Focus and Scope

Al’Adalah: Journal of Islamic Studies is a peer-reviewed academic journal focusing on Islam, civil society, and religious movements. The journal publishes interdisciplinary scholarship examining how Islamic ideas, religious authority, and collective practices shape Muslim communities, civic participation, and relations between religion, society, and the state. It welcomes research that advances understanding of the roles of Islam in social and public life in historical and contemporary contexts. Its scope encompasses three interconnected areas: Muslim civil society and religious communities; Islamic religious movements and religious authority; and Islam, citizenship, and society–state relations.

 

The journal examines Muslim communities, religious associations, Islamic institutions, philanthropy, social solidarity, and civic participation, with particular attention to how religious actors organise collective activities, address social concerns, and contribute to community and public life. Research in this area explores the roles of religious organisations and community networks in shaping social relationships and collective initiatives.

 

Al’Adalah: Journal of Islamic Studies also welcomes research on Islamic religious movements, religious activism, preaching, religious leadership, and the formation and contestation of religious authority. This includes historical and contemporary studies of religious interpretation, fatwas, legitimacy, and public debate, including developments in digital spaces. Particular attention is given to how religious authority is established, negotiated, and contested within Muslim communities and in wider public life.

 

The journal further addresses citizenship, religious pluralism, interreligious relations, minority rights, legal pluralism, and public policy. Research in this area examines how Islamic ideas, institutions, and practices inform civic responsibilities, social relations, and interactions between religious communities and the state.

 

The journal welcomes interdisciplinary contributions from Islamic law, Qur’anic and Hadith studies, education, philosophy, ethics, history, and related fields when their central arguments contribute directly to these areas of inquiry. Research on gender, digital religion, environmental issues, economics, and culture is also considered when it addresses religious authority, collective action, civic life, or relations between religion and society.

 

Al’Adalah: Journal of Islamic Studies publishes original empirical, historical, theoretical, conceptual, normative, and comparative research addressing local, national, and transnational contexts. Submissions should engage critically with relevant scholarship, develop well-supported arguments, and make a clear academic contribution. Research concerned solely with technical, doctrinal, or pedagogical questions, without a substantive connection to the journal’s central areas, falls outside its scope.