Reform of Uṣūl al-Fiqh (Ethical–Legal Theory) and Marriage: A Spiritually Integrative Approach
This lecture will be held online at 16.30 BST.
Nevin Reda takes the conversation on gender justice deep into the realm of uṣūl al-fiqh (ethical–legal theory). She identifies the problems in the latter’s methodologies and highlights how these contribute to injustice. She also reconstructs these methodologies in gender-just ways, utilizing a hermeneutic that is spiritually integrative to reconceptualize marriage as a civil contract of equal partnership and a covenant for spiritual advancement. While the contractual aspects are justiciable, the spiritual aspects are not; however, the law serves to regulate marriage in ways that best enable this institution to fulfil its spiritual purpose, including the advancement of values such as ‘adl, qisṭ, and iḥsān, within particular contexts.
Speaker
Nevin Reda
Associate Professor
Nevin Reda is Associate Professor of Muslim Studies at Emmanuel College of Victoria University in the University of Toronto. Her research interests include the poetics and hermeneutics of Qurʾanic narrative structure, the Hebrew Bible and the Qurʾan, spiritually integrative approaches to the Qurʾan, Islamic feminist hermeneutics, and Islamic ethical–legal theory. Her publications include The al-Baqara Crescendo: Understanding the Qurʾan’ s Style, Narrative Structure, and Running Themes (2017) and a co-edited volume (with Yasmin Amin), Islamic Interpretive Tradition and Gender Justice: Processes of Canonization, Subversion, and Change (2020). Her articles include “Reform of Uṣūl al-Fiqh and Marriage: A Spiritually Integrative Approach”, published in the edited volume Justice and Beauty in Muslim Marriage: Towards Egalitarian Ethics and Laws (2022), and “Christian Practical Theology and Islam: Disciplinary Intersections and Opportunities for Growth”, which is forthcoming in the International Journal of Practical Theology.
Arabic and Islamic History Lecture Series
This series provides a platform for scholars from the Arab and Islamic world to present their research in Arabic in order to make knowledge accessible to a wider audience.
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