Doha: The Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE) at the College of Islamic Studies (CIS), Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), has held its eighth Annual International Conference under the theme “Classical Works on Islamic Ethics” in collaboration with Leuven University.
CILE 2020 took place virtually from December 6-8, featuring international keynote speakers, scholars, academics, and researchers from leading institutions that included Exeter University’s Centre for the Study of Islam, the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Georgetown University, The Orient-Institute Beirut, and the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies.
The conference has become an important platform for discussion of research findings over the past eight editions. This year, conversations and debate revolved around key thematic sessions: Adab, Fiqh and Ethics; Scriptural Ethics; Sufi Ethics; and Philosophical and Theological Ethics.
Interim Provost of HBKU, Dean of CIS and Acting Director of CILE, Dr. Emad El-Din Shahin opened the conference. Speakers from CIS also included: Associate Professor of methodology and ethics, Dr. Mutaz Al Khatib and Professor of Islam and Biomedical Ethics, Dr. Mohammed Ghaly. Other CIS faculty members moderated the sessions including Professor of Islamic Studies and Comparative Religion, Dr. Ibrahim Mohamed Zein and Professor of Islamic Studies, Dr. Gavin Picken.
Speaking after CILE 2020, Dr. Al Khatib said, “CILE has been working for years on concrete initiatives to implement our main objective of playing a leading role in the interdisciplinary field of Islamic Ethics and to produce a moral discourse rooted in the Islamic tradition but concurrently open to dialogue and interaction with global modern moral deliberations through our publications and research activities.
"CILE’s annual conference is one of these research activities to bring together the best scholars to facilitate in-depth deliberations about this emerging field and to initiate critical discussions and to promote our works. Our collaboration with Leuwen University and the dynamic international participation is, once again, in keeping with our efforts to consistently frame intellectual debates on Islam ethics in a global context.”
