Islah


Islah or Al-Islah is an Arabic word, usually translated as "reform", in the sense of "to improve, to better, to put something into a better position, fundamentalism, correction, correcting something and removing vice, reworking, emendation, reparation, restoration, rectitude, probility, reconciliation." It is an important term in Islam. The word is opposite to the word Ifsad, another important Islamic term meaning "corruption". It is also used in politics, and is also used as a personal and place name.

Etymology

According to author Josef W. Meri and other scholars, the word is derived from the root salaha Ṣ-L-Ḥ, occurs in forty verses of the Qur'an, including 49:10, 4:114, 4:128, 11:88 where it means "to do good, proper, right, restore oneself or to reconcile people with one another, to make peace."
In sura Al-Hud, it is mentioned as Islamic prophet Shuaib told to his community,

Relation with tajdid

, meaning renewal, is another Islamic term used with the term Islah in the field of different Islamic political interpretation. The person who practices tajdid is called mujaddid, but scholars such as Al-Dhahabi and Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani have interpreted that the term mujaddid can also be understood as plural, thus referring to a group of people. The concept is based on a hadith, recorded by Abu Dawood, narrated by Abu Hurairah who mentioned that Islamic prophet Muhammad said:
By the majority of Muslim scholars, Umar II is considered as the first mujaddid in early Islam. After then, Muhammad ibn ldris al-Shafi'i, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Taqi al-Din ibn Taymiyya, Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi, Muhammad al-Shawkani, and Muhammad ibn Ali al-Sanusi
has been denominated as prominent reformers in Islam.
According to author Juan Eduardo Campo and other scholars, islah is used most commonly today in Arabic with respect to the idea of reform, although this usage was not widespread until the modern reform movements of the 19th and 20th centuries; scholars like Muhammad Abduh, Rashid Rida
and Mahmud Shaltut became popular for their contemporary islah movement.

Scholars' views

Salafi scholar Salih Al-Munajjid argued in his book "Prophets Methods of correcting People's Mistakes" that, Islah or correct mistakes is a basic aspect in Quran and Hadith and there are 38 prophatic ways to do Islah or correct people.
Saudi cleric Khalid Bin Abdullah al-Musleh listed seven obstacles in the way of Tazkiah in his book "Islahul Qulub" :
  1. Shirk
  2. Rejecting Sunnah and following Bid'ah
  3. Obeying the instinct and ego
  4. Doubt
  5. Negligence
Ha also listed 8 ways to maintain Tazkiah:
  1. Reading Quran
  2. Loving Allah
  3. Doing dhikr
  4. Tawbah and Istighfar
  5. Supplicate for hidayah and purify
  6. Remembering afterlife
  7. Reading the biographies of the salafs
  8. Company of good, honest and pious people.

    Politics

Several political groups and parties have been named after the word "Islah in the 20-21th century including:
named his debut studio album Islah inspired by his daughter's same name.