Where Revelation is Silent

Shari’a, Reason, and Islamic Natural Law

Authors

  • Anver M Emon University of Toronto

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.v39i1.005

Keywords:

Islamic natural law, reason and authority in Shari'a

Abstract

My general line of research concerns the relationship between reason and authority in Shari’a. In particular, I am currently completing a book on Islamic natural law theories, in which I provide an analysis of how premodern Muslim jurists theorized about the authority of reason as a source of Shari’a norms where source-texts (e.g. Qur’an and Sunna) are otherwise silent.

References

Abou El Fadl, Khaled 2004 “Islam and the Challenge of Democracy.” In Joshua Cohen and Deborah Chasman (eds.), Islam and the Challenge of Democracy: A Boston Review Book, 3-48. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Ali Karamali, Shaista P. and F. Dunne 1994 “The Ijtihad Controversy.” Arab Law Quarterly 9/3, 238-57.

al-Jabbar, Qadi ‘Abd 2001 Sharh al-Usul al-Khamsa. Beirut: Dar Ihya’ al-Turath al-’Arabi.

al-Qaradawi, Yusef 2001 al-’Aql wa al-’Ilm fi al-Qur’an al-Karim. Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risala.

Arkoun, Mohammad 1994 Rethinking Islam: Common Questions, Uncommon Answers. Trans. by Robert D. Lee. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.

Auda, Jasser 2008 Maqasid al-Shariah as Philosophy of Islamic Law: A Systems Approach. Herndon, Virginia: International Institute of Islamic Thought.

el-Affendi, Abdelwahab (ed.) 2001 Rethinking Islam and Modernity. London: The Islamic Foundation.

Emon, Anver M. 2008 “Islamic Law and the Canadian Mosaic: Politics, Jurisprudence, and Multicultural Accommodation.” Canadian Bar Review 87, 391-425.

Enayat, Hamid 1982 Modern Islamic Political Thought. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

Fadel, Mohammad H. 2004 “Too Far From Tradition.” In Joshua Cohen and Deborah Chasman (eds.), Islam and the Challenge of Democracy: A Boston Review Book, 81-6. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

----- 2008 “The True, the Good and the Reasonable: The Theological and Ethical Roots of Public Reason in Islamic Law.” Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence 21/1, 5-69.

Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck 1982 Contemporary Islam and the Challenge of History. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Hallaq, Wael B. 1984 “Was the Gate of Ijtihad Closed?” International Journal of Middle East Studies 16/1, 3-41.

----- 1999 A History of Islamic Legal Theories: An Introduction to Sunni Usul al-Fiqh. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

----- 2009 Shari’a: Theory, Practice, Transformations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Harris, J.W. 1981 “Can you believe in natural law? [Review of John Finnis, Natural Law and Natural Rights].” The Modern Law Review 44/6, 729-35.

Hildebrandt, Thomas 2007 “Between Mu’tazilism and Mysticism: How much of a Mu’tazilite is Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd?” In Camilla Adang, Sabine Schmidtke, and David Sklare (eds.), A Common Rationality: Mu’tazilism in Islam and Judaism, 495-512. Würzburg: Ergon in Kommission.

Johansen, Baber 2003 “Apostasy as objective and depersonalized fact: Two recent Egyptian court judgments.” Social Research 70/3, 687-710.

Kamali, Mohammad Hashim 2003 Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence. 3rd ed. Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society.

Khadduri, M. 2009 “Maslaha.” In P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs (eds), Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Leiden: Brill. Available at http://www.brillonline.nl.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/subscriber/entry?entry=islam_SIM-5019

MacCormick, Neil 1981 “Natural Law Reconsidered [Review of John Finnis, Natural Law and Natural Rights].” Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 1/1, 99-109.

Mahmasani, ‘ubhi 1961 Falsafat al-Tashri’ fi al-Islam. 3rd ed. Beirut: Dar al-’Ilm li’l-Malayin.

Manji, Irshad 2004 The Trouble With Islam Today: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Martin, Richard C., Mark R. Woodward, and Dwi S. Atmaja 1997 Defenders of Reason in Islam: Mu’tazilism from Medieval School to Modern Symbol. Oxford: Oneworld Publications.

Olsson, Susanne 2008 “Apostasy in Egypt: Contemporary Cases of ‘isbah.” The Muslim World 98: 95-115.

Rahman, Fazlur 1982 Islam and Modernity: Transformation of an Intellectual Tradition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Ramadan, Tariq 2004 Western Muslims and the Future of Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Tibi, Bassam 1988 The Crisis of Modern Islam: A Preindustrial Culture in the Scientific-Technological Age. Trans. by Judith von Sivers. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

Waldron, Jeremy 2002 God, Locke, and Equality: Christian Foundations in Locke’s Political Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Watt, W. Montgomery 1998 The Formative Period of Islamic Thought. Oxford: Oneworld Publications.

Weber, Max 1978 Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology. Ed. by Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Westerman, Pauline C. 1998 The Disintegration of Natural Law: Aquinas to Finnis. Leiden: Brill.

Wolfson, Harry Austryn 1976 The Philosophy of the Kalam. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Published

2010-04-28

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Emon, A. M. (2010). Where Revelation is Silent: Shari’a, Reason, and Islamic Natural Law. Bulletin for the Study of Religion, 39(1), 17-22. https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.v39i1.005