Islamic Ethics of Interpretive Jurisprudence

ACGIS Book Talk with Dr. Abdulaziz Sachedina

Thursday, March 9, 2023 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM EST
Fenwick Library, Main Reading Room

RSVP NOW CLOSED
Islamic Ethics of Interpretive Jurisprudence

Islamic Ethics: Fundamental Aspects of Human Conduct (2022)

Since the publication of Islamic Ethics: Fundamental Aspects of Human Conduct (2022) there has been an interest in the fresh approach to capture the main aspects of morality, whether religious or secular, in Islamic thought. The Islamic textual resources underscore the principle of freedom of religion and conscience not to compel those who did not want to submit to the new social order under the prophet. The necessity of organizing an inclusive just social order depended upon the common moral values that brought together different communities under one social-political order. This was the first major doctrinal breakthrough that allowed the “other” to remain connected with domineering community through emphasis on moral values (al-ma’ruf). While Islamic jurisprudence was geared toward creating a just public order by providing the religious and ethical action guide there was also a search for a common foundation that could be shared cross-culturally to construct an inclusive social order founded on concrete human conditions. Islamic ethics, as Dr. Sachedina argues in this study, is a moral and spiritual paradigm that leads humanity to carry out duties to God and other humans. The social ethics in this ethical system managed the conquered regions of Middle East beyond the legal-religious paradigm of the Shari’a.

Abdulaziz Sachedina, Ph.D., is Professor and IIIT Chair in Islamic Studies at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.  Dr. Sachedina, who has studied in India, Iraq, Iran, and Canada, obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto.  He has been conducting research and writing in the field of Islamic Law, Ethics, and Theology (Sunni and Shiite) for more than two decades.  In the last ten years he has concentrated on social and political ethics, including Interfaith and Intrafaith Relations, Islamic Biomedical Ethics and Islam and Human Rights. Dr. Sachedina’s publications include: Islamic Messianism (State University of New York, 1980); Human Rights and the Conflicts of Culture, co-authored (University of South Carolina, 1988) The Just Ruler in Shiite Islam (Oxford University Press, 1988); The Prolegomena to the Qur’an (Oxford University Press, 1998), The Islamic Roots of Democratic Pluralism (Oxford University Press, 2002), Islamic Biomedical Ethics: Theory and Application (Oxford University Press, February 2009), Islam and the Challenge of Human Rights (Oxford University Press, September 2009), in addition to numerous articles in academic journals. He is an American citizen born in Tanzania.

 

 

Add this event to your calendar