RELIGIOSITY IN DEVELOPMENT: A THEORETICAL CONSTRUCT OF AN ISLAMIC-BASED DEVELOPMENT

An article of mine has appeared in International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, Vol. 2 No. 14 [Special Issue - July 2012]. The title is "Religiosity in Development: A Theoretical Construct of an Islamic-Based Development".

The article attempts to seek for an answer for the religiosity in Islam vis-a-vis the conventional understanding of the religiosity; and secondly, it attempts to develop a theoretical construct of an Islamic-based development and visualize the form of development that this theoretical construct entails with. The endeavor is based on  two premises. Firstly, the meaning of religiosity as is held by conventional view is different from the meaning of religiosity viewed from Islamic perspective. Secondly, the focus on religiosity in many literatures is generally confined to the religiosity of the human beings, not on the religiosity of the exogenous aspects of human life such as development. These premises are portrayed in the first section of this paper. The subsequent section then outlines the dimensions of the religiosity in an Islamic-based development. It shows that there are five dimensions of the religiosity of an Islamic-based development, viz. Divinistic, Dogmatic, Holistic Integration, Transitory, and Instrumentalistic. While these dimensions are developed from the basic doctrines of Islam, the deliberations in the earlier section are based on a textual analysis of the available literatures on religiosity.

The article is accessible at:

http://www.ijhssnet.com/journals/Vol_2_No_14_Special_Issue_July_2012/31.pdf

THE DEFECT OF MAINSTREAM ISLAMIC ECONOMICS-ITS ASSUMPTIONS

19 ISDEV TITLES FOR DEWAN BAHASA & PUSTAKA

The collection of 19 book titles proposed by ISDEV for publication by DBP

A day after INGRAW11, on 14th October 2011, I flied to Kuala Lumpur to attend a meeting at Dewan Bahasa dan Pusataka (DBP). The main aim was to submit a collection of 19 titles of books by ISDEV members agreed to be published by DBP, while the main agenda of the meeting was on a plan to sign a MoU with DBP at a (USM medical academic) book launching occassion sometimes in December this year.

The 19 titles of the books were originated from two workshops. The first was the workshop on manuscript acquisition organised by the School of Humanities and DBP on 24-25 May 2011, while the second was on book titles' revision organised by ISDEV and DBP on 22 September 2011. The titles were presented and approved by DBP officers during the second Worskhop. The launching of the books is expected to be held at the end of next year, InshaAllah.