The Life of Shari'a : A Comparative Anthropology of Law.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Belal, Youssef.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Islamic law.

Islamic law--Philosophy.

Law and anthropology.

Canon law.

Conversion.

Comparative law.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (415 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, 2025.

Summary:

Is there a way to think about contemporary life with knowledge that is neither modern nor Western? Rather than confining Islam to a "religion" and shariʿa to its "law," Youssef Belal provocatively argues that Islamic shariʿa is a mode of knowledge with its own concepts and scholarly categories through which the world and the self are grasped. The Life of Shariʿa considers two intertwined lineages: how Islamic scholars have formulated knowledge from the classical period to today and how Westerners have understood the law and its origins. By melding these two traditions, Belal puts the formation of modern law under a new light and offers, through a compelling conceptualization of shariʿa, a powerful argument for its continued relevance to the life of contemporary Muslims.

Contents:

Jurisprudence of the revolution : truth and interiority

Law, power and Shari'a's incompleteness

Spiritual ethics and the unseen world

The spiritual topography of the self in classical Islam

Truth of the law, truth of the self and dis-embodiment.

Worship, social interactions and Shari'a's displacement

Islamic legal knowledge and the new real

Kalam and the Islamic episteme

Revealed speech and the sources of jurisprudence

Canon law and the Christian self

The law of conversion

Inner self, collective self and the law of the universal

Modernist reason and Shari'a

Law and the shaping of the self in contemporary Europe

Islamic reason.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-520-41006-8

OCLC:

1514627831