Dr Hashim Bata completed his seminary education at the Al-Mahdi Institute in 2008 whilst simultaneously completing a BA (Hons) in Islamic Studies at The Islamic College and Middlesex University. Following an MA in Islam in Contemporary Societies at the University of Warwick, he completed a PhD in Law in 2013, also at the University of Warwick. His PhD involved a detailed examination of Shiʿi legal epistemology with a specific focus on the pivotal role of the authority of certainty (ḥujjiyyat al-qaṭʿ) in Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh).  

Dr Bata is the Managing Director of AMI, the Head of the Department of Islamic Legal Studies, and a Lecturer in Islamic Legal Studies. He is also an Associate Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Birmingham where he teaches Thematic Study of Shi’ism: History, Doctrines and Religious Authority.  

His research interests include Islamic legal theory, the history and development of Shiʿism, Islamic theology, and mysticism. His most recent publication is Exploring the Mind of God: An Introduction to Shiʿite Legal Epistemology. 

Publications 

• Exploring the Mind of God: An Introduction to Shiʿite Legal Epistemology. Leiden: Brill, 2023.
• “Introduction.” In The Regulations of Purity and Impurity in Islam (Proceedings of the 8th AMI Contemporary Fiqhī Issues Workshop), edited by Hashim Bata, 1-7. Birmingham: AMI Press, 2022.
• (As editor) The Regulations of Purity and Impurity in Islam (Proceedings of the 8th AMI Contemporary Fiqhī Issues Workshop). Birmingham: AMI Press, 2022.
• With Arif Abdul Hussain. “Approaches to Supplication (duʿāʾ).”
• With Arif Abdul Hussain. “Approaches to Female Covering in Sharia.” 
• “Reassessing the Pivotal Role of Certainty in Modern Shīʿī Uṣūlī Legal Method: A Case for Accepting a Wider Range of Evidence in the Inference of Sharīʿa Precepts.” In Visions of Sharīʿa: Contemporary Discussions in Shīʿī Legal Theory, edited by Ali-Reza Bhojani, Laurens de Rooij, and Michael Bohlander, 26-56. Leiden: Brill, 2020.
• “Towards the utility of a wider range of evidence in the derivation of Sharīʿa precepts: paradigm shift in contemporary Usūlī epistemology.” PhD dissertation, University of Warwick, 2013.