Dr Ali-reza Bhojani

AMI Faculty

Associate Lecturer in Islamic Studies

Moral Rationalism

Islamic Legal Studies

Ethics

Shiʿī Studies

Biography

After completing an undergraduate degree and professional qualifications in Optometry, Dr Ali-Reza Bhojani began studying at the Al-Mahdi Institute, graduating from its Hawza programme in 2008. He then moved to Durham University for 1+3 ESRC funded doctoral programme with the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World (CASAW). He was awarded a distinction for an MA in Research Methods (International Relations and Politics) and graduated from the doctoral programme at the Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies in 2014. His thesis was published as Moral Rationalism and Sharī‛a (Routledge, 2015).

He has held academic posts at the Al-Mahdi Institute where he lectured on legal theory, theology, and ethics, the Markfield Institute of Higher Education, the University of Nottingham and the University of Oxford, and is currently an Assistant Professor in Islamic Ethics at the University of Birmingham.

Lecturer, Al-Mahdi Institute — Islamic Ethics.
Assistant Professor in Islamic Ethics, University of Birmingham

Books:

Bhojani, A-R 2015, Moral rationalism and Shari’a: Independent rationality in modern Shi’i usul al-fiqh.

Articles:

Bhojani, A & Clarke, M 2023, ‘Religious Authority beyond Domination and Discipline: Epistemic Authority and Its Vernacular Uses in the Shi‘i Diaspora‘, Comparative Studies in Society and History, pp. 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417522000470

Bhojani, A 2022, ‘Linguistic philosophy in modern uṣūl al-fiqh: al-Ākhund al-Khurāsānī (d. 1911) on seeking something without willing it to be‘, Méthodos, no. 22. https://doi.org/10.4000/methodos.8985

Bhojani, A-R 2008, ‘Ijtihad in traditional Shi’i thought: Obstacles and Inconsistencies‘, Shia Affairs, Vol. 1 pp. 113-129.

Chapters (peer-reviewed):

Bhojani, A-R 2025, Reclaiming Space for God-Talk: Theories of ijtihād and Intra-Muslim Differences in Matters of Belief. in Divine Revelation and Communication: Contemporary Muslim Theological Approaches. 1 edn, Gerlach Press, pp. 55-76. <https://gerlachpress.com/index.php?cart=9783959941907&art_no=9783959941907&val=125&title=Colin+Turner+%3A+Divine+Revelation+and+Communication>

Bhojani, A-R & Clarke, M 2024, Risking Speech in Islam. in M Candea, T Fedirko, P Heywood & F Wright (eds), Freedoms of Speech: Anthropological Perspectives on Language, Ethics, and Power. Studies in the Anthropology of Language, Sign, and Social Life, University of Toronto Press, 9781487552978, pp. 94-110. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781487552978-006

Chapters:

Bhojani, A-R 2024, Between Fear and Hope: AI ethics in Islamic Thought. in T Peters (ed.), The Promise and Peril of AI and IA : New Technology Meets Religion, Theology, and Ethics. ATF Press, pp. 255-266. <https://atfpress.com/product/the-promise-and-peril-of-ai-and-ia-new-technology-meets-religion-theology-and-ethics/>

Bhojani, A-R 2024, ‘Is Every Mujtahid Correct?’ And the Implications of Holding Incorrect Theological Beliefs for One’s Fate in the Hereafter, from the Qawānīn al-Uṣūl of Mīrzā al-Qummī (d. 1231/1816). in O Anchassi & R Gleave (eds), Islamic Law in Context : A Primary Source Reader. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 58-69. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009031783.007

Bhojani, A-R 2019, al-Sayyid ʿAlī al-Ḥusaynī al-Sīstānī on Uṣūl al-fiqh in Twelver Shīʿī Thought: Its Importance and Historical Phases: Its Importance and Historical Phases. in Visions of Sharīʿa. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004413948_011

Bhojani, A-R 2019, Towards the Hermeneutics of a Justice-Oriented Reading of Sharīʿa. in Visions of Sharīʿa. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004413948_008

Bhojani, A-R 2019, Uṣūlī Shī’ī exegesis of 9:122: A Potential Quranic ‘justification’ for collective Ijtihād and consultative taqlīd. in Ijtihād & Taqlīd: Past, Present and Future, eds. Wahid M. Amin and Muhammed R. Tajiri (AMI Press: Birmingham, 2019).

Bhojani, A-R 2019, Visions of Sharīʿa: An Introduction. in Visions of Sharīʿa. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004413948_002

Anthology:

Bhojani, A-R 2019, Visions of Sharīʿa: Contemporary Discussions in Shī ͑ī Legal Theory.

Bhojani, A-R & Clarke, M 2022, Free Speech as Ethical Speech in Islam: An Essay in Ethnographic Moral Theology. in L Takim (ed.), Free Speech, Scholarly Critique and the limits of Expression in Islam : Proceedings of the 9th AMI Contemporary Fiqhī Issues Workshop . AMI Press, pp. 40-55, Free Speech, Scholarly Critique, and the Limits of Expression in Islam, 1/07/21. <https://www.amipress.co.uk/product/free-speech-scholarly-critique-and-the-limits-of-expression-in-islam/>

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