Islamic Ethics

There have been two main traditions of writing on ethics in the Islamic tradition, one philosophical and related to the works of Aristotle and other Greek philosophers, represented by thinkers such as Avicenna, and one theological, represented by such figures as the famous theologian al-Qadi Abd al-Jabbar. Some later scholars attempted to combine those two traditions. For the most part, however, the views of the jurists have been ignored. Abdulaziz Sachedina herecalls attention to this third tradition of ethics, which has its home in legal literature. The problem is that Islamic jurists did not produce a genre of ethical manuals, and their form of ethics, whichSachedina terms juridical ethics, must be derived or extracted from works that ostensibly treat legal rulings and obligations, or scriptural hermeneutics and legal theory. Presenting an outline of the version of Islamic ethics that is embedded in the textual legacy of the Islamic legal tradition, he argues that this juridical ethics is an important, even dominant form of ethics in modern Islam. He notes that this form of ethics has been challenged by modernity and examines the variety of waysin which legal ethical thinkers have reacted. How do Muslim religious leaders come to grips with modern demands of directing their communities to live as modern citizens of nation-states? What kind ofmoral and spiritual resources are being garnered by their scholars to respond to the new issues in sciences, more immediately in medicine, and constantly changing social relationships? To answer these pressing questions, it is necessary to go beyond the philosophical ethics of virtue and human character and acknowledge the importance of ethics to the formulation in Muslim interpretive jurisprudence of religious and moral decisions that are based on reason and revelation.

“Professor Sachedina's impressive magnum opus displays his deep and wide knowledge of Islamic ethical thought and practice. It illuminates several different views of the relations among theology, ethics, and law in Islam, while arguing for interpretive jurisprudence, which embodies ethics and draws on theology. I enthusiastically recommend this rich and important book.”

James F. Childress, University Professor Emeritus, University of Virginia
Abdulaziz Sachedina is a towering figure in Islamic ethics, and this is his masterpiece, the capstone to decades of rigorous study, observation, teaching, mentoring -- and disciplining himself to the demands of a jurist and scholar who embodies the best in his tradition. This treatise on 'fundamental aspects of human conduct' is at once a comprehensive overview and a penetrating analysis and interpretation of theological and juridical discourses in Islam, cast now within an ethical framework that illuminates the profound moral foundations of the Islamic legal tradition. It will quickly become required reading for all who seek to understand the inner logic of a vastly complex and evolving world religion. R. Scott Appleby, Professor of History, University of Notre Dame
Sachedina's work will prove useful both for scholars of Islamic law and for those working on constructive religious ethics. Alla Alaghbri, The Journal of Religion
Sachedina's work will prove useful both for scholars of Islamic law and for those working on constructive religious ethics. Alla Alaghbri, The Journal of Religion
Sachedina's display of past and present dynamics in Islamic jurisprudence, and the extent to which they meet the Qurānic ethical ideals, do remain at the ontological level within the subjectivist (traditionalist) camp. He does not wish to detach them from revelation. Only at the epistemological level, he sets things in motion through applying methods of juridical adaptation to significant changes in society in modern times. He justifies these adaptations by considering them rooted in the tradition, which he seeks to resuscitate and revive. Mohammed Hashas, Journal of Islamic Ethics

Abdulaziz Sachedina is Professor and Endowed IIIT Chair in Islamic Studies at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He has been conducting research and writing in the field of Islamic Law, Ethics, and Theology (Sunni and Shiite) for more than four decades. In the last twenty years he has concentrated on social and political ethics, including Interfaith and Intrafaith Relations, Islamic Biomedical Ethics and Islam and Human Rights. He isthe author of numerous books, most recently Islam and the Challenge of Human Rights (OUP, 2009).

There have been two main traditions of writing on ethics in the Islamic tradition, one philosophical and related to the works of Aristotle and other Greek philosophers, represented by thinkers such as Avicenna, and one theological, represented by such figures as the famous theologian al-Qadi Abd al-Jabbar. Some later scholars attempted to combine those two traditions. For the most part, however, the views of the jurists have been ignored. Abdulaziz Sachedina herecalls attention to this third tradition of ethics, which has its home in legal literature. The problem is that Islamic jurists did not produce a genre of ethical manuals, and their form of ethics, whichSachedina terms juridical ethics, must be derived or extracted from works that ostensibly treat legal rulings and obligations, or scriptural hermeneutics and legal theory. Presenting an outline of the version of Islamic ethics that is embedded in the textual legacy of the Islamic legal tradition, he argues that this juridical ethics is an important, even dominant form of ethics in modern Islam. He notes that this form of ethics has been challenged by modernity and examines the variety of waysin which legal ethical thinkers have reacted. How do Muslim religious leaders come to grips with modern demands of directing their communities to live as modern citizens of nation-states? What kind ofmoral and spiritual resources are being garnered by their scholars to respond to the new issues in sciences, more immediately in medicine, and constantly changing social relationships? To answer these pressing questions, it is necessary to go beyond the philosophical ethics of virtue and human character and acknowledge the importance of ethics to the formulation in Muslim interpretive jurisprudence of religious and moral decisions that are based on reason and revelation.

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