Academic Year 2023-2024
Research & Publications » Monthly Lecture Series » Academic Year 2021-2022
Monthly Talk: How far do Islamic ethics rely on reason and on religion?
Islamic classical jurisprudence was a discursive process which allowed for debate and dissension – it was not about stating the `law’ definitively. In this class, we will use examples from Hanafi and Maliki fiqh to show how debates around dietary laws, select laws of marriage and divorce, reveal a distinct literary process as well as an ethical framework. The challenge for the believer is how to extract principles for observance within the complexity of juristic debates which were never simply about what is permissible and what is prohibited.
Bio:
Professor Mona Siddiqui is an internationally recognised academic and cultural commentator at the University of Edinburgh. She is Professor Islamic and Interreligious Studies. Her research areas are primarily in the field of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) and ethics and Christian-Muslim relations. She has published many books on topics related to her field of expertise. Amongst her most recent publications are, A Theology of Gratitude, CUP, 2022, and Human Struggle: Christian and Muslim Perspectives, based on her 2016 Gifford lectures (CUP, 2021).She is currently working on her next monograph, Faith and Fidelity in Islamic Thought which will be published by Edinburgh University Press in 2025.
Monthly Talk: How far do Islamic ethics rely on reason and on religion?
Speaker: Professor Oliver Leaman
Title of the talk: How far do Islamic ethics rely on reason and religion?
Date: Tuesday, 19 November 2024
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm (London summer time)
How far do Islamic ethics rely on reason and how far on religion? Does God have to reward us in the next world if we are virtuous in this? How closely are law and justice to be aligned? Can a bad person be a Muslim? These are all topics that the classical Islamic philosophers discussed in the past and their views are of interest to us today, since essentially the same issues arise at every time. I intend to explore some of these controversies and link them with some relevant parts of the Qur’an.
Oliver Leaman teaches philosophy at the University of Kentucky in the USA and is a Fellow of the Accademia Ambrosiana in Milan. He writes on Islamic, Jewish and Asian philosophy, and his most recent publication is his edition of the Routledge Handbook of Islamic Ritual and Practice (2022).
