Another Favorite of Mine - Dr. Sherman Jackson

Only heard him couple of times but his genius is explicitly evident from his books and articles. Can we say, an indigenous American Shaykh in the making? Truly, the Muslim Scholarship in the States is one of a kind and hopefully the beginning of a legacy we'll read about in our history books. :yey, for Dr. Jackson:

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one can live with a lot of broken rules of shari’ah. But what repentance can there be from a broken soul or psyche?

Self- definition: defining for oneself who one is and which actions are consistent with one's choice of self-hood.

Self- determination: how to gain the requisite control or influence over the social and political institution that affects ones life.

Self-definition <----> self- determination.

Goal of self definition: to affirm ones subjectivity vis-à-vis the world around one and to gain public recognition for one's subjectivity chosen self.

“double-consciousness,” i.e., the seemingly inescapable tendency to look at oneself through the eyes of some other, to “measure one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt...”

"In a real sense, the future of Islam in America will depend not on whether Muslims can arrive at an understanding of scripture and tradition that allows for home-mortgages or inheritance between Muslims and non-Muslims, but on whether that understanding will liberate the Muslim cultural imagination and allow it come into its own, here in America For the fact is - and every honest Muslim knows it - that one can live with a lot of broken rules of shari’ah. But what repentance can there be from a broken soul or psyche? And how can the latter be avoided if the world outside the masjid reflect nothing of the Muslim’s thoughts and creative spirit? If Muslims are to establish a real existence here in America, one that will enable them not only to consume but to shape American reality, the Muslim cultural imagination will have to be liberated. Once this is done, Muslims will be able to move beyond the relatively safe arena of sports (Hakeem Olajuwan, and until recently, Mahmud ‘Abd al-Ra’uf, etc.) into those of literature, poetry music, fashion design, comedy, interior decorating, etc., just as has existed throughout Islamic history, and just as exists in virtually every Muslim country in the world!"


Muslims, Islamic Law and Public Policy in the United States

By Sherman A. Jackson