Abdulaziz A. Sachedina

Abdulaziz A. Sachedina

Professor of Religious Studies, University of Virgina

"On Faith" panelist Abdulaziz Sachedina is Frances Myers Ball Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virgina, Charlottesville. The Tanzanian-born Sachedina, who has studied in India, Iraq, Iran, and Canada, earned his doctorate at the University of Toronto. For more than two decades he has focused his writing and research on Islamic law, ethics and theology. His special fields of interest are social and political ethics, including interfaith and intrafaith relations, and Islamic biomedical ethics. Sachedina's publications include numerous articles in academic journals and these books: Islamic Messianism ( 1980), Human Rights and the Conflicts of Culture, (1988), The Just Ruler in Shiite Islam (1988); The Prolegomena to the Qur'an (1998), and The Islamic Roots of Democratic Pluralism (2002). Close.

Abdulaziz A. Sachedina

Professor of Religious Studies, University of Virgina

"On Faith" panelist Abdulaziz Sachedina is Frances Myers Ball Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virgina, Charlottesville. The Tanzanian-born Sachedina, who has studied in India, Iraq, Iran, and Canada, earned his doctorate at the University of Toronto. more »

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Theology Archives



July 27, 2007 8:37 AM

A Crisis of Interpretation

There is a crisis of interpretation in Islamic religious sciences. This crisis is the result of a self-cultivated dislocation between theology, ethics, and law in Islamic tradition. Unless the doctrinal and ethical presuppositions of the early juridical tradition are investigated and expounded afresh, the crisis will continue to produce apologetic, intellectually impoverished, and most importantly, ethically insensitive Islamic scholarship. Moral sensibilities and demands of Islamic revealed texts can work together to resolve the epistemological crisis. Lack of historicism in analyzing the primary materials with sharp ethical tools has led to devaluation of human life caught in the crossfire of political conflicts.

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