In this innovative study, Kecia Ali examines the forefather of the second largest of the four principal Sunni schools of jurisprudence, the Shafii. Gifted poet and outstanding Islamic Scholar, Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi'i (767-820) firmly rejected the use of common sense in Islamic legal rulings, arguing that the only valid sunnah (or prophetic religious traditions) were directly handed down from Muhammad by Hadith. Kecia Ali is Assistant Professor of Religion at Boston University. She is a world authority on Islamic jurisprudence, and author of Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist...

EXPANDED AND REVISED TENTH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

Whether exploring the thorny issues of wives' sexual duties, divorce, homosexuality, or sex outside marriage, discussions of sexual ethics and Islam often spark heated conflict rather than reasoned argument. In this groundbreaking, lucid, and carefully constructed work, feminist Muslim scholar Dr Kecia Ali asks how one can determine what makes sex lawful and ethical in the sight of God.

This updated Tenth Anniversary Edition takes into account how the world has changed in the decade since the first edition, including the way the...