Contemporary Muslim ethics is in a dire need to foster a vibrant ethical paradigm derived in part from the methodology of the shariʿa but also has to go beyond the limitations of its historical methodology. The gap between the religious and the ethical must be narrowed by insisting on creative approaches to problems facing the global community of Muslims. In this chapter, I explore the relationship between religion and morality. Acknowledging that the idea of shariʿa is fundamental to Muslim tradition, and that this tradition is a guiding factor in Muslim life, I provide a brief overview of how different Muslim intellectuals have conceptualized the shariʿa in innovative ways. I use a contemporary case study to demonstrate how interpreting the shariʿa through a juridical lens can often bely the Qurʾanic mandate to respect human dignity. I insist that today the shariʿa must be properly understood as an ethical paradigm, as it once was.

Muslim jurists in the past were aware of at least two aspects in the pursuit of the ethical. First, they coupled religion to morals. Second, they voiced the need to pursue intellectual creativity and innovation. Contemporary Muslim scholarship in ethics could profit from a deepened conversation around each aspect. Granted, ethics and morals are closely associated with the idea of religion (din) in the history of Muslim thought. But in contemporary times this debate requires a better distillation, elaboration, and application. Explorations in ethical debates would profit from embracing an interdisciplinary field of knowledge with a fondness for experimentation.