November 2010
A Companion to Muslim Ethics, edited by Amyn B. Sajoo and published by I.B. Tauris in association with the IIS, is the most comprehensive English-language book available in this field. It is the second volume in the Muslim Heritage Series, aimed at presenting to the general public as well as to academics an accessible engagement with ideas and subjects of urgent interest to the contemporary Muslim world – including ‘East-West’ relations as they unfold after the events of September 11, 2001.
A Companion to Muslim Ethics inquires into the roots of Islam’s ethical framework – and how its teachings have branched out in the cultural, political, intellectual and religious lives of Muslims, past and present. Equality, the environment and health care are as much part of the exploration here as finance, dispute resolution and political violence, in asking how ethical commitments are expressed through public policy, intellectual debate, literature and art.
Among the critical themes tackled by the contributors to this Companion are: What is the place of environmental stewardship in the Muslim tradition? How does faith affect the individual’s choices and institutional encounters in sickness and health? What does ‘shari‘a finance’ really mean in practice? How does the Quran affect the ethics of visual culture in Muslim societies? What is the traditional place of tolerance in Islam, and what does this say about our global experience since September 11?
To regard secular narratives about the ‘public good’ as the sole guide to our ethical choices would be a fateful error, says Dr. Sajoo in his introduction. It means “stripping away ethical attachments and solidarities which give meaning to identity”, ones that are “essential to our encounter with issues of ecology and climate change, genetic therapies and care of the aged, extreme inequality and responsible governance, gender equity and political violence, access to quality education and information technology”.
This book will appeal not only to Muslims who wish to gain a deeper appreciation of the historical and cultural bases of Islam’s conception of the ‘good’, but indeed to all who seek to broaden their grasp of how faith and reason shape our increasingly globalised world.
Contributors:
Charles Butterworth
Abdallah Daar
Ramin Jahanbegloo
Zayn Kassam
Mohamed Keshavjee
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Eric Ormsby
Amyn B. Sajoo
Reza Shah-Kazemi
Fahmida Suleman
Ronald Wilson
http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=112000
