Books by Celene M Ibrahim
Book Chapters by Celene M Ibrahim
Islamic Perspective on God and (Other) Monotheism(s), 2025
Foundational Islamic sources describe the divine entity by a multiplicity of attributes known as ... more Foundational Islamic sources describe the divine entity by a multiplicity of attributes known as ‘the most beautiful names’ (al-asmāʾ al-ḥusnā). Given the ubiquity of these names in Muslim thought and popular devotion, the subject is ripe for consideration from an interreligious lens. Here, I suggest tradition-specific avenues for adherents of various conceptual systems to explore the cross-conceptual resonances of these divine names. I outline how particular names, and the concept of divine names more broadly, may resonate with those who seek paradigms for conceptual enrichment, moral introspection, and spiritual development across metaphysical paradigms. My comparative lens includes Abrahamic and broader Near Eastern religions, dharmic religions, West African traditions, East Asian traditions, select modern pluralistic traditions, and the ‘spiritual but not religious.’
Oxford Handbook of Religious Perspectives on Reproductive Ethics, 2024
This chapter discusses issues related to parent-child relations in the Qur'an and surveys the iss... more This chapter discusses issues related to parent-child relations in the Qur'an and surveys the issue of child custody (ḥaḍāna) in premodern Islamic jurisprudence. We consider the rights and duties of parents and children and explore how ideas about gender inform religious rulings.
Georgetown Companion to Interreligious Studies, 2022
Deep Understanding for Divisive Times, 2020
Muslim Women and gender Justice: Concepts, Sources, and Histories, 2020
This article offers a concise discussion of Muslim feminist scholarship on Q 4:34 with attention ... more This article offers a concise discussion of Muslim feminist scholarship on Q 4:34 with attention to how community leaders can promote women's well-being and security within normative frameworks of fiqh.
Muslim Women And Gender Justice (Routledge, 2020)
Edited by Dina El Omari, Juliane Hammer, and Mouhanad Khorchide
Sexual Violence and Sacred Texts, 2017
Sexual violence is an instrument of warfare; it is present in the daily traumas endured by sex wo... more Sexual violence is an instrument of warfare; it is present in the daily traumas endured by sex workers, in the abuse of the young, and in various other misappropriations of power or force. What guidance does the Qur'an contain for this issue?
Women's Rights and Religious Law: Domestic and International Perspectives, 2016
Applying Shari'a in the West: Facts, Fears and the Future of Islamic Rules on Family Relations in the West - Ed. by Maurits S. Berger , 2013
While full financial support can be seen as a women’s perk within
Islamic religious law, in time... more While full financial support can be seen as a women’s perk within
Islamic religious law, in times of increasing global financial insecurity and widespread unemployment, particularly among young adult
populations, this model for family finances is no longer practicable
or sustainable. A husband should not have to shoulder the financial,
physical, and emotional burdens of supporting a family unilaterally.
This is particularly true if his wife has a secure job and earns more than
he does, a trend that may very well be on the rise. Here, rather than
maintaining outdated frameworks that posit the husband as the sole
breadwinner and hence authority, a paradigm of reciprocity is more
appropriate. After all, it is a well-recognized principle in Islamic law
that changing times necessitate changing measures, and this principle applies here. Well-intended though they may be, classical gendered
models for family finances must be reconsidered in light of current
economic and social realities. There is no compelling reason to
continue to buttress a gendered division of marital finances.
Muslima Theology: The Voices of Muslim Women Theologians (Ed. Elif Mendeni, Ednan Aslan, and Marcia Hermansen), 2013
This article examines Islamic legal rules (fiqh) that exclude menstruating and post-partum women ... more This article examines Islamic legal rules (fiqh) that exclude menstruating and post-partum women from key devotional practices, including ritual prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage circumambulation. I situate my critique within the emerging field of Muslima Theology, which centers female experience and epistemological authority in theological inquiry. I highlight that neither the Qur'an nor direct prophetic statements explicitly exclude menstruating women from the pillars of devotion — yet these exclusions became entrenched through medieval legal reasoning conducted almost entirely by men.
The chapter argues that these rules have functioned to define women's piety through their bodily difference from a male norm, creating a gendered hierarchy of religious participation. I call for a new female-centered theological inquiry that takes women's lived experience seriously as a source of religious knowledge.
Religious Identity and Renewal in the Twenty-First Century, 2015
A Jihad for Justice: Honoring the Work and Life of Amina Wadud, 2012
The Global Muslim Community at a Crossroads , 2012
Journal Contributions by Celene M Ibrahim
Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 39, no. 2, 2023
This roundtable considers theoretical and methodological approaches for gender-based research in ... more This roundtable considers theoretical and methodological approaches for gender-based research in qurʾanic studies and probes future directions for this niche field of Islamic studies. Uploaded here is my contributions to the roundtable.
“Gender-Attuned Research in Qur’anic Studies: A Roundtable on Influential Methodologies and Promising New Directions,” convener and contributor of essay entitled “Of Poets and Jesters: Methodologies and Reception Politics in Qur’anic Studies,” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 39, no. 2 (2023): roundtable 57–102, essay 79–81.
Journal of Pastoral Theology, 2022
Women's spiritual care networks are keeping the Islamic intellectual heritage fresh and intelligi... more Women's spiritual care networks are keeping the Islamic intellectual heritage fresh and intelligible for new generations of U.S.-based Muslims who are navigating faith, practices, and values as religious minorities. Here, I highlight leading voices and promising directions in the professionalization of Muslim women's spiritual caregiving. I detail how campus chaplaincy and seminary teaching positions have become vibrant settings for context-relevant guidance and spiritual mentorship among women.
Claremont Journal of Religion , 2015
This paper takes inspiration from critical feminist theory on the body, its social construction, ... more This paper takes inspiration from critical feminist theory on the body, its social construction, and the modes of its regulation, to argue that Muslim legal rulings regarding female adornment are inextricably grounded in the social location of its progenitors, such that free male bodies and sexual desires are recurrently privileged over and against the bodies and desires of other social groups. At the same time, I argue that these discourses can reinforce feminist claims about the affective power of the gaze in objectifying women as well as support feminist aims of protecting and advancing women’s human dignity.
Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 2024
The story of Moses's birth and salvation entails a collusion between three female figures: his bi... more The story of Moses's birth and salvation entails a collusion between three female figures: his biological mother (a Hebrew slave), his sister, and his Egyptian adoptive mother, Pharaoh's daughter. Through a close reading of the biblical text, the author shows how mother and daughter deliberately place the reed basket (or "ark") where it might be found by Pharaoh's daughter; the princess then de!es her father's decree not only by saving the infant but in adopting him and raising him within the palace precincts. While rabbinic midrash sees the Egyptian princess as exceptional, portraying her anachronistically as a model convert and renaming her Bityah (that is, Batyah, daughter of Yah, God), the author conjectures that this collusion between Hebrew slavewomen and Egyptian aristocracy to save the infant Hebrew boy may very well have been a prevalent phenomenon. The essay closes with an original midrashic retelling of the narrative that highlights the alliance between Moses's Egyptian/Hebrew mothers.
Journal of Inter-Religious Studies, 2014
The United States has become home to the most diverse Muslim population in the world; simultaneou... more The United States has become home to the most diverse Muslim population in the world; simultaneously, Muslim religious groups and Muslim civil society organizations have become more prominent in this country's cultural and religious life. 1 And even though Muslims in the United States continue to shoulder burdens caused by stereotyping, 2 bigotry, negative media attention, legal scrutiny, and surveillance, 3 on the positive side, these dynamics have spurred on a plethora of institutions and programs that aim to strengthen Muslim representation in American government and civil society, including within the robust sphere of American interreligious life. 4
Studies in Interreligious Dialogue, 2013
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Books by Celene M Ibrahim
Drawing on the Qur'anic discourse, sayings of the Prophet Muḥammad, and select theological works, this concise book provides an accessible introduction to the most fundamental concept in Islamic thought.
Book Chapters by Celene M Ibrahim
Muslim Women And Gender Justice (Routledge, 2020)
Edited by Dina El Omari, Juliane Hammer, and Mouhanad Khorchide
Islamic religious law, in times of increasing global financial insecurity and widespread unemployment, particularly among young adult
populations, this model for family finances is no longer practicable
or sustainable. A husband should not have to shoulder the financial,
physical, and emotional burdens of supporting a family unilaterally.
This is particularly true if his wife has a secure job and earns more than
he does, a trend that may very well be on the rise. Here, rather than
maintaining outdated frameworks that posit the husband as the sole
breadwinner and hence authority, a paradigm of reciprocity is more
appropriate. After all, it is a well-recognized principle in Islamic law
that changing times necessitate changing measures, and this principle applies here. Well-intended though they may be, classical gendered
models for family finances must be reconsidered in light of current
economic and social realities. There is no compelling reason to
continue to buttress a gendered division of marital finances.
The chapter argues that these rules have functioned to define women's piety through their bodily difference from a male norm, creating a gendered hierarchy of religious participation. I call for a new female-centered theological inquiry that takes women's lived experience seriously as a source of religious knowledge.
Journal Contributions by Celene M Ibrahim
“Gender-Attuned Research in Qur’anic Studies: A Roundtable on Influential Methodologies and Promising New Directions,” convener and contributor of essay entitled “Of Poets and Jesters: Methodologies and Reception Politics in Qur’anic Studies,” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 39, no. 2 (2023): roundtable 57–102, essay 79–81.