Syed Ahmad Khan Bahadur (1817-1898) was a controversial Muslim figure in nineteenth-century India. In the first half of his life (pre-1857 Mutiny), he appeared to be an advocate of Hindu-Muslim unity in India, but in the second half of it he was more concerned with Muslim religious and educational reforms and the promotion of Indian Muslim unity. His position such as on the Urdu-Hindi controversy raised issues about his views on Hindu-Muslim relations. The aspect of his life and thought that has bearing on Hindu-Muslim relations has received less attention from scholars compared to his reformist and modernist thought and agenda in the religious and educational sphere. Although he worked hard to promote Muslim unity, he sought to emphasize the approach of common religious and cultural values as a means of embracing ‘others’ in a spirit of fellowship and unity. He presented his unity message against a backdrop of troubled Hindu-Muslim relations and recurring communal riots during his time. The present study investigates Syed Ahmad Khan’s inclusive vision of Hindu-Muslim unity and intercultural dialogue as a means to its realization as reflected in some of his literary works. It seeks to explain why he has espoused such a bold vision and how he intended to achieve the goal of Hindu-Muslim unity while acknowledging their religious and cultural differences. Highlighted in this discussion are the salient features of Hindu-Muslim relations prior to and during his time that influenced their later developments. This article also discusses the significance and relevance of his thoughts and ideas on Hindu-Muslims for contemporary India.

Continuous improvement in products/services is a vital element of total quality management (TQM). To strengthen competitive advantage in the market, organisations must continuously improve quality of products and services. Whether this process is termed as Jidoka, Kaizen, PDSA, 5-S, Six Sigma, or JIT, the purpose is to continually improve product/service quality or process quality. However, these models focus solely on mundane benefits. Developing a model of continuous improvement from an Islamic perspective is the major objective of this study. By nature, the study is an exploratory one and theoretically based on library research and is rooted in the Qur’?n and Sunnah. The major outcome of this research is development of a new model of continuous improvement, named NAMS cycle. This cycle is composed of four inter-related components: al-N?yyah bi al- Ikhl?s, al- ‘Amal, al-Mu??saba, and al-?hukr. Having the initial letters of the components the model is named. In turn, each component consists of a number of elements, for example al-N?yyah bi al- Ikhl?s consists of intention, objectives, and planning. Organisations have to fulfil two prerequisites for successful implementation of the model in their premises which are top management commitment and strongly motivated work team.

Managing time means engaging activities that generate greater benefits to human beings. To a Muslim, benefits encompass for both worlds, i.e., life in this mundane world as well as life in the hereafter. Previous research on time management resulted in a variety of findings depending on the aspects under study. The objective of this research is to investigate the components of time management that have significant relationship with job performance, especially in the context of Malaysian employees. This research also intends to relate the concepts and attributes of “al-wasatiyyah” that have direct relationship to job performance. To pursue the research objectives, 223 employees working in different sectors in Malaysia were contacted. The researchers found that certain time management factors namely “prioritisation of tasks,” “usage of schedules,” and “time management instrument” sustained statistically significant positive relationships to job performance. Meanwhile, the al-wasatiyyah variables that have been found to have statistically significant positive relationships to job performance are “working with sincerity/pure intention (niyyah),” “following the middle path to avoid excessiveness in working place (wasatan),” “practicing values in working place (qiam),” and “ensuring fairness in task assignment (adl).” These findings have important implications. Most importantly, managers of organisations can practice them to motivate employees in order to enhance their job performance which by and large will improve the performance of the whole organisation in the long run.