Search Results (6)

Over the last couple of decades, the subject of women’s rights in Islam has emerged as the central tension point in discussion about the (in)compatibility of Islam with the modern concept of universal human rights. This topic has drawn significant attention from both liberal and Muslim theorists, who have questioned the source of gender inequality and discrimination against women evident in various Muslim societies. These issues are particularly pronounced in certain provisions of Islamic family law, which appear to conflict with both Islamic principles and the concept of a just and merciful God. Simultaneously, another discussion is unfolding within inner-Muslim debate where Muslims are sharply divided over an important question: Is Sharia divinely created or humanly constructed? Within this debate, Islamic female theorists argue that not only is Sharia man-made law, but one constructed dominantly through the interpretations of male jurists, theologians, and thinkers, whereas female voices and experiences were marginalized, silenced, and excluded. This profoundly influenced the construction of Sharia and embedded hierarchical gender-power dynamics within its provisions. This article explores the topic through three key points: first, the question of the creation or construction of Sharia is examined, emphasizing the unquestionable interpretative role of humans in deciphering God’s Will; second, it argues that the construction process of Sharia was dominated and monopolized by male interpreters, who have read the Qur’an through the lens of the historical context of eighth- and ninth-century Arabia, where gender inequality was a norm; third, it highlights the voices of Islamic female theorists and their egalitarian interpretations of the Qur’an, which reflect the core Islamic message of a just and merciful God. Full article

This article addresses the question of how early modern Sufis dealt with yoga. Some scholars have argued that a movement of Sufi reform occurred in South Asia during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, representing a shift towards legal Islam, which would call for the rejection of non-Islamic practices. This explanation overlooks the rhetorical construction of Sufi claims of spiritual status and shari‘a legitimacy, and it fails to distinguish eighteenth-century examples from the very different reform movements created in the nineteenth century in response to European colonialism. This article considers as a case study Nala-yi ‘Andalib (“The Nightingale’s Lament”), the central text produced by the pre-colonial founder of the “pure Muhammadi path”, Muhammad Nasir ‘Andalib (d. 1758), with the help of intertextual references to the masterpiece of his son, Khwaja Mir Dard (d. 1785), ‘Ilm al-Kitab (“Knowledge of the Book”). The consequence of their evaluation of yoga was not the systematic rejection of non-Islamic practices, but a guarded acknowledgement of their efficacy within a framework that used Indic references as a straw man for intra-Islamic debates. Full article

The relationship between human rights and Islam is important in countries of the Arab world where religion plays a significant role in public debates and daily life. The topic is particularly relevant at a time of sharpening conflicts and polarization, when forms of government in the region, the current world order, and the legitimacy of international organizations are increasingly contested. Much of the scholarly work published in English on this topic draws on sources available in English. This review, therefore, aims to make a contribution to the field through analysis and discussion of academic papers published in Arabic. A search was made in Google Scholar in April 2022 which yielded 12 publications published in 2020 and 2021, after inclusion and exclusion criteria had been applied. These publications were analyzed drawing on the four framing categories. A summary is also given of the definitions, sources, and premises on which the arguments of the publications draw. The reviewed papers contrast the universal and divine foundation of Islamic human rights with the limitations of modern conceptualizations based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The latter is described as emanating from Western hegemonistic aspirations and as detached from moral and spiritual values. The papers consequently argue that human rights would be guaranteed globally by generalizing a system of governance based on Shari’a law and the ideal of the Rightly Guided Caliphs. Little attention is given to human rights abuses observed in Muslim societies, diverse interpretations of Islamic source texts, or concrete measures to improve human rights protections in practice. Importantly, the arguments presented in these papers tend to reinforce a contemporary discourse that frames conflicting visions on human rights as a ‘clash of civilisations’ between ‘Islam’ and ‘the West’. Full article

In this article I propose that questions about the nature of contemporary Sufism, especially in Western contexts, can be addressed with further precision and nuance by shifting the focus from Sufism’s relationship to Islam, to its relationship to shari‘a, or Islamic law (fiqh). As very few questioned Sufism’s Islamic nature prior to the modern period, this analytical shift offers the advantage of contextualizing contemporary debates about Sufism within the much richer history of intra-Islamic difference over Sufism and shari‘a. I suggest that traditional Sufi-shari‘a conceptions, though varied in nature, can be categorized for analytical purposes as (a) juristic, (b) supersessionist, and (c) formless Sufism. I propose these terms not as archetypal categories, but rather as a tentative template for mapping Sufi approaches to the shari‘a, which can allow us to better appreciate how contemporary Western Sufi orientations towards the shari‘a reflect premodern tendencies. Full article

The Israeli Plonit case concerns a Muslim woman who wished to be represented by a female arbitrator in a Shari’a Court. The Shari’a Court of Appeals denied her request and decided that Shari’a Law permits only men to serve as arbitrators. Plonit petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court, which accepted her petition and decided that the Shari’a Court of Appeals’ decision infringed her right to equality. While I support the outcome of the Supreme Court’s decision, my paper sheds a light on a crucial matter that is absent in the decision; namely, the right to culture of Muslim women, who are a vulnerable members of a minority group in Israel, and therefore constitute a “minority within minority”. Analysing the case in terms of Plonit’s right to culture, in addition to her right to equality, has two advantages. First, it stresses the main issues at the heart of the legal debate, which are the minority culture’s norms and practices, and the right of the minority within the minority to influence and shape them as much as the majority within the minority. Second, when the minority within the minority’s claim is put in terms of the right to culture, and not only in terms of the right to equality, they are not necessarily perceived by other minority members as claims that try to enforce external norms on the minority culture. Full article

Why, in the midst of public debates related to religion, are unrepresentative orthodox perspectives often positioned as illustrative of a religious tradition? How can more representative voices be encouraged? Political theorist Anne Phillips (2007) suggests that facilitating multi-voiced individual engagements effectively dismantles the monopolies of the most conservative that tend to privilege maleness. In this paper, with reference to the 2003–2005 faith-based arbitration debate in Ontario, Canada, I show how, in practice, Phillips’ approach is unwieldy and does not work well in a sound-bite-necessitating culture. Instead, I argue that the “Sharia Debate” served as a catalyst for mainstream conservative Muslim groups in Ontario to develop public relations apparatuses that better facilitate the perspectives of everyday religious conservatives in the public sphere. Full article