From 30 June to 1 July 2025, three faculty members from the Al-Mahdi Institute — Dr Haidar Hobballah, Dr Wahid Amin, and Dr Muhammed Reza Tajri — participated in the British Association for Islamic Studies (BRAIS) Conference at the University of Cambridge. The conference brought together scholars from around the world to explore pressing issues in Islamic thought, history, and practice, with AMI faculty contributing original research to key debates in Islamic legal theory and the study of Shīʿī authority.
Dr Haidar Hobballah
Paper Title: Sadd al-Dharā’i (Blocking the Means) in the Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence: A Comparative Study between Sunni and Shi‘i Legal Theory
Dr Hobballah’s paper examined the legal principle of Sadd al-Dharā’i (“blocking the means”), a doctrine developed within Sunni legal theory to prevent actions that may lead to prohibited outcomes. He explored its conceptual and methodological distinctions from related ideas such as muqaddimat al-wājib (prerequisites for obligations), muqaddimat al-ḥarām (prerequisites for prohibitions), and the maxim of assisting in sin (qa‘idat al-i‘āna ‘ala al-ithm).
Importantly, Dr Hobballah analysed why traditional Shīʿī jurisprudence rejects Sadd al-Dharā’i in its formal sense, while still embracing other principles that serve a similar function in safeguarding the law’s objectives. This comparative approach not only illuminates divergent trajectories in Islamic legal reasoning but also fosters a deeper understanding of how each tradition balances legal form with ethical purpose.
In addition to his paper, Dr Hobballah chaired a panel on historical and ḥadīth studies within the Shīʿī tradition, facilitating rich scholarly dialogue.
Dr Wahid Amin
Paper Title: Divine Speech Across Contexts: Shīʿī Legal Hermeneutics and the Problem of Oral Divine Address
Dr Amin addressed a central question in Islamic legal theory: whether divine commands originally addressed to a specific audience (al-khiṭābāt al-shafāhiyya) remain normatively binding for later generations. Engaging both classical Shīʿī scholarship — particularly the works of Ākhund Khurāsānī, Mīrzā Qummī, and Muḥammad Ḥusayn Nāʾinī — and contemporary speech act theory, Dr Amin examined how meaning, authority, and normativity are preserved or transformed over time.
His paper shed light on how Shīʿī jurists have grappled with the tension between historical context and universal applicability, offering insights that resonate far beyond Islamic law into broader debates in the philosophy of language and legal interpretation.
Dr Amin also organised and chaired a panel titled Language, Authority, and Interpretation in Shīʿī Legal Theory, bringing together diverse perspectives on how jurists and scholars negotiate meaning and authority within dynamic historical contexts.
Dr Muhammed Reza Tajri
Paper Title: The Evolution of Shīʿī Taqlīd: Tussle between Authority and Agency
Dr Tajri’s research tackled the practice of taqlīd in Twelver Shīʿī Islam — the act of following a qualified jurist in religious matters — as a mechanism through which authority is mediated and maintained. His presentation moved beyond theoretical justifications to examine taqlīd as a lived tradition, contrasting normative models with the ways believers actually experience authority.
Drawing on historical sources, modern epistemic philosophy, and three case studies of prominent contemporary jurists — the Late Shaykh Hossein Muntazari, Shaykh Sadeq Larijani, and reformist thinker Yahya Muhammad — Dr Tajri mapped a spectrum between epistemic authoritarianism and greater religious agency.
His research was grounded in empirical data from a qualitative sociological study conducted among UK Shīʿa Muslims (2016–2019), providing valuable insights into how diasporic Shīʿī communities negotiate and sometimes redefine the terms of religious authority in light of lived realities.
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