An ethical solution to the problem of legal indeterminacy: sharīʿa scholarship at E gypt's al‐A zhar

This article explores the importance of ethical discipline in resolving the ambiguities characteristic of legal interpretation. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among religious scholars at Egypt's al-Azhar, I demonstrate that traditional Muslim educational techniques are structured with the aim of imparting a particular set of dispositions (modelled on those of the Prophet) by enjoining meticulous and constant imitation of the Prophet's personal habits (sunna). By transforming themselves into living replicas of the Prophet, jurists believe that they acquire the ability to mirror his textual interpretations.