Speaking in God's Name: Islamic Law, Authority and Women

The book has been placed on my shelf for an year or so and I now feel sorry for not reading it before. I believe it should be among the modern classics of Islamic studies among Hodgson, Bennabi and Fazlur Rahman. The strength of the book is two dimensional, i.e., the amount of research Abou El Fadl has put in as well as the lucidity of expression with which such a complex subject of religion and authority has been tackled with. In a way, Abou El Fadl has tried to supply answers to most of the questions he asked in Conference of the Books and in my opinion, he is successful; at the same time, he has also raised some new questions regarding intricacies of interpretation. I believe the book is among the pioneers to take the field of show more Islamic Law from the domain of religious studies to the domain of law proper. show less