In the middle of the 20th century, Islamic writers and intellectuals in the Middle East and particularly in Egypt were actively engaged in the call for Islamic literature. Several Arabic books, including major works of Sayyed Qutub, Muhammad Qutub, and Naguib Kilani, were written on the subject and immediately rendered into Malaysian and Indonesian languages. Among all these writings, Muhammad Qutub’s book “Manhaj El-Fan El-Islami” has had tremendous impact on modern Malay writers such as, Ahmad Kamal Abdullah, Shahnon Ahmad, Muhammad kamal Hassan, Ismail Ibrahim, Muhammad Bukhari Lubis, and others who produced several theories of Islamic literature.In this paper, a new theory of Islamic literature is proposed which is based on the concept of Al-‘Alamiah (Universality).In the first part of the paper, existing theories are reviewed whereas in the final part, a number of issues are discussed such as the concept of Islamic literature, its message, and seven basic features that distinguish Islamic literature from other world literatures.
Source: European Journal of Research and Reflection in Arts and Humanities
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