The article discusses the foundations of the formation of the Tatar community of the mahalla. According to the author, the Tatar mahalla has two foundations: they are 1. The tribal, 2. The Religious. The community of Tatars was formed during the formation of tribal relations. Over time, tribal ties were consolidated by the religious choice of community members. The article gives an attempt to find out the reasons for the transition of the tribal system of community organization to the religious system. According to the author, religion has become a cementing element for a deeper strengthening of religious ties. The religion of Islam has become the basis of educational work in the community. The election of a religious-legal school was also strongly influenced by neighboring kindred peoples who could be related. Religion plays the role of institutionalizing the community elite and legalizing the powers of the elders and the community imam. It also played a role in the religious practice and rituals of the community.

The article presents the history of Islamic religious monuments in the territory of Azerbaijan in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. The presented scientific article includes research on the mosques and religious beliefs of the population in the territory of Azerbaijan in the 18^th and 19^th centuries based on the documents of the Russian State Military History Archive. From the documents in the archival materials, it is clear that the most of the population are Muslim and Islamic religious monuments are the majority. The article relies on the drawings of the master plans of Azerbaijani cities kept in the funds of the Russian State Military History Archive. It is clear from the archive materials that economic and cultural life in Azerbaijani cities revolved around the mosques, especially the Friday mosques. Thus, the cities were erected not only around the palaces of khans and rulers, but around the Friday mosques, too. Also, at the end of the study, it is possible to come to the conclusion that Juma mosques functioned not only as the religious places of worship, but also as economic, cultural and social centers. In addition, the significance of the study of the documents stored in the Russian State Military History Archive is that it is possible to restore the historical appearance of Friday mosques in the present period from the drawings stored in its funds.

This article is devoted to tragic circumstances of the major Nogai migration to the Ottoman Empire in the end of the Caucasian war. The first part says about the term “hijra”, its meaning, conditions and other characteristics according to the Quran. Then it comes to the historic context of this event, the political position of Nogai in this period. Particular attention is paid to the economic, political and religious causes of the nomads’ relocation which are not dictated by just the result of the war given their minor participation in the military operations. The author made an attempt to consider theological justification of the terms “hijra” and “muhajirism” as well as their appropriate usage in Russian historical science.

The article is devoted to the study of texts from the manuscript and printed works of Shihab al-Din al-Marjani (d. 1889), in which this Tatar historian and theologian speaks of the great Hanafiimam Abu Ja‘far al-Tahawi (d. 933) and his work “al-‘Aqidah al-Tahawiyyah” also known as “Bayan al-Sunna wa-l-Jama‘ah” Historical and theological works of al-Marjani were studied, such as “Wafiyyat al-aslaf”, “Muqaddimat kitab Wafiyyat al-aslaf”, “al-‘Azb al-furat”, “Nazurat al-haqq” and others. As a result, it turned out that Shihab al-Din al-Marjani highly appreciates the knowledge and works of this Egyptian medieval scholar of Islam. Al-Marjani considers him to be the Mujtahid of the Hanafi Madhhab and the third-century rejuvenator of faith (Mujaddid) in Hijra. And his work “Bayan al-Sunna” recognizes as the very first Sunni source in which the dogmas of the righteous predecessors (al-Salaf al-Salih) of Islam are collected and recorded.

It is generally believed that the commentary of the Qur’ān (tafsīr) by the medieval Muslim theologian Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (839–923), who is the first systematizer of classical Qur’ānic exegesis, “Jā mi‘ al-bayā n ‘an ta’wī l ay al-Qur’ā n” (“The Comprehensive Exposition of the Interpretation of the Qur’ān”) definitely belongs to the genre of commentary based on traditions (tafsīr bi-l-ma’thūr), which is usually opposed to the genre of rationalistic interpretations (tafsīr bi-r-ra’y), rejected by a number of literalist movements of Islam. However, the analysis carried out in this study shows that Ṭabarī not only cites the traditions of the “ancient fathers of the Ummah”, while often representing different opinions, but also expresses his own point of view, based in most cases on the basis of linguistic analysis. The exegetical formula “tradition + language” formulated by him, where the latter element is decisive, is a peculiar combination of the traditional with the rational. This approach of “the lead of the Mufassiers”, among other things, opens up wide opportunities for future generations to reveal modern interpretations of the Qur’ānic text.

Adherents of early Islam (Salaf) kept to the doctrine of delegation (Tafwid), which later Sunni theologians called the «safest» teaching. Delegation refers to the rejection of the definition of meaning, implied by the word, with abstraction from anything that may indicate a flaw or anthropomorphism. Adherents of early Islam limited themselves to abstraction (Tanzih), acknowledging their ignorance of the specific meaning and accepting that meaning was what Allah implied, whatever it was. Imam al-Nawawi confirmed this teaching and followed it in his books. Later Sunni scholars unanimously recognized this as a method of righteous predecessors (Salaf). However, later Sunni scholars themselves often resorted to the method of interpretation (Ta’wil). The method of interpreting ambiguous sacred texts related to the attributes of God was not the rule. That is, it was resorted to only if there was a necessity to eliminate the doubt or disadvantage that may arise due to the appeal to the literal meaning of the word. It was the very reason why Ibn ‘Abbas and many followers of the Prophet Companions (tabi‘un) interpreted such texts.

Buying and selling is one of the main economic institutions in Islamic Law. It allows people to exchange goods and services in accordance with the principles of fairness and equality. The article examines the scientific method of making decisions by the founder of the Shafiʻi legal school, the famous thinker of the early Middle Ages Imam al-Shafiʻi (767–820), and analyzes his views in the field of law, which the Shafiʻis refer to in their relationships in the trade transactions. Particular attention is paid to the issue of sources of Islamic Law the Shafiites appeal to. In this article, for the first time in Russian jurisprudence, the author studies and examines in sufficient detail the Shafiʻi approach to purchase and sale. In addition, the authors takes as the focal point the compromise nature of the Shafischool, which, on the basis of exclusively scientific methods, managed to synthesize the most promising provisions of more “liberal” Hanafism and “conservative” Malikism.

The article gives a detailed theological and linguistic analysis of the term “pan-Islamism” in its connection with the concepts of “Muslim union”, “Islamic solidarity”, “political Islam”, etc. Moreover, the paper analyzes the false and dangerous dualistic ideology of sects of political Islam with a rigid division of the world into “we” and “they”, “the world of Islam” and “the world of Jahiliyyah” with the announcement of all those who are not part of the party of political Islam, the “ignoramus” (who are in Jahiliyyah) and pagans. The research also considers the concept of the relationship between religious, ethnic and national in Islam, the concept of a modern nation-state, as it is formed in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The article deals with the reaction of apologists of political Islam to the monograph by V. S. Poloshin “Political Islam: in search of an “earthly paradise””, in particular, the review by D. R. Gilmutdinov. The review is based on an incorrect, expansive definition of the subject of the study of the monograph, it has no signs of scientific argument. It is replete with distorted citation of the peer-reviewed text and logical errors. In a meaningful plan, D. Gilmutdinov supports the binary opposition: “we are them” inherent in the ideology of representatives of political Islam. The article considers the circumstances of the declaration by the Ottoman Empire of the “jihad” against the Russian Empire in 1914 and the introduction of pan-Islamism in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, as well as the tendency to reconstruct this expansion 100 years after the “fatwas” of the Ottoman Sheikh-ul-Islam Khairi Efendi.

This article is devoted to understanding the characteristic features of the process of formation and development of the Islamic education system in the Russian Federation in the 1990s – 2010s. The author, based on the analysis of scientific papers, analyzes the process of formation and development of the Muslim educational system in the Russian Federation. This study examines the specifics of the work of secondary and higher Islamic educational institutions in Russia in the 1990s – 2010s. The author studies the role of the Russian authority in the creation of a Muslim spiritual educational structure and the corresponding legislative framework that developed in Russia during the period under study.

The article attempts to analyze the possibility of applying deconstructive strategy in theological research. For this purpose, the author firstly defines the specificity of the deconstructive strategy of thinking, which consists in the researcher’s aspiration to catch the trace left by the author in the original unwritten proto-text by means of revealing oppositions and their loosening, up to their complete splitting, contributing to the disclosure of new meanings in the text. Then, on the basis of the analysis of modern Russian studies concerning the critical comprehension of Jacques Derrida’s theory of deconstruction, a systematization of very contradictory remarks and objections is carried out, as a result of which three critically minded groups are revealed: researchers of Postmodernism and Poststructuralism, accusing deconstruction of debunking stable notions; the scholars of neo-Marxist direction, emphasizing its excessive Theology; theologians of various branches of Christian thought, revealing an atheological and even atheistic character in the deconstructive thinking strategy. The author of the paper further analyses the work of an Arabian scholar ‘Ali Zawwari Ahmad on the criticism of Arab modernists who use western deconstructive methodology in dealing with religious texts, thus revealing that in the contemporary Muslim world there are two opposing views on the use of deconstructive strategies in theological studies, which are according to the traditional Muslim community, faithfully defend the inviolability of religious traditions, including in the field of Theological Methodology.

Terrorism has become a common phenomenon in the modern world, but often in various scientific works and media there are attempts to find a correlation between terrorism and Islamic law. This article provides a statistical analysis of terrorist acts in the world on the basis of which it aims to identify the major tendencies, as well as to highlight important conclusions backed by the information obtained. Islam’s view of the crime under investigation is also important within the research frame.

An institutional approach came as the methodological basis of this scientific article. It allowed the author to assess the influence of terrorism on the modern socio-political and economic situations.

In the course of statistical analysis of terrorist attacks in the world it was found that Muslim countries suffer the greatest damage from the harmful effects of terrorism, although Islam has radiant arguments for banning violations against the population as means of casting terror and achieving political goals. An important conclusion of the paper is the fact that there are various terrorist groups in the world that do not act for religious reasons. Moreover, the most important conclusion of the article is in understanding the necessity of addressing and solving social problems, which are considered to be the key factors of economic growth and the absence of which cultivates terrorism expansion.

The article presents the results of an analysis of the relationship between external and internal religiosity, religious practice and psychological stability among Muslims living in Russian megacities. The study involved 87 respondents: 12 men and 75 women aged from 16 to 70 years. To determine the level of external and internal religiosity, the Mussarat Jaben Khan scale of Muslim religiosity was used (Khan, 2014). To measure psychological stability, the method of diagnosing “The dominant state” of L.V. Kulikov was used. Kulikov in a shortened version (DS-6) (Kulikov, 2003), the respondents’ attitude towards religious practice was assessed by the author’s questionnaire. Analysis of the study results confirmed our hypothesis that the level of religiosity, both external and internal, is associated with various aspects of psychological stability. The study revealed a significant positive relationship between internal religiosity and such scales of the dominant psychological state as “stability of emotional tone”, “calmness”, “high tone”, and a negative relationship with the scale “active attitude to life situation”. And also the results of the study showed that the connection between external religiosity and the scales of the dominant psychological state is not significant in any of the cases, except for the negative connection with the “stability of emotional tone” scale. This generally indicates that for Muslims living in Russian megacities and who took part in the study, internal religiosity is a significant factor in increasing psychological stability.

The article presents the results of the analysis of the relationship between the intensity of ingroup religious identification and the willingness to defend and protect the interests of one’s religious community. The study was conducted on a sample of Muslim youth from the North Caucasus in winter 2023. The total number of 180 participants, representing various ethnic groups of the North Caucasus, consisted of 109 females and 71 males. The author used the scale of willingness to defend the group’s interests (Swann, Gómez) to study the attitudes towards intergroup interaction. The intensity of social religious identity was examined by the methodology for measuring ingroup religious identification (Leach, van Zomeren, adapted by E.R. Agadullina, A.V. Lovakov). The results of the correlation analysis confirmed the hypothesis that the stronger the ingroup religious identity manifested in a young Muslim from the North Caucasus, the more inclined he would be to defend his religion and protect the interests of the religious community in intergroup interactions.