Khaled Abou El Fadl

خالد أبو الفضل

b. 1963 · United States (born in Kuwait) · Islamic jurist, professor of law at UCLA, founder of the Usuli Institute

Khaled Abou El Fadl was born in Kuwait in 1963 and received a traditional Islamic education in Egypt and Kuwait alongside his schooling. He later studied political science at Yale, took a law degree at the University of Pennsylvania, and completed a master’s degree and doctorate in Islamic law at Princeton.

He practised immigration and investment law and clerked for a state supreme court judge before moving into teaching, with posts at the University of Texas at Austin, Yale and Princeton. He is now a professor of law at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he teaches Islamic law, human rights and national security law, and he founded the Usuli Institute, which promotes a humanistic reading of the Islamic legal tradition.

His books combine technical study of classical jurisprudence with public argument. Early works examine rebellion in Islamic law and the difference between authoritative and authoritarian uses of religious texts; later ones address tolerance, democracy, beauty and the critique of puritanical currents in contemporary Islam. He has also served on bodies such as the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Biography sources: en.wikipedia.org · openlibrary.org

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Laleh BakhtiarAbou El Fadl said Bakhtiar had a reputation as an editor, not as an Islamic scholar, in response to her Quran translation. Wikipedia ↗

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Archived 23 October 2026 · Sources: the Wikipedia article of each author and the biographies on this site. Whole network

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Works

Books 8

BOOK 2001 · English

And God Knows the Soldiers: The Authoritative and Authoritarian in Islamic Discourses

An examination of how interpreters claim authority over religious texts, distinguishing persuasive scholarly authority from coercive authoritarianism.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: Internet Archive (borrowable)

Cite

Fadl, Khaled Abou El. And God Knows the Soldiers: The Authoritative and Authoritarian in Islamic Discourses. 2001. Internet Archive (borrowable), https://archive.org/details/andgodknowssoldi0000abou. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/khaled-abou-el-fadl/#khaled-abou-el-fadl-and-god-knows-the-soldiers-the-authoritative-and

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BOOK 2001 · English

Conference of the Books: The Search for Beauty in Islam

A reflective work on the place of beauty and moral sensibility in the Islamic tradition; republished in 2006 as The Search for Beauty in Islam.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: Internet Archive (borrowable)

Cite

Fadl, Khaled Abou El. Conference of the Books: The Search for Beauty in Islam. 2001. Internet Archive (borrowable), https://archive.org/details/conferenceofbook0000khal. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/khaled-abou-el-fadl/#khaled-abou-el-fadl-conference-of-the-books-the-search-for-beauty-in-islam

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BOOK 2001 · English

Rebellion and Violence in Islamic Law

A study of how classical Muslim jurists treated armed rebellion and the use of force against rulers, and of the legal categories they built to regulate it.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: openlibrary.org

Cite

Fadl, Khaled Abou El. Rebellion and Violence in Islamic Law. 2001. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/khaled-abou-el-fadl/#khaled-abou-el-fadl-rebellion-and-violence-in-islamic-law

No free copy online

BOOK 2001 · English

Speaking in God's Name: Islamic Law, Authority and Women

A critique of authoritarian reading of religious texts in modern legal opinions, with a case study of rulings concerning women.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: openlibrary.org

Cite

Fadl, Khaled Abou El. Speaking in God's Name: Islamic Law, Authority and Women. 2001. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/khaled-abou-el-fadl/#khaled-abou-el-fadl-speaking-in-god-s-name-islamic-law-authority-and-women

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BOOK 2002 · English

The Place of Tolerance in Islam

An essay arguing for tolerance and pluralism as values grounded in the Islamic tradition, followed by responses from other writers.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: Internet Archive (borrowable)

Cite

Fadl, Khaled Abou El. The Place of Tolerance in Islam. 2002. Internet Archive (borrowable), https://archive.org/details/placeoftolerance0000abou. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/khaled-abou-el-fadl/#khaled-abou-el-fadl-the-place-of-tolerance-in-islam

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BOOK 2004 · English

Islam and the Challenge of Democracy

An essay on whether Islamic values are compatible with democratic government, published with replies from other scholars.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: Internet Archive (borrowable)

Cite

Fadl, Khaled Abou El. Islam and the Challenge of Democracy. 2004. Internet Archive (borrowable), https://archive.org/details/islamchallengeof0000abou. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/khaled-abou-el-fadl/#khaled-abou-el-fadl-islam-and-the-challenge-of-democracy

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BOOK 2005 · English

The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists

A critique of puritanical and militant currents in contemporary Islam, arguing that they have displaced the tradition's moral and legal pluralism.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: Internet Archive (borrowable)

Cite

Fadl, Khaled Abou El. The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists. 2005. Internet Archive (borrowable), https://archive.org/details/greattheftwrestl00abou. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/khaled-abou-el-fadl/#khaled-abou-el-fadl-the-great-theft-wrestling-islam-from-the-extremists

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BOOK 2014 · English

Reasoning with God: Reclaiming Shari'ah in the Modern Age

A wide-ranging argument for understanding sharia as a continuing process of moral reasoning rather than a fixed code of rules.

Archived 19 October 2026 · Source: openlibrary.org

Cite

Fadl, Khaled Abou El. Reasoning with God: Reclaiming Shari'ah in the Modern Age. 2014. Archived 19 October 2026 in Islamic Internet Archives: Archive of Modern Islamic Thought. https://islamicarchives.org/authors/khaled-abou-el-fadl/#khaled-abou-el-fadl-reasoning-with-god-reclaiming-shari-ah-in-the-modern-age

No free copy online