Morality and Revelation in Islamic Thought and Beyond: A New Problem of Evil

If God commanded you to do something contrary to your moral conscience, how would you respond? Many believers of different faiths face a similar challenge today. While they take scripture to be the word of God, they find scriptural passages that seem incompatible with their modern moral sensibilities. In Morality and Revelation in Islamic Thought and Beyond, philosopher Amir Saemi identifies this as the problem of divinely prescribed evil.Saemi unpacks two approaches to answering this problem. In the first part of the book, Saemi demonstrates how Islamic thinkers of various historical traditions (including the Ash'arites, the Mu'tazilites, and the Greek influenced Philosophers, falasifa) adhered to a scripture-first view. By appealing to hidden moral facts known only to God or the prophet, a scripture-first approach views moral reasoning, at least when it conflicts with Scripture, with skepticism. An ethics-first view, however, places our independent moral judgments before scripture. In the second part of the book, Saemi offers two ethics-first solutions, with some roots in the Islamic tradition, to the problem of divinely prescribed evil. Each solution argues that our own moral reasoning is reliable in the face of skeptical arguments presented by Scripture-first views and shows how a theist can maintain their belief in scripture's divinity while relying on their own moral judgments. By studying the conflict between morality and revelation in Islamic thought, Saemi offers unapologetic solutions not only for progressive Muslims but for all theists who take their moral judgments seriously.

Table of Contents:
PROLOGUE DEFINING A NEW PROBLEM OF EVIL Summary of the Chapter I. Two Stories II. Morally Controversial Scriptural Passages III. Seemingly Prescribed Evil IV. The New Problem of Evil and the Structure of the Book V. Historical Background PART I: SCRIPTURE-FIRST CHATER 1 THE CONSEQUENTIALISM OF THE LATE ASH'ARITES Summary of the Chapter I. Divine Command Theory of the Early Ash'arites II. The Consequentialism of al-Ghazali III. The Moral Epistemology of al-Ghazali IV. The Argument for Strict Adherence to Scripture V. Taqlid and the Rule of Figurative Interpretation CHAPTER 2 THE DEONTOLGICAL ETHICS OF THE MU'TAZILITES Summary of the Chapter I. The Ash'arites and the Problem of Evil II. The Metaethics of the Mu'tazilites III. The Normative Theory of 'Abd al-Jabbar IV. The Moral Epistemology of 'Abd al-Jabbar V. Natural Evil, Prescribed Evil, and Skeptical Theism CHAPTER 3 THE VIRTUE ETHICS OF ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHERS Summary of the Chapter I. The Project of the Reconciliation of Reason and Religion II. Al-Farabi's View on Epistemology and Religion III. Averroes's View on the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy IV. The Virtue Ethics of al-Farabi PART II: ETHICS-FIRST CHAPTER 4 THE IMPERMISSIBILITY OF MORAL DEFERENCE Summary of the Chapter I. Moral Deference in Contemporary Philosophy I. Al-Razi's Ethical Theory II. Al-Razi on Moral Deference III. Moses and Impermissibility of Pure Moral Deference IV. A Solution to the Problem of Prescribed Evil CHAPTER 5 THE RELIABILITY OF OUR MORAL JUDGMENTS Summary of the Chapter I. The Debate on Objective and Subjective Ought II. Scripture, Ignorance and Uncertainty III. Ignorance Revisited IV. Kantian Arguments for the Accessibility Constraint V. Moral Knowledge Optimism and The Mu'tazilites VI. The Case of Abraham CHAPTER 6 THE HERMENEUTICS OF SCRIPTURE Summary of the Chapter I. Ethics-first Solutions to the Problem of Prescribed Evil II. Lessons from a Philosophical Tale III. The Nature of Law IV. Legal Interpretation Defended V. The Moral Functions of Scripture

About the Author :
Amir Saemi is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM) and an Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. His research is primarily on moral philosophy, philosophy of religion and Islamic philosophy. Saemi's work has appeared in journals including Ethics, Philosophical Quarterly, Analysis, and Canadian Journal of Philosophy, etc. He has also published in Electrical Engineering journals such as IEEE transactions on Wireless Communications and IEEE transactions on Vehicular Technology, among others.

Review :
Well worth reading and opening a debate. Saemi's book offers much more than I could cover here. It is philosophically rigorous, conceptually clear, and a significant contribution to the philosophy of religion by showing how perspectives from the Islamic tradition could move various debates in new directions. But it is also a refreshingly honest reflection on moral questions that are sometimes brushed aside too quickly by many others. Saemi's book is a new spin on a classical problem that will interest students and scholars of philosophy and religion, religious ethics, and morality and revelation.