Schedule

Chair: Nora Schmid, University of Oxford

Chair: Khalil Andani, Augustana College

Chair: Mohsen Goudarzi, Harvard University

Chair: Johanne Christiansen, University of Southern Denmark

This event requires pre-registration.

Chair: Karen Bauer, Institute of Ismaili Studies There has been a rising trend of academic studies which focus on investigating ethics, particularly Qur’anic ethics. The Qur’an describes itself as a book of guidance (huda) (Q. 2:2) and Q. 21:107 proclaims the messenger to be sent as a mercy (raḥma) to the world. As ethical terminology and commands proliferate the Qur’an, a key question becomes: how to investigate the moral message of the text? Answering this question entails different approaches: examining the exegetical (tafsīr) corpus, dissecting particular themes in the Qur’an, investigating key Qur’anic concepts to assess how they inform the moral paradigm, and paying attention to the structure and sub-texts within Qur’anic suras are but a few examples. The aim of this panel is to explore different methodologies that are used to study Qur’anic ethics. It examines the ways in which adopting a particular methodical process can help shed new light on the ways in which Qur’anic ethics can be understood. The papers presented in this panel incorporate various research techniques that adopt literary, linguistic, spiritual, historical, aesthetic, and structural approaches, along with others, to better understand the moral message of the Qur’an.

Stephen Burge, Institute of Ismaili Studies