The AMI Podcast

The roots of the power struggle over authority and recognition among various factions of Twelver Shias of South Asian background living in London revolves around the idea of how the ‘true and authentic’ Shia Islam is practised through Ashura Rituals. The theological and political genealogy of this struggle can be traced by examining the history of Shia Islam in South Asia and by analysing the migration of Shia Muslims from India to Pakistan during 1947 partition of sub-continent, and subsequent migration to Britain from South Asia. This seminar will present the historical analysis and ethnographic accounts on Shia Islam and how it is practised in London. The influence of London based Iranian and Iraqi Shia transnational networks are vital to understand in order to approach the internal groupings of adherents in London based South Asian Hussanias. While some South Asian origin Shias confirm to the Iran-backed reformist versions of globally standardised ritual commemoration of Ashura, others detest this and search for religious reinterpretations that may legitimise their South Asian ways of commemorating the Ashura ritual.

An important component in the post-Islamic discourse is the question of the status of Islamic law in contemporary times. Many contemporary jurists have argued that the juridical decisions in the past were interwoven to the political, cultural, or historical circumstances in the eighth century. They further argue while the Qur’an is a fixed text, the interpretive applications of its revelations can vary with the changing realities of history.  This paper argues that there is a need to move beyond the current form of ijtihad to an era of post-ijtihad in Twelver Shi‘ism. The present ijtihad, which was developed in the medieval ages, has failed to produce a coherent legal system that can effectively respond to the needs of contemporary Muslims. The paper will also focus on the post-ijtihadism phenomenon and will argue that the traditional text-centered ijtihad has to be replaced with a new form of ijtihad which utilizes different forms of exegetical principles to formulate new rulings that will serve the Muslim community better. Post-ijtihadism, as I call it, will entail new hermeneutic and interpretive principles to provide a re-evaluation of classical juristic formulations and to assert a new jurisprudence that is based on the notion of ethical axioms and universal moral values. Post-Ijtihadism will also entail revamping traditional Islamic legal theory (Usul al-fiqh) which has hampered rather than enhanced the formulations of newer laws.

In recent years a significant amount of attention has been paid to British Muslim perceptions of evolutionary science. This has predominantly taken the form of sensationalist newspaper headlines written in response to alleged incidents of Muslim rejection of evolutionary science. Examples include statements by Richard Dawkins and media coverage of comments by geneticist Steve Jones or the publication of Harun Yahya’s Atlas of Creation. Unfortunately this has not been restricted to the media. Similar narratives are also found in academic literatures, with examples of unsubstantiated reports that a rise in “Islamic Creationism” has taken place. Yet, little academic research had been conducted to support such claims. This paper will draw on newly available data to critically examine British Muslims’ perceptions of evolution, as well as to gain a further understanding of the factors influencing perceptions of evolutionary science.

In this presentation, Dr Warner focuses on the relationship that the book ʿUyūn portrays between al-Riḍā and his eventual murderer, the ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Maʾmūn. Imamicide though he is, al-Maʾmūn in ʿUyūn is no Yazīd, for what we see in al-Ṣadūq’s work is not a portrait of absolute, irredeemable evil but a man who has a choice; a man who encounters the imām, who recognises the imām but who ultimately fails to make good that encounter and so is ultimately damned. This intense vision of the stakes of meeting God’s ḥujja forms the core of ʿUyūn, around which are explorations of a range of other relationships that include both al-Ṣadūq’s readers’ relationship with their imām(s) and al-Ṣadūq’s relationship with the powerful, irascible vizier al-Ṣāḥib Ibn ʿAbbād.

The shortage of organs donated for transplantation is resulting in the deaths of three people daily in addition to being burdensome on the NHS, which has to provide costly treatments. Quantitative surveys on the attitudes of British Muslims towards donation reveal that although the majority say that they are happy to receive an organ if needed, they are reluctant to become donors. Individuals feel constrained by advice from religious leaders and the interpretation of religious scriptures, considering organ donation to contravene Sharia rulings. In light of the imminent transition towards a system of ‘deemed consent’, in which there is a presumption that everyone is willing to donate their organs, Muslims are faced with the question of whether they want to opt out of saving, potentially, several lives.

Sayed Hossein Qazwini (Islamic Seminary of Karbala) discusses the different Shi'i Fiqhi views on Women's right to child custody.

Dr Omar Anchassi (University of Edinburgh) presents on the early juristic position within the various schools of jurisprudence regarding marriage to non-Muslim women who are either pagans or from the Abrahamic religions.

What does it mean to be a practicing Shi'a in Europe in the contemporary moment? How do individuals from Shi'a backgrounds negotiate their place in European society, especially in countries where Shi'is represent a "minority of a minority" with regards to the wider Muslim population? Drawing on my doctoral research among practicing Shi'is in the UK, this seminar will present some of the key findings regarding the development of a modern "British Shi'a" identity, as well as ask questions about the transferability of such an identity across European borders. The seminar will thus function simultaneously as an exploratory workshop, encouraging feedback and interaction from participants regarding their own sense of identity and belonging, and the ways in which academic scholarship needs to reflect the changing nature of what it means to be Shi'a in the modern world.

Despite their broad agreement about the definition of belief (īmān) and about key theological doctrine, Muslim scholars in the 15th-17th century Maghrib argued fiercely over whether and how to teach that doctrine to non-elite members of society. This seminar will explain the concepts, argumentation, and stakes of these disputes and discuss several moments when "the belief of the common folk" became an especially heated issue. In doing so, it moreover offers space to reflect on the appropriateness of translating īmān as belief and on the place of belief within Islamic thought.

Leaving Iberia: Islamic Law and Christian Conquest in North West Africa examines Islamic legal responses to Muslims living under Christian rule  in medieval and early modern Iberia and North Africa. The fall of al-Andalus, or Reconquista, has long been considered a turning point when the first substantial Muslim populations fell under permanent Christian rule. Yet a near-exclusive focus on conquered  Iberian Muslims has led scholars to overlook a substantial body of legal opinions issued in response to Portuguese and Spanish occupation in  Morocco itself, beginning in the early fifteenth century. By moving beyond Iberia and following Christian conquerors and Muslim emigrants into North Africa, Leaving Iberia links the juristic discourses on conquered Muslims on both sides of the  Mediterranean, critiques the perceived exceptionalism of the Iberian  Muslim predicament, and adds a significant chapter to the story of  Christian–Muslim relations in the medieval Mediterranean. The final portion of the book explains the disparate fates of these medieval legal opinions in colonial Algeria and Mauritania, where jurists granted lasting authority to some opinions and discarded others. Based on research in the Arabic manuscript libraries of five countries, Leaving Iberia offers the first fully annotated translations of the major legal texts under analysis.