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...

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? "...

09. December 2008

Chapter 9: Islamic authority By Khaled Abou El Fadl In formulating Islamic law, it has become common in the modern age to use the authority of the Author (God) to justify the despotism of the reader. In effect, by claiming that the only relevant consideration is the Will of the Author, the reader is able to displace the Author and set himself as the sole voice of authority: the reader becomes God, as it were. The replacement of God’s authority with that of the reader is an act of despotism...

01. June 2006

When it comes to the issue of Islam and violence, I must confess that, as a Muslim intellectual, I find myself in a bit of a bind. Islam, as expounded in the classical books of theology and law, does not bear a message of violence. In fact, salam (peace and tranquility) is a central tenet of Islamic belief, and safety and security are considered profound divine blessings to be cherished and vigilantly pursued. The absence of peace is identified in the Qur'an as a largely negative condition; it...

01. July 2005

By Khaled Abou El Fadl In answer to the question: “Is there a distinctly Islamic view of human rights, and if so, is it compatible with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?” one must begin by making some important distinctions in this discourse, which relate to identifying something one can refer to as belonging to “Islam” or the Islamic tradition. When one talks about the human rights tradition in the West, one can identify the Catholic and Protestant progression in discourses on...

01. June 2005

By Khaled Abou El Fadl [FNa1] I. Introduction The purpose of this essay is to answer the following question: Is there a moral duty to obey an Islamic law in an Islamic state? Such an inquiry demands that we define what qualifies as an Islamic law. Furthermore, we will have to attempt a simple definition of an Islamic state, and examine the interrelationship between an Islamic state and Islamic law. Once this is accomplished, we move to identifying the nature of morality under Islam. More...