What is Reparative Reasoning and Reasoning About Repair: A Reading of Khaled Abou El Fadl’s Life and Work

I present this paper as an illustration of how I understand reparative reasoning and the second-order activity of reasoning about repair, abstracting my model from a concrete instance of repair. I begin with a visualization—both by showing an image and offering a creative reading of it—of the work of Khaled Abou El Fadl, an important Muslim theologian and jurist. I then offer a brief commentary drawing out the reparative dimensions of his work, as well as the implications of reading him as engaged in repair.