AMI Holds Inaugural Quranic Conference: Regulative Verses of the Qur’ān (āyāt al-aḥkām)

Al-Mahdi Institute held a two-day international academic conference, marking a new chapter in the Institute’s commitment to promoting research and scholarship in various Islamic disciplines. This event was the first in a series of conferences devoted to examining aspects of the Quran. Internationally acclaimed scholars presented 19 papers in three main panels: historical reception, philosophical debates, and thematic contributions.
The historical context for the development of the genre of ayāt al-aḥkām across different schools of thought was set by the first four papers. Devin J. Stewart’s assessment of the earliest manifestations of this genre was followed by Nora K. Schmid’s exploration of Ibadi contributions. Robert Gleave and S. M. Ghari Seyed Fatemi then examined Akhbārī and Uṣūlī contributions, highlighting the Imāmī approach to the Quran as a legal source. These papers laid the foundation for subsequent panels on philosophical approaches and thematic issues.
The philosophical panel featured seven papers, including Hamid Vahid’s proposal for understanding obligatory faith in the Quran and Salwa El-Awa’s Relevance Theory-based approach to linguistic ambiguity. M. Ashraf Adeel discussed arguments for conditional variability of hadd punishments, while Mahmoud Morvarid presented a Decision-Theoretic Approach to the Ḥujjiyya of regulative verses. Gholamreza Aavani explored the universality of Quranic divine commands, and Oliver Leaman examined the relationship between ayat al-ahkam and maqasid al-shariʿa.
Finally, Shaykh Arif Abdul Hussain analysed regulative verses from an existential perspective.
The thematic contributions panel began with Abla Hasan’s critical study of the elite male addressee myth and its implications for regulative verses. Karen Bauer examined households, patronage, and social structuring of Qur’anic law, while Muhammad Zubair Abbasi explored inheritance rights of childless widows under Shia personal law in Pakistan. Holger Zellentin discussed Biblical Law, the Decree of the Apostles, and the Qur’an, followed by Nicolai Sinai’s analysis of divine law in Quranic moral theology. Etin Anwar considered environmental ethics in Qur’anic regulatory verses, and Sarra Tlili examined the Quran and killing for food.
The panel concluded with Imranali Panjwani’s reflection on the obligatory nature of Ṣalāt al-Layl and Sūrat al-Muzammil as a case study.
The inaugural Quranic conference showcased diverse perspectives on regulative verses of the Quran, highlighting the importance of promoting shared academic spaces for scholars to present and debate research. Al-Mahdi Institute, in collaboration with AMI Press, plans to publish an edited volume of the conference papers in March 2024.
Presenter | Title of Paper | View Abstract |
Dr Imranali Panjwani (Anglia Ruskin University) | Metaphysical and jurisprudential implications of the discussion surrounding the obligatory nature of Ṣalāt al-Layl: Sūrat al-Muzammil as a case | Click here |
Dr Mahmoud Morvarid (Institute of Research in Fundamental Science) | A Decision-Theoretic Approach to the Ḥujjiyya of the Regulative Verses |
Click here |
Prof. Holger Zellentin (University of Tübingen) | Biblical Law, the Decree of the Apostles, and the Qur’an |
Click here |
Prof. Robert Gleave (University of Exeter) | The Irrelevance of “Quranic meaning”: Akhbārī Shīʿī interpretive techniques and the legal verses of the Qur’an |
Click here |
Shaykh Arif (Al-Mahdi Institute) | An Analysis of Ayāt al-aḥkām (regulative verses) from an Existential Perspective |
Click here |
Prof. Etin Anwar (Hobart and William Smith Colleges) | The Quranic regulatory verses in environmental ethics |
Click here |
Prof. Hamid Vahid (Institute of Research in Fundamental Science) | Making Sense of Obligatory Faith in the Quran | Click here |
Prof. Oliver Leaman (University of Kentucky) | Ayāt al-aḥkām and maqasid al-shari`a: understanding the relationship |
Click here |
Dr Abla Hasan (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) | The myth of the elite male addressee and its implications for regulative verses |
Click here |
Prof. M. Ashraf Adeel (Kutztown University of Pennsylvania) | Arguments for Conditional Variability of Hadd Punishments |
Click here |
Prof. Devin J. Stewart (Emory University) |
Notes on the Early History of the Genre of Aḥkām al-Quran |
Click here |
Dr Salwa El-Awa (Swansea University) | Intentional Linguistic Ambiguity and Interpretation of Aḥkām al-Qur’ān: A Relevance Theory-based Approach |
Click here |
Prof. Nicolai Sinai (University of Oxford) | The Place of Divine Law in the Quran’s Moral Theology |
Click here |
Prof. S. M. Ghari Seyed Fatimi (Al-Mahdi Institute and Shahid Beheshti University) | The Imāmī Reception of āyāt al-aḥkām | Click here |
Dr Nora K. Schmid (Hamburg University and University of Oxford) | Āyāt al-aḥkām in early Ibadi thought | Click here |
Dr Karen Bauer (The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London) | Towards a New Understanding of the Shīʿī Doctrine of Tawhīd: A Burrellian Reading of Ṭabāṭabāʾī’s Concept of Monotheism | Click here |
Dr Muhammad Zubair Abbasi (Bradford University) | The Quran as the Source of Rights: Inheritance Rights of Childless Widows under Shia Personal Law in Pakistan |
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Prof. Gholamreza Aavani (Al-Mahdi Institute & Academy of Sciences of Islamic Republic of Iran) |
The Universality of the Quranic Divine Commands versus the Casuistic Interpretation of the Regulative Verses |
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Dr Sarra Tlili (University of Florida) | The Quran and Killing for Food: When Moral Intuition Faces Complex Realities |
Click here |