In this seminal work, Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl studies the authoritarianism endemic in Muslim discourses today. He agress that such authoritarianism negates authoritativeness of Islamic texts and nullifies the richness and diversity of the Islamic tradition. He advocates a methodology which is firmly rooted in Islamic jurisprudential tradition and which respects the integrity of Islamic texts.

Author: Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl is a distinguished teacher at the UCLA where he teaches Islamic law, Immigration, Human Rights, and International law. He received formal training in Islamic jurisprudence in Egypt and Kuwait. Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl is the author of six books and numerous articles on Islamic law and Islam. and is most noted for his scholarly approach to Islam from a moral point of view.