RELS 255 What is the Shari’a? Justice, Law, and Ethics in Islam
Discussions of the Sharī‘a (Islamic law) in American public discourse conjure images of veiled women, girls barred from attending school, and public spectacles of flogging and stoning to death. Such a caricature of the Sharī‘a as a medieval and draconian penal code elicits public fear and state suspicion. In the West, this caricature induces legislative measures to curb the Sharī‘a’s perceived threat to security, democracy, and human rights. On the other hand, Islamists seek to harness the Sharī‘a as an instrument of political legitimacy and authoritarian rule, using it to curb individual freedoms and stamp down on women’s rights. Both uses of the Sharī‘a reify it in ways that erode its rich history, cosmopolitan diversity, interpretive complexity, and lived realities across the Muslim world. This course offers an in-depth introduction to the Sharī‘a, examining its sources, people, institutions, and their historical evolution from 7th century Arabia to the present. Students will gain a holistic understanding of the Sharī‘a’s major doctrines and practices, ranging from laws of worship and ritual purity to institutions of marriage, slavery, war, and economic welfare. We will examine the pre-modern historical and societal contexts in which Islamic legal schools evolved, as well as challenges to their orthodoxy and patriarchal structures by Muslim modernists and feminists. Students will also study the significance of colonial modernity in transforming the Sharī‘a from a socially embedded and pluralistic legal tradition into a codified and bureaucratic legal system. Finally, we will examine the Sharī‘a’s vexed relationship with liberal democracy in Muslim-majority countries and its vilification in Euro-American contexts in the form of anti-Muslim racism, surveillance, and Islamophobia.
Core Requirements Met
- Global Connections
- Pre-1800