static possession but a transformative process—a journey of questioning, discovery, and surrender. The Qur’anic narrative of the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) presents the archetype of faith as existential movement rather than inherited belief. As the one who first called his followers muslimūn (those who surrender) (Qur’an 22:78), Ibrahim situates Islam’s origins in personal discovery rather than social conformity. His life traces a profound trajectory—from youthful rebellion against idolatry to the mature submission that defines tawḥīd, the oneness of God. This paper explores Ibrahim’s journey as an allegory of faith in Islam: beginning with negation (lā ilāha), the rejection of false gods and imposed beliefs, and culminating in affirmation (illā allāh), the realization of the transcendent source of all meaning. Faith, in this sense, is not inherited but found; not imposed but realized through the freedom of the self to say “no.” Introduction: Faith as Movement, Not Possession Within the Islamic tradition, īmān is not understood merely as the acceptance of dogma, but as an evolving act of becoming—a perpetual unfolding of consciousness toward the Divine. The Qur’an repeatedly frames belief not as static certainty but as a journey marked by doubt, inquiry, and testing. The life of Ibrahim, regarded as abū al-anbiyā’ (the father of prophets), provides the paradigmatic model for this journey. The Qur’an explicitly identifies him as “the one who named you muslimūn before” (22:78), situating the very identity of Islam within his spiritual […]

Ibn Khaldūn—The Silent Architect of Systems Thought

Long before the rise of complexity theory, long before the word “system” took on the depth it holds today in the worlds of science, governance, and ecology, a North African scholar sat in exile and wrote a monumental introduction to history—al-Muqaddima. Ibn Khaldūn, who lived most of his life in the 14th century, had a mind operated with a clarity and pattern-seeking instinct that today would mark him as nothing less than a systems thinker of the highest order. To describe Ibn Khaldūn merely as a historian is to miss the revolutionary scope of his vision. He did not simply record events; he dissected the forces that made those events possible. He asked the most critical questions that transcended time and culture, and his answers were never simple. They were not linear cause-effect explanations of isolated incidents, but rather sweeping accounts of human society as an interconnected web of influences—psychological, economic, political, environmental, and moral; the outcome of the seen and unseen forces that shape our world—rather our universe. He observed how nomadic tribes, unified by strong group solidarity—what he called ʿasabiyya—could rise to power and conquer sedentary societies. He observed that power bred luxury, luxury bred complacency, and complacency eroded the very solidarity that enabled their ascent. The cycle would begin anew with another tribe, another force, another dominant culture leading the human collective—the civilization, and another rise and fall. He saw the feedback loop centuries before that term existed in academic vocabulary. Ibn Khaldūn saw patterns not in […]

Islam Today Journal CfP

Islam Today Journal welcomes original work from any field—humanities, social sciences, medicine, engineering, business, and more—that explores the dynamic interplay between Islamic intellectual traditions and contemporary knowledge. Examine continuity, rupture, and cross-civilizational exchange. Challenge norms. Shape the discourse. Researchers, Scholars, Scientists, Professionals, and Experts are invited to Make Submissions: https://islamtodayjournal.org Please download and post this poster in your department’s staff spaces:

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