AMI’s Dr Ali-reza Bhojani participates in the first Uṣūl Workshop of the LAWALISI project at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies

AMI’s Dr Ali-reza Bhojani took part in the first Uṣūl Workshop of the Law and Learning in Shiʿi Islam (LAWALISI) project hosted by Professor Robert Gleave of Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter on the 14-15 November 2016.

The workshop examined the concept of Ijmāʿ in uṣūl al-fiqh from a range of different intellectual traditions; with a particular emphasis on reading Imāmī Shīʿī thought within the broader context of different Muslim traditions of legal theory.

Dr. Bhojani read and discussed the treatment of Ijmāʿ found in the third volume of Bāqir al-Ṣadr’s Durūs fi ʿilm al-uṣūl. The discussion highlighted Bāqir al-Ṣadr’s critical reception of different conceptions and arguments for the authority of Ijmāʿ. This was followed by an outline of Bāqir al-Ṣadr’s own argument for the authority of Ijmāʿ as means of discovering Sunna in light of his theory of the ‘accumulation of probabilities’ and its implications.

Other readings on Ijmāʿ discussed in the sessions and presented by colleagues came from texts including;

Shāshī, Uṣūl al-Shāshī, (Mansur Ali)

Ibn Qudāma, Rawḍat al-Naẓar, (Abdullah Sliti)

Taftazānī, al-Talwīh ʿalā al-Tanqīh, v (Najah Ahmed)

For more information on the LAWALISI Project click here