Editorial

Abstract

Editorial

Dear readers,

بسم هللا الرحمن الرحيم

السالم عليكم ورحمة هللا وبركاته

First and foremost, I praise and thank Allah SWT for His greatness and for giving me the strength and courage to complete this issue. May Allah’s blessings be upon His Final Prophet Muhammad (peace be up on him), his family and his companions.

Second, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the second issue of Al- Risalah: Journal of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences (ARJIHS). We are delighted that you are joining us as readers and hope you will also join us as contributors. ARJIHS is a peer-reviewed online journal, published biannually in June and December by AbdulHamid AbuSulayman Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences (AHAS KIRKHS), International Islamic University Malaysia. The Journal’s aim is to promote the talent and diverse research interests of KIRKHS postgraduate students by providing a platform for them to publish both independent research and research undertaken in collaboration with academics. The scope of ARJIHS encompasses the various disciplines related to Islamic revealed knowledge and human sciences with the aim of Islamizing human sciences and relevantizing Islamic revealed knowledge to the modern context.

This December issue 2021 comprises three Arabic and two English articles. The first article is titled Suspicions of violating the grammatical and morphological rules in the Holy Qur’an among orientalists and responding to them. This Arabic article investigates orientalists’ responses to allegations and suspicions that the Qur'an violates grammatical and morphological rules.

The second is an English article titled Exploring Hui Muslims’ Utilization of Islamic Press for the Revival of Islam during the Republic of China (1912-1949). It seeks to explore the utilization of Islamic press by Hui Muslims for the revival of Islam during the Republic of China (1912-1949). The goal of this research is to show how the Hui Muslim Da’wah practitioners including intellectuals and Islamic scholars used Islamic Press, namely Islamic newspapers and journals, as the main Islamic Da‘wah instrument to revive Islam and its teachings among the Hui Muslims and convey the Islamic Message to non-Muslims. The research brings important insights into Islamic Da‘wah efforts made by the Hui Muslims in the history of Islamic Revival Movement in China.

The third is an Arabic article titled The Challenges of Social Security and its Quranic Applications in the Contemporary Era. It investigates the Qur’an’s approach in identifying the social security issues. Its aim is to discover the general yet a comprehensive Qur’anic solution to achieve the ideal social security with its categories in the contemporary era. The researchers believe that social security is one of the most important Qur’anic purposes on which the human society is based. Having the fact that the Qur’anic methodology provides the best rules, foundations, and standards by which security can be achieved in society. Accordingly, the

researchers analysed the foundations of social security in the Qur’an and the Sunnah, then the areas of social security and the Qur’anic applications to achieve social security’s values and principles. This is done by referring to verses related to security in the Holy Qur’an, the objectives stipulated followed by analytical study on those verses, to come up with a clear scientific concept in inferring the legal texts.

The fourth is an English article titled Exploring the Publics’ Perception on the use of Euphemism in Malaysian Political Articles. The authors of this article are of the opinion that a large number of euphemisms has been routinely employed in English-speaking media, including television and radio channels, newspapers, online articles, and magazines. In this paper, they attempt to investigate the public’s perception on the use of euphemisms in Malaysian political articles. The method adopted in this study is qualitative approach starting with content analysis of euphemistic expressions from ten selected Malaysian political articles based on Burridge (2012). This is followed by structured interviews with five Malaysian citizens of various backgrounds. The findings indicated that the euphemisms used in national political newspapers are formed through lexical devices, grammatical devices, and rhetorical devices as has been suggested by Burridge (2012). The results of the interview show that the participants’ perspectives towards euphemisms can be categorized into four: (1) euphemisms usage to avoid taboo words and showing politeness, (2) misleading or unclear meaning, (3) euphemisms as ideological tools, and (4) greater degree of unconventionality from its meaning.

The fifth and last article is Arabic and it is titled The Modernist Religious Renewal Claim in Islamic Jurisprudence: Analytical Insights into the Thought of Muhammad Shahrour. It discusses the modernist religious renewal claims in Islamic jurisprudence (Fiqh), with special reference to Muhammad Shahrour’s thought and opinions on the subject of renewal in Islamic jurisprudence, as well as his call for a contemporary reading of heritage. The researchers’ objectives are to investigate the reality of these claims, and to disclose the intellectual deviation in the claim of renewal of Islamic jurisprudence. Among the issues discussed in this paper are the religious renewal and its divisions, and the scientific rules that regulate the truth of religious renewal. One of the most important conclusions of this study is that the reality of Muhammad Shahrour’s claim for renewal differs from the reality of permissible renewal, and that his contemporary call is an essentially westernizing call that urges for a revolution against heritage and Islamic regulations which leads to the application of the modernist interpretation of the Qur’an to reach new outcomes that keep pace with the civilized development according to the Western vision, based on the principle of the uniqueness of the creator and the multiplicity of everything else in a continuous process.

Third, I have had the privilege of taking over as the Editor-in-Chief since November 1, 2021. Here are my top responsibilities: to create a high-quality publication that will be relevant, and inclusive of a diverse range of perspectives, to attract more submissions to ARJIHS, and to promote ARJIHS on social media networks.

Fourth, to maintain high academic standards, academic ethics and academic integrity, a rigorous process of double blind review of research papers is followed along with screening of plagiarism of each manuscript received by ARJIHS for publication. The research work published in ARJIHS is original and not published anywhere.

Fifth, I would like to express my deepest gratitude and appreciation to Prof. Dr. Shukran Abdul Rahman, Dean of AbdulHamid AbuSulayman Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences (AHAS IRKHS), International Islamic University Malaysia, for the opportunity to serve as Editor-in-Chief for ARJIHS. I would like also to express my

sincere appreciation to Prof. Dr. AHM Zahirul Alam from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Kulliyyah of Engineering. International Islamic University Malaysia, for the technical support. Without him and all those mentioned here this issue would not be possible.

Lastly, on behalf of the Editorial Board, I congratulate all the students whose research papers are published in this Issue of ARJIHS and express my sincere thanks to their supervisors and mentors. We thank the reviewers for their positive comments and careful review, which helped improve the manuscripts.

May Allah reward you all.

Dr. Kabuye Uthman Sulaiman Editor-in-Chief

December 2021