14. August 2017

The question of how the law becomes known has occupied the minds of Muslim scholars for a long time. In the early centuries, the heated debates, and at times even hostilities, centered around the place and role of ethical principles and reason in the development of the religious tradition. Numerous reports in the Islamic tradition described the very mission of the Prophet Muhammad as part and parcel of an ethical project—a project that builds upon and develops people’s natural ethical...

15. March 2017

Salaam 'alaykum Professor Abou El Fadl, Hope all is well with you and familly. Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to seek your help regarding Islamic law on leverage, and the use of it in trading financial instruments, particularly in commodity and currency markets at retail level. Frankly, I've been feeling helpless for a very long time, as someone who's striving to be a practicing Muslim consistently. I used to work in a Foreign Currency & Futures brokerage firm and have...

15. March 2017

ASA Dr. Abou El Fadl, I need to understand why Allah would give men inheritance rights that are superior to women. I believe Allah is Just and I am not understanding the text. Recently, my father in law passed away and the estate was dissolved and funds transferred to the family members. My husband and his brother received much more than their sisters and I don’t understand the wisdom behind this. Help! [Name Withheld for Privacy] ********************* Al-salamu ‘alaykum, Thank you for...

13. March 2017

Assalamualaikum, Dear honorable Prof Khaled Abou El Fadl A Muslim and Islamic Scholar that I respect greatly, I wrote to you to ask for your time, generosity and wisdom, as I'm greatly saddened by the situation in my country, that have turned my Muslim brothers and sisters against each other. And the questions that have turned my Muslim brothers and sister against each other is, "Does Islam allows Muslim to vote for non-Muslim to be in the position of governor, in a Muslim majority country? "...

01. February 2017

As-Salaam-Alaikum, I am from India and I am a converted Christian from a Hindu family. I came to the UK to pursue masters. But I am not quite happy with Christianity because of multiple faith in various churches. Many doubts, confusion raised in my heart while I am practicing it. Last Ramadaan my Muslim Pakistani friends encouraged me to fast. Alhamdulillah! it was very good and I was having good peace of mind while practicing it. So, I left Christianity and I started to read more about Islam...

01. December 2016

Asalamu Aleykum, I wonder if you can guide me on a personal matter. I have written my will and alhumdullilah have advised my executors to seek guidance from a knowledged sheikh in order to ensure inheritance is distributed according to sharia law. Inshallah it will be. However there is a matter, which I want to include in my will. I remarried recently and as my husband, he will be entitled to a share of the inheritance, as yet we have no children and it may not be possible. Upon marriage my...

19. February 2014

By Khaled Abou El Fadl ABSTRACT In this article, I set forth conceptions of happiness (sa‘ada) from the Islamic tradition, and against this background, I discuss the failure to attain happiness in the modern age. The cumulative Islamic tradition attests to the importance of happiness to faith in God, and to the importance of faith to happiness. While the themes of knowledge, enlightenment, balance, peace, and knowing the other are central to the Islamic theology of happiness, the failure of...

08. November 2013

Introduction Part of the unavoidable challenge of providing an adequate account of the Islamic legal tradition is not just its sheer magnitude and expanse, but that the Islamic legal system continues to be the subject of profound political upheavals in the contemporary age and its legacy is highly contested and grossly understudied at the same time. The Islamic legal system consists of legal institutions, determinations, and practices that span a period of over fourteen hundred years arising...

09. October 2013

SERIES EDITOR'S PREFACE This new volume in the Palgrave Series in Islamic Theology, Law, and History by an accomplished and gifted scholar of the Islamic tradition makes an integral and urgent contribution to the growing body of scholarship focusing on Muslim minorities in the West. One can hardly imagine a topic more germane to the ongoing debates about the future of Muslim minorities in the West and the role that they could play in a world full of paradoxical dualities. On the one hand, we...

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...