Short Description
In this course, we will study legal and ethical approaches to Islam covering a span of time beginning with the period of Qur’anic revelation and ending with the dawn of colonial modernity.
Special emphasis will be placed on the role played by the Qur’an and the life of the Prophet
Muhammad. We will also explore the meaning of Shari’ah, the nature of Islamic law, and the spiritual traditions and practices that arose in complement. Students will become familiar with the Qur’an and Prophetic tradition, some of the legal and ethical norms of the Shari’ah, and a number of traditions that developed around it.
Requirements
(1.) Students will be expected to attend all class sessions, to be on-time , participate , and to complete the assigned readings before each class session. Students may be called upon at random to comment about the readings. ( 20% )
(2.) Students must also submit a “ weekly response
” to the readings that are due every week.
These response papers are to be no longer than one page and are merely to comment on the readings. Personal opinions are certainly welcome and students should feel free to question and even criticize the readings. A mere summary of the reading will not count as a “response”. The exception to this is for the students that are presenting for the given week, in which case, the student(s) need only to work on their presentation. The responses are to be emailed to me every
Monday night before midnight. ( 20% )
(3.) Students will be required to make an in-class presentation on at least one of the assigned readings where they will discuss and identify the main points of the argument and pose their own questions or reflections about the content. The presentation may be done individually or in a group. The presentation(s) should be no more than 15 minutes (if done individually) or 30 minutes (if done in a group). The student(s) is also required to read extra sources about the topic they are presenting on, and incorporate the source(s) into their presentation. ( 20% )
(4.) Students will be required to complete a final paper on any topic of Islam related to a legal or ethical question that is of interest to them. In this paper students will identify the legal or ethical problem at hand, present any arguments for or against the issue, and then present what the student feels might be a proposed Islamic ethical/legal answer to the question based upon what

they have learned in the course and through extra readings. The topic should be discussed with and approved by the instructor in advance. Students should incorporate the course readings into their final paper when applicable. Additional research will be required. The paper should be between 8-10 pages in length and be submitted to me by midnight Saturday December 17th.
( 40% )
Grading System
Attendance and Participation 20%; In-Class Presentation 20%; Weekly Response 20%; Final
Paper 40%
Attendance
Attendance is mandatory except in documented cases of illness or family emergency. Students who have more than one unexcused absence or who are consistently late to class will receive a drop in their attendance grade. Students are expected to notify the professor of any absence in advance as early as possible.
Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites for this course.
Texts
Readings will be available electronically.
Course Content
INTRODUCTION (September 3)
September 3 – General Overview
1: KNOWLEDGE (September 10)
September 10 – Ethos of Learning
-al-Zarnūjī, Instruction of the Student , all
2: QUR’AN
(September 17 and 24, October 1)
September 17 – Transitioning Values
-Toshihiko Izutsu, Ethico Religious Concepts in the Qurʾān , Chapter 5 “The Islamization of Old Arab Virtues”, pp. 74-104.
-George Hourani, “Ethics in Classical Islam: A Conspectus” in Reason & Tradition in the
Islamic Ethics , pp. 15-22.
September 24 – Good and Evil in the Qur’an

-Toshihiko Izutsu, Ethico Religious Concepts in the Qurʾān
, Chapter 9 “Good and Bad”, pp. 203-249.
-George Hourani, “Ethical Presuppositions in the Qur’an” in Reason & Tradition in the
Islamic Ethics , pp. 23-48.
3: SUNNAH (October 1, 8, 22 and 29)
October 1 – Meccan & Medinan Paradigms
-Jonathan A.C. Brown, Muhammad: A Very Short Introduction , Chapter 1, pp. 1-63.
-R.B. Serjeant, “The Sunnah Jāmiʿah, Pacts with the Yathrib Jews, and the Tahrim of
Yathrib: Analysis and Translation of the Documents Comprise in the so-called
Constitution of Medina,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 41.1
(1978), 1-42.
October 8 – The Science of Hadith
-Mohammad Hashim Kamali, Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence
, Chapter 2 “The
Sunnah”, pp. 58-116.
October 22 – Worldviews
-al-Ghazālī, The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife , pp. 7-14, 121-132.
-Jonathan E. Brockopp, “The ‘Good Death’ in Islamic Law and Theology,” in Islamic
Ethics of Life , ed. Jonathan E. Brockopp, pp. 177-193.
October 29 – The Ethics of the Prophet Applied (Imam Khalid Latif)
-Amy Singer, Charity in Islamic Societies
, Chapter 4, “The Poor and the Needy,” pp.
146-175.
4: FORMATIONS OF LAW (November 5 and 12)
November 5 – Deriving the Law
-Mohammad Hashim Kamali, Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence , Chapter 4 “Rules of
Interpretation I: Deducing the Law from Its Sources”, pp. 117-166.
-Ralph S. Hattox, Coffee and Coffeehouses
, Chapter 4 “Wine, Coffee, and the Holy Law,” pp. 46-60.
-Marion Holmes Katz, “The Problem of Abortion in Classical Sunni fiqh
,” in
Islamic
Ethics of Life , ed. Jonathan E. Brockopp, pp. 25-50.
November 12 – Schools of Law

-From The Islamic School of Law , ed. Peri Bearman, Rudolph Peters, Frank Vogel:
-Bernard Weiss, “The Madhhab in Islamic Legal Theory”, pp. 1-10.
-Steven Judd, “Al-Awza’i and Sufyan al-Thawri,” pp. 11-25.
-Eyyup Said Kaya, “Continuity and Change in Islamic Law,” pp. 26-40.
-Daphna Ephrat, “Madhhab and Madrasa in Eleventh Century Baghdad,” pp. 77-93.
5: FAITH AND ETHICS (November 19, December 3 and 10)
November 19 – Conditioning the Self
-Imam Birgivi, The Path of Muhammad: A Book on Islamic Morals & Ethics , Chapter 20
“The Use of the Tongue,” pp. 233-287.
-al-Ghazālī, On Disciplining the Soul & On Breaking the Two Desires , pp. 105-107, 133-
160.
November 26 – Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong (Imam Khalid Latif)
-Michael Cook, Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought , Chapter 2
“Koran and Koranic Exegesis,” Chapter 3 “Tradition” and Chapter 16 “Ghazzālī,” pp. 13-
45, 427-468.
December 3 – Contested Ground
-Sherman Jackson, Sufism for Non-Sufis , Introduction, pp. 3-42.
December 10 – Research Roundtable