Sharia, Fiqh and Jurisprudence

In 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the International Declaration of Human Rights, a document designed to hold both individuals and nations accountable for their treatment of fellow human beings-regardless of religious or cultural affiliations. Since then, debates surrounding the reach and scope of the Declaration have been lively and wide-ranging, with the compatibility of Islam and human rights emerging as a particularly thorny issue of international concern. The question has been addressed by Muslim rulers, conservatives, and extremists, as well as Western analysts and policymakers, all of whom have commonly agreed that Islamic theology and human rights cannot coexist.

ISLAM AND DIPLOMACY provides a wide-ranging discourse on the relevance of Islam to global well-being and human security from legal, spiritual, moral and historical perspectives. As prevailing realities in the Middle East and many other parts of the world amply demonstrate, the tools of modern secular diplomacy are not always adequate to address violent sectarian or religious clashes and social tensions, nor to suggest long-term workable solutions for them. This book expounds the largely untapped potential of a faith-based diplomacy and suggest integrating religious norms as an added impetus to conventional diplomacy for the benefit of global peace and harmony. it is also demonstrates that Islam possesses a rich tradition of legal, spiritual and ethical values prioritizing peace and human security. Islamic heritage is also sufficiently nuanced to offer flexible paradigms for addressing problems of coomunal identity that may well be beyond the reach of traditional diplomacy, such as ethnic conflict, tribal warfare, and religious hostilities.