AMI’s Dr Ali-reza Bhojani took part in the third Uṣūl Workshop of the Law and Learning in Shiʿi Islam (LAWALISI)

AMI’s Dr Ali-reza Bhojani took part in the third 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 17-18 March 2017.

The workshop examined various issues regarding linguistic interpretation 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 ‘the authority of apparent meaning’ found in Mohammad Rida Muẓaffar’s Uṣūl al-fiqh. The discussion highlighted Muẓaffar’s critical reception of different conceptions and qualifications for using the convention of rational people (bana al-ʿuqalā) as an evidence for the authority of relying upon the opinion of philologists in identifying instances of apparent meaning, and in establishing the principle of the authority of apparent meaning itself.

Other readings discussed in the sessions and presented by colleagues came from texts including:

-Ibn Aqil (d.1119), al-Wadih fi usul al-fiqh (Feriel Bouhafa)

-Al-Ghazālī (d.1111), al-Mustaṣfā (Rana al-Soufi)

-Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr (d.1980), Durus fi ‘ilm al-usul (Alexander Heiny)

For more information on the LAWALISI Project click here