Dr Haidar Hobballah participated in the international conference In Conversation with the Prophet Muhammad? The Hadith between Existential Relevance and Discrepancy in History, Theology, and Pedagogy, held at the University of Tübingen, Germany, on 7–8 October 2026. The conference brought together international scholars to examine the historical, theological, educational, and interpretative dimensions of Prophetic traditions.
Dr Hobballah presented a paper entitled “Hadith between Report and Discourse: A Pragmatic-Hermeneutical Perspective on the Imami Tradition”. His presentation explored the historical development of approaches to understanding ḥadīth within Imāmī Shīʿī thought, tracing a gradual shift from an emphasis on textual authenticity and legal authority towards a broader consideration of historical circumstances, social contexts, and the communicative purposes of religious discourse.
Drawing on the contributions of prominent Imāmī scholars, including al-Shahīd al-Awwal, Sayyid Ḥusayn al-Burūjardī, Muḥammad Bāqir al-Ṣadr, and contemporary jurists, the paper demonstrated how contextual and historical considerations have increasingly shaped the interpretation of religious texts. Particular attention was given to distinguishing between permanent religious principles and historically conditioned expressions or applications of those principles.
Dr Hobballah argued that these methodological developments do not necessarily represent a departure from textual authority, but rather an evolving understanding of what fidelity to religious texts entails. Understanding ḥadīth, from this perspective, requires attention not only to its wording and immediate meaning, but also to the historical circumstances of its emergence, the relationship between speaker and audience, and the purposes underlying the discourse. The paper highlighted the continuing significance of these transformations for contemporary Imāmī legal thought and ḥadīth scholarship, particularly in reconsidering how religious texts rooted in specific historical contexts may convey principles that transcend those contexts.
Dr Hobballah is Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies and Head of the Department of Hadith and History at Al-Mahdi Institute. He previously presented at the Islamic Jurisprudence and Contemporary Ethics conference in Exeter in July 2025.
