Academic Islamic Studies and Islamic Theological Science: Is Synergy of Different Worldviews and Discourses Possible?

Attempts to create a relevant methodology for understanding the spiritual heritage of the Prophet Muhammad under the umbrella of tawhid (monotheism) within the framework of the renewal movement in Islam (known as «tajdid» or «islah») since the activities of Musa Bigiev (1875–1949) and Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938) have been and continue to be acutely polemical. The issues of convergence (adaptation) of the heritage of traditional Islamic orthodoxy with modern (sometimes with the prefix «ultra») approaches to its comprehension are in the center of attention of many prominent reformist scholars associated with the academic environment of European countries and the USA. This article attempts to outline the horizons of this discursive practice in the scholarly works of such wellknown Muslim scholars of Arab origin as Tawfiq Ibrahim (b. 1947) and Muhammad Arkoun (1928–2010), whose work has long been influenced by the Russian/European intellectual milieu. Their scholarly credo impresses with the diversity of their research approaches, the depth of their analyses of medieval Arabic sources and their latest interpretations on the basis of Islamic epistemology as a kind of modern theory of scientific cognition that emerged at the turn of the 20 th –21 st centuries.