Table Of ContentConstructing a Religiously Ideal “Believer” and
“Woman” in Islam
Palgrave Series in Islamic Theology, Law, and History
T his ground-breaking series, edited by one of the most influential scholars of
Islamic law, presents a cumulative and progressive set of original studies that sub-
stantially raise the bar for rigorous scholarship in the field of Islamic Studies. By
relying on original sources and challenging common scholarly stereotypes and
inherited wisdoms, the volumes of the series attest to the exacting and demand-
ing methodological and pedagogical standards necessary for contemporary studies
of Islam. These volumes are chosen not only for their disciplined methodology,
exhaustive research, or academic authoritativeness, but also for their ability to
make critical interventions in the process of understanding the world of Islam as
it was, is, and is likely to become. They make central and even pivotal contribu-
tions to understanding the experience of the lived and living Islam, and the ways
that this rich and creative Islamic tradition has been created and uncreated, or
constructed, deconstructed, and reconstructed. In short, the volumes of this series
are chosen for their great relevance to the many realities that shaped the ways
that Muslims understand, represent, and practice their religion, and ultimately, to
understanding the worlds that Muslims helped to shape, and in turn, the worlds
that helped shaped Muslims.
Series Editor :
Khaled Abou El Fadl is the Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Distinguished Professor
in Islamic Law at the UCLA School of Law, and Chair of the Islamic Studies
Program at UCLA. Dr. Abou El Fadl received the University of Oslo Human
Rights Award, the Leo and Lisl Eitinger Prize in 2007, and was named a Carnegie
Scholar in Islamic Law in 2005. He is one of the world’s leading authorities on
Islamic law and Islam, and a prominent scholar in the field of human rights.
Titles :
Custom in Islamic Law and Legal Theory: The Development of the Concepts
of ‘Urf and ‘Adah in the Islamic Legal Tradition
Ayman Shabana
The Islamic Law of War: Justifications and Regulations
Ahmed Al-Dawoody
Shi’i Jurisprudence and Constitution: Revolution in Iran
Amirhassan Boozari
Constructing a Religiously Ideal “Believer” and “Woman” in Islam:
Neo-traditional Salafi and Progressive Muslims’ Methods of Interpretation
Adis Duderija
Constructing a Religiously Ideal
“Believer” and “Woman” in Islam
Neo-traditional Salafi and Progressive
Muslims’ Methods of Interpretation
ADIS DUDERIJA
CONSTRUCTING A RELIGIOUSLY IDEAL “BELIEVER” AND “WOMAN” IN ISLAM
Copyright © Adis Duderija, 2011.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011 978-0-230-12057-0
All rights reserved.
First published in 2011 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-29876-1 ISBN 978-0-230-33786-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230337862
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Duderija, Adis, 1977–
Constructing a religiously ideal “believer” and “woman” in Islam :
neo-traditional Salafi and progressive Muslims’ methods of
interpretation / Adis Duderija.
p. cm.—(Palgrave series in islamic theology, law, and history)
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Women in Islam. 2. Women (Islamic law) 3. Salafiyah. 4. Islamic
modernism. I. Title.
BP173.4.D83 2011
297.082—dc22 2011012451
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: October 2011
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to my young daughter Layla Duderija
(b. February 16, 2008) and my even younger son Fahim Duderija
(b. November 26, 2010) with the hope that they will grow up to
be people committed to and contributing to the realization of the
ideals of justice, equality, and libratory knowledge in a world where
every human being can reach his or her full potential.
Contents
Series Editor Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
1 Genealogy of Debates on the Relative Status and
the Authenticity of the Various Sources of Legal Authority in
the Sunni Islamic Tradition 2 5
2 Neotraditional Salafism: Its Main Proponents and
Its Manhaj 4 9
3 The Delineating Features of Premodern Embedded
Manahij and Their Interpretational Implications 6 9
4 NTS Religiously Ideal “Believer” and “Muslim Woman”
Concepts 8 5
5 Progressive Muslims— Conceptualizing and Engaging
the Islamic Tradition 1 17
6 Progressive Muslims’ Model of Interpretation
(M anhaj ) and Their Interpretational Implications 1 39
7 Progressive Muslims’ Religiously Ideal “Believer” and
“Muslim Woman” Concepts 1 69
Conclusion 1 89
Notes 1 95
Selected Bibliography 2 39
Index 2 55
Series Editor Preface
T here is a growing number of academic studies on contemporary Islamic
thought published in the West each year. Yet despite the sharp increase
in books that attempt to study the works of modern Muslim theologians
and jurists, only a few of these studies manage to offer original insights on
the normative assumptions and choices made by the internal participants
to the current Muslim discourse. Fewer still are successful in analytically
engaging the internal debates of contemporary Muslims on their own
terms without projecting onto these debates assumptions and values that
inevitably distort and even misrepresent them. It is the relative absence of
sound and thorough scholarship in this critical and timely field that makes
this book by Adis Duderija so compellingly necessary.
T his book, which is the fourth in the Palgrave Series in Islamic
Theology, Law, and History, is remarkable in its breadth and depth. The
author takes on the formidable task of analyzing the thought of the most
influential and important orientations in contemporary Islamic thought:
what the author calls the neo-traditional and progressive orientations. The
author focuses on a pivotal issue that oddly enough has received but scant
attention in non-Muslim and Muslim scholarly analysis. In an admirably
tight and rigorous exposition, the author investigates the methodologies
deployed by the representative participants of each orientation in under-
standing, narrating, and representing the role and meaning of the Qur’anic
text and traditions of the Prophet, his family, and companions. The author
carefully and systematically unpacks the methodologies that define how
various theological and legal thinkers relate to the Islamic tradition and
its role and relationship to the contemporary realities and challenges of
the world today. One of the truly valuable contributions of this book is
the author’s analysis of the epistemological, hermeneutical, and moral
assumptions at the core and foundations of the methodologies employed
by the proponents of each orientation. The author ably demonstrates the
extent to which normative moral and epistemological assumptions dra-
matically influence the methodologies of each orientation and indeed, the
very attitude and way that they understand, conceptualize, and construct
