The Logic of Law Making in Islam

Behnam Sadeghi has been an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University since 2006. His research spans Islamic thought and law in the early and post-formative periods. In addition, he has made groundbreaking contributions to the history of the Qur'ān and the ḥadīth literature in a series of published essays.

• 1. A general model; 2. Preliminaries; 3. Women praying with men: adjacency; 4. Women praying with women; 5. Women praying with men: communal prayers; 6. The historical development of Hanafi reasoning; 7. From laws and values; 8. The logic of law making.

'Sadeghi's work is significant. His detailed analysis of a focused set of legal debates is illuminating in its own right, and his sophisticated discussion of the nature of legal change and justification should make the work a touchstone for any future thinking about this issue. Sadeghi's overall conclusion - that the business of the typical pre-modern Muslim jurist was focused not on the canon but on the precedent embodied in his school's doctrine - is certainly true and important, but his elucidation of the logic of change internal to Islamic legal discourse is even more interesting and original.' Ahmed El Shamsy, Marginalia