Total Publications: 30
    • Humanity Before God: Contemporary Faces of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Ethics, William Schweiker, Michael Johnson, and Kevin Jung, eds., 238-255 (Fortress press, 2006)
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    Divine Justice and the Human Order: An Islamic Perspective

    The Qur’anic worldview is a seamless web of ideas that begins with tawḥīd (the belief in a single God) and permeates various aspects of Qur’anic teaching from creation and the nature of the universe to ethics,1 social relations, and commercial and constitutional matters.

  • American Muslims and Civil Rights: Testimonies and Critiques: Opening Remarks

    • 8 Wash. & Lee Race & Ethnic Anc. L.J. 1 (2002)
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    Foreword

    Throughout recent history, changes in the law have been significantly influenced by technological developments. It was, after all, the increasing need for capital to finance massive projects, such as railway systems and auto manufacturing, along with related services, such as banks and insurance companies, that changed the face of the modem legal profession, accelerating the emergence of today’s corporate structures and securities laws.1

  • Introduction, 15 Journal of Law and Religion

    A few years ago, this issue was just a gleam in the eyes of the board of this Journal. After I joined the Editorial Board, discussions commenced in earnest about how the Journal might bring authentic Islamic thought to American and other English-speaking scholars in an academic environment used to hearing about Islam through secondary sources. I (naively) volunteered to guest-edit an issue of modem, groundbreaking Islamic thinking and invited the contributions of distinguished writers from around the Muslim world including the United States, and the volume in your hand reflects these efforts.

  • Islamic Constitutionalism and the Concept of Democracy

    Recent developments in the Arab World, especially those surrounding the Gulf War, prompted demands for the introduction of democratic changes to systems of government in that region. These demands spurred a broad-based debate among Muslims concerned about the correct Islamic point of view on the subject.

    • 1 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 492 (1999)
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    Islamic and American Constitutional Law: Borrowing Possibilities or a History of Borrowing?

    Islam is commonly viewed in the West as being incompatible with democracy. It is also viewed as an “Oriental” religion that has spawned violence and encouraged human rights violations. Because of the historical interaction between the West and Islam, the United States has recently been supporting efforts to export its democratic principles and human rights values to Muslim countries. In this context, the question of constitutional borrowing gains special significance.

  • Faith and the Attorney-Client Relationship: A Muslim Perspective

    Three significant factors have converged to contribute significantly to the state of spiritual impoverishment, fragmentation, and work-place alienation experienced by professional people of faith in this country. They are: the emergence of material secularism as the dominant ideology, the uncritical acceptance of technological reductionism, and the over-broad interpretation of the public/private distinction.

  • Legal Reform: Reviewing Human Rights in the Muslim World

    Muslim countries are the bete noire of the Human Rights Movement. Problems in these countries range from a denial of democratic rights to restrictions on speech, movement, and education. A drastic example comes from Afghanistan, where the Taliban, in their pursuit of “the perfect Islamic state,” have exiled women from public life. Less known is the damage the Taliban are also inflicting on Afghan men.

    • 29 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 1723 (1996)
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    The Muslim Perspective on the Clergy-Penitent Privilege

    Before Jones confesses his crimes to Imam Ahmad, he should be clear on the duties and role of the imam of a mosque. The imam’s duties usually consist of leading prayers and providing advice and assistance to those in the community who seek them. Imams are chosen for their knowledge in matters of religion.

  • Religious Law: Roman Catholic, Islamic, and Jewish Treatment of Family Matters, Including Education, Abortion, In Vitro Fertilization, Prenuptial Agreement, Contraception and Marital Fraud

    This problem involves at least four issues relevant to Islamic law: (1) the Islamic position on education; (2) the obligation of parents to educate their children; (3) the nature of relations within the Muslim family; and (4) available remedies against one’s parents.

  • Divine Justice and the Human Condition

    The Qur’anic worldview is a seamless web of ideas that begins with tawhid (the belief in a single God) and permeates various aspects of Qur’anic teaching from creation and the nature of the universe to ethics, social relations, and commercial and constitutional matters. By ignoring the systematic worldview of the Qur’an, we risk impoverishing, even distorting, the various concepts that govern the Qur’anic approach to specific areas of human existence. Yet many of us, including some Muslim, believe that we can understand the Qur’an by discussing it one verse or passage at a time. This essay will argue that there is a unified worldview that permeates the Qur’an, and that makes it a seamless web of ideas, so that each verse cannot be properly understand without reference to others. In one sense, this is not a new argument, because ancient jurists have already stated that passages in the Qur’an explain each other.

    • 20 Harvard International Review 50 (Summer, 1998).
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    Legal Reform: Reviving Human Rights in the Muslim World

    Muslim countries are the bete noire of the Human Rights Movement. Problems in these countries range from a denial of democratic rights to restrictions on speech, movement, and education.

    • Women and Islam, ed. Azizah al-Hibri, pp. 207-219 (Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1982)
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    Islamic Herstory: or How did we Get into This Mess

    To write about ‘Women and Islam’ is to write about a host of issues only one of which is ‘the Status of Women in Islam’. For Islam and Women have shared an enduring though often turbulent relationship throughout the patriarchal upheavals of the past 1400 years in the Arab World. To comprehend this relationship fully, we must comprehend first the socio-political conditions affecting women in the Arab peninsula before the rise of lslam, and the subsequent impact of Islam upon the lives of these women, as well as upon society as a whole.

  • Marriage and Divorce: Legal Foundations (2009)

    The Qur’an is the foundation of all Islamic laws, including laws of marriage and divorce. Where a matter is not addressed specifically there, or where the application of a verse to a certain situation permits several reasonable interpretations, jurists look to the sunnah of the Prophet (including hadith) for additional guidance. Where neither the Qur’an nor sunnah address a matter explicitly, jurists resort to ijtihiid, a system of reasoning and interpretation for which they have articulated several basic principles.

    • 3 Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World 48 50 (Oxford University Press, 1995)
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    Marriage and Divorce: Legal Foundations (1995)

    The Qur’an is the foundation of all Islamic laws, including laws of marriage and divorce. Where a matter is not addressed specifically there, or where the application of a verse to a certain situation permits several reasonable interpretations, jurists look to the sunnah of the Prophet (including hadith) for additional guidance.

    • , in Religious and Ethical Perspectives on Population Issues, pp. 2-11 (The Religious Consultation on Population, Reproductive health and Ethics 1993)
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    Family Planning and Islamic Jurisprudence

    I am very pleased to have the opportunity today to address you on issues of family planning from an Islamic jurisprudential point of view.

    To understand this point of view, we need to understand the basic framework for such jurisprudence. First and foremost, the basic text providing guidance on all Islamic matters is the Qur’an the revealed word of God. No Muslim can adopt a point of view contrary to that of the Qur’an.

    • This article was published in the International Review of Comparative Public Policy, v. 4, pp. 227-244, Sr. ed. Nicholas Mercuro and vol. ed. Barbara Stark (JAI 1992), Inc. Copyright permission by Elsevier.
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    Marriage laws in Muslim Countries: A comparative Study of Certain Egyptian, Syrian, Moroccan, and Tunisian Marriage Laws.

    Family law in Muslim countries rests on traditional assumptions rooted in the patriarchal cultures of these countries. The assumptions give rise to a model of family relationships not unlike that which was espoused by Western legal systems until recently. Modern Muslim jurists have made several attempts to revise local family laws, but their attempts were not always successful for a variety of historical, political, and ideological reasons. This paper attempts to re-invigorate discussion in this area by isolating these traditional assumptions, identifying the resulting model of family relations, and pinpointing some of the most severe consequences of this model for women.

  • The Report of the Constitution Project’s Task Force on Detainee Treatment (2013)

    In 2013, The Constitution Project’s Task Force on Detainee Treatment published a groundbreaking report on the U.S. government’s treatment of suspected terrorists during the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations. At the time of its release, it was the most comprehensive investigation and analysis of the issue.

  • Modesty

    Freedom from vanity (al-tawāḍuʿ) is a central concept in Islam, directly connected to the concept of tawḥīd (unity or divine oneness). According to the Qurʿān, Satan’s fall from grace was a direct result of his vanity. Having been ordered by God to bow to Adam, all the angels complied except Satan. Satan explained his defiance as follows: “I am better than [Adam]; You created me from fire and created him from clay” (7:12).

    • Co-editor of Islamic section. Don Browning, Christian Green and John Witte eds., 150-225 (Columbia University Press, 2006)
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    Sex, Marriage and Family in World Religions

    Chapter 3, entitled “Islam,” is edited by Azizah al-Hibri and Raja’ El-Habti.  It consists of a collection of material relevant to the topics listed below.  The collection includes selections from the Qur’an and hadith, as well as selections from works by ancient and modern jurists.  Titles of topics are:

    An introduction about the Prophet Muhammad (SAW)
    Foundations of Islamic Jurisprudence
    Creation and the Identity of Origin of Women and Men
    The Fall from the Garden and Gender Equality
    The Marriage Contract, Consent to Marriage
    Mahr: The Obligatory Marital Gift
    Other Stipulations in the Marriage Contract
    Marital Relations, Polygamy, Marital Conflict
    Divorce, Sexual Ethics

  • Symposium, Opening Remarks, American Muslims and Civil Rights: Testimonies and Critiques

    This town hall meeting, which highlights some of the important developments in the American Muslim experience after September 11, presents both a challenge and an opportunity to our community. Whether these new developments will provide a serious impetus for constructive change in society at large is a matter for all Americans to reflect upon. The events that have come to pass which we spotlight in this symposium will hopefully contribute to that process.

    • Conference on the Rights of Religious Minorities In Predominantly Muslim Countries Marrakesh, January 25, 2016
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    The Charter of Madinah and Religious Freedom

    The Madinah Charter was executed by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) on the one hand, and the various Muslim and Jewish tribes on the other. He had immigrated to Madinah, upon the invitation of its community, because his life was being threatened in Makkah due to his religious beliefs. The Madinah community liked the Prophet’s message and wanted to give it a home in its own city. So the Prophet experienced firsthand religious oppression and knew very well the importance of religious liberty.

  • Understanding the Classical Tradition in Muslim Family Law

    I would like to thank my hosts for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts with you on a topic critical for the future of our Ummah. After all, the family unit is the foundation on which nations are built. This is why it is important to focus our attention on family law, especially since the Muslim family unit has been recently the subject to unprecedented challenges across the Muslim World.

    • Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, November 14, 2018
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    Women, Faith, and Culture Conference

    Almost fifteen hundred years ago, the Holy Qur’an succinctly stated in verse 49:13 that God created us from a male and a female and made us into different nations and tribes so that we get to know each other. In the Qur’anic context of this verse, it is clear that “knowing each other” means to communicate, cooperate, and celebrate each other’s differences. It does not mean to subordinate other cultures, or take a supremacist view of them.

  • A Tribute to Justice Antonin Scalia

    Today we start saying our last goodbyes to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He left us so suddenly when his turn came. In some ways, this was a fitting departure. He was a strong, resolute, and no nonsense person. He also believed that beyond this life there was a better place, for he was a man of deep faith.

  • Silence v. Justice: The Case of the Abused Muslim Women in Elgin

    Social media is abuzz with the story of the well-respected scholar at the Islamic institute in Elgin, Illinois, who is accused of abusing his female students. When I read the story, I got flashbacks to that painful moment in my childhood when one of my religious teachers tried to violate his boundaries with me. As soon as my family heard about the incident, the teacher was fired and disappeared from my life completely.

  • Capital Punishment in the United States: An Islamic Perspective

    Capital punishment is imposed in the United States for a limited number of reasons, such as treason and murder. Recently, all executions have been related to crimes of intentional murder, the most notable example being the approaching execution of Timothy McVeigh who caused the death of hundreds of Americans in Oklahoma City by blowing up a federal building. The basic arguments in support of capital punishment derive from two concepts: retribution and deterrence. In discussing the Islamic view of capital punishment, we shall therefore focus on the crime of intentional murder.

  • Keynote Address IIIT Conference in Memory of Dr. Taha Jaber al-Alwani

    I am honored to give today a keynote address about a major contemporary Islamic scholar, leader, and good friend, Dr. Taha Jaber al-Alwani. Our American Muslim community has been blessed by the distinguished leadership of a select group of dedicated American Muslims, male and female, who are no longer with us. Among them, Dr. Taha was a towering figure. He was a prolific writer, and an outstanding thought leader with an admiring international following that I often encountered during my travels.

    • 16 Loyola of Los Angeles International & Comparative Law Journal, 22 (1993)
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    Symposium on Religious Law: Roman Catholic, Islamic, and Jewish Treatment of Family Matters, Including Education, Abortion, In Vitro Fertilization, Prenuptial Agreement, Contraception and Marital Fraud

    A study of comparative law discloses the variety of fundamental values in diverse legal systems. The contrast between varying legal values helps delineate the underlying values and themes in one’s own legal matrix-values and themes often difficult to perceive because of the proximity of one’s perspective.

  • Christian Minorities: Our Trust Betrayed

    On Sunday, suicide bombers targeted worshippers leaving their church in Peshawar and killed at least 60, including women and children and two Muslim policemen guarding the church. A couple of weeks ago, the sleepy village of Ma’loulah in Syria was attacked by a gang of armed terrorists. Several of its inhabitants were killed, its historic monasteries and churches were pillaged, and the crosses were removed. In a world full of violence, why is this news?