Rahbar, Daud

Daud Rahbar (1926-2013) was a Pakistani-American scholar of Islamic studies who made significant contributions to understanding Quranic ethics and theology. His seminal work "God of Justice: A Study in the Ethical Doctrine of the Qur'an" (1960) provided a comprehensive analysis of divine justice as a central organizing principle in Islamic scripture. Rahbar argued that the Quranic conception of Allah is fundamentally rooted in ethical attributes, particularly justice (adl), which governs both divine action and human moral obligation. His work challenged prevailing interpretations that emphasized divine sovereignty over ethical considerations, instead proposing that God's justice forms the foundation of Islamic theological ethics. Educated at Punjab University and Cambridge, Rahbar later taught at Ankara University, McGill University, and Boston University, bringing rigorous philological methods to Quranic studies while bridging Islamic and Western philosophical traditions.