Secularity through a 'Soft Distinction' in the Islamic Ecumene? Adab as a Counterpoint to Shari'a

This article highlights a 'soft' distinction in the regulation of human conduct which emerged through various epochs of Islamicate history: between adab as the marker of an ethical and literary tradition, on the one hand, and the normative claims covered by shari‘a and drawing particularly on the exemplary sayings of Prophet Muhammad, the hadith corpus, on the other. Adab became a counterpoint to …