Islamic Law Speaker Series: Sherman Jackson (University of Southern California), “The Islamic Secular,” April 7, 2026 @ 12:30pm
April 7 @ 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
On Tuesday, April 7, 2026, at 12:30-1:30PM US EST, Professor Sherman Jackson will be speaking on his book, The Islamic Secular. The basic point of the secular in the modern West is to “liberate” certain pursuits—the state, the economy, science—from the authority of religion. This is also assumed to be the goal and meaning of “secular” in Islam. Sherman Jackson argues, however, that that assumption is wrong. In Islam the “secular” was neither outside “religion” nor a rival to it. “Religion,” in Islam was not identical to Islam’s “sacred law,” or “shari’ah.” Nor did classical Muslim jurists see shari’ah as the all-encompassing, exclusive means of determining what is “Islamic.” In fact, while, as religion, Islam’s jurisdiction was unlimited, shari’ah’s jurisdiction, as a sacred law, was limited.
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