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In Doubts on Avicenna, Ayman Shihadeh offers an extended study and critical edition of Sharaf al-Dīn al-Masʿūdī's al-Mabāḥith wa-l-Shukūk, a key and hitherto unstudied source for twelfth-century Arabic philosophy. This text inaugurates the long commentarial tradition on Avicenna's Ishārāt. Readership: All interested in the history of medieval Arabic philosophy and rational theology (kalām), especially metaphysics, natural philosophy, Avicenna, the Avicennan tradition, al-Ghazālī, Abū l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī and Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī.

This book explores the relationship between custom and Islamic law and seeks to uncover the role of custom in the construction of legal rulings. On a deeper level, however, it deals with the perennial problem of change and continuity in the Islamic legal tradition (or any tradition for that matter). It is argued that custom (urf and adah) was one of the important tools that the jurists used to accommodate change and to adjust the rulings of shari`ah to the ever changing conditions in particular social and historical contexts. The book presents a diachronic study of the development of the conce

AbstractBesides their linguistic nature of directivity that necessitates a verbal and/or physical response, requests can also function as linguistic motivators of macro-speech acts. Based on this assumption, this paper explores the extent to which requests in some Qur'anic dialogues not only elicit a response but also motivate a sequence of ancillary speech acts that forms a macro-speech act communicating one macro-proposition. This objective is primarily pursued in light of an eclectic framework constituting van Dijk's (1977) concept of macro-speech acts, Thornburg and Panther's (1997) illocutionary scenarios, contributions on speech act theory and requests (e.g., Austin, 1962; Searle, 1979), and Blum-Kulka et al.'s (1989) categorization of modification strategies of requests. Three main findings are revealed in this paper: first, in some Qur'anic dialogues, requests are employed not only to create a position for a response or fulfillment on the part of addressees but also to motivate a sequence of other ancillary speech acts constituting one macro-speech act and profiling a shared logic-semantics representation. Second, unlike ordinary requests, macro-speech act requests (MSARs) in Qur'anic dialogues exhibit a high degree of contingency and a low degree of entitlement. Third, MSARs in Qur'anic dialogues are structured around three illocutionary scenarios, are modified internally and externally, and are illocutionary polysemous.

AbstractThis study investigates how gender‐diverse boards are related to the adoption of clean energy and examines whether environmental, social, and governance (ESG) controversies have an impact on this link. The study analyzes 2395 firm‐year observations from 13 European countries from 2006 to 2021. Drawing on the gender socialization theory and diversity theory, the research reveals a favorable effect of board gender diversity on a company's utilization of clean energy. It also demonstrates that ESG controversies play a significant role in moderating this relationship. Furthermore, the study affirms the critical mass theory by indicating that companies with at least three female board members exhibit a greater use of clean energy. The findings are robust to various methods, such as controlling for endogeneity problems, propensity score matching, sub‐sample analysis, and alternative econometric models. This study's implications are important for stakeholders, policymakers, and managers. It suggests that having a gender‐diverse board can increase the adoption of clean energy, benefiting a company's reputation and attractiveness to stakeholders. Policymakers can use these findings to design policies that encourage gender diversity on boards and achieve environmental goals, while managers can make informed decisions about board composition and clean energy adoption.

This article investigates the intellectual production of the celebrated scholar Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210) during the decade or so he spent in the service of the Ghūrid sultans, from ca. 591/1195 to 602/1206. Operating exclusively within religious disciplines—theology, law and Qurʾān exegesis—and displaying pronounced rhetorical and dialectical features, this production contrasts significantly with his earlier and later production, which most notably exhibits much closer engagement with philosophy. It is argued that this "Ghūrid interlude" in al-Rāzī's production reflects his role in spearheading the sultans' project of divesting from the socially and culturally peripheral Karrāmiyya and fashioning themselves as champions of a sophisticated and cosmopolitan orthodoxy, and is furthermore aligned with his patrons' transregional policies, including their pro-Abbasid stance. Al-Rāzī was in return invested by the Caliph al-Nāṣir with the title "he who summons people to the True One" (al-dāʿī li-l-khalq ilā l-ḥaqq), more commonly attested as "he who summons to God" (al-dāʿī ilā llāh). The article also offers a new examination of al-Rāzī's Ghūrid-period intellectual biography and oeuvre.

Background: Personalized written asthma action plans (WAAP) can assist self-management of asthma and improve management outcomes. In Saudi Arabia, data assessing the adherence with providing WAAP are decidedly lacking. Objective: To determine the prevalence of providing WAAP and its perceived barriers by family physicians. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among family physicians working in family medicine clinics of Prince Sultan Military Medical City (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) during November 2019. Physicians were asked to fill in a researcher-made study questionnaire that included potential WAAP barriers. IBM© SPSS© Statistics version 21 was used for statistical analyses. Results: Out of 202 physicians included in the current study, only 34 (16.8%) were providing WAAP for their patients with asthma. Only 6.8% of the patients seen by the study physicians were receiving WAAP. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, larger number of patients encountered per month and non-adherence of patients to management plans were significantly associated with providing WAAP. Odds ratios (OR) were "OR: 1.02, 95% CI: 1.01-1.04, p=0.009" and "OR: 3.33, 95% CI: 1.40-7.87, p=0.006. On the other hand, lack of awareness with WAAP recommendations was significantly associated with not providing WAAP (OR: 0.19, 95% CI: 0.04-0.89, p=0.035). Conclusions: The finding confirms the low utilization of WAAP at primary care setting in Saudi Arabia, which is probably reflecting a limited education and training rather than a negative attitude towards WAAP. The findings underscore the need to raise the awareness of family physicians with WAAP recommendations and the need to fix some workflow issues.