Ecofeminist Theology in Islam: The Process and Application of Synthesizing Rosemary Radford Ruether’s Insights, Islamic Feminist Aspirations, and Ecological Concerns

The focal point of this dissertation is theoretical and applicatory in scope; it incorporates three distinct areas of scholarship, the ecofeminist theology of Rosemary Radford Ruether, Islamic feminism, and Islamic environmentalism towards the primary goal of making a case for the construction of an ecofeminist theology in Islam. Specifically, I seek to consolidate Islamic feminists and environmental theories and approaches while utilizing and bringing to bear the insights and critiques of Ruether. This is accomplished through a process of synthesis and application. The intersection of environmental destruction and gender disparity is the hallmark claim of ecofeminism and thus, I begin with an ecofeminist appraisal of contemporary Islamic discourses on women and ecology by answering the question—what are the Islamic dimensions connecting gender inequalities with ecological imbalances? I hypothesize that within Islamic contexts and worldview, the intersection of environmental destruction and gender disparities are critical to understanding the dynamics of both issues. I argue that Islamic feminist scholarship heavily addresses patriarchal components of Islam, while attention given to hierarchal structures is largely limited to gender analyses. This, I assert, situates the resulting need for critical ecological integration utilizing an ecofeminist framework of which Ruether offers tremendous theoretical and methodological usability. From this, I construct what an ecofeminist theology in Islam could entail, its contours, constraints, and applicability. Finally, I apply the synthesized ecofeminist framework to specific Qur’anic examples. I examine the Arabic word “khalīfa” when translated as vicegerency. I also explore narratives of Adam, Ḥawwāh/Eve, the Garden of Eden, and the afterworld (Heaven and Hell) through the pursuit of answering some fundamental research questions—What are the theological implications of “khalīfa” translated as vicegerency and the Qur’anic narrative of Adam, Eve, the Garden of Eden, and the afterworld? Are there categorical and or dualistic hierarchies in classical and contemporary Islamic theology, which activate a gendered hierarchy of human over non-human creation and male over female? I argue that classical and contemporary Islamic interpretations prompted by those narratives directly influence body conceptions, gender roles, and environmental ethics in Islam. Thus, there are enduring consequences for women, the marginalized, and ecology

A FRAMEWORK FOR CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN ISLAMIC FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS: THEORY AND EVIDENCE FROM GCC REGION

The present research addresses the need for the development of a framework for implementing the Islamic CSR of IFIs that exist in conventional economies (i.e. mainly capitalism). The literature review reveals that CSR has never existed in any economic system other than capitalism, and that in spite of the fact that CSR has been based on various theoretical groundings, the ontological worldview of capitalism (mainly economic selfish man) and the epistemological considerations (mainly value-free scientific economic laws used in the production of knowledge) have influenced the understanding of CSR. Thus, the CSR literature fails to address mismatches between the micro objectives of businesses and the macro objectives of society. Such mismatches are, however, taken into account in the Islamic theory of maqasid al-Sharia (Sharia objectives) and the Sharia jurisprudence method which facilitate the production of Sharia rulings through which a balance between micro and macro objectives is achieved. Thus, the present research aims to develop a framework for implementing Islamic CSR (ICSR) for IFIs, based on a built-in compliance with Sharia objectives and where Sharia objectives are achieved through the managerial implementation of Sharia jurisprudence. Four theoretical gaps in the literature on ICSR have been identified: (1) justification of the usage of the frameworks and models of conventional CSR on the basis of the Islamic worldview and epistemology, which are fundamentally different from those of capitalism; (2) the specification of methodologies appropriate to the Islamic worldview and epistemology; (3) the design of a framework for implementing Islamic CSR; and, (4) the design of a framework for measuring Islamic CSR. It is found that creating an innate ICSR framework is not an end in itself, but instead aims to achieve Sharia objectives that represent the socio-political economic objectives of society and businesses, and thus international CSR frameworks are used after adjusting them to the Islamic worldview and epistemology. Furthermore, the PDCA (plan, do, check act) cycle is deployed to implement the Sharia jurisprudence method underlying a managerial framework of implementing and measuring ICSR. The ability of the developed ICSR framework to describe reality has been empirically proven by testing nine null hypotheses against data collected from Sharia employees in IFIs in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Moreover, several statistical patterns are identified regarding the survey respondents’ levels of knowledge of maqasid al-Sharia and conventional CSR, and the influence of organisational and individual differences on both levels of knowledge and the implementation of ICSR

Habitus and Embodied Institutions; A Study of Manufacturing Enterprises in Kabul’s Conflict-Affected Market Economy and Adaptive Strategies for Enterprise Continuation during 2002-2018

This research studies the effects of embodied institutions rooted in social structures on the individual decision to enter manufacturing activities in Kabul during 2002-2018 – a political economy characterized by political conflict and a market-oriented ‘enabling environment approach’ (EEA). The EEA taken as the macro-level policy backdrop, the study draws on the dialectical relationship between the patriarchal family and Quranic injunctions pertaining to socio-economic life to draw the embodied institutions, which are then used as micro-analytic tools for explaining data patterns pertaining to the investment decision and the subsequent strategies for enterprise continuation. Using a ‘convergent parallel mixed method’, the research has adopted the Bourdieusian framework, in particular the concepts of habitus and field. Rooted in the family-religion relationship, the effects of investor habitus are observed in structuring the decision to enter manufacturing sector and the subsequent encounter with this field, including strategies for enterprise continuation. The latter, moreover, is seen as closely patterned along the patriarchal family hierarchy, reproducing in large degree the social structure where habitus is produced in the context. Building on this empirical analysis, the study relies on qualitative indicators to argue that the sector has not grown structurally significant in Kabul’s economy during 2002-2018. Habitus’ effect is also observed as a conduit for transmitting the hierarchy of power in the family to the production sector. Targeted state/bureaucratic intervention is therefore required in such a context to promote this sector’s growth within a modified EEA framework, and to moderate the uninterrupted transfer of the patriarchal family hierarchy into this sector through political and regulatory means

Epistemological Crisis in Ethical Governance and Constructing a New Islamic Episteme as an Ethical Theory: A Case of Institution of Hisbah

The research presented in this thesis explores the governance within Islamic thought in the case of the institution of hisbah as well as exploring the episteme that is the cause of the recognised and unrecognised incoherencies and inconsistencies in the theories, regulations, and laws associated to the institution of hisbah. The analysis is based on conducting an epistemological examination in moral philosophical dialect in relation to the historical regulative institution of hisbah. Institution of hisbah constitutes the focus of this research, because this institution was politically structured, theologically positioned and theoretically entrusted to maintain public law and order, with the objective of supervising the behaviour in society and market from an Islamic perspective by using Islamic legal theories within its own theoretical framework with the aim of subscribing good and forbidding evil. The analysis presented found that the institution of hisbah was subject to continuous institutional failures throughout its history. In advancing the analysis, the research deconstructs the theoretical framework upon which the institution of hisbah located its operations for the moral governance of the market and the society. The deconstruction of theoretical frameworks point to the use of Islamic legal theory and juristic subjectivity for judging the moral conduct of activities as the root cause of the problem. The study further deconstructed the Islamic legal theory along side exploring for the alternative episteme within the broader view of Islamic thought, given the diversity of philosophical standpoints on good and evil within Islamic discourse. However, the result of this exploration suggests that epistemological crisis embodies the whole of Islamic tradition, which pave the way to a rise in crisis in morality and crisis in legitimacy within the tradition, which resulted in institutional failures, such as the ones witnessed in the operations of institution of hisbah. The study further discovers that consequent to the crisis in the Islamic tradition, the key questions on good and evil, within the realm of governance can no longer be settled by using the historically established tradition’s epistemological sources, because within the current settings of tradition, there is insufficient or no method of enquiry, form of argumentation and episteme that can address the crises, or through which a solution for the crises can be derived. By using MacIntyre’s work as a conceptual structure, this research attempts to construct a new epistemological source that may address the crises by specifying a model justified through model-dependent realism with the objective of creating a new point of orientation through which reality and dichotomy of good and evil can be objectively understood, whilst safeguarding the life form of the fabric of belief that is central to the traditional Islamic thought. Such episteme can then be used as an ethical theory by the institution of hisbah for judging the moral conduct of activities in the market and society. The new episteme is constructed, while preserving the tradition’s consequential essence. The consequential essence is inferred down to morality based on objectiveness and universality, and away from public choice, along with the notion of survival as episteme for philosophical perspective and theological stance. The consequential essence of tradition is maintained by using objectivist ethics and environmental sustainability within the outlines of classic theories on sovereignty of internal and external realm, as a foundational framework to construct the proposed model of ‘objective subjectivism’ as a theory of normative ethics. This proposed episteme as an Islamic ethical theory asserts that standard of value is life and measure of value and purpose of life is sustainability, and through this notion good and evil can be objectively distinguished for each realm, and therefore institutionally subscribed or prohibited for that realm, thus providing a workable framework for the operations of hisbah. As a research methodology and model construction process, the research presented in this research utilises discursive reasoning to conduct an epistemological enquiry based on critical discourse analysis, which is ontologically justified by model-dependent realism and epistemologically framed under consequentialism

The Theory of Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿa in Shīʿī Jurisprudence: Muḥammad Taqī al-Mudarrisī as a Model

The emergence of the theory of maqāṣid al-sharīʿa as a legal theory, which is a purposive approach to the law in which the main purposes of the law are considered as deriving elements of the legal rulings, has occurred in a particular socio-political and cultural context for the Shīʿa and within a particular epistemological construction. Given the lack of a historical reading of Shīʿī jurisprudence and the limitations of the methodological approaches which have to date been employed, this research applies a holistic approach. “The Bahbahānian paradigm” is identified as the overarching epistemological paradigm in modern and contemporary Shīʿī jurisprudence. The Bahbahanian paradigm was formed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and is arguably characterised as being a combination of Aristotelian epistemologically, formalist methodologically and soft utilitarianism. Within this paradigm in the context of the twentieth century, maqāṣid al-sharīʿa emerged in Shīʿī thought, especially in its systematic and comprehensive theorisation by Muḥammad Taqī al-Mudarrisī - a contemporary Shīʿī scholar. The introduction of the maqāṣid al-sharīʿa approach represents a paradigm shift that departs epistemologically, methodologically and functionally from the Bahbahānian paradigm. Mudarrisī’s maqāṣid al-sharīʿa paradigm is characterized as pragmatic epistemologically, more accessible and dynamic methodologically and employing a virtue ethic. Mudarrisī’s maqāṣid al-sharīʿa reflects the eclipse of the quietist character of the previous paradigm and the ambition of the contemporary Shīʿī religious institution. This ambition comprises a more significant role in the public sphere, which is embodied in the application or renewal of the sharīʿa in reality on one hand, and confronting the systematical secularization of the modern nation-state of the public sphere on the other. Mudarrisī’s version of maqāṣid al-sharīʿa is obligated to challenge three intellectual enterprises; that is, the classical Shīʿī jurisprudential reasoning by embracing hermeneutical tools which are more accessible to religious knowledge; the Sunnī soft utilitarian maqāṣidī approaches by providing virtue ethical jurisprudence; and the secular nation-state by providing a flexible legal system

Kalām: rational expressions of medieval theological thought

The discipline of kalām encompasses not only the rational exposition of religious doctrine and dogma, but it also extends to a panoply of subsidiary topics and genres, many of which were deemed relevant to the theoretical and conceptual resolution of doctrine and dogma. A key element of kalām discourses resides in their resort to dialectical strategies and rational frameworks which are used to explicate theological doctrine and interrelated constructs. Initially, the term kalām may have been exclusively used to exemplify the technique of using dialogues to flesh out theological propositions and postulates, whereby through a sequence of questions and corresponding answers, logical contradictions were identified in an opponent’s doctrines. However, over subsequent centuries such techniques were just one aspect of the schema of kalām, which came to represent the discipline of rational theology in a much more comprehensive sense. In this essay an attempt will be made to introduce some of the broad characteristics of the kalām discourses and the individuals and movements who contributed to them, locating their place within the framework of classical Islamic scholarship

Hermeneutical Outlines in and of Dante’s Legal Theory

Based upon the concept of Law qualified in Monarchia, II.50, Dante was not only a general philosopher (a lover of knowledge) as well as a political disputant in his times, but also his primary contribution (not always obvious) in legal speculation could be demonstrated. In fact, if his thought reflected the platonic ordo sapientiae through a deep intersection between téchne and episteme (phronesis) toward a linguistic koiné, could we say the same thing on his concept of justice as a rational ars boni et aequi? This essay aims to depict Dante as legal theorist of his times and theorist of Justice beyond them, adopting the hermeneutical point of view, not just as an interest into textual interpretation but referring his use of language as form of life and his works an inexhaustible sources of education for legal philosophy