28. January 2018

Khaled Abou El Fadl on the Islamic Ethics that could guide issues of migration. A powerful talk in which Dr. Abou El Fadl explores what the Islamic message reveals about modern day issues of migration, refugees and the realities of oppression, and the potential to go beyond international law norms to elevate current standards of humanitarian practice. Dr. Abou El Fadl delivers the keynote lecture via Skype entitled, "Islamic Ethics, Human Rights and Migration" for the conference on "Migration...

10. November 2016

Shari‘ah and Human Rights by Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl* Abstract: This chapter identifies some of the main obstacles that hinder serious Islamic engagement with the field of human rights, and analyzes potentialities within Islamic doctrine for realizing a vision of human rights. This chapter will focus on potentialities—the doctrinal aspects in Muslim thought, and particularly Shari’ah, which could legitimize, promote, or subvert the emergence of a human rights practice in Muslim cultures....

09. August 2014

The real tragedy of great power is that it is fundamentally at odds with ethical conscientiousness and judgment.

09. January 2014

Human rights and terrorism both are grand concepts. Human rights is a grand concept of an ultimate or absolute good, in many ways, like the idea of divinity or like the idea of light. Terrorism, on the other hand, is a grand concept of an ultimate or absolute evil, very much the antithesis of divinity and the antithesis of light. Although we human beings, including theologians, jurists and philosophers, produce a remarkable variety of terminology to negotiate our idea of good and our repulsion...

23. July 2013

By Khaled Abou El Fadl To engage in jihad means to strive or exert oneself in a struggle to achieve a morally laudable or just aim. For all the sensationalism stirred by the term jihad, this is its indisputable definition in Islamic theology and law. The meaning of jihad is both this straightforward and simple and also this complex and indeterminate. Jihad could be in the form of armed struggle, but (as explained below) the use of violence could also be considered as a most serious and grave...

08. January 2013

My article will focus on the interface, interaction, and tensions between the human rights tradition and the Islamic tradition. Both of these traditions—human rights and Islam—make normative demands upon all rational beings, and these demands are articulations of expectations regarding what counts as appropriate or inappropriate conduct in an endless range of contexts and social, economic, and political settings. Both traditions attempt to create normative cultures that define standards of...

25. April 2011

HARVARD INTERNATIONAL LAW JOURNAL ARTICLE SERIES: Online APRIL 2011 Volume 52 The Language of the Age: Shari’a and Natural Justice in the Egyptian Revolution Download the PDF here An article in the series on the aftermath of Egypt’s February 2011 Revolution and the possibilities for legal and constitutional reform. Khaled Abou El Fadl I. INTRODUCTION One of the most memorable images of the Egyptian Revolution is that of hundreds of people lined up for Islamic prayer in Tahrir Square in...

01. September 2009

7. Islamic law, human rights and neo-colonialism Khaled Abou El Fadl My lecture will focus on the interface and tensions between the human rights tradition and the Islamic tradition, particularly Islamic law. What is the `Islamic tradition` and, more particularly the Islamic legal tradition? Islamic law stands in a paradoxical position vis-à-vis the human-rights tradition. Western scholars have argued that the roots of the human-rights tradition are to be found in Judeo-Christian natural law,...

29. June 2009

By Khaled Abou El Fadl Every epoch of human history has suffered its share of jahl and jahiliyya. Jahl means ignorance, heedlessness, the lack of awareness, and even idiocy or foolishness, but with the clear connotation of the perverse, pernicious, the dark, foreboding, and inauspicious. In Islamic eschatology, it is common to refer to a people plagued by ignorance, injustice, cruelty, and hatred as a people living in a state of jahiliyya. Ingratitude, selfishness, and arrogance are all thought...

21. February 2007

By: Khaled Abou El Fadl* Between Internationalism and Particularism When we consider the dynamics between international law and the paradigms of cultural and moral uniqueness or particularity, we ought to think about two distinct aspects of this relationship or dynamic. On the one hand, there is the issue of whether international law ought to care about unique and particular manifestations of culture and morality. This is especially so when we talk about the relationship of international law to...