Search for God’s Law
Islamic Jurisprudence in the Writings of Sayf al-Dīn al-ĀmidīRevised Edition

Bernard G. Weiss
January 2009
6 x 9, 760 pp.
Cloth $75.00s
978-0-87480-938-1

“An astonishing achievement of linguistic and analytical skills and dedicated hard work, and a foundational element for the next generation of scholars in this field.” — Norman Calder, University of Manchester

“The Search for God’s Law is all that one might hope for in its depth, its subtlety, and its comprehensive vision.” —Kevin Reinhart, Dartmouth College

“It is certainly not every day that something significant happens in the field [of Islamic jurisprudence]. In The Search for God’s Law that significant something has happened.” —Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo, International Institute of Islamic Thought

Scholars praised the 1992 edition of The Search of God’s Law as a groundbreaking intellectual treatment of Islamic jurisprudence. Bernard Weiss’s revised edition brings to life Sayf al-Dīn al Āmidī’s classic exposition of the methodologies through which Muslim scholars have constructed their understandings of the divine law.

Weiss’s new introduction provides an overview of Āmidī’s jurisprudence that facilitates deeper comprehension of the challenging dialectic of the text. This edition includes an in-depth analysis of the nature of language and the ways in which it mediates the law, while shaping it at the same time. An updated index has been added.

Bernard G. Weiss is a professor of languages and literature at the University of Utah. He has taught at the American University in Cairo, the University of Toronto, and McGill University. He is the author of The Spirit of Islamic Law and coeditor of the Brill series Studies in Islamic Law and Society.