The concept of a ‘religious police’
ONE OF THESE PARADOXES was the emergence of a religious police and a Tunisian committee promoting virtue and preventing vice,…
The contest of tafkīr and takfīr
THE TAKFIRIST on the other hand lacks mental capacity, a cogent argument or any convincing evidence for his views, and…
Islam’s contradictory God
THE FIRST of these attributes is waḥdāniyya (‘monotheism’), and secondly tanzīh (transcendence). But this seems contradictory or weak when we…
What does ‘the comprehensiveness of Islam’ mean?
THE ABOVE STATEMENT is a short excerpt of a lengthy response by the Salafi cleric ‘Abd al-Ḥayy Yūsuf, to the…
The abrogation and alteration of the Sharīʻa
SIMILARLY THERE ARE what they considered to be rational arguments – that God does not change His opinion like mortals…
The Prophet Muhammad between al-Isra’ and al-Miʽraj
THE STORY of the Isrā’ and the Miʽrāj [1] is one that frequently excites much debate due to the contradictory…
On the problem of the Prophet’s infallibility – 2
SHĪʽITE IMAMITE JURISPRUDENCE in itself entirely disavows the possibility of the Prophets committing sins, be they venial or mortal, whether…
Problematic issues in the biography of the Prophet – 2
IN THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ISLAM, Dr. Wim Raven wrote an entry on the sīra. What he says in his introduction…
Problematic issues in the biography of the Prophet – 1
IN ITS FINE DETAILS the Prophet’s sīra constitutes a basis for fatwas (juristic ruling concerning Islamic law) and provides the…
On the problem of the Prophet’s infallibility – 1
THE TERM ‘INFALLIBILITY’ is completely absent from early Islamic historiography, and textual evidence on the events of this early period…