Southeast Regional Middle East and Islamic Studies Society (SERMEISS): Workshop on Islam and Law

Abstract

Workshop on Islam and Law Michael T. Samuel (bio) The Southeast Regional Middle East and Islamic Studies Society (SERMEISS) held its spring meeting on "Workshop on Islam and Law" at Emory University, Atlanta, GA, on March 6–8, 2020. The workshop represented a new innovative format for the organization's spring meeting. Unlike previous meetings, which included presentations on a wide range of topics related to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and Islamic studies, this workshop focused exclusively on topics related to Islam and law—that is, the ways in which Islamic law, jurists, and legal institutions shape and are shaped by the normative reality of Islam and Islamic societies. It consisted of four panel sessions that analyzed practical and theoretical aspects of Islam and law. The workshop began on the morning of Saturday, March 7th with a panel session on Islam and Law in Historical Perspective. Mansour Salsabili, a fellow at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, opened the session with a paper on "Religiosity and Violence: Shiite Ulamas' Contending Responses to the Secular Educational Modernization and the 1906 Constitutional Revolution." According to Salsabili, a comparative analysis of mid-nineteenth century fatwas issued by conservative and proreform Shiite ulama signifies a "unique episode" in the history of Iran. Comparing the positions of two prominent ayatollahs during the period of the Constitutional Revolution (1905–1911), he argued that Aḵūnd Mollā Moḥammad-Kāẓem Ḵorāsānī (1839–1911) and Shaikh Fażl-Allāh Nuri (1843–1909) vehemently disagreed about what could constitute a legitimate use of force, a disagreement that had "vast sociopolitical implications" in [End Page 152] Iran. Salsabili demonstrated that these conflicting views stemmed from "the competition between conservative and reformist clergies" over supporters and followers in Iranian society. The second panelist, Alexander Thurston, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, gave a talk on "Fiqh Polemics and Power in Early Postcolonial Mauritania." Through an examination of a polemical book published in the mid-1960s by the former mufti of Mauritania, Buddah al-Busayri (1920–2009), entitled Asna al-Masalik fi Anna Man 'Amila bi-l-Rajih Ma Kharaja 'an Madhhab al-Imam Malik (The Brightest of Paths: He Who Works with the Preponderant Evidence Has Not Left the School of Imam Malik) which advocated for a "correct way to perform the ritual prayer (salah)," Thurston argued that the book was a "proxy for much wider struggles over power and politics … between reformist activists, traditionalist scholars, and modernist state functionaries," who sought to define the nature of law in the emerging Islamic Republic of Mauritania. Next was a presentation on "Islamic Family Law in Post-Reformist Iran: Progressions and Regressions" by Samaneh Oladi Ghadikolaei, assistant professor, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA. This paper highlighted that, contrary to popular perception, female activists have been able to influence the legislative process of family law during the period that followed the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran. After analyzing the changes that were implemented by the regime in the legal age of marriage and the rules of guardianship (wāli), Oladi Ghadikolaei asserted that female activists "propagat[ed] [a] culture of egalitarianism that merg[ed] social science with religious science that was neither unjust nor male-centered." The second panel session which highlighted Islam and Law in Theory and Practice began with a paper on "Maqasid al-Shariah: A Muslim Perspective on Human Rights" by Faroukh Hakeem, associate professor, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro, NC. As Hakeem described, Maqasid al-Shariah (goals and objectives of Islamic law) is the Islamic legal doctrine that is concerned with protecting human rights, which includes all aspects of daily life and the preservation of faith. Hakeem stated that although "words such as Haqq/Huquq are often translated as rights, its implications are not the same when compared to the Western idea of rights. Under the Islamic conception, Haqq (rights) also imply obligations, and more specifically the distribution of the bonds of indebtedness that exist between sentient human beings in society." This system of rights and obligations, he continued, "is highly organized and developed." Moreover, Hakeem asserted that human rights as they are recognized...