Machine summary:
Editorial The feature articles in this issue of AJ/SS constitute a foray into two different, but related, topics: political authority, as discussed by Tamara Sonn in "Political Authority in Classical Islamic Thought," and by Salim Mansur in "Constitutionalism and Ethnic Conflict: The Case of Pakistan," and the interrelationships among God, humanity, and the universe, as found in Yusuf Waghid's "In Search of a Boundless Ocean and New Skies: Human Creativity is a Matter of A'miil, Jihad, and Ijtihad," and Masudul Alam Choudhury's "Toward Islamic Political Economy at the Turn of the Century.
" In her article, Tamara Sonn analyzes the source of political authority in the ideal Islamic state.
" The other two feature articles found in this issue address the complex question of the relationship among God, humanity, and the universe.
Both authors, to borrow from Khan, attempt "to understand those philosophical foundations, principles, and instruments of Islam that are the defining characteristics of Islamic political economy.