A01=Suheil Laher
Author_Suheil Laher
Category=QRP
Category=QRVG
epistemic certitude
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
forthcoming
hadith
Islam
Islamic intellectual history
Islamic legal theory
Islamic orthodoxy
Islamic theology
kalam
mutawatir
Qur?an
tawatur
usul al-fiqh
Product details
- ISBN 9781399510820
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 30 Jun 2026
- Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Tawātur is the concept that information yields certainty if acquired through a sufficient number of independent channels. Tawātur in Islamic Thought is an attempt to unravel the twisted historical threads of the conception and usage of tawātur across diverse Islamic disciplines, in light of both Western academia and debates within Muslim scholarship.
In the process, numerous salient questions in Islamic thought are tackled, such as epistemic certitude, scholarly consensus (ijmāʿ), and the rationalism–traditionalism relationship. The study culminates in the question of the extent to which tawātur was used by Muslim scholars to define the boundaries of Islam and of orthodoxy.
Tawātur in Islamic Thought shows that the majority voices in Muslim scholarship, across sectarian boundaries, reached a steady-state conception of a two-tiered orthodoxy, corresponding to two tiers of tawātur – an outer tier that includes all who affirm a definitive kernel of Islam and an inner tier that is more exclusive.
Suheil Ismail Laher is Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies and Lead Faculty at Boston Islamic Seminary, Faculty Associate in Quranic Studies at Hartford International University. He previously served as Academic Dean at Fawakih Institute for Classical Arabic, where he remains a Senior Curriculum Advisor. He received an MA in Religious Studies from Boston University, and a PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University.
