IIIT Summer Scholars and Students Programs
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This book tackles head-on the rulings of Islamic jurists that make Islam seem incompatible with modern, scientifically, and technologically advanced, democratic societies. The book argues that it is crucial to find theoretical and practical solutions that will enable Western Muslims to remain faithful to Islamic ethics while fully living within their societies and their time. It notes that Muslim scholars often refer to the notion of ijtihâd (critical and renewed reading of the foundational texts) as the only way for Muslims to take up these modern challenges. But, the book argues, in practice such readings have effectively reached the limits of their ability to serve the faithful in the West as well as the East. This book sets forward a radical new concept of ijtihâd, which puts context-including the knowledge derived from the hard and human sciences, cultures, and their geographic and historical contingencies-on an equal footing with the scriptures as a source of Islamic law. This global and comprehensive approach, it says, seems to be the only way to go beyond the current limits and face up to the crisis in contemporary Islamic thought: Muslims need a contemporary global and applied ethics. After setting out this proposal, the book applies a new methodology to several practical case studies involving controversial issues in five areas: medical ethics, education, economics, marriage and divorce, culture, and creativity.

In The Quest for Meaning: Developing a Philosophy of Pluralism, Tariq Ramadan embarks on a journey to uncover the profound truths that bind us together. In a world so full of different beliefs and viewpoints, how can we find peace in our shared humanity? Acclaimed thinker and philosopher Tariq Ramadan explores universal ideas such as love, respect, truth, and tolerance, and examines questions such as how can men and women relate to each other? What is the true nature of equality? What does "civilization" really mean? In doing so, he opens our minds to a new view of humanity. Whether we are Christian or Buddhist, Jewish or Muslim, secularist or believer, he reveals that all traditions of thought spring from the same place, and guides us to see past what divides us and discover the beauty of what we have in common. This book has resonance for all of us, showing why, eventually, all different spiritual paths lead to the human heart.