Islam, Alcohol, and Identity: Towards a Critical Muslim Studies Approach

Abstract

Framed in a critical Muslim studies approach, this article offers a new understanding of the Ḥanafī position on alcohol, following major public debates on the question of alcohol sparked by prominent members of Al-Azhar University (Egypt) in 2012. Close textual analysis of a range of primary sources in Arabic and Urdu are foundational to the article, as are the categorisation and contextualisation of Ḥanafī discourse. This is all but a starting point, however, for an argument that constitutes a radical break from conventional Islamic studies, seen as "normal science," in its critique of hegemonic discourses which have essentialised Islam on the basis of specific ontic manifestations, such as the prohibition of alcohol