In the 20th century, studying ethics in the context of Islamic civilization was a controversial subject. Thus, several debates have emerged on the origin of ethics as a discipline, the existence of an “Islamic” moral philosophy, and the methodology of historicizing Islamic ethical thought and classifying existing ethical literature. This talk addresses the trajectory of modern scholarship on Islamic ethics, the shift from ethics as a concept to a discipline, and the moments and loci of the ethical turn in Islamic studies.
Mutaz al-Khatib is an Associate Professor of Methodology and Ethics at the Research Centre for Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE), Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), Doha, Qatar; and Coordinator of the MA in Applied Islamic Ethics at the College of Islamic Studies, HBKU. In addition to several dozen refereed articles in Arabic and English, he has authored and edited several books including Radd al-Ḥadīth min Jihat al-Matn: Dirāsa fī Manāhij al-Muḥaddithīn wa-l Uṣūliyyīn (Matn Criticism: A Study of the Methods of Traditionists and Jurists) (2011); Ma’ziq al-Dawla bayna al-Islāmiyyīn wa-l ‘Almāniyyīn (The Dilemma of the State between Islamists and Secularists) (2016); al-‘Unf al-Mustabāḥ: al-Sharia fī Muwājahat al-Umma wa-l Dawla (Violence Made Permissible: ‘Sharia’ versus the People and the State) (2017); Qabūl al- Ḥadīth (The Reception of Ḥadīth) (2017); Islamic Ethics and the Trusteeship Paradigm (co-editor) (2020); and Ḥadīth and Ethics through the Lens of Interdisciplinarity (2023).
For more information, please contact Dr. Patricia J. Sohn.