ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS "US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that 'when the Taliban enacted restrictive bans on higher education for women, governments from across the Muslim world spoke up to condemn the Taliban’s decision,' and that they argued that the actions were inhumane and contrary to Islamic beliefs." For more content and … Continue reading Islamic Law in the News Roundup
SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law In "The Method in Understanding Hadith Through Ijmā' and Its Implications for Islamic Law in Indonesia: Studies on the Hadiths of the Month of Qamariyah" (Samarah 7, no. 1 (2023)), Abdul Majid (Universitas Islam Negeri Sultan Aji Muhammad Idris, Samarinda) and others investigate how the meaning of certain Prophetic teaching … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
By Matthew L. Keegan How did scholars from different Sunnī legal schools respond to and interact with the scholarship of other schools? The answer to this question, of course, depends upon the particular historical context, the institutional strength of one school or another, the social context of education, and other factors. In some places and … Continue reading Riddles, Influence, and Borrowing from Rival Legal Schools
By Matthew L. Keegan When I first came across a chapter on legal riddles in the Kitāb al-Ashbāh wa’l-Naẓāʾir of Ibn Nujaym (d. 970/1563) in graduate school, I was immediately fascinated. I had never heard of the genre and could find little about it. The riddles themselves had a playful literariness to them, which appealed … Continue reading Why Study Islamic Legal Riddles?
SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law In "Explainer: How Sharia Law is More Progressive Than the US Supreme Court on Abortion" (Jurist, October 27, 2022), Mohamed Arafa (Alexandria University Faculty of Law (Egypt) & Cornell University) argues "that the Islamic stance on abortion is more liberal than that of the US legal regime in its current … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law: In Islamic Law in Circulation: Shafi'i Texts across the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean (Cambridge University Press, 2022), Mahmood Kooria (Universiteit Leiden and Ashoka University, India) "explores how certain texts shaped, transformed and influenced the juridical thoughts and lives of a significant community over a millennium in and between Asia, … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
By Sohail Hanif Ritual prayer (ṣalāh) is a pillar of Islam. It functions as a pillar that upholds the daily routine and spiritual journey of a believer. However, the spiritual dimension of prayer is not a topic of investigation in works of Islamic law. There is, on the other hand, another overarching interest of Muslim … Continue reading A Prayer-Based Civilizational Order: The Social Dimension of the Rules of Ritual Prayer
SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law: Taliban: The Power of Militant Islam in Afghanistan and Beyond (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022) by Ahmed Rashid investigates the origins and development of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan. For more content and context on the recent developments in Afghanistan, consult our Editor-in-Chief, Professor Intisar Rabb's "Resource Roundup: Afghanistan, the Taliban, and … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
By Junaid Quadri* In 663/1265, Sultan al-Ẓāhir Baybars appointed a chief judge from each of the four Sunnī madhhabs. For scholars of Islamic law, this decision has served as a signal moment in the story told about the normative pluralism found within Sunnī Islam. I say that this was a signal moment, but it was … Continue reading Intellectual and Practical Caution as Grounds for Legal Pluralism
By Issam Eido This is part four in a series of four posts on Ḥanafī criteria for using ḥadīth in the ‘courts and canons’ of early Islamic law. Kitāb al-Ḥujja ʿalā Ahl al-Madīna is one of several books attributed to the judge Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānī.[1] Early Ḥanafī biographical dictionaries used to classify early Ḥanafī … Continue reading Tools for Interpreting Ḥadīth in Shaybānī’s Ḥujja
