SHARIAsource

SHARIAsource SHARIAsource is a flagship research venture of the Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School. We are not a religious organization or an advocacy group.

Its continuing mission is to organize the world’s information on Islamic law in a way that is accessible and useful, using data science tools and methods. SHARIAsource is a flagship research venture of the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School. Its continuing mission is to organize the world’s information on Islamic law in a way that is accessible and useful, using data science. Work

ing with a global team of editors, we provide a portal to house primary sources of Islamic law (beta.SHARIAsource.com), a scholarly forum for the people who critically analyze them (islamiclaw.blog), and a journal to provide a research home to long-form analysis that informs academic and public discourse about Islamic law (journalofislamiclaw.com). Our events and other programs at PIL serve generally interested readers through a blog, newsletter, and special events. SHARIAsource adheres to common principles of academic engagement including attention to diverse perspectives, peer-reviewed analysis, and the free and open exchange of ideas. SHARIAsource was developed with support from the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, from the Luce and MacArthur Foundations, and from the John Templeton Foundation.

Islamic Law in the News RoundupISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS "The supreme leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Hibatul...
06/01/2026

Islamic Law in the News Roundup

ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS "The supreme leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Hibatullah Akundzada has called on religious scholars to strengthen the implementation of Sharia and preserve the history of jihad." For more content and context on the recent developments in Afghanistan, consult our Editor-in-Chief Professor Intisar Rabb’s “Resource Roundup: Afghanistan, the Taliban, and Islamic Law.”...

ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS “The supreme leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Hibatullah Akundzada has called on religious scholars to strengthen the implementation of Sharia and preserve…

Weekend Scholarship RoundupSCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law Erin Braatz (Suffolk University Law School) recently revie...
05/29/2026

Weekend Scholarship Roundup

SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law Erin Braatz (Suffolk University Law School) recently reviewed Rabiat Akande's (University of Toronto) Entangled Domains: Empire, Law and Religion in Northern Nigeria (Cambridge University Press). The book "confronts a paradox: the state insisted on its separation from religion even as it governed its multireligious population through what remained of the precolonial caliphate. Entangled Domains grapple with this history to offer a provocative account of secularism as a contested yet contingent mode of governing religion and religious difference."...

SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law Erin Braatz (Suffolk University Law School) recently reviewed Rabiat Akande’s (University of Toronto) Entangled Domains: Empire, Law and Religion in Norther…

Thank you, Haroon Bashir!Many thanks to Haroon Bashir for joining us as guest blog editor in May. In case you missed his...
05/28/2026

Thank you, Haroon Bashir!

Many thanks to Haroon Bashir for joining us as guest blog editor in May. In case you missed his essays, here they are: The Emancipatory Ethic? Freedom in Classical Islamic Law Abolitionist Trajectories? Modern Rereadings of Emancipation Preserving the Past: Slavery, Tradition and Legal Authority Competing Moral Logics: Islamic Law, Slavery, and Abolition in the Contemporary World

Many thanks to Haroon Bashir for joining us as guest blog editor in May. In case you missed his essays, here they are: The Emancipatory Ethic? Freedom in Classical Islamic Law Abolitionist Trajecto…

Competing Moral Logics: Islamic Law, Slavery, and Abolition in the Contemporary WorldBy Haroon Bashir Debates regarding ...
05/28/2026

Competing Moral Logics: Islamic Law, Slavery, and Abolition in the Contemporary World

By Haroon Bashir Debates regarding slavery and Islam have resurfaced in modern times, partly due to the re-emergence of slavery through the actions of groups such as ISIS and Boko Haram.[1] The revival of slave markets and slavery, justified in part through the citation of Islamic legal codes, sits near the top of the list of the group’s iniquities. In response to these acts, Muslim scholars and organizations banded together to refute and castigate ISIS as vicious, malevolent, and un-Islamic....

By Haroon Bashir Debates regarding slavery and Islam have resurfaced in modern times, partly due to the re-emergence of slavery through the actions of groups such as ISIS and Boko Haram.[1] The rev…

Islamic Law in the News RoundupISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS "Muslim mourners typically recite the Janazah, an Islamic funeral...
05/25/2026

Islamic Law in the News Roundup

ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS "Muslim mourners typically recite the Janazah, an Islamic funeral prayer, at a mosque. But the three men being buried died as heroes, so the walls of the Islamic Center of San Diego [California] could not hold the vast number of people who wanted to pay tribute to them." "Pakistan has restarted the export of alcoholic beverages after a gap of nearly 50 years....

ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS “Muslim mourners typically recite the Janazah, an Islamic funeral prayer, at a mosque. But the three men being buried [last week] died as heroes, so the walls of the I…

Weekend Scholarship RoundupSCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law In "Integrating Energy Justice and Maqasid al-Shariah to a...
05/22/2026

Weekend Scholarship Roundup

SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law In "Integrating Energy Justice and Maqasid al-Shariah to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Malaysia" (International Review of Law), former PIL Senior Research Fellow Wan Mohd Zulhafiz bin Wan Zahari (International Islamic University) and others explore "how the integration of energy justice and Maqasid al-Shariah can enhance Malaysia’s ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030....

SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law In “Integrating Energy Justice and Maqasid al-Shariah to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Malaysia” (International Review of Law), …

Preserving the Past: Slavery, Tradition and Legal AuthorityBy Haroon Bashir While the gradual abolition thesis gained po...
05/21/2026

Preserving the Past: Slavery, Tradition and Legal Authority

By Haroon Bashir While the gradual abolition thesis gained popularity, as demonstrated in the previous essay, it was by no means universally accepted. Scholars such as Ḥusayn al-Jisr (d. 1327/1909) and Yūsuf al-Nabahānī (d. 1932) argued that abolition was a modern innovation and a form of theological corruption.[1] In a bid to preserve classical rulings on slavery, they claimed that slavery was part of a divine order, hierarchy is a natural occurrence, and abolition could potentially harm the individuals it sought to liberate....

By Haroon Bashir While the gradual abolition thesis gained popularity, as demonstrated in the previous essay, it was by no means universally accepted. Scholars such as Ḥusayn al-Jisr (d. 1327/1909…

Islamic Law in the News RoundupISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS In Saudi Arabia, "the Presidency of Religious Affairs unveiled an...
05/18/2026

Islamic Law in the News Roundup

ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS In Saudi Arabia, "the Presidency of Religious Affairs unveiled an updated AI-powered Manara Robot deployed at Masjid al-Haram (the Grand Mosque in Makkah) and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi (the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah)." "The Council of Muslim Elders said that protecting homelands, safeguarding their security and preserving societal unity are among the highest objectives of Islamic Law." "In a statement commenting on the announcement by several Arab states, most recently the…...

ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS In Saudi Arabia, “the Presidency of Religious Affairs unveiled an updated AI-powered Manara Robot deployed at Masjid al-Haram (the Grand Mosque in Makkah) and Al-Masji…

Weekend Scholarship RoundupSCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law In The Islamic Reform Movement of the Association of Alger...
05/15/2026

Weekend Scholarship Roundup

SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law In The Islamic Reform Movement of the Association of Algerian ʿUlamaʾ, 1931–1954 (Brill), Shoko Watanabe (University of Tokyo) asks, "How are we to understand the internal dynamics of an Islamic reform movement that calls for nationalist rallies and joins a delegation to meet with the French Prime Minister but denies that it ‘does politics’? This book analyzes how the Association of Algerian ʿUlamaʾ, founded in 1931 as a league of Muslim scholars, addressed the peculiar situation of French…...

SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law In The Islamic Reform Movement of the Association of Algerian ʿUlamaʾ, 1931–1954 (Brill), Shoko Watanabe (University of Tokyo) asks, “How are we to understa…

Abolitionist Trajectories? Modern Rereadings of EmancipationBy Haroon Bashir It is often stated in contemporary discussi...
05/14/2026

Abolitionist Trajectories? Modern Rereadings of Emancipation

By Haroon Bashir It is often stated in contemporary discussions on slavery and Islam, almost to the point of ubiquity, that Islam always aimed to abolish slavery.[1] Yet, the first explicit articulation of this claim emerged only in the late nineteenth century, advanced by the Egyptian reformer Muhammad Abduh (d. 1323/1905).[2] As I demonstrated in the previous essay, while emancipation was viewed as meritorious and commendable, slavery itself was not subjected to institutional critique nor conceived as a moral aberration requiring dismantlement....

By Haroon Bashir It is often stated in contemporary discussions on slavery and Islam, almost to the point of ubiquity, that Islam always aimed to abolish slavery.[1] Yet, the first explicit articul…

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