Search Results (51)

Despite the growing interest among comparative legal scholars in Islamic law, the application of Shia Islamic law remains an overlooked area within the field of comparative law. This article addresses this gap by offering a classification of contemporary national legal systems according to their incorporation of Shia Islamic law. The analysis begins with secular legal systems in countries with significant Shia populations and progresses to those jurisdictions where Shia Islamic law is officially recognised. Through this examination, I define the historical, cultural, and political contexts influencing the application of Shia Islamic law and assess how and to what extent these states implement Shia Islamic rulings, incorporating case studies to illustrate varying degrees of application. Full article

Suffering is a problem addressed by many world religions. This paper examines the understanding of suffering in three religions: Catholic Christianity, Shia Islam, and Shakta Hinduism. In each of these cases, ordinary suffering is transformed into mystical sorrow, becoming a path to closeness and divine union. This transformation makes use of religious symbolism of the family, emphasizing the role of the mother. Worldly suffering is no longer meaningless; instead, it becomes a spiritual path through which the individual person, and even the world at large, may be redeemed. Full article

This article explores the compatibility of liberal citizenship with Twelver Shia jurisprudence, a topic previously analyzed from the perspective of Sunni schools, most notably in the extensive research of Andrew F. March. This study confronts the challenges of reconciling liberal citizenship with Islamic jurisprudence, as highlighted in March’s work, through the lens of Shia legal thought. Rather than aiming to critique or review March’s research, this article considers his work solely as a representative example addressing the topic from the perspective of Sunni jurisprudence. This approach provides readers with a fundamental contrast, illuminating the unique insights that emerge from examining the subject within the framework of Shia jurisprudence. Unlike Sunni jurisprudence, which addresses these issues case-by-case by reviewing relevant Quranic and narrational sources, Twelver Shia jurisprudence offers a more foundational resolution. Owing to the belief in the occultation of the twelfth Imam and its implications for the implementation of Islamic law, Shia scholars have advanced theories such as the theory of obstruction (insidād) and the suspension of the social and political dimensions of Sharia. These theories effectively narrow the scope of Sharia, allowing for the acceptance of laws from non-Islamic states and circumventing potential conflicts with liberal citizenship in the absence of the twelfth Imam. Full article

The mainstream literature on the religiosity of Muslims in Europe often homogenises this diverse minority. This article diverges by focusing on a less visible ethno-religious minority within the Muslim population, specifically examining how Hazara Shia Muslim migrants from Afghanistan, resettled in the UK, live and organise Islam in everyday contexts. Addressing this gap, the research highlights the intersectionality of religion, ethnicity, and migration in reconfiguring religious practice. Grounded in the intersectional and lived religion approaches, this study contends that the religiosity of this Muslim minority undergoes a dynamic shift entwined with agency and adaptation in the new secular and plural context, becoming more individualised, privatised, and elective. Employing an ethnographic design, data are collected through semi-structured and key informant interviews, as well as participant observation, over 18 months of fieldwork across various council areas in Scotland. The findings illustrate reconfiguration, adaptation, and innovation in everyday Islam among this intersectional Muslim minority, identifying three main themes: the adaptation and reconfiguration of religious practices and rituals, the renegotiation of authoritative sources, and the navigation of intersectional identities and belonging since resettlement in the UK. Full article

The family, which is one of the oldest and most established institutions in human history, has not always just been a reasonable arrangement for achieving biological continuance as well as sexual, emotional, and material support, it has also been one of the basic components for the creation of civilization, culture, and society. There are various types of families, one of which is the endogamous family formed by the custom of consanguineous marriage within a very defined and distinct group. Our article concentrates on the question of how modernity and prosperity have influenced endogamy in modern Iran and whether this will change historical patterns and traditions or, perhaps, only broaden them within Iran’s newly developed and modern society. Our conclusion is that, in Iran’s uncertain environment, tradition may actually be strengthened. Full article

The present article scrutinizes the intricacies surrounding defensive warfare aimed at reclaiming territories perceived by Muslims as under non-Muslim occupation through the lens of the four Sunni schools and Twelver Shia perspectives. In Shia jurisprudence, in the absence of the twelfth Imam, the concept of defensive war does not extend to reclaiming Islamic territories per se; rather, Muslims are not sanctioned to engage in warfare solely for territorial defense. Instead, the imperative for Muslim involvement in armed conflict arises only when the fundamental tenets of Islam face jeopardy. According to Shia’s legal interpretation, jeopardizing the core principles of Islam implies a scenario where the erasure of Prophet Muhammad’s legacy and the utter annihilation of Sharia law are imminent. Such a predicament is not contingent upon the occupation of Islamic lands. However, Sunni jurisprudence posits a prerequisite for Muslims to engage in warfare, even in defense, necessitating a certainty of prevailing in the conflict. Consequently, given the contemporary milieu, wherein the requisite conditions for assured victory remain unattainable and are likely unattainable, defensive warfare for territorial reclamation is deemed impermissible. The findings of this inquiry propose an Islamic legal framework that advocates abstention from resorting to warfare concerning the mentioned territories in current circumstances, absolving Muslims of any obligation in this regard. Closing the avenue of armed conflict thereby paves the way for alternative avenues such as negotiation, reconciliation, and peace-building. It underscores Islam’s reverence for human life, prioritizing it over territorial concerns. Full article

This article aims to explore the potential challenges that may arise when employing generative AI models in the process of Shi’i ijtihad. By drawing upon academic literature and relevant primary sources, the essay surveys the most critical AI-related hurdles in this field, including issues of accessibility, privacy concerns, the problem of “AI hallucination” and the generative nature of AI models, biases in AI systems, the lack of transparency and inexplicability, the intricacies of interpreting and understanding sensitive topics, accountability, authority, trust and acceptance among lay believers. Using discourse and content analysis as method, the article concludes that, given these challenges, generative AI models are not yet suitable for utilization in this process. However, the rapid progress in AI may eventually make it an effective tool for this purpose. Full article

Over the past decades, Iran has been witnessing the growth of a burgeoning feminist movement. With its origins deeply rooted in the early 20th century, the Iranian feminist movement, as such, is not a uniform body: it embodies various, opposing even, political ideologies under the umbrella of feminism, reflecting the divergent social locations of its protagonists. While the movement has been criticized for its centralist, middle-class and at times apolitical tendencies, academic scholarship has yet to offer intersectional analyses that problematize historically rooted and daily materialized relations of power within the movement, particularly in relation to axes such as ethnicity (and race), religion, gender identity, sexuality, and (dis)ability. In light of this gap, the present article aims towards documenting and theorizing the intersectionality of the challenges facing Iranian feminist activists belonging to various ethnic nations and religious beliefs. Drawing on ethnographic research, it argues that minority feminists find themselves between a rock and a hard place: the rock being masculinist politics within their minoritized communities, which prioritize ethno-nationalist demands over gendered ones; the hard place being a centralist liberal feminist movement that fails to reflect the intersectionality of their experiences as non-Persian non-Shia women, thereby reproducing hierarchies of power in relation to ethnicity, religion, and class. Full article

Marja’ al-taqlid are Shia religious scholars of the highest level, something which takes decades to achieve. At present, most Shia scholars agree that women cannot be Marja’, i.e., create religious rulings for other people. But there is a space for discourse, and there are even a few scholars who disagree with the mainstream narrative. In this paper, I argue that, with time, the number of these scholars will increase, since Shia Islamic thought is ‘live’ and flexible, and adapts to the changing social conditions. The main obstacles that prevented women from reaching this level were the conservative views of some scholars and the lack of access to education. As the number of women with religious education constantly increases, the appearance of a female Marja’ will be a matter of time, but will still cause some resistance from some patriarchal members of society. Full article

The increasing global population and in-country migration have a significant impact on global land use land cover (LULC) change, which reduces green spaces and increases built-up areas altering the near-surface radiation and energy budgets, as well as the hydrological cycle over an urban area. The LULC change can lead to a combination of hazards such as increasing urban temperatures and intensified rainfall, ultimately resulting in increased flooding. This present study aims to discuss the changing pattern in urban temperature, daily rainfall, and flooding in Jakarta. The daily urban temperature and daily rainfall were based on a 30-year dataset from three meteorological stations of Jakarta in the period between 1987 and 2013. The changing trend was analyzed by using the Mann–Kendall and the Pettitt’s tests. The relation between daily rainfall and flooding was analyzed using a 30-year flooding dataset collected from several sources including the international disaster database, research, and newspaper. The results show that there was an increasing trend in the daily temperature and the daily rainfall in Jakarta. The annual maximum daily temperature showed that an increasing trend started in 2001 at the KMY station, and in 1996 at the SHIA station. In general, the highest annual maximum daily temperature was about 37 °C, while the lowest was about 33 °C. Moreover, the maximum daily rainfall started increasing from 2001. An increase in the maximum daily rainfall was observed mainly in January and February, which coincided with the flood events recorded in these months in Jakarta. This indicates that Jakarta is not only vulnerable to high urban temperature but also to flooding. While these two hazards occur in distinct timeframes, there is potential for their convergence in the same geographical area. This study provides new and essential insights to enhance urban resilience and climate adaptation, advocating a holistic approach required to tackle these combined hazards. Full article

This article examines, how the reformist attempts of some Iranian religious intellectuals—consciously or unconsciously—lead to the desacralization of Islamic concepts, using the Iranian jurist and activist Seddigha Wasmaghi as an example. The reformists are, as will be shown with reference to Wasmaghi, concerned with establishing that the normative as well as the theological assumptions in Islam are results of human cognition. Any idea that is qualified as a human assumption, i.e., not sacred and thus open to challenge, can be critically examined, re-read, and perhaps even changed or overruled. Such approaches include, for example, Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari’s understanding of the Qurʾan as a ‘prophetic reading of the world’ and ʿAbdolkarim Sorush’s interpretation of revelation as ‘prophet’s dreams’. Among the most recent attempts of this kind is Seddigha Wasmaghi’s perception of ‘prophecy as a human construction’. This argument is presented and critically analyzed in this paper. Full article

This paper investigates the intersection of Sufism and philosophy in the Shii context during the post-Mulla Ṣadrā era. Specifically, it traces the scholars who emphasized Ṣadrian philosophical and mystical approaches on both theoretical and practical levels and identifies the roots of the Ṣūfī order in the Shia seminary after 1850, namely the Ṣūfī school of Najaf. I argue that these scholars were connected to Ṣūfī orders such as the Dhahabīyya and the Niʻmatullāhī order, contrary to the claim that they were not affiliated with any formal Ṣūfī order. Furthermore, I highlight the reluctance of the masters and followers of the contemporary “Ṣūfī School of Najaf” to reveal their Ṣūfī connections in the anti-Ṣūfī dominant environment of the seminary. Ultimately, this paper provides a comprehensive understanding of the connections between philosophy and Ṣūfīsm in the post-Mulla Ṣadrā era and speculates on the roots, origin, and development of such a school in the contemporary Shīʿī seminary. Full article

The opportunity to receive religious education plays an important role in the formation of the religious elite of society. It forms the Muslim clergy, which, in turn, represents this community in front of other members of society. Their statements directly affect the attitude of non-Muslims towards the members of this community, which is very important, especially in the cases where Muslims are a minority, and Shi’ites, in turn, are a minority in all post-Soviet countries except Azerbaijan. The Shia communities of the post-Soviet region are little studied in general. Analysing their specifics, one can see that almost all the clerics of these communities received religious education in Iran and/or Iraq, while the Sunni clerics of the same countries most often studied in their homeland. This problem in the aspect of comparing Sunni and Shia education, as well as the past (starting from the USSR times), the present and the future of Shia higher religious education were studied in this paper. Full article

This study delves into the nuanced understanding of human dignity as expressed and upheld within the framework of Shi’i Islam. Drawing on the Quran as the primary source of Shi’i interpretation of the law and human rights, this research investigates the portrayal of human dignity in the Shia tradition through Islamic revelation. Furthermore, this study illuminates how certain Shia scholars depict the Quran as striving for the coherence of diverse religions and cultures and how Shia Imams have contributed to the discourse surrounding human dignity through their thoughts and actions. In addition, this study scrutinizes the debates on the compatibility of Islamic human dignity with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including contemporary challenges and the responses of Shi’i jurists to these challenges. However, while the Quran and Hadith resources offer sufficient references to human dignity, various approaches to human dignity remain among Shia jurists. Some Shia scholars consider human dignity to be acquired (Iktisābī) through human thoughts and deeds, while others ascribe to dignity an essential characteristic of humankind (dhātī) unconditionally bestowed by God. This research elaborates on how these interpretations, consequences, and requirements inspire Shia jurisprudence (fiqh), particularly in contemporary multicultural and pluralistic societies. Furthermore, it examines how this challenge is being debated among the proponents of each group and how it relates to human rights and current challenges. The study of contemporary developments in Shi’i fiqh regarding the role of human dignity and justice as Legal Maxims (al-qawāʿid al-fiqh) provides a necessary context for understanding and ensuring just legal rulings. Philosophically speaking, if God is the Lawgiver (Shāriʿ) and is Just and Wise, this raises the question of whether it is permissible for a jurist to enact laws that contradict human dignity and justice. This study aims to explore potential solutions to traditional challenges that do not consider human dignity and to suggest ways in which human dignity and justice can be applied as legal maxims. Full article

This paper explores the connection between intra-religious dialogue and Muslim identities in Australia. Drawing on empirical literature and analysis, this article investigates the increasing identification and interplay between Australian Muslims from different sects, sub-sects and faith-based groups of Islam. It argues intra-Muslim dialogue is gaining more noticeability among Australian Muslims working to build civic and inclusive identities. At the same time, the article points to the socio-political, organisational and sectarian issues challenging intra-religious unity between Muslim groups in Australia. To achieve genuine and long-lasting intra-faith relations, the article argues for a need to develop organic, theologically inclusive and contextually grounded articulations of intra-Muslim dialogue in Australia. The article concludes that diverse experiences of identity formation in Australia serve as an impetus for strengthening intra-Muslim relations based on previous success with inter-faith initiatives, as well as intergroup contact with non-Muslims. Full article