Book Review: “Reasoning With God: Reclaiming Shari‘ah in the Modern Age”

Owais Arshad reviews Khaled Abou El Fadl’s new book “Reasoning with God: Reclaiming Shari‘ah in the Modern Age,” for Muftah.

(Photo: See Li)

by Owais Arshad

To its detractors, Islamic law or Shari‘ah is the most lucid example of the dangers posed by Islam and Muslims. In the popular media, decapitations, stoning, floggings and other forms of corporal punishment seem inextricably linked with Islamic law. The barbaric actions of D’aesh (ISIS) in the Middle East, Boko Haram in Nigeria, and various factions of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan have done little to improve this image.

The modern paranoia around Shari‘ah is so great that some states in the United States have even attempted to ban it outright. Oklahoma, for example, briefly succeeded in passing a constitutional amendment to pre-empt any future attempts by its 30,000 strong Muslim community to “stealthily” impose Shari‘ah. Oklahoma has a total population of about 4 million.