Professor of Religion, Islamic studies

Kecia Ali is a scholar of Islam, gender, and ethics. In addition to two open-access edited readers on American Muslim marriage and divorce, her books include Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist Reflections on Qur’an, Hadith, and Jurisprudence (2016 [2006]), Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam (2010), Imam Shafi‘i: Scholar and Saint (2011), and The Lives of Muhammad (2014), about modern Muslim and non-Muslim biographies of Islam’s prophet. Her most recent book, The Woman Question in Islamic Studies (2024), addresses academic sexism. She has also written about ethics and popular fiction, including in Human in Death: Morality and Mortality in J. D. Robb’s Novels (2017).

Ali directs the Muslim Studies Program at Boston University, where she has been a member of the faculty since 2006. She teaches classes on Islam (Introduction to Islam; Shariah Law; The Qur’an; Women and Gender in Islam), as well as others including Death and Immortality and Writing Religion (a “Topics in Religious Experience” course).

Current CV

 

Books


The Woman Question in Islamic Studies
By Kecia Ali

 

 

 


Tying the Knot: A Feminist/Womanist Guide to Muslim Marriage in America
By Kecia Ali

 

 

 

Cover image for Half of Faith: American Muslim Marriage and Divorce in the Twenty-First Century: A Reader. Edited by Kecia Ali
Half of Faith: American Muslim Marriage and Divorce in the Twenty-First Century
By Kecia Ali

 

 

 


Human in Death
Human in Death: Morality and Mortality in J. D. Robb’s Novels
By Kecia Ali
Baylor University Press
February 1, 2017
Buy it now from Baylor University Press!

 

 


Sexual Ethics
Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist Reflections on Qur’an, Hadith, and Jurisprudence
By Kecia Ali
Oneworld Publications
February 9, 2016
Buy it now from Amazon.com!

 


A Guide for Women in Religion
A Guide for Women in Religion
Co-edited by Mary E. Hunt, Monique Moultrie, Kecia Ali
Palgrave Macmillan; Revised edition (November 26, 2014)
Buy it now from Amazon.com!

 

 

 

The Lives of Muhammad
The Lives of Muhammad
By Kecia Ali
Harvard University Press
October 2014
Buy it now from Harvard University Press!

 

 


A Jihad for Justice - for Amina Wadud 2012-1-1
A Jihad for Justice; Honoring the work and life of Amina Wadud
Edited by Kecia Ali, Juliane Hammer, and Laury Silvers
ebook

 

 

 


Iman Shafi'i
Imam Shafi’i: Scholar and Saint
By Kecia Ali
Oneworld Publications
November 16, 2011
Buy it now from Amazon.com!

 

 


Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam
Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam
By Kecia Ali
Harvard University Press
October 1, 2010
Buy it now from Amazon.com!

 

 



Islam: The Key Concepts
By Kecia Ali and Oliver Leaman
Routledge Publications
December 30, 2007
Buy it now from Amazon.com!

 

Courses

  • CAS RN 102 Topics in Religious Experience: Writing Religion
  • CAS RN 106 Death and Immortality
  • CAS RN 214 Islam
  • CAS RN 340/640 The Quran
  • CAS RN 434/734  Representations of Muhammad
  • CAS RN 345/645 Islamic Law
  • CAS RN 434/734 Representations of Muhammad
  • CAS RN 435/735 Women, Gender, Islam

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