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Books > Law > Other areas of law > Islamic law
Twenty per cent of all the people in the world live under Islamic law. Going beyond steroetypes of rigid doctrine punishment the author explores the connections between everyday social life and contemporary Muslim ideas of justice and reason. Islamic law is thus seen as a kind of common law system closely attached to the cultural history of its adherents.
The world is facing a great dilemma due to despicable, inhumane and
barbaric acts of terrorism, indiscriminate killings, warfare,
anarchy, disorder and suicide bombings over the past two decades.
It is not only destroying the peace of any specific region, group
or country but has become a major threat to world peace. Young
People and Students living in various western countries who do not
have conceptual clarity regarding Islam are wronglyconsidering
terrorism and indiscriminate killing to be Jihad and are being
drawn towards it.A further disturbing issue with regards to this is
that the terrorists declare their evil goals to be part of the
Islamic concept of Jihad. Furthermore they speak of enforcing the
Islamic Shariah according to their extremist and terrorist
ideology. They call for the re-establishment of the Caliphate as
part of their ideology; and they use the Islamic terminologies and
concepts of Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence) to legally justify their
claims. By quoting the Qur'an, hadith and texts from the books of
Islamic Law out of context, they influence common Muslims who are
not acquainted with the true teachings of Islam, especially
youngsters.There is a need to provide authentic, comprehensive
material against extremism to all people, from every walk of life,
according to their needs, so that the conceptual and ideological
confusions which may lead to terrorismcan be eliminated. The
Islamic Curriculum on Peace and Counter-Terrorism was prepared for
this purpose. This curriculum has 3 parts and aims to provide
resources from the Holy Qur'an, Hadith and authoritative books to
provide a comprehensive ideological and theological background to
all the key areas that are utilised to brainwash youngsters.The
Islamic Curriculum on Peace and Counter-Terrorism has been compiled
under the supervision and guidance of Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad
Tahir-ul-Qadri - who is the author of the Fatwa on Terrorism and
Suicide Bombings.
This book focuses on dealing with questions and concerns regarding
long-term and sustainable peaceful relations between Muslims and
non-Muslims, in both Muslim majority countries and also western
countries where Muslims live as minorities.The book is divided into
two sections. The first section discusses individual and community
relations, providing ample evidences for very important aspects in
this regard. Muslims in their treatment of non-Muslims, bas a rule,
are to ensure that all non-Muslims are secure in their lives and in
their belongings.The book further illustrates how Muslims are to
treat non-Muslims with piety and excellent social morality, and not
as second class citizens or inferior beings.The second section of
the book discusses the categories of abodes, making this work one
of geopolitical relevance. Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad
Tahir-ul-Qadri provides evidences and nuanced interpretations of
the concepts "The Abode of Islam, The Abode of Reconciliation, The
Abode of Treaty, The Abode of Peace, and The Abode of War." Clear
definitions of these categories are offered, along with how
different countries can and cannot be classified in each of these
categories.This book presents a high standard of Islamic
scholarship for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Members of diverse
communities may benefit by comparing their own viewpoints,
perspectives, understandings, and opinions with this important work
of an authentic scholarly standard.
The Research Handbook on Islamic Law and Society provides an
examination of the role of Islamic law as it applies in Muslim and
non-Muslim societies through legislation, fatwa, court cases,
sermons, media, or scholarly debate. It illuminates and analyses
the intersection of social, political, economic and cultural
contexts in which state actors have turned to Islamic law for legal
solutions. Taking a thematic approach, the Research Handbook
assesses the application of Islamic law across six key areas:
family law and courts; property and business; criminal law and
justice; ethics, health and sciences; arts and education; and
community and public spheres. Through examination of these themes
in over 20 jurisdictions, the Research Handbook serves to
demonstrate that Islamic law is adaptable depending on the values
of Muslim societies across different times and places. In addition,
the Research Handbook highlights how Islamic law has engaged with
contemporary issues, looking beyond what is set out in the Qur'an
and the Hadith, to examine how Islamic law is applied in societies
today. Researchers and scholars with an interest in Islamic law, or
the relationship between law and society more generally will find
this Research Handbook to be an engaging text. The in-depth
analysis, spanning sectors and jurisdictions, will offer new
insights and inspire future research. Contributors include: M. Ali,
M.F.A. Alsubaie, A. Begum, A. Black, R. Burgess, M. Corbett, K.M.
Eadie, H. Esmaeili, N. Hammado, N. Hosen, N. Hussin, A.A. Jamal,
M.A.H. Khutani, F. Kutty, N.Y.K. Lahpan, A.O.A. Mesrat, R. Mohr,
S.M. Solaiman, H.H.A. Tajuddin, M. Zawawi
Through the analysis of Al-Shaybani?'s most prolific work As-Siyar
Al Kabier, this book offers a unique insight into the classic
Islamic perspective on international law. Despite being recognised
as one of the earliest contributors to the field of international
law, there has been little written, in English, on Al-Shaybani?'s
work; this book will go some way towards filling the lacuna.
International Islamic Law examines Al-Shaybani?'s work alongside
that of other leading scholars such as: Augustine, Gratian,
Aquinas, Vitoria and Grotius, proving a full picture of early
thinking on international law. Individual chapters provide
discussion on Al-Shaybani?'s writing in relation to war, peace, the
consequences of war and diplomatic missions. Khaled Ramadan Bashir
uses contemporary international law vocabulary to enable the reader
to consider Al-Shaybani?'s writing in a modern context. This book
will be a useful and unique resource for scholars in the field of
international Islamic law, bringing together and translating a
number of historical sources to form one accessible and coherent
text. Scholars researching the historical and jurisprudential
origins of public international law topics, such as: international
humanitarian law, ?just war?, international dispute resolution,
asylum and diplomacy will also find the book to be an interesting
and valuable text.
The English version of the introduction to the historic fatwa on
terrorism and suicide bombings. This 88-page includes answers to
various questions which radicals ask about suicide bombing and
jihad, hijacking of foreign diplomats and explains why it is not
jihad. The fatwa on terrorism highlights and discusses various
issues including suicide bombing, terrorism, jihad, dar ul islam,
dar ul harb.
The Anthropology of Islamic Law shows how hermeneutic theory and
practice theory can be brought together to analyze cultural, legal,
and religious traditions. These ideas are developed through an
analysis of the Islamic legal tradition, which examines both
Islamic legal doctrine and religious education. The book combines
anthropology and Islamicist history, using ethnography and in-depth
analysis of Arabic religious texts. The book focuses on higher
religious learning in contemporary Egypt, examining its
intellectual, ethical, and pedagogical dimensions. Data is drawn
from fieldwork inside al-Azhar University, Cairo University's Dar
al-Ulum, and the network of traditional study circles associated
with the al-Azhar mosque. Together these sites constitute the most
important venue for the transmission of religious learning in the
contemporary Muslim world. The book gives special attention to
contemporary Egypt, and also provides a broader analysis relevant
to Islamic legal doctrine and religious education throughout
history.
Armed non-state actors (ANSAs) often have economic aims that
international law needs to respond to. This book looks at the aim
of Islamic State to create an effective government, with an
economically independent regime, which focused on key oilfields in
Syria and Iraq. Having addressed Islamic State's quest for energy
resources in Iraq and Syria, the book explores the lawfulness of
the war with Islamic State from a variety of legal aspects. It has
been attempted to make inroads into the most controversial aspects
of contradictions in the application of jus ad bellum and jus in
bello, particularly when discussing the use of extraterritorial
armed force against ANSAs, and the obligation to protect civilian
objects, including the natural environment. The question is whether
the targeting of energy resources should be regarded as a violation
of the laws of armed conflict, even though the war with Islamic
State being classified as a non-international armed conflict.
Ambitious in scope, the study argues that legal theory and state
practice are still problematic as to how and under what conditions
states can justify resorting to military force in foreign
territory, and to what extent they can target natural resources as
being part of state property. Furthermore, it goes on to examine
the differences between international and non-international armed
conflicts, to establish whether there is any difference in the
targeting of energy resources as part of the war-sustaining
capabilities of either party. Through an examination of the Islamic
State case, the book offers a comprehensive study to close the gaps
in jus in bello by contextualising the questions of civilian
protection, victimisation and state responsibility by evaluating
the US's war-sustaining theory as a justification for the
destruction of a territorial state's natural resources that are
occupied by ANSAs.
Reform, by definition, is not a complete break with tradition, but
a determination by scholars, activists, politicians and critical
thinkers to re-claim the tenets of their faith. Muslim communities
have historically displayed a tendency to preserve the status quo.
By contrast, the individuals and movements in Islam and the
Question of Reform are determined-often at great personal risk-to
push aside existing political and social elites and the
historically accepted interpretations of Islam and its place in
society. The perspectives examined in this volume avoid superficial
or apologetic examinations of Islam's political and social role.
Instead, they meticulously scrutinise the religion's public role,
often questioning the validity of dogmas that have acted as tools
of empowerment for existing elites for centuries.
Islamic finance distinguishes itself from conventional finance with
its strong emphasis on the moral consequences of financial
transactions; prohibiting interest, excessive uncertainty, and
finance of harmful business. When it comes to risk mitigation, it
is unique in its risk sharing approach. This authoritative book
tracks the evolution of the takaful industry over the course of the
last four decades and makes a major attempt to highlight the
importance of risk sharing through a discussion of various models
of cooperation and critical analysis of their performance,
including illuminating case studies and a critical assessment of
the Islamic insurance model and the role of alternate financing
mechanisms. Its high level discourse on shari'ah compliance and its
nuances places emphasis on the importance of solidarity,
cooperation, mutuality and reciprocity. Scholars and practitioners
working in Islamic Finance will appreciate the context and nuance
of this important book, and it will be essential reading for anyone
interested in alternative forms of shari'ah compliant cooperative
finance. The book is equally vital for academics and researchers
interested in understanding various takaful models and their
shari'ah considerations. Contributors include: A. Abozaid, A.U.F.
Ahmad, A. Akhtar, S.N. Ali, H. Allam, M. Ayub, M. Al Bashir Al
Amine, A. Bhatty, J.W. Bradford, S.E.B. Carmody, M.A. El-Gamal, M.
Faisal, M.F. Haq, I. Bin Mahbob, A. Nana, V. Nienhaus, S. Nisar,
U.A. Oseni, M. Rahman, A. Rehman, M.A. Samad, B. Shafiq, H. Sultan,
A.-R. Syed, T.A. Uddin
According to many Islamic jurists, the world is divided between dar
al-Islam (the abode of Islam) and dar al-harb (the abode of war).
This dual division of the world has led to a great amount of
juridical discussion concerning what makes a territory part of dar
al-Islam, what the status of Muslims living outside of this is, and
whether they are obliged to obey Islamic jurisprudence. Susanne
Olsson examines the differing understandings of dar al-Islam and
dar al-harb, as well as related concepts, such as jihad and takfir.
She thereby is able to explore how these concepts have been
utilised, transformed and negotiated throughout history. As the
subject of Muslims living in Europe is such a topical and sometimes
controversial one, this book will appeal to researchers of modern
Islam as integral to the Western experience.
This book invokes the Tawhidi ontological foundation of the
Qur'anic law and worldview, and is also a study of ta'wil, the
esoteric meaning of Qur'anic verses. It presents a comparative
analysis between the Tawhidi methodology and the contemporary
subject of Shari'ah. Masudul Alam Choudhury brings about a serious
criticism of the traditional understanding of Shari'ah as Islamic
law contrary to the holistic socio-scientific worldview of the
unity of knowledge arising from Tawhid as the law. A bold
repudiation of the Islamic traditional understanding and the school
of theocracy, Choudhury's critique is in full consonance with the
Qur'an and Sunnah. It is critical of the sectarian (madhab)
conception of relational independence of facts. Thus the
non-creative outlook of Shari'ah contrasts with universality and
uniqueness of Tawhid as the analytically established law explaining
the monotheistic organic unity of being and becoming in
'everything'. This wide and strict methodological development of
the Tawhidi worldview is articulated in this work. The only way
that Tawhid and Shari'ah can converge as law is in terms of
developing the Tawhidi methodology, purpose and objective of the
universal and unique law in consonance with the ontology of Tawhid.
Such a convergence in the primal ontological sense of Tawhid is
termed as maqasid as-shari'ah al-Tawhid.
The twenty-first century has been significantly shaped by the
growing importance of religion in international politics resulting
in rising polarization among nation states. This new dynamic has
presented new challenges to international human rights principles.
This book deals with some of these new challenges, particularly the
growing demand by Muslim states for protection of Islamic religion
from blasphemy and defamation. Member states of the Organization of
Islamic Cooperation (OIC), through resolutions at the United
Nations, made efforts to introduce laws that globally protect
Islamic religion from blasphemy and defamation. The bid by OIC
member states faced opposition from Western countries. The
conflicting claims of the two sides are discussed in this book. The
book clearly shows the impact of blasphemy and defamation of
religion laws on certain aspects of fundamental human rights
principles.
Muslim Personal Law in South Africa: Evolution and Future Status,
the first South African book on the topic of Muslim personal law,
introduces readers to the debate on the awarding of unique rights
to specific communities. The recognition of Muslim personal law or
Muslim family law has provoked debate within and beyond the Muslim
community and has attracted the attention of religious scholars,
academics and lawyers. The contributors to this volume touch on
constitutional issues, concerns with the application of Muslim
personal law by our courts, and the conflict between supporters and
opponents of the draft Bill on Muslim Marriages. The
non-recognition of Muslim marriages has compelled Muslim women who
have suffered the dire consequences of divorce, maintenance and
custody to approach the courts for relief. If Muslim personal law
were to be recognised by the state, to what extent would it protect
the rights of women? Will recent judgments establish precedents
that might prove to be at odds with the draft Bill? This book
provides fascinating insight into the evolution and prospects of
Muslim personal law in South Africa.
This book brings together the study of two great disciplines of the
Islamic world: law and philosophy. In both sunni and shiite Islam,
it became the norm for scholars to acquire a high level of
expertise in the legal tradition. Thus some of the greatest names
in the history of Aristotelianism were trained jurists, like
Averroes, or commented on the status and nature of law, like
al-Farabi. While such authors sought to put law in its place
relative to the philosophical disciplines, others criticized
philosophy from a legal viewpoint, like al-Ghazali and Ibn
Taymiyya. But this collection of papers does not only explore the
relative standing of law and philosophy. It also looks at how
philosophers, theologians, and jurists answered philosophical
questions that arise from jurisprudence itself. What is the logical
structure of a well-formed legal argument? What standard of
certainty needs to be attained in passing down judgments, and how
is that standard reached? What are the sources of valid legal
judgment and what makes these sources authoritative? May a believer
be excused on grounds of ignorance? Together the contributions
provide an unprecedented demonstration of the close connections
between philosophy and law in Islamic society, while also
highlighting the philosophical interest of texts normally studied
only by legal historians.
The increasingly transnational nature of terrorist activities
compels the international community to strengthen the legal
framework in which counter-terrorism activities should occur at
every level, including that of intergovernmental organizations.
This unique, timely, and carefully researched monograph examines
one such important yet generally under-researched and poorly
understood intergovernmental organization, the Organization of
Islamic Cooperation ('OIC', formerly the Organization of the
Islamic Conference). In particular, it analyses in depth its
institutional counter-terrorism law-making practice, and the
relationship between resultant OIC law and comparable UN norms in
furtherance of UN Global Counter-Terrorism Stategy goals.
Furthermore, it explores two common (mis)assumptions regarding the
OIC, namely whether its internal institutional weaknesses mean that
its law-making practice is inconsequential at the intergovernmental
level; and whether its self-declared Islamic objectives and nature
are irrelevant to its institutional practice or are instead
reflected within OIC law. Where significant normative tensions are
discerned between OIC law and UN law, the monograph explores not
only whether these may be explicable, at least in part, by the
OIC's Islamic nature, and objectives, but also whether their
corresponding institutional legal orders are conflicting or
cooperative in nature, and the resultant implications of these
findings for international counter-terrorism law- and
policy-making. This monograph is expected to appeal especially to
national and intergovernmental counter-terrorism practitioners and
policy-makers, as well as to scholars concerned with the
interaction between international and Islamic law norms. From the
Foreword by Professor Ben Saul, The University of Sydney Dr Samuels
book must be commended as an original and insightful contribution
to international legal scholarship on the OIC, Islamic law,
international law, and counter-terrorism. It fills significant gaps
in legal knowledge about the vast investment of international and
regional effort that has gone into the global counter-terrorism
enterprise over many decades, and which accelerated markedly after
9/11. The scope of the book is ambitious, its subject matter is
complex, and its sources are many and diverse. Dr Samuel has
deployed an appropriate theoretical and empirical methodology,
harnessed an intricate knowledge of the field, and brought a
balanced judgement to bear, to bring these issues to life.
Islamic commercial and financial practice has not experienced the
trial-and-error style of development that has characterized the
development of the common law in the English-speaking world. Many
of the principles, rules and practices prevalent in the Islamic law
of contract, commerce, finance and property remain the same as
those outlined by the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad, and expounded
by scholars of jurisprudence as far back as the 13th century,
despite the advancement in time and sophistication of commercial
interaction. Hanaan Balala here demonstrates how, in order to
bridge the gap between the principles outlined by the Quran and the
Prophet in the 7th century and commercial practice in the 21st
century, Islamic finance jurisdictions need to open themselves to
learning from the experience (including the mistakes) of the
English common law. "Islamic Finance and Law: Theory and Practice
in a Globalized World" provides an analysis of the fundamental
principles underlying the Islamic law of contract and commercial
practice in comparison with their equivalents in common law in the
English-speaking world. It seeks to draw parallels (and differences
where appropriate) to facilitate the growth and development of
Islamic commercial and financial law globally.
Introducing undergraduate students to Islamic law, this accessible
textbook does not presume legal or technical knowledge. Drawing on
a comparative approach, it encourages students to think through the
issues of the application of Islamic law where Muslims live as a
majority and where they live as a minority, including the USA,
Saudia Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan. The book surveys the historical
development as well as the contemporary contexts of Islamic law. In
distilling the history of Islamic law for non-specialists, the
author covers important topics such as the development and
transformation of Islamic institutions before and after
colonialism. Coverage of Islamic law across contemporary contexts
draws on real case material, and allows for discussion of Islam as
a legal and a moral code that is activated both inside and outside
the court. Readers will learn about rituals, dietary restrictions,
family, contracts and property, lawful and unlawful gain, criminal
law and punishments, and what makes a government legitimate in the
eyes of Muslim individuals and authorities.
The importance of the rule of law is universally recognised and of
fundamental value for most societies. Establishing and promoting
the rule of law in the Muslim world, particularly in the Middle
East, North Africa, and Central Asia, has become a pressing but
complicated issue. These states have Muslim majority populations,
and the religion of Islam has an important role in the traditional
structures of their societies. While the Muslim world is taking
gradual steps towards the establishment of rule of law systems,
most Muslim majority countries may not yet have effective legal
systems with independent judiciaries, which would allow the state
and institutions to be controlled by an effective rule of law
system. One important aspect of the rule of law is freedom of
expression. Given the sensitivity of Muslim societies in relation
to their sacred beliefs, freedom of expression, as an international
human rights issue, has raised some controversial cases. This book,
drawing on both International and Islamic Law, explores the rule of
law, and freedom of expression and its practical application in the
Muslim world.
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