From TheIsmaili.org
Aliyyah Giga is an alumnus of The Institute of Ismaili Studies’ Summer Programme on Islam (SPI). In this reflective piece, she shares some personal lessons that she drew from her experience of the programme.
A museum in London exhibits “Islamic art.” “Islamic mortgages” are available at a Karachi bank. Meanwhile, a market in Sana’a sells “Islamic socks.”
The adjective Islamic is applied to a growing range of nouns. But what does it mean? What shared attributes make a piece of art, a mortgage and a pair of socks Islamic? Would the term have carried the same meaning 10, 100 or 1 000 years ago?
Participants at The Institute of Ismaili Studies’ Summer Programme on Islam puzzle with questions such as these. What describes Islamic or qualifies Muslim? Do simple definitions and identifiers exist? And what are the implications of using these terms to describe people, places and things?
Complete at the source: http://www.theismaili.org
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