Essays on forming an Islamic civil society in Indonesia.

As with many other countries, Malaysia is also developing and promoting biomedical research to increase the understanding of human diseases and possible interventions. To facilitate this development, there is a significant growth of biobanks in the country to ensure continuous collection of biological samples for future research, which contain extremely important personal information and health data of the participants involved. Given the vast amount of samples and data accumulated by biobanks, they can be considered as reservoirs of precious biomedical big (...) data. It is therefore imperative for biobanks to have in place regulatory measures to ensure ethical use of the biomedical big data. Malaysia has yet to introduce specific legislation for the field of biobanking. However, it can be argued that its existing Personal Data Protection Act 2010 has laid down legal principles that can be enforced to protect biomedical big data generated by the biobanks. Consent is a mechanism to enable data subjects to exercise their autonomy by determining how their data can be used and ensure compliance with legal principles. However, there are two main concerns surrounding the current practice of consent in biomedical big data in Malaysia. First, it is uncertain that the current practice would be able to respect the underlying notion of autonomy, and second, it is not in accordance with the legal principles of the PDPA. Scholars have deliberated on different strategies of informed consent, and a more interactive approach has recently been introduced: dynamic consent. It is argued that a dynamic consent approach would be able to address these concerns. (shrink)

This study aims to examine the relationship between Ramadan and social capital, that is, social solidarity and philanthropy, in Muslim communities in Indonesia. The data waere collected through a questionnaire that was distributed to 600 respondents in six districts or cities in two provinces. Respondents were randomly selected at the village level. The results showed that social solidarity during Ramadan was high with values of the spirit of togetherness, collective consciousness and cooperation. In addition, philanthropy was included in a high (...) category with different values of alms, infaq and waqf. Therefore, it can be concluded that Ramadan contributes positively to the social solidarity of Muslim communities in Indonesia. The result can be used to develop a model of social solidarity in overcoming the problem of disintegration. Furthermore, it improves Muslim philanthropy for social welfare and to overcome the problem of poverty.Contribution: This article contributes to the sustainable development goal of poverty alleviation. It focuses on a multidisplinary religious perspective from textual and hermeneutical studies within the paradigm of Qur’an studies. (shrink)

This paper discusses the contribution of a prolific author and an Egyptian scholar Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd and his hermeneutical approach to the Qur’an. The article argues that Abu Zayd is a Muslim reformer of the twentieth century through his takwil. His hermeneutical concept is questioning the “an-nash ” tradition of the Qur’an and the transformation of Arab culture from oral to text-oriented culture in the earliest history of the Qur’an. He differentiates between tanzil to takwil. This article further argues (...) that Abu Zayd’s hermeneutical concept should be understood from the history of revelation which speaks to a particular community and respond to a particular situation. Thus, the Qur’an itself is a living phenomenon and open for interpretation, rather than a closed corpus. (shrink)

This paper discussed the life background of Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd and the hermeneutical method used to the interpretation of the Qur’an. Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd was among productive Muslim scientists. He wrote over twenty-nine works from 1964 to 1999. His works included books and articles. Nasr’sthought was a product of his educational background and religious thought. An interesting discussion of Nasr’s thought was the conceptual discourse. In the historical trajectory of the Arabic world, the text had a crucial position, (...) especially when we saw the development of Islamic literature from pre-Islamic to the Islamic era. The oral tradition was deeply rooted. The text was ultimately believed to have a major influence in the formation of civilization through a hermeneutical approach, developed by modernists such as Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, which became an attempt to develop an approaching understanding the Qur’an which had been widely opposed among Muslims. Because there was a very basic difference between hermeneutics on the other hand, and tafsir-takwil on the other hand, so it is considered inappropriate to be used to study the Qur’an. Therefore, this paper will discuss the concept of the hermeneutical method of the Qur’an by Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd as a repertoire of Islamic studies. (shrink)

Adolescent pregnancy results from the complex interaction between various internal and external vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities persist after the infant's birth when the adolescent becomes a parent. Adolescent parents are unfairly stereotyped as unmotivated and incompetent. Some legislations prohibit adolescents from giving consent on the grounds of incompetency. Despite being different, “competency” is frequently used interchangeably with “capacity”; thus, incompetent individuals are often mistaken to lack capacity. Consequently, legally incompetent adolescents who became parents are frequently disregarded during their infant's decision-making process. (...) This article discusses the distinction between the competence and capacity of adolescent parents, the various vulnerabilities that contribute to an adolescent's incompetency, and advocates respect for the adolescent's capacity in making decisions for her infant. We propose a workflow for obtaining informed consent for infants born to adolescents ethically guided by the respect for individuals principle while staying within the country's legal framework. (shrink)

: This article is a humble attempt at highlighting the controversiesregarding the legitimacy of popular resistance or revolutionary movement tobring down Muslim political regime that claimed to be despotic, unjust andeven un-Islamic. Having the fact on the existence of another view by majorityscholars that more inclined towards pacifist ideology which stressed onpolitical stability as a prerequisite to prosperity, the article emphasizes moreon the revolutionary school, while the second shall be highlighted when it isnecessary for comparison. Employing qualitative method of study, (...) the articleseeks to examine the arguments provided by both movements. This will bedone by analyzing their textual and rational grounds of evidences used bythe two schools to legitimize their political stance. Associating with what ishappening in Muslims nation nowadays, current study compelled to review theradical revolutionary movement from the perspective of moderate Islam schoolof thought. (shrink)

BackgroundMental illness among Malaysian children is gradually reaching a fundamentally alarming point as it persistently shows increasing trend. The existing literature on the etiologies of children’s mental illness, highlights the most common cause to be ineffective or impaired parenting. Thus, efforts to combat mental illness in children should focus on improving the quality of parenting. Documented interventional studies focusing on this issue, particularly in Malaysia, are scarce and commonly report poor treatment outcomes stemming from inconvenient face-to-face instructions. Consequently, proposing an (...) accessible online and digital-assisted parenting program is expected to reach a larger number of parents, as it can overcome substantial barriers. Hence, this study aims to develop a universal digital-assisted preventive parenting intervention called DaPI, that aims to enhance mental health of children in Malaysia.MethodsA total of 200 parents of children aged 10–14 years will be recruited and randomized into two groups either intervention or waitlist-control based on a 1:1 ratio for a duration of 8 weeks. Those in the intervention group will receive eight sessions of the DaPI program that focus mainly on parenting and children’s mental health. The primary outcome of this study will essentially focus on the changes in parent-reported parenting behavior and parental self-efficacy. The secondary outcome will be changes in children’s mental health. Assessments will be arranged pre- and post-intervention as well as at the 1-month follow-up. Analyses will be conducted using a paired t-test and multivariate analysis of covariance.DiscussionThe expected outcome will be the establishment of DaPI in promoting children’s mental health by targeting changes in parenting behavior and parental self-efficacy in Malaysia. Findings from this study will be beneficial for policymakers to invest in parenting programs that could provide support to parents in enhancing their child’s overall development.Clinical trial registration[www.irct.ir], identifier [IRCT20211129053207N1]. (shrink)

Even though there is a significant amount of scholarly work examining the ethical issues surrounding human genomics research, little is known about its footing in Malaysia. This study aims to explore the experience of local researchers and research ethics committee (REC) members in developing it in Malaysia. In‐depth interviews were conducted from April to May 2021, and the data were thematically analysed. In advancing this technology, both genomics researchers and REC members have concerns over how this research is being developed (...) in the country especially the absence of a clear ethical and regulatory framework at the national level as a guidance. However, this study argues that it is not a salient issue as there are international guidelines in existence and both researchers and RECs will benefit from a training on the guidelines to ensure genomics research can be developed in an ethical manner. (shrink)

Abstrak: Sains sebagai keselamatan adalah ungkapan yang kerap digunakan secara peyoratif untuk menggambarkan dampak sains dan teknologi yang mencelakakan manusia. Artikel ini akan menunjukkan bahwa ide ‘sains sebagai keselamatan’ dapat dilacak ke Francis Bacon (1561-1626) dan ditafsirkan secara ketat menurut doktrin keselamatan Kristiani. Bacon merancang suatu program raksasa untuk meningkatkan proses pembelajaran dan pembaharuan pengetahuan. Namun, pada abad ke-16, setiap upaya untuk mencanangkan perluasan pengetahuan perlu terlebih dulu merehabilitasi status moral pengetahuan yang diasosiasikan dengan petaka di Firdaus, yang membawa (...) dosa masuk ke dunia. Secara cermat Bacon menangani keprihatinan moral dan teologis zamannya dengan cara menjalin unsur eskatologis ke dalam programnya. Dia lalu menyuguhkan restorasi pengetahuan sebagai kasus partikular dalam sejarah keselamatan yang akan memulihkan penguasaan dan kuasa manusia atas alam, dan pada waktunya membebaskan manusia dari kesengsaraan material. Kata Kunci: Sains, alam, kejatuhan, pemulihan, instauratio, apokalips, sejarah keselamatan, kemaslahatan. Abstract: Science as salvation' is a term used pejoratively to refer to the harmful impact of science and technology. This article will show that the idea of ‘science as salvation’ can be traced back to Francis Bacon (1561-1626) and was strictly construed according to the Christian doctrine of salvation. Bacon devised a comprehensive programme for the advancement of learning and the restoration of knowledge. But any sixteenth-century proposals for the expansion of knowledge first required a rehabilitation of the moral status of knowledge long tainted by an image of catastrophe leading to the fall from the Garden of Eden, in which knowledge brought sins into the world. Bacon meticulously worked on the moral and theological concern of knowledge by weaving an eschatological element into his programme. He then espoused the restoration of knowledge as a particular case in the history of salvation envisaged to eventually restore human Arcadian mastery and dominion over nature, which in turn was expected to relieve humans from material sufferings. Keywords: Knowledge, sin, fall, salvation, instauratio, apocalyps, sacred history. (shrink)