16. August 2012

THE ISLAMIC LEGAL TRADITION Encyclopedia Entry for the Cambridge Companion to Comparative Law By Khaled Abou El Fadl Table of Contents Introduction The Difference between Islamic Law and Muslim Law The Sources of Islamic Law The Nature and Purpose of Islamic Law The Difference between Shari’a and Fiqh: The Sacred and Profane in Islamic Law The Rights of God and the Rights of Humans Modernity and the Deterioration of Islamic Law Introduction The Islamic legal system consists of legal...

15. March 2012

When I was invited to become the editor of the Palgrave Series in Islamic Theology, Law, and History, I sought to find works that are not just interesting but compelling—works that can be described as publishing events. I sought to find works that leave an indelible mark on the field that neither the conscientious scholar nor student can rightly ignore. The present book by Ahmad Atif Ahmad, an already accomplished scholar in his own right, is without a doubt an event in the history of Islamic...

24. January 2012

The Centrality of Sharī‘ah to Government and Constitutionalism in Islam Khaled Abou El Fadl* 1. INTRODUCTION Constitutionalism reflects embedded normative values that arise from evolved historical practices that are not easily transplanted outside their natural habitat. In many ways, constitutionalism must be practiced and not theorized.[1] Therefore, it is doubtful whether it is helpful to abstract the doctrines of constitutionalism from their remarkably diverse cultural and social...

01. January 2012

Reading the Signs: The Moral Compass of Transcendent Engagement[1] Khaled Abou El Fadl God is too infinite, too grand, and too limitless for any human being to presume to know or to possess the one and only way of unlocking the secrets of our moral universe. This is part of the objective of creation, and it is part of the very idea that, “We have made you nations and tribes.” (Q 49:13) It is in the very nature of things that each of us searches for a way, that each group of people that...

01. January 2012

CONCEPTUALIZING SHARI‘A IN THE MODERN STATE[1] Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl This Article addresses the animated and evolving role that Shari‘a, i.e., the system of Islamic jurisprudence collectively or generally, and Shari‘a conceptions play in the contemporary world. There are various manifestations of this evolving role in the often dynamic, subtle, highly negotiated, and far from formalistic ways that Shari‘a is animated in today’s world. There are three main points that I will address...