Theologies and Ethics of Justice

Abstract

The Summer Institute for Scholars 2017, held at the IIIT headquarters inHerndon, VA, from July 26-29, brought together a group of scholars to address“Theologies and Ethics of Justice: New Directions for Islamic Thoughtin the 21st Century.” To present as many of their ideas as possible, the widerangingand thought-provoking comments of the chairs and discussants arenot recountedThe event began with welcoming remarks by Ermin Sinanović (programdirector and director of research, IIIT), Abubaker al-Shingieti (executive director,IIIT) and Hisham Altalib (president, IIIT). The participating scholars,students, and special guests were introduced and viewed a film on IIIT.The special panel on “Justice in Islamic Thought” was addressed byRamon Harvey (Ebrahim College, London) and Jonathan A.C. Brown(Georgetown University; via Skype). Ramon Harvey’s paper, “The Qur’anand the Just Society: An Enquiry into Scriptural Theology, Ethics, andHermeneutics,” introduced the theoretical framework of his forthcomingbook, The Qur’an and the Just Society. He presented the basic underlyingenquiry: the search for the meaning of societal justice within the Qur’anicworldview. His argument proceeded in three steps: (1) justice in the Qur’anmust be situated within the broader “moral narrative” about the spiritualjourney of souls and societies and from which an implicit moral theologycan be detected; (2) that it is possible to build on such Qur’anic indicationsto articulate a theological and ethical system that models it; and (3) that sucha system gives a meaningful epistemological foundation for a hermeneuticsto discover the Qur’an’s basic principles of justice when contextualizedwithin the initial Muslim community led by Prophet Muhammad ...