He has been awarded universal acknowledgments of excellence in the United States and the international academic world. He is also an important member of Human Rights Watch and is a press and television news analyst. Muslim reformist El Fadl, involved in an “intellectual jihad in the name of shari’a, against puritanism and in the defence of Islamic humanism”, believes that a commitment to human rights, justice, pluralism and moderation “is Islam’s real tradition, not the theocratic religious state” which he says is a lie.” El Fadl position as an intellectually free, open, self-determined “moderate” Muslim, is in opposition to “puritan, extremist, indoctrinated (and often Wahhabite) Muslims.”
He targets religious reductionism used to manipulate believers. El Fadl believes that authentic Islamic jurisprudence and theological tradition are very discursive and non-deterministic, founded on the concept of intellectual analysis and acceptance of diversity and pluralism. He defines shari’a as Islam’s moral and ethical system, one that includes the need to perceive an investigation of divine will as a process. The “law” must, according to El Fadl, be interpreted appropriately as fiqh and consists of rigid provisions, while by definition shari’a involves an understanding process. The fiqh is a human and not divine product of this investigative process.
There are very few laws in Islamic doctrine that have God’s seal of approval, among them praying, fasting, Ramadan, the pilgrimage and charity; the five pillars of Islam. Extremist and puritanical groups apply pressure to rewrite and recodify Islamic Law, a law that to a great extent has resisted other attempts of this kind during the 1,400 years of its history. However, in the era of centralised state authority, as a juridical and epistemological tradition, Islamic Law has been distorted and the discursive and process-based approach that was its essential characteristic has been abandoned, as has the intellectual reflection tasked with the never-ending duty of investigating God’s will. The contemporary era has seen the fall of Islamic law. El Fadl explains that saying one is certain one understands divine will, as puritans are doing nowadays, is theologically problematic and significantly arrogant, adding that the religious state is historically unfounded and that there are no theological states in Islam. “When the state speaks it is terribly human, profoundly secular and with no concern for the reasons quoted as justification for legislation.”
His books include, The Search for Beauty in Islam: Conference of the Books (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2006), The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists (Harper San Francisco, 2005), Islam and the Challenge of Democracy (Princeton University Press, 2004).