Agency, Rationality, Morality: The Qur’anic View of Man

Mona M. Abul-Fadl (1945-2008) had a mind of dazzling brilliance, makingher one of the pioneering female Muslim scholars of her generation anda keen observer of the rapid devolution of society divorced from spiritualtradition in the modern context. In this powerful work, she provides areading of the Qur’anic view of man as insān against a background ofthe preoccupations of modernity. Her emphasis is on rationality, freedomand morality, and the goal is the reintegration of man and the recoveryof community through a reconciliation of self and the rediscovery of theessential meaning of divine guidance in so far as it relates to human lifein this world. Taking the Qur’an as a divine discourse of many tiers anddepths, the work singles out aspects of its discourse on creation. Abul-Fadl takes this discourse as a pivot for developing a view of moral manand moral community, with the focus remaining on the former.