Inheritance: a general overview of the laws
Concepts and arguments related to inheritance are in many respects so finely detailed and entangled that it is difficult to keep in mind the general principles and goals of inheritance laws and customs in Islam. These principles and goals are, as we should expect,...
Taysir
Taysir means taking the easier path to manage a difficulty. As a term in Islamic scholarship, it means giving advice or a ruling in favour of the easier option, provided the matter is one in which preference between options is allowable.Taysir is very much...
The successful life
The successful life as measured in this world does not secure safe passage into the favour of God in the hereafter. The good or virtuous life as measured in this world does not secure safe passage into the favour of God in the hereafter. In both matters,...
Muqaddimah of ibn al-Salah
Kitab Ma’rifat anwa’ Ilm al-Hadith, better known as the Muqaddimah of Ibn al-Salah, is a well-known intermediate level text on the science of Usul al-hadith. For students familiar with the Arabic language and have covered beginners texts in hadith methodology, this...
Modern science seeks power, not wisdom
Modern science is dedicated to explaining events and processes in the natural world, most of the time by means of some degree of mastery of the chain of the causes and effects that lead to specific events and processes. The problem with this approach is two-fold....
Over-definition of legal concepts
Many scholars infer from instances of Qur’anic or Prophetic ruling, what they think is the common or universal principle which governs these rulings. For example, the notion that ‘the state of woman is covering’ is derived from specific rulings about how Muslim women...
Reflections on how Muslims disagree, dispute and divide,why they should stop doing so, and some simple ways to live with and benefit from those disagreements
Having a debate with someone you disagree with and having a conversation with them are not the same thing. People perhaps think that a debate is just the same as a conversation with the addition of a few rules and procedures. For example, whereas
Questions about the Dictionary of women scholars
The two questions put to me since the publication of the full Dictionary are:1- Among the entries in the book, how many women are narrators of hadith and how many are scholars of hadith, muhaddithat? Why are they not distinguished?2- What is the total number of women narrators and scholars of hadith?