Customer Reviews

Speaking in God's Name: Islamic Law, Authority and Women

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This brilliant book is the antidote to the stupefying, mind-numbing, Wahhabi rhetoric that is killing the soul of Islam today. If you want to understand how to concretely argue in favor of a moral Islam, and how to answer back to the ridiculous, anti-human and counter-intuitive claims of the so-called "true Islam" that is so popular in mosque-culture today, then this book will educate and liberate you. There is something for everyone in this book. For the hard core scholars and wanna be scholars, the first few chapters will make your head spin with meticulous detail, analysis and other good brainiac food. The methodology presented for establishing Islamic authenticity is powerful and intuitively rational--great stuff! For those who just want to enjoy some very satisfying discussion, argumentation and refutation of the stupid stuff that never made any sense (ie., why women can or cannot wear bras, high-heels, go to graveyards, drive cars, etc.), the last few chapters and appendices are excellent! The appendices translate amazing and shocking Saudi legal opinions, and argue and apply the author's methodology to demonstrate why they can or cannot work. It is fine to jump to the back chapters if you are not interested in the "fine print". This is such an important work--it is the hope for change and a renaissance, to get out of the dark place that Muslims are in today.

This work demonstrates an immense amount of erudition in both Western and Islamic traditions, and perhaps, this quality is what makes this work so engrossing. One can spend hours working through the footnotes alone. On that note, one should mentioned that K. A. El Fadel genuinely tries to present each perspective on a topic. He doesn't decieve his Western audiences by concealing the ugliness of much that exists in Islamic tradition and he doesn't shy away from criticizing many of the sacred cows of his fellow Muslims. In many ways, I found reading this book to be much like peering into the modern condition of religious authority in Islam. El Fadl doesn't paint a pretty picture, but he does demonstrate that there is hope, and the juristic tradition, as moribund as it may at time seems, shall likely continue into the future though in a radically transformed way than its previous incarnation.
Some criticisms of the book are his awkward attempts to merge insights from Western philosophy with Muslim tradition. Thinkers such as Muhammad Iqbal proved long ago that this can be done with grace and skill, but El Fadl does so awkwardly at times. It seems that these elements remain unmixed like oil and water despite various attempts. Also, I wish he would have desisted from always using the Wahhabi CRLO as his main polemical opponent. There are so many other fatwa bodies, international ones at that, that I found this decision to be rather odd. Moreover, I would have liked to have seen a deeper examination of the historical contingencies surrounding these fatwas to be explored. Nonetheless, it's without a doubt a must read for anyone interested in American Muslim scholars.

A brillant examination of modern Islamic jurisprudence and how into application some of the leading authorities fails to live to the original greatness of the religion, as they use it to advance thier own agendas. In its scope, moral dignity and intellectual presentation this work compares to the best of Dr. Ali Shariati. El Fadl's thought are important for anyone who cares about the future trends of Islam.

Abou El Fadl is clearly the most important thinker on Islamic law today. This book is amazing. It opened my eyes as if I am learning Islam for the very first time. The book is mostly about women and Islamic law and its insights are nothing short of incredible. Every Muslim MUST read this book, especially the sisters out there.

This is a phenomenal book that presents the intersection of knowledge from three dimensions that rarely come together when addressing Islam. Khaled Abu el Fadel masterpiece, Speaking in the Name of God, builds on his deep knowledge of traditional Islamic jurisprudence, western thought on divergent topics such as philosophy, anthropology and linguistics and finally scientific research methods.

In this book Abu el Fadel sets about discussing basic fundamentals about the basic text of the Quran, he argues persuasively that the actual text of the Quran is authoritative whereas its interpretations are not necessarily so. Abu el Fadel proceeds to cover the concept of "agency" and the responsibilities that must be assumed by anyone who claims to interpret Islam and produce responsa or "fetwa". A tour de force of traditional Islamic Jurisprudence is presented setting the rules of how a fetwa can be reached, rules of evidence, weighing of multiple or contradictory indications, method of reasoning and ultimately presentation of results or fetwa.

Sharia Law as presented by Abu el Fadel is a far more nuanced and complex legal code than how it is commonly interpreted today in both the West and the Muslim World. A number of examples of Law from Saudi Arabia are presented in particular in relation to the restrictions imposed on women. Abu el Fadel presents the official Saudi Islamic rulings and sets about dissecting them in great detail and examining them under the microscope of traditional Islamic jurisprudence with its restrain and tremendous care not to usurp the intent of God and force one's own will on Islam.

Abu el Fadel goes to the root of some of the "Hadith", Prophet Mohammad sayings, that have been used over the years to limit the role of women in Islam. Abu el Fadel presents through very detailed analysis of history and Islamic Jurisprudence different versions of a specific Hadith that mandates duty of obedience on women towards their husbands very strong evidence that this commonly accepted Hadith is indeed fake. Abu el Fadel also presents the motives that could lay behind the number of fake Hadith's specially in relation to the split between Sunni and Shiite Islam. Consistent with his basic thesis Abu el Fadel presentations and conclusions are reached through very rigorous examination of all evidence, weighing of the evidence, balancing of the various factors in accordance with the established rules of Islamic Jurisprudence.

Khaled Abu el Fadel's modesty and "scientific humility" comes across in his restrain in drawing conclusions and in his constant attempts at presenting counter arguments to his own conclusions, and in his tentative approach towards building up his own conclusions. Abu el Fadel displays a tremendous example of what non authoritarian behavior is all about through his care not to fall into the common trap that is literally the standard approach to Islam today.

One day, perhaps centuries from now, this work may prove instrumental in recapturing the essence of Islam.

What Mr. El Fadl has done in this book is nothing short of extraordinary. His project is to first explain to the reader how the Islamic jurisprudential system works: this is the system by which religious pronouncements were rated on a scale of reliability. He then proceeds to demonstrate that many of the current ethical pronouncements and fatwas issued by Islamic religious authorities (especially those concerning women's rights) do not meet Islam's criteria of reliability and rigor. El Fadl is not interested in denouncing Islam as heresy. He is a believer who is arguing only that those in positions of power in Islam must meet Islam's standards for reliability and rigor when making a pronouncement about a sacred text. The writing is lucid and vibrant and one does not need to have a scholarly understanding of Islam to appreciate the work El Fadl is doing at UCLA.

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in Islamic law, women in Islamic law, or Islamic dynamics of authority. Abou El Fadl presents an amazing depth of knowledge; his references will provide helpful further reading to those so inclined. It is refreshing to hear the perspective of someone who has a first-class Western education, as well as a strong traditional education in Islamic law, hadith studies, and other Islamic "sciences." His perspective is rare, and highly enlightening. This book really opened my eyes to the complexities of the Islamic tradition, and I welcomed its intellectual rigor after reading so much pseudo-scholarship. In short, this book sheds light on this little-understood, often-vilified, complex tradition. Enlightening!

Dr. Abou El Fadl's excellent book on Islam. The Great Theft and The Search For Beauty In Islam are among his great works.

Detailed and scholarly. El Fadl has a great love for Islam and shows it by digging its darkest closets, and showing that light can still reach there.

Despite competently hitting the bull's eye in several locations, Dr. Abou El Fadl commits the same crime he is trying to expose and fight. Whenever it is in his interest, he fails to discharge the 5 obligations which he proposes for establishing persuasive authority, namely: honesty, self-restraint, comprehensiveness, diligence, and reasonableness. His mentioning, for example, of the inquisition of the createdness of the Quran is disingenuous. No one can claim that the createdness of the Quran implies its circumstantiality, and thus the right to supercede it. After reading the book, I wondered about the plight of the Muslims trapped between the authoritarianism of Abou El Fadl and the authoritarianism of the Wahabbis....