From the Editors

Greetings,

Welcome back to the new issue of Ilahiyat Studies.

We have some important news for the readers of Ilahiyat Studies in this issue. First, Ilahiyat Studies has decided to continue the assessment process on Dergipark, an open-access platform to carry out the peer review process faster and more transparently. Secondly, the editor of our journal, Assoc. Prof. Turgay Gündüz has assumed the role of the associate dean of the Faculty of Theology at Bursa Uludağ University. Because of his administrative assignment, the editorial board has had to be changed. As the journal’s new editorial team, we would like to express our gratitude to Gündüz, who led the way in publishing an international journal in the field of Theology twelve years ago and has kept the journal afloat. We hope that this forced separation will not last too long. We are also grateful to Professor Kemal Ataman for his long-standing role as co-editor of Ilahiyat Studies and his precious contributions. Thirdly, Isnad Citation Style will be used in the footnotes and bibliography in our journal from 2023. Fourthly, as we would like to include articles mainly on Transhumanism in the first issue of 2023, we welcome manuscripts from authors interested in it. Finally, we would like to thank and say welcome Assoc. Prof. Fatma Kızıl, Assoc. Prof. Güllü Yıldız, Asst. Prof. Emine Enise Yakar, Asst. Prof. Sümeyra Yakar, and R.A. İlknur Bahadır. They joined us as field editors in this issue, and our journal will become even stronger with their contributions.

This issue of Ilahiyat Studies features four articles and three book reviews. The first paper by İmam Rabbani Çelik, “The Legacy of a Literary Man in Islamic Legal Theory: Surūrī Chalabī's Super-Commentary on al-Talwīḥ and His Arguments,” presents a detailed analysis of the methodology of the supper-commentary written by Surūrī Chalabī, one of the sixteenth century Ottoman scholars, on al-Taftāzānī’s al-Talwīḥ. The article argues that Surūrī Chalabī pursued the inherited tradition with his argument-based writing style. However, Surūrī Chalabī distinguished himself from the ḥāshiyah writers of the previous century by directly discussing the statements of a large number of ḥāshiyah written over a broad time in the tradition of ḥāshiyah that he inherited.

In the second article, “The Significance of Muḥammad Shaḥrūr’s Scientific-Historical Method in Contemporary Islamic Legal Theory (Uṣūl al-Fiqh),” Muhyar Fanani and Tri Wahyu Hidayati attempt to propose an alternative paradigm helping to establish Islamic laws that are dynamic and realistic. They argue that Syrian scholar Muḥammad Shaḥrūr’s scientific-historical method is a promising approach to developing a modern Islamic law in the historical context of modern societies and state structure.

The article entitled “The Effects of Measures Taken in the Scope of the Islamic Price Policy on Investment, Production, Employment, and Stability,” by Zeki Yaka, discusses how Islamic economics can provide solutions to the current free market understanding of present-day capitalism. Practice in the Medina market, forbidding some transactions such as monopoly and interest, is presented as an economic model to protect fair competition in the economy and contribute to social development by spreading income amongst social segments. Finally, the ḥisbah organization is handled for the effectiveness and continuity of the economic model.

The last article of this issue by Iman al Rujaibi, “Aesthetic Characteristics in the Qurʾān,” aims to determine the religious function of the notion of aesthetics in Qurʾānic discourse. In the article, some Qurʾānic concepts such as itqān, iḥsān and bahjah are explained with reference to contemporary commentaries. The author concludes that the cosmic aesthetics and order mentioned in the Qurʾānic text should be interpreted in the context of the core of the Islamic faith, i.e., tawḥīd.

As always, as the editorial team, we thank our readers, authors, and anonymous referees for their invaluable contributions. Finally, we want to express our gratitude and appreciation to Bursa Ilahiyat Foundation for its continued support.

We look forward to being with you in the next issue of Ilahiyat Studies.