A. Kevin Reinhart – författare

Studies the development of Muslim jurisprudential and theological thought by analyzing the dispute that raged from the ninth to the nineteenth century over the assessment of acts that took place before the Qur'anic Revelation.Before Revelation studies the development of Muslim jurisprudential and theological thought as expressed in the extensive dispute over the assessment of acts that took place before the arrival of Revelation.Between the ninth and nineteenth centuries Muslims debated, often fiercely, the question, "What is the value of an act—moving from place to place, breathing, or eating a tasty food, for instance—before Revelation arrives?" That is, Muslims, whose existence as Muslims derived from the Qur'anic Revelation, debated whether acts could be called "good," or "reprehensible," before the Qur'an. This book analyzes that prolonged debate from a History of Religions perspective, using sources from the Muslim sciences of jurisprudential theory (usal-fiqh) and theology (kalam).

Does Islam make people violent? Does Islam make people peaceful? In this book, A. Kevin Reinhart demonstrates that such questions are misleading, because they assume that Islam is a monolithic essence and that Muslims are made the way they are by this monolith. He argues that Islam, like all religions, is complex and thus best understood through analogy with language: Islam has dialects, a set of features shared with other versions of Islam. It also has cosmopolitan elites who prescribe how Islam ought to be, even though these experts, depending on where they practice the religion, unconsciously reflect their own local dialects. Reinhart defines the distinctive features of Islam and investigates how modernity has created new conditions for the religion. Analyzing the similarities and differences between modern and pre-modern Islam, he clarifies the new and old in the religion as it is lived in the contemporary world.