Discipline Islamic Law Edited by Muhammad Asad OCLC no. [1] 427533470 | Language English Publication history 1946-1947 | |
Publisher Muhammad Asad (Pakistan) | ||
Arafat: A Monthly Critique of Muslim Thought was a monthly periodical founded by Muhammad Asad in Kashmir in 1946.
Contents
It was named after the plain of Arafat, the level area before the gates of Mecca where pilgrims spend the ninth day of Dhu al-Hijjah in huge camps as part of Hajj. Asad was the editor, publisher and the sole contributor of the periodical. In the words of Asad: "Arafat was a kind of 'journalistic monologue' meant to clarify - as much as might be possible for a single man - the great confusion prevailing in the Muslim community as to the scope and the practical implications of Islamic Law."
Arafat was primarily a vehicle for Asad’s ideas and a clarion-call at the critical time of Pakistan Movement, aiming at a fundamental reconstruction of an ordinary Pakistani Muslim's approach to the problem of Shariah. Three months before the partition, he wrote an article under the title “What do we mean by Pakistan?” in which he emphasized the real purpose underlying the future establishment of Pakistan. In another issue, published less than a month before the Independence Day, he penned an essay titled “Towards an Islamic Constitution” which was the first attempt ever made to outline the principles which must be incorporated in the constitution of any state that claims to be ‘Islamic’.
Essays that appeared in Arafat
"This Law of Ours" is a section of the book This Law of Ours and Other Essays which contains Asad's thesis on Islamic Law. The thesis is based on the following essays published in Arafat between September 1946 and February 1947.
"What do we mean by Pakistan", another section of the book This Law of Ours and Other Essays, is an essay that first appeared in Arafat in May 1947 (three months before the creation of Pakistan).