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‘Abd al-Ğabbār (d. 1024 AD) belonged to the Bahšamiyya branch of the Basra Mu‘tazila. The Mu‘tazilites upheld the principle of divine justice, and from this perspective they attempted to explain the existence of pain and suffering. This volume deals with ‘Abd al-Ğabbār's opinions on different aspects of pain, such as what pain is, how it is perceived, how it comes into existence, how to judge the infliction of pain and for which purpose God imposes suffering on His creatures. Attention is also given to opinions expressed by Mānkdīm and Ibn Mattawayh, disciples of ‘Abd al-Ğabbār. Included is a historical survey of the Bahšamiyya school. The book sheds light on ‘Abd al-Ğabbār's Mu‘tazilite method in dealing with the question of the existence of human suffering.
This book explores the relationship between custom and Islamic law and seeks to uncover the role of custom in the construction of legal rulings. On a deeper level, however, it deals with the perennial problem of change and continuity in the Islamic legal tradition (or any tradition for that matter).
From ancient Mesopotamia into the 20th century, "the Circle of Justice" as a concept has pervaded Middle Eastern political thought and underpinned the exercise of power in the Middle East. The Circle of Justice depicts graphically how a government’s justice toward the population generates political power, military strength, prosperity, and good administration. This book traces this set of relationships from its earliest appearance in the political writings of the Sumerians through four millennia of Middle Eastern culture. It explores how people conceptualized and acted upon this powerful insight, how they portrayed it in symbol, painting, and story, and how they transmitted it from one reg...
Through excerpts from works of four theologians, this book shows how tenth century Muslims employed Christian doctrines to confirm the correctness of their own theology, and how Christianity had stopped attracting serious attention from Muslims as a rival to Islam.
Focusing substantially on the relation between the concept of constitutionalism and Islamic Law in general and how such relation is specifically reflected in the Shiite jurisprudence, this volume explores the juristic origins of constitutionalism, especially in the context of 1905 Constitutional Revolution in Iran.
The three-volume series titled The Presence of the Prophet in Early Modern and Contemporary Islam, is the first attempt to explore the dynamics of the representation of the Prophet Muhammad in the course of Muslim history until the present. This first collective volume outlines his figure in the early Islamic tradition, and its later transformations until recent times that were shaped by Prophet-centered piety and politics. A variety of case studies offers a unique overview of the interplay of Sunnī amd Shīʿī doctrines with literature and arts in the formation of his image. They trace the integrative and conflictual qualities of a “Prophetic culture”, in which the Prophet of Islam continues his presence among the Muslim believers. Contributors Hiba Abid, Nelly Amri, Caterina Bori, Francesco Chiabotti, Rachida Chih, Adrien de Jarmy, Daniel De Smet, Mohamed Thami El Harrak, Brigitte Foulon, Denis Gril, Christiane Gruber, Tobias Heinzelmann, David Jordan, Pierre Lory, Catherine Mayeur-Jaouen, Samuela Pagani, Alexandre Papas, Michele Petrone, Stefan Reichmuth, Meryem Sebti, Dilek Sarmis, Matthieu Terrier, Jean-Jacques Thibon, Marc Toutant, Ruggiero Vimercati Sanseverino.
Offering a new reading of Islamic ethical and political thought in the Būyid period (334-440/946-1048), this book focuses particularly on the philosopher Abū Hayyān al-Tawhīdī who lived in Baghdad and what is now western Iran. Ethics in Islam provides the first major treatment of al-Tawhīdī's ethics, political thought, and social idealism, investigating the complex influences that shaped this thought and especially his concept of friendship, which is analysed in the unique context of Būyid society. Al-Tawhīdī revives the value of friendship in politics. He introduces it as the best way to reform social and political order and as a means to the good life, to restrain passion and sel...
Using the most extensive collection hitherto of his published and unpublished writings, this volume provides a comprehensive, in-depth and interdisciplinary study of the ethical philosophy of al-Rāzī (1149–1210), a most outstanding and influential medieval philosopher-theologian. A complex picture emerges, across his philosophical, theological, ethical and juristic works, of a consistent and multi-layered ethical theory. Al-Rāzī departs from classical Ash‘arī divine command ethics to develop both a consequentialist ethics of action, which seriously rivals Mu‘tazili deontological ethics, and a perfectionist ethics of character. Within the latter framework, he sets out his later, teleological theory of prophecy. The volume includes the text, published for the first time, of one of al-Rāzī's latest and most fascinating works, Censure of the Pleasures of This World, which expresses pronounced moral and epistemological pessimism.
Humans are comprised of a body and a soul, yet most of them take care of their bodies and forget about their souls. This book wakes them up, the author hopes, and provides them with a dose of spirituality which they may never have had before. This book is written for everyone, and its stories will appeal to many, if not most, people who will find in them beauty and universality: There is One God, one human family started by Adam and Eve, one truth, one heaven, one hell, one right and one wrong... and one religion. Call any of these by any name, it does not matter, for calling a rose by any other name does not change its beauty, hue, aroma or anything else. So is the case particularly with Go...