ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS Singapore, invoking the Internal Security Act, detained two people it considered to have "self-radicalized" by listening to speeches and statements made by Ismail Menk, "a Zimbabwean Salafi preacher, [who] has been banned from preaching in Singapore since 2015, because of his segregationist teachings, which promote religious disharmony." "Kenya Muslims National … Continue reading Islamic Law in the News Roundup
SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law In Wives and Work: Islamic Law and Ethics Before Modernity (Columbia University Press, 2022), Marion Holmes Katz (New York University) "offers a new account of debates on wives’ domestic labor that recasts the historical relationship between Islamic law and ethics." In "Just a Thought: Emilia Justyna Powell," (Scholastic, October 17, … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
The right to abortion has made headlines in the United States because of a leaked draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization written by Justice Samuel Alito of the Supreme Court of the United States. If published in its current form, the opinion will overrule current constitutional precedents providing for a federal right … Continue reading Resource Roundup: Abortion and Islamic Law
SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law: In "Modern money and Islamic banking in the light of Islamic law of riba" (International Journal of Finance & Economics (2020)), Muhammad Zahid Siddique (National University of Sciences and Technology, Pakistan) asserts that "[r]iba is not merely a matter of eliminating the institution of interest from economic system, it is about eliminating … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law: In "Wearing the Niqab: Muslim Women in the UK and the US" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021), Anna Piela (Northwestern University) argues that niqāb, the Islamic face veil, has become the ubiquitous symbol of "everything that is perceived to be wrong about Islam," and further discusses how discussions surrounding its permissibility and … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
Egypt's fatwā authority, Dar Al-Ifta, issued a new edition of Insight magazine that it publishes in English, which discusses women's rights in Islam. In "What is and isnt' Shariah?," Ekrem Bugra Ekinci (Daily Sabah) states that sharī'a is ultimately an effort by scholars to identify and interpret divine rules, which allows for greater flexibility. UN … Continue reading Islamic Law in the News Roundup
In her book review of Mohammed Fadel and Connell Monette's translation of Al-Muwaṭṭaʾ, Adday Hernández (ILC-CSIS) welcomes the translation and describes it as a work that will become "one of the main reference sources" in the field of Islamic legal studies. In her undergraduate thesis entitled "I Know How the Caged Bird Tweets: Online Dissent … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
By Omar Farahat A question that classical Muslim jurisprudents debated vigorously was: how do we undertake our duties when divine commands only give general guidelines in relation to time, or no time-specific determinations at all? At the heart of this question is how divine speech, mediated by the work of jurisprudents, should be seen to … Continue reading Time and Moral Choice in Islamic Jurisprudence
By Omar Farahat It is common knowledge that substantive Islamic laws are constituted of juristic pronouncements (aḥkām) on a wide range of actions, abstentions, and their possible consequences. Internally, we might say, these pronouncements of the jurists assume a sense of authority given their relation to divine revelation. The pronouncements or rulings of the jurists … Continue reading A Duty to Obey Muslim Jurists?
The nineteenth century marks a period of major transition for the Ottoman Empire. The changes and transformations that took place during this century differed significantly from those in previous centuries in several respects. First, pre-nineteenth century changes were limited to internal developments that remained within the requirements of the system established by the Empire. In … Continue reading Reading a Century of Change and Transformation through the ‘Ulamā
