The Foundation of Norms in Islamic Jurisprudence and Theology

In this book, Omar Farahat presents a new way of understanding the work of classical Islamic theologians and legal theorists who maintained that divine revelation is necessary for the knowledge of the norms and values of human actions. Through a reconstruction of classical Ashʿarī-Muʿtazilī debates on the nature and implications of divine speech, Farahat argues that the Ashʿarī attachment to revelation was not a purely traditionalist position. Rather, it was a rational philosophical commitment emerging from debates in epistemology and theology. He further argues that the particularity of this model makes its distinctive features helpful for contemporary scholars who defend a form of divine command theory. Farahat's volume thus constitutes a new reading of the issue of reason and revelation in Islam and breaks new ground in Islamic theology, law and ethics.

• Offers a comparative study of Ashʿarī and Muʿtazilī ideas of divine speech in the context of their contrasting metaphysical views
• Explores how a study of classical Islamic thought can fit into post-secularist and post-orientalist trends in the humanities
• Will generate a conversation on the nature and purpose of Islamic legal theory and its place in the formation of norms in the Islamic tradition