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Rational Shari’ah: Ahmad Qabel’s Reformist Approach
Open accessAbstract
This article introduces the late Ahmad Qabel (1958–2012), a new figure among contemporary Iranian religious reformers. Qabel, a progressive mujtahid, proposed the creative theory of Shari’at-e ’Aqlani in order to reform stagnant Shari’ah rules and align the application of legal norms and precepts with the space-time considerations of modern life. Critical of the superficiality of traditional jurists, who led into abeyance the progressive rational praxis within classical Shi’i theology and jurisprudence, Qabel revived and employed these rational principles in his novel method of ijtihad. This paper has four sections: first, there will be a short biographical sketch of Ahmad Qabel. The second section surveys the trajectory of the development of Shi’i fiqh in order to set the backdrop for Qabel’s arguments. Then, I will discuss some of the major rational principles which constitute the heart of Qabel’s methodology. In the last section, the practical results of Qabel’s Shari’at-e ’Aqlani are presented through some of his unconventional fatwas, which, though solidly based within the Shari’ah, took on controversial topics such as women’s rights, religious minorities, jihad, and Islamic government.
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Individuals such as Mohsen Kadivar, Ahmad Qabel, Mohammad Soroush Mahallati, Ayatollah Assadollah Bayat Zanjani, and numerous others present moderate readings of religion in relation to a range of matters.
“Individuals such as Mohsen Kadivar, Ahmad Qabel, Mohammad Soroush Mahallati, Ayatollah Assadollah Bayat Zanjani (Ridgeon 2020(Ridgeon , 2021;;Jahanbakhsh 2020), as well as numerous others, present moderate readings of religion in relation to a range of matters.”
From Wasatiyya Discourse in Shi’i Islam: Ayatollah Montazeri and Human Rights Jurisprudence (2022) · cites this paper as Jahanbakhsh 2020
Section 2, “The Iranian Context,” identifies Mohsen Kadivar as a religious reformer working on a range of social and political topics. Section 3, “Ahmad Qabel and His Legacy,” describes Qabel’s reformist approach. Our copy does not establish the claim about Mohammad Soroush Mahallati or Ayatollah Assadollah Bayat Zanjani; the Soroush it discusses is Abdulkarim Soroush. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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References 2 · Cited by 4
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Akbar, 2018, Interpretation and mutability: Socio-legal texts of the Quran; three accounts from contemporary Iran, Middle Eastern Studies, 54, 442, 10.1080/00263206.2018.1426569 · DOI
- 2010, Modern Intellectual Approaches to Islamic Law, Islam and Civilisational Renewal ICR Journal, 1, 475
Metadata
- Authors
- Jahanbakhsh, F.
- Affiliations
- Queen's University (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Jahanbakhsh, Forough
- Venue
- Religions
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2020-12-12
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 665
- ISSN
- 2077-1444 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3113000908
- Cited by
- 4
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 1.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Religions (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Islamic Studies and History
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Qur’anic Interpretation Studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Islamic Thought and Society Studies
- Keywords
- ijtihad, fatwa, women's rights, religious minorities, jihad, Islamic government, Islamic reform
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