Jamil Akhtar

This paper situates the issue of gender ontology within the context of the larger intellectual exchange between Islamic Qurʾānic anthropology and Aristotelian biological essentialism; a discourse rooted in ancient philosophical traditions and convincing throughout the medieval period. It explores how the Aristotelian teleological scheme that establishes the male as the standard type and the female as a “deficient” set the pattern to further philosophical and theological development of the concept of φύλον (gender) and juxtaposes this with the Qurʾānic understanding of humanity as being created from one nafs, with equal moral responsibility and spiritual capacity. The paper follows the lines of a theoretical and comparative hermeneutic approach in studying primary texts – Generation of Animals and Politics among Aristotle, the Qurʾān in Arabic, and major tafsīr works – as well as a selection of medieval commentaries, including Avicenna, Ibn Rushd, and Thomas Aquinas, to seek continuities and structural breaks in anthropological assumptions. The analysis shows that while both traditions recognise the biological dimension of differentiation, the Qurʾānic system is opposed to any ontological hierarchy, basing human value in piety and divine intent instead of biological shape. The results indicate that a dialogue with these traditions can provide a philosophically fruitful approach to reconsider gender essentialism in the ancient-medieval tradition, contributing to current discussions on the philosophical foundations of gender without obscuring their historical distinctiveness.

This article provides a rigorous re-examination of women's religious authority in Islam through a focused inquiry into the permissibility and implications of appointing women as jurists (muftiyyāt) in Pakistan. Deploying contemporary feminist hermeneutics alongside classical and modern Islamic Jurisprudence (uṣūl al-fiqh), it argues that the historical marginalization of women from formal law-making is a contingent socio-political construction rather than a theologically mandated prohibition. By exposing the patriarchal epistemologies embedded within Pakistan's religious and juridical institutions, the article reconceptualizes ijtihād as a Qurʾānically grounded practice oriented toward justice, equity, and compassion. It contends that the systematic inclusion of women's interpretive voices constitutes not only a doctrinally defensible development in Islamic legal thought, but also an ethical imperative for realizing gender justice, human dignity, and accountable moral agency in contemporary Pakistan. Recognizing women as authoritative interpreters of Islamic Law thus emerges as both a normative requirement and a practical catalyst for jurisprudential renewal and reform.