About the Journal

The journal initially focused on the philosophical underpinnings of modern and premodern science. It explored various aspects of Islamic cosmology and theories about the natural world in works of influential scholars, past (Ibn Sina, al-Ghazali, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi) and present (Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Ismaʻil Raji al-Faruqi). Through case studies, questions about essential differences between scientific enterprises of the past and present were explored from a variety of perspectives. The journal also published articles on the Qurʾanic view of the natural world. Islam & Science gradually expanded its range of topics to include all branches of knowledge, including Qurʾanic studies, education, and various aspects of the study of Islam and Muslims in the contemporary world. This led to the journal’s change of title in 2013 to Islamic Sciences. No issue of the journal was published during 2018-2022. The journal resumed its regular publication in Summer 2023 (Volume 16, No. 1) with a special issue on “Engaging Evolution”.

Over the course of first fifteen years of its publication, JIS published articles on the Muslim encounter with modern technology, bioethics, philosophical and ethical issues related to the environmental crises, the Qurʾan and science, philosophy of education, critical studies on the Western understanding of Islam and its intellectual and spiritual traditions, intellectual history, and a range of other subjects. Shorter reflective articles, published under the rubric “The End Matters”, highlighted contemporary themes or matters of enduring value. Twenty-three editorials (published under the title “Shadhrah”) presented views on a range of contemporary issues.

Sixty-seven book reviews featured critical analysis of scholarly works on a broad range of topics. Over the course of its publication history, 59 authors wrote approximately 2,000 pages of well-researched text, which remains relevant to several fields of contemporary interests in Islam, including issues related to the relationship of Islam and Science, Evolution, environment, Islam in the contemporary world, Islamic intellectual history, and Qurʾanic studies.