Tag: ritual

Sharia and the Qur’an

The course examines Sharia—the Qur’an’s ethical and legal frameworks—through primary sources. It thematically and chronologically analyzes verses on morality, ritual, and human interaction. Students explore the Aḥkām al-Qurʾān genre across legal schools in original languages using a holistic, historical-critical approach. Alongside jurisprudence, the course delves deeply into Qur’anic morality and the ethical implications of key terms such as mercy, justice, fairness, and dignity, emphasizing the Qur’an’s enduring ethical and legal principles. Students will learn to apply holistic and historical-critical methods that examine all related verses collectively and contextually.

The Expectations from Islam

This lecture, The Expectations from Islam, examines how reformist Muslims define the scope and limits of religion today. Moving beyond traditional accounts of prophecy’s benefits, it asks what Muslims can legitimately expect from Islam. Reformist thought distinguishes enduring, transhistorical teachings from historically contingent rulings, identifying eight permanent domains: meaning to life, knowledge of God, the Hereafter, the unseen realm, morality, ritual, quasi-ritual, and limited social guidance. While Islam offers lasting principles of meaning, faith, ethics, and salvation, reformists emphasize that secular sciences and human reason address most worldly affairs.