20.01.2020
Call for Papers
The reception of ayāt al-aḥkām (legal verses) in Islamic Legal Discourse - Past and Present. September 25, 2020.
Organization: Centre for Islamic Theology at Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen Venue: AIWG/ Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main
With reference to classical Muslim legal and exegetical scholarship, ayāt al-aḥkām (legal verses) contain ethical, practical or legal rules (aḥkām). This category of verses still plays an increasingly important role in contemporary Muslim debates on ethics and secularization. Classical interpretations that have shaped the beliefs and actions of most Muslims are no longer tenable today. Rather, there is a need for innovative Islamic Theological Research and paradigms that lead to new reinterpretation of legal coranic verses. The research project "The Normativity of the Qurʾān in the Sign of Societal Change" (Normativität des Korans im Zeichen gesellschaftlichen Wandels) of The Academy for Islam in Research and Society (AIWG), which has been first established in 2019, is focussing on these issues. Its main objective is to use a multidimensional approach to order the academic debate on legal verses and to place it in direct relation to practical questions posed by Muslims in Europe, and especially in Germany. The research project is carried out interdisciplinary from the perspectives of the Qur’anic hermeneutics, Islamic law and Islamic religious education. In this connection the ethical principle of self-determination serves as the basis for examination of ayāt al-aḥkām.
The conference deals with the reception of ayāt al-aḥkām in the Islamic classical and contemporary legal thought. Its focus should not only be on analysing the legal rules in the Qur’an but also finding innovative answers to the question how legal verses could be understood and reinterpreted in the light of contemporary challenges. In this context, the interactions and dynamics between Islamic law and civil society will be examined with a view to the following three main topics:
- The concept of humankind (e.g. the image of man in the verses of the rules and their interpretation, the relationship between God and man and between man and man).
- Man and society (e.g. gender justice, women's rights, polygamy, divorce law, inheritance law, etc.).
- Alterity (e.g. living together in a plural society, contact with people of other faiths and dietary rules and related conflicts and obstacles).
Scholars and researchers are invited to submit abstracts (max. 200 words) to hossam.oufspam prevention@uni-tuebingen.de and abdelaali.el-maghraouispam prevention@zith.uni-tuebingen.de. The deadline for receipt of abstracts is January 20, 2020.
The conference is part of Congress of the Academy for Islam in Research and Society (AIWG), which will take place at Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main from September 24 to 26, 2020.
For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact Dr. Abdelaali El Maghraoui (abdelaali.el-maghraouispam prevention@zith.uni-tuebingen.de).