Critical-Progressive Muslims: On Islamic hermeneutics, Gender and Interreligious Dialogue

  Can Traditional Islamic Theology Still Explain the World We Live In?   Adis Duderija     Many Muslims sense that something is no longer working. The problem is not Islam itself. The problem is that some of the theological frameworks through which Islam has been interpreted struggle to account for the world we actually inhabit. This has become increasingly apparent in discussions of religious diversity, divine providence, human freedom, and salvation. Few recent scholars have articulated these difficulties more clearly than Imran Aijaz , whose critique of traditional Islamic theism deserves serious attention, whether or not one ultimately accepts all of his conclusions. His arguments strike at the heart of some of the most deeply embedded assumptions in traditional Sunni theology. And they point toward the urgent need for a new Islamic ontology and theology grounded in process-relational thought. The Crisis of Plausibility Aijaz’s central claim...

  Hakimiyya or Human Responsibility? Why Muslims Need a New Vision of Divine Power   Adis Duderija   For more than a century, one idea has exercised a powerful influence on Muslim political thought: hakimiyya , the belief that legislative sovereignty belongs exclusively to God. Popularised in the modern period by Islamist thinkers such as Abul A'la Mawdudi and Sayyid Qutb, but very much present in many forms of premodern Islam, the concept has become a cornerstone of many Islamist and fundamentalist visions of society. At first glance, the idea appears uncontroversial. Muslims affirm that God is the creator and sustainer of the universe. The Qur'an repeatedly reminds believers that ultimate authority belongs to God. So what is the problem? The problem begins when a theological truth is transformed into a political ideology. In many traditional and fundamentalist interpretations, hakimiyya is understood as God's unilateral and absolute control over reality. Human beings ...

  The Religious Genius: The Creative Transformation of Religious Consciousness     Adis Duderija What makes certain individuals transformative within the history of religion? Why do some people merely preserve a tradition while others renew it, deepen it, and reveal possibilities within it that had previously remained unrealized? These questions stand at the center of the concept of the "religious genius." Drawing on Alon Goshen-Gottstein's formulation, a religious genius is not simply an exceptionally intelligent person, a saintly individual, or an accomplished scholar. Rather, a religious genius is someone who, through a rare integration of intuition, intellect, imagination, and character, generates new understanding of reality that addresses fundamental religious concerns and leads to enduring transformation within a tradition. The religious genius offers not merely information but insight; not merely interpretation but reconfiguration; not merely knowledge...

  Why the Highly Gendered Nature of Classical Islamic Law Demands Critical Reassessment Adis Duderija One of the most common claims made in contemporary discussions of Islam and gender is that men and women are "equal but different." According to this view, the distinctions made within classical Islamic law do not reflect male superiority or female inferiority but simply different roles, responsibilities, and social functions. Yet a close examination of the classical legal tradition suggests otherwise. The issue is not merely that men and women are treated differently. Rather, the legal system itself was constructed upon a set of assumptions about masculinity and femininity that consistently privileged men while limiting the autonomy, authority, and agency of women.  The highly gendered character of classical Islamic law becomes apparent when one considers the sheer breadth of legal distinctions between men and women. These differences extended far beyond marriage and family ...

  On the Concept of a   (Woman)   Saint     Adis Duderija   What comes to mind when we hear the phrase woman saint? For many, the image is almost predetermined: a figure of purity, obedience, humility, and self-sacrifice. She is patient under suffering, submissive to authority, and detached from worldly ambition. Such qualities may indeed characterize some women recognized as saints. Yet, as Robert Ellsberg perceptively observes, these conventional portraits often tell us as much about the expectations of those who wrote the stories as they do about the women themselves.   The history of sainthood has largely been written by men, shaped by institutions dominated by male religious authorities. As a result, women saints have frequently been celebrated for embodying virtues deemed appropriately feminine while other traits have been minimized or ignored. Courage becomes obedience. Leadership becomes service. Intellectual brilliance becomes pi...