Suchergebnisse

This volume provides an overview of the nature and scope of the concept of Sunna both in pre-modern and modern Islamic discussions. The main focus is on shedding more light on the context in which the term Sunna in the major works of Islamic law and legal theory across all of the major madhahib was employed during the first six centuries Hijri

Abstract
The main aim of this article is to examine the construction of a religiously ideal Muslim woman as presented in two sources documenting Bosnian Muslim (Bosniak) customs. The concept of a religiously ideal Muslim woman adopted in this article is based on recent theoretical studies in mainstream Sunnism, which can be arranged into three thematic areas: (i) the nature of female sexuality; (ii) gender segregation and veiling; and (iii) husband-wife dynamics and corresponding gender roles and norms. This article argues that the concept of a religiously ideal Bosnian Muslim woman in the two selected sources strongly reflects the ideal presented in mainstream Sunnism, which are premised upon beliefs that women embody an aggressive socio-morally corrupting sexuality, that upholding strict segregation and veiling is vital, and that husbands hold the locus of authority and control over their wives.

Abstract
In this article, I discuss the tensions between patriarchal and non-patriarchal interpretations of the Islamic tradition and some of the factors which contribute to the engendering of both. In order to contextualize the main discussion in the first part of the article, I outline the historical tensions between the study of religion and gender in general. The question of whether the culturally organizing function of gender is to be inevitably linked to the formation and perpetuation of patriarchal religion in general, and Islam in particular, is explored, or whether religion, including the case of Islam, can be a source of non-patriarchal values and ethics. In the second part, I discuss some of the most prominent factors which contribute to patriarchal interpretations of the Islamic tradition by grouping them, from the perspective of the individual interpreter, into those which pertain to personal opinion regarding the nature of two genders, Sitz im Leben, and interpretational methodology (manhaj). In the context of non-patriarchal interpretations of the Islamic tradition, I discuss its main delineating features and show, by using the work of a contemporary reformist Iranian scholar, H. Y. Eshkevari (b. 1949/1950), how the contemporary non-patriarchal interpretations of the Islamic tradition are sensitive to how both patriarchy and gender influence the process of interpretation.

It is the aim of this article to examine several gender related practices considered religiously normative by the is and deconstruct the religious justifications behind them. In the analysis I include the practices pertaining to the all-pervasive nature of gender segregation, obligatory nature of the face-veil (niqāb) and the institution of concubinage through means of enslavement of 'pagan' female war captives. In this context I will argue that from interpretational methodology point of view, the is' stance on gender under discussion are identical with the neo-ahl ḥadīth approach to interpretation (manhāj) of the Qurʾān and Sunna as advocated by major contemporary Saudi Arabian scholars such as Al-Albānī (d. 1999), A. Bin Bāz (d. 1999), M. Al-ʿUthaymīn (d. 2001), Ṣ. al-Fawzān (b. 1933), M. Ṣ. Al-Munajjid (b. 1960), Ibn Jibrīn (d. 2014) and H.R. Al-Madhkhalī (b. 1931). I also briefly note that in many ways the broader Sunnī traditionalist approach as exemplified in "Open-letter to Baghdādī Document" which aims to refute is interpretation of the normative texts, shares many hermeneutically critical presuppositions, and therefor legal determinations, with that of the neo-ahl ḥadīth in relation to the gender issues under discussion.

Abstract
It is the task of this paper to argue that the development of a new Qurʾān-sunna hermeneutic (and therefore Islamic legal theory) which hermeneutically privileges an ethico-religious and purposive approach to a Qurʾānic interpretation (based on ethically objectivist nature of ethical value) has the potential to engender a gender symmetrical Islamic law. In order for this to be achieved, it is argued further, that the hermeneutical importance of the mirroring of the various socio-cultural and ethico-moral assumptions prevalent in the Qurʾān's revelatory milieu in the actual Qurʾānic text itself must be taken into account as evident in those passages pertaining to the patriarchal nature of socio-legal aspects of gender dynamics and existence of slavery, especially female concubinage. Additionally, in the first part of the paper, I briefly discuss one reason why I consider the classical Islamic scholarship failed to explore the hermeneutical significance of these assumptions and therefore did not engender a Qurʾānic hermeneutic and Islamic legal theory that hermeneutically privileges an ethico-religious and purposive based approach to interpretation of Qurʾān and sunna. I refer to this process as a hermeneutical shift from a Qurʾān-sunna interpretive dialogical approach to that of a sunna-ḥadith episteme.