The place of Islam in constitutions invites fierce debate from scholars and politicians alike. Many of these debates assume an inherent conflict between constitutional Islam and 'secular' values of liberal democracy and human rights. Using case studies from several Muslim-majority states, this book surveys the history and role of Islam in constitutions. Tracing the origins of constitutional Islam, Dawood Ahmed and Muhammad Zubair Abbasi argue that colonial history and political bargaining were pivotal factors in determining whether a country adopted Islam, and not secularism, in its constitution. Contrary to the common contention that the constitutional incorporation of Islam is generally antithetical to human rights, Ahmed and Abbasi show not only that Islam has been popularly demanded and introduced into constitutions during periods of 'democratization' and 'modernization' but also that constitutional Islamization has frequently been accompanied by an expansion in constitutional human rights.

The fourteen studies included in this volume have been chosen to serve several purposes simultaneously. At a basic level, they aim to provide a general - if not wholly systematic - coverage of the emergence and evolution of law during the first three and a half centuries of Islam. On another level, they reflect the different and, at times, widely divergent scholarly approaches to this subject matter. These two levels combined will offer a useful account of the rise of Islamic law not only for students in this field but also for Islamicists who are not specialists in matters of law, comparative legal historians, and others. At the same time, however, and as the Introduction to the work argues, this collection of distinguished contributions illustrates both the achievements and the shortcomings of paradigmatic scholarship on the formative period of Islamic law.

This book seeks to interrogate the classical fiqh formulation on gender and homicide with a view to exploring further the debate on whether the so-called gender injustice in Islamic law is a human creation or attributable to the divine sources of the Qur'an and Sunnah. The study is in response to the increasing criticism of the Islamic criminal law regime and the accusation that it discriminates on the basis of gender. It argues that any attempt to critique a religious question through the lens of traditional Western human rights ideals would be resisted by the vast majority of Muslims. An examination of the question and any suggested solutions offered would be much more effective if situated within the system they identify with; that is to address the question of gender justice deficit from within the Islamic legal tradition. Focusing on Nigeria and Pakistan, the book achieves this by drawing on classical fiqh literature, contemporary literature, legislative sources and relevant case law.

This book traces the evolution of organisational activism among Muslim women in India. It deconstructs the 'Muslim woman' as the monolith based on tropes like purdah, polygamy, and tin talaq and compels the reader to revisit the question of Muslim women's individual and collective agency. The book argues that the political field, along with religion, moulds the nature and scope of Muslim women's activism in India. It looks at the objectives of four Muslim women's organisations: the Bazm-e-Niswan, the Awaaz-e-Niswaan, the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan and the India International Women's Alliance (IIWA), in close interaction with the political landscape of Mumbai. The book explores the emergence of gender-inclusive interpretation of Muslim women's rights by Muslim women activists and challenges the dominant and reductionist stereotypes on Muslim women, community, and absolutist ideas of Islam. It argues that Muslim women are not passive victims of their culture and religion, rather they can develop a critique of their marginality and subjugation from within the community. Revisiting Muslim Women's Activism traces the evolution of a community-centric approach in women's activism and records a fragmented view on women's rights from within the community and religious leadership. It also delineates the distinctiveness of this activism that considers religion and culture as resources for empowerment and as sites of contestations. Moreover, the book documents the narratives of Muslim women's struggle and resistance from their location and lived experiences. It will be of interest to students and researchers of women's studies, gender studies, political science, sociology, anthropology, law, and Islamic studies.

This important collection reveals a multiplicity of perspectives on the Islamic law of war and peace. Prefaced by an original introduction, the carefully selected works demonstrate how the concept of Jihad is interpreted or misinterpreted. They also examine the rules applicable during the conduct of armed conflict and the significance of peace and security within Islamic tradition. The collection provides valuable insights into the compatibility of the Islamic law of war and peace and the law of armed conflict, demonstrating how the former could minimise unnecessary human suffering during armed conflict. This book is an essential source of reference for everyone interested in this vital relationship.

The recent news from Afghanistan, where the Taliban seized power once again to rule in the name of God, brings to mind a broader trouble: Islam, the second-largest religion in the world, has some harsh interpretations that defy human freedom--by imposing religious practices, discriminating against women or minorities, or executing "apostates" or "blasphemers. In Why, as a Muslim, I Defend Liberty, Cato Institute senior fellow Mustafa Akyol offers a bold critique of this trouble by frankly acknowledging its roots in the religious tradition, while also presenting counterarguments. Akyol argues that liberty is compatible with Islam if it is understood as a voluntary faith and not a coercive system, as many Muslims already see it. However, other Muslims understand Islam, indeed, as a coercive system that sees no difference between what is religiously right and legally enforceable. Moreover, these coercive Muslims' beliefs are not groundless: they rely on traditional interpretations of the Sharia (Islamic law). Yet the two fundamental sources of the Sharia--the Quran and the Prophetic example--also include seeds of freedom, Akyol argues. He explores little-noticed grounds for human rights, toleration and rule of law in the Quran, the life of the Prophet Muhammad, and the complex history of the Islamic civilization. It is past time, he argues, to grow those seeds into maturity and to reinterpret Islamic law and politics under the Quranic maxim, "No compulsion in religion."In short chapters, Akyol digs into big questions: Why do Muslims need to reform the Sharia? Is there something to revive in the Sharia? Should Muslims really glorify conquest and supremacy, or instead, believe in the social contract? Is capitalism really alien to Islam, which has a rich heritage of free markets and civil society? Finally, he addresses a suspicion common among Muslims today: What if liberty is a mere cover used by Western powers to advance their imperialist schemes?With personal stories, historical anecdotes, and theological insights, this is the little big book on the intersection of Islam and liberty.

"The Dignity of Man: An Islamic Perspective" provides the most detailed study to date on the subject of the dignity of man from the perspective of Islam. M H Kamali sets out the proclamations on human dignity found in the Qur'an and then discusses topics pertaining to or resulting from human dignity: the physical and spiritual nobility of man; God's love for humanity; the sanctity of life; and the necessity for freedom, equality and accountability. Finally, the author examines the measures that the "Shariah" has taken to protect human dignity and to promote it in social interaction. The discussion is here presented in the light of the debate on the universality of human rights as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This book goes a long way towards exploring an alternative to Western concepts of human rights. "The Dignity of Man: An Islamic Perspective" is part of a series of studies on fundamental rights and liberties in Islam and should be read with its companion volumes of "Freedom,"" Equality and Justice in Islam," and "Freedom of Expression in Islam,"

These studies by Wael Hallaq represent an important contribution to our understanding of the neglected field of medieval Islamic law and legal thought. Spanning the period from the 8th to the 16th centuries, they draw upon a wide range of original sources to offer both fresh interpretations of those sources and a careful evaluation of contemporary scholarship. The first articles expound the interrelated issues of legal reasoning, legal logic and the epistemology of the law. There follows a set of primarily historical studies, which question a series of widely held assumptions, while the last items explore issues of legal theory and methodology. One particular topic concerns the role of Shafi'i as the 'master architect' of Islamic legal theory, and Professor Hallaq would finally argue that this image is in fact false and a creation of later centuries.

"Harmonizing Similarities" is a study of the legal distinctions (al-furuq al-fiqhiyya) literature and its role in the development of the Islamic legal heritage. This book reconsiders how the public performance of Islamic law helped shape legal literature. It identifies the origins of this tradition in contemporaneous lexicographic and medical literature, both of which demonstrated the productive potential of drawing distinctions. Elias G. Saba demonstrates the implications of the legal furuq and how changes to this genre reflect shifts in the social consumption of Islamic legal knowledge. The interest in legal distinctions grew out of the performance of knowledge in formalized legal disputations. From here, legal distinctions incorporated elements of play through its interactions with the genre of legal riddles. As play, books of legal distinctions were supplements to performance in literary salons, study circles, and court performances; these books also served as mimetic objects, allowing the reader to participate in a session virtually. Saba underscores how social and intellectual practices helped shape the literary development of Islamic law and that literary elaboration became a main driver of dynamism in Islamic law. This monograph has been awarded the annual BRAIS - De Gruyter Prize in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World.

Marriage law in England and Wales is a historical relic which reflects a bygone age. Successive governments have made a series of progressive but ad hoc reforms, most notably the introduction of civil partnerships and same-sex marriage. However, this has resulted in a legal framework which is complex and controversial, especially in relation to religion. This book provides the first accessible guide to how contemporary marriage law interacts with religion and identifies pressure points in relation to non-religious organisations and unregistered religious marriages. It reveals the need for the consolidation, modernisation and reform of marriage law and sets out proposals for how the transformation of these laws can be achieved.

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.

Can the concept of law be indiscriminately extended to times and places in which it did simply not exist? Such an extension is at best useless and at worst misleading. Producing an intelligible jurisprudence of the concept of law means keeping it within the reasonable boundaries of its contemporary common-sense understanding: positive law. Parallel to Western societies in which it firstly emerged, the concept of positive law developed in many places, including countries characterized as Muslim. There, it faced other existing normativities, like customs and the Sharia. This book aims, from the Muslim world's perspective, to clarify the uses of the concept of law and the ways of studying it, to describe some of its historical developments, including the ideas of constitutional law, customary law and forensic evidence, and to describe present-day practices, including reference to law sources, rules and interpretation.

In The Middle Path of Moderation in Islam, leading Islamic law expert Mohammad Hashim Kamali examines the concept of wasatiyyah, or moderation, arguing that scholars, religious communities, and policy circles alike must have access to this governing principle that drives the silent majority of Muslims, rather than focusing on the extremist fringe. Kamali explores wasatiyyah in both historical/conceptual terms and in contemporary/practical terms. Tracing the definition and scope of the concept from the foundational sources of Islam, the Qu'ran and Hadith, he demonstrates that wasatiyyah has a long and well-developed history in Islamic law and applies the concept to contemporary issues of global policy, such as justice, women's rights, environmental and financial balance, and globalization. Framing his work as an open dialogue against a now-decades long formulation of the arguably destructive Huntingtonian "clash of civilizations" thesis as well as the public rhetoric of fear of Muslim extremism since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Kamali connects historical conceptions of wasatiyyah to the themes of state and international law, governance, and cultural maladies in the Muslim world and beyond. Both a descriptive and prescriptive meditation on a key but often neglected principle of Islam, The Middle Path of Moderation in Islam provides insight into an idea that is in the strategic interest of the West both to show and practice for themselves and to recognize in Muslim countries.

Justice is considered the basic norm of human coexistence. Every legal order refers to the concept of justice, and Muslims also regard their religious norms (the Sharia) as offering just solutions to legal questions. But is the assumption that the Sharia is just merely an acceptance of a status quo correct? And is justice the necessary aim of the Sharia? In this volume, renowned scholars discuss these questions from different perspectives. In principle, the first normative source of Islam, the Qur'an, orders justice and fair conduct (Rohe). At the same time, an analysis of the concept of justice in the classical age of Islam (Ahmed and Poya) also shows that there existed ambivalent understandings of this concept. The relationship of the idea of justice in Islam to political questions (Ende), to war (Poya), and to modern reform (Mir-Hosseini) again confirms the importance of the concept for a critical reflection on traditional assumptions and existing circumstances. The discussion on the hijab in Western countries (Ladwig) shows paradigmatically how justice can regulate the relationship between the secular state and the Sharia. The essays in this volume endeavor to show that debates about justice, in Islam as well, express an underlying tension between the perception of an order as just on the one hand, and the feeling of injustice under the same order on the other. This discussion validates the idea that justice should be understood as a concept subject to a perpetual reexamination according to changing times and circumstances.

This book explores the recent trend toward the transformation of religious symbols and practices into culture in Western democracies. Analyses of three legal cases involving religion in the public sphere are used to illuminate this trend: a municipal council chamber; a town hall; and town board meetings. Each case involves a different national context-Canada, France and the United States-and each illustrates something interesting about the shape-shifting nature of religion, specifically its flexibility and dexterity in the face of the secular, the religious and the plural. Despite the differences in national contexts, in each instance religion is transformed into culture or heritage by the courts to justify or excuse its presence and to distance the state from the possibility that it is violating legal norms of distance from religion. The cultural practice or symbol is represented as a shared national value or activity. Transforming the 'Other' into 'Us' through reconstitution is also possible. Finally, anxiety about the 'Other' becomes part of the story of rendering religion as culture, resulting in the impugning of anyone who dares to question the putative shared culture. The book will be essential reading for students, academics and policy-makers working in the areas of sociology of religion, religious studies, socio-legal studies, law and public policy, constitutional law, religion and politics, and cultural studies.

In Quest of Justice provides the first full account of the establishment and workings of a new kind of state in Egypt in the modern period. Drawing on groundbreaking research in the Egyptian archives, this highly original book shows how the state affected those subject to it and their response. Illustrating how shari'a was actually implemented, how criminal justice functioned, and how scientific-medical knowledges and practices were introduced, Khaled Fahmy offers exciting new interpretations that are neither colonial nor nationalist. Moreover he shows how lower-class Egyptians did not see modern practices that fused medical and legal purposes in new ways as contrary to Islam. This is a major contribution to our understanding of Islam and modernity.

In Islamic History and Law, Labeeb Ahmed Bsoul undertakes an extensive examination of Islamic intellectual history, covering ages that witnessed different movements and doctrinal trends. While political and geographical factors certainly influenced the Islamic religious sciences, internal and intellectual factors exerted a much more substantial influence. This study gives priority to jurists' intellectual operations throughout the Muslim world, covering the historical development of Islamic jurisprudence from the middle of 4th century. Bsoul's examination of jurisprudential advances takes into account the shifting dominance of particular centers of legal scholarship in light of competing doctrines and their adherents. This work sheds light on jurists of North Africa and the Andalus, who are rarely mentioned in general modern works, and also aims to demonstrate Muslim women's important role in the history of jurisprudence, highlighting their participation in the Islamic sciences. Bsoul relies mainly on Arabic primary sources to give an impartial presentation of these jurists and produce an accurate memory of the past based on objective knowledge.

Islamic jurisprudence has undergone many historical changes since the time of Prophet Muhammad, and researchers have divided its development into several historical stages. In Formation of the Islamic Jurisprudence, Labeeb Ahmed Bsoul presents the history of Islamic jurisprudence from its earliest period. Drawing upon a wide variety of Arabic primary sources to provide an inclusive, unbiased view of the history of jurisprudence, this book covers all the main centers of legal scholarship in the Islamic world, addressing not only the four well-known Sunni legal schools but also defunct Sunni and sectarian legal schools. Bsoul makes intellectual history the center of attention, recognizing the contributions of women to legal scholarship, and avoids attributing academic developments to the events of political history. This book presents a new reading and understanding as Bsoul critically assesses the history, development, and impact of Islamic jurisprudence in the Muslim world.

Dispute Resolution in Islamic Finance addresses how best to handle disputes within Islamic finance. It examines how they can be resolved in a less confrontational manner and ensure such disagreements are settled in a just and fair way. There has been little focus on how disputes within Islamic finance are resolved. As a result, many of these disputes are resolved through litigation, notwithstanding that the various jurisdictions and court systems are generally poorly equipped to handle such matters. This book addresses this gap in our knowledge by focusing on five centres of Islamic finance: the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Malaysia, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Before exploring these countries in detail, the book considers the issues of the choice of law within Islamic finance as well the prevailing forms of dispute resolution in this form of finance. The book brings together a group of leading scholars who are all specialists on the subject in the countries they examine. It is a key resource for students and researchers of Islamic finance, and aimed at lawyers, finance professionals, industry practitioners, consultancy firms, and academics.

Islamic finance's phenomenal growth owes to the Shariah compliant nature of its financial instruments. Shariah forbids the charging of interest (Riba) and instead promulgates risk-sharing and trade-based modes of financing. The Islamic financial industry has been subject to both critique and admiration. Critics argue that Islamic instruments (bearing debt-based structures) differ from their conventional counterparts only in legal lexicon and not in economic impact. The admirers argue that such instruments, irrespective of wider economic implications, rigorously comply with 'juristically sound' Islamic principles. This book aims to reconcile the above dispute. It argues that the financial impact of instruments is a consequence of the way they are priced and structured. The similarity in pricing and structures is an outcome not of the underlying Islamic financial modes but of the competitive environment in which Islamic instruments compete. Even risk-sharing and trade-based Islamic structures, if implemented in such an environment, would have a financial impact similar to that of conventional instruments. This book has a wider appeal for both academic and non-academic audiences. It can complement undergraduate and graduate courses as an additional reading on the intricacies of Islamic financial instruments and markets. For PhD students, it would help identify future research areas. To non-academics, it offers a deeper understanding regarding the working of the Islamic finance industry.

This book examines the intersection between contemporary International Commercial Arbitration and Shari'a law in order to determine possible tensions that may arise between the two systems. It develops evidentiary and procedural rules under Shari'a, as well as examining the consequences of stipulating qualifications of arbitrators based on gender and/or religion. The author extensively analyses the prohibition against interest (riba) and uncertainty (gharar) under Shari'a and its impact on arbitration agreements, arbitral awards and public policy. The book also explores the prohibition against riba in light of international conventions, such as the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. Case studies in the book include the Asian International Arbitration Centre, formerly the Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration, and the International Islamic Centre for Reconciliation and Arbitration, as well as the 'Shari'a Standards' developed by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions. The book will be a valuable resource for academics, students and practitioners working in the areas of Islamic law and the Islamic finance industry.

This book explores the contentious topic of women's rights in Muslim-majority countries, with a specific focus on Iran and the Iranian women's movement from 1906 to the present. The work contextualizes the authorial self through the use of personal narrative and interviews. A new critique of Islamic law is produced through an in-depth study of the Iranian Constitution, civil and criminal codes. The work presents a novel reconceptualization of the term "Islamic feminism" by revisiting the arguments of various scholars and through analysis of interviews with Iranian women's rights activists. It is contended that the feminist movements can play a critical role in Islamic law reform and consequently the eventual implementation of international human rights law in Muslim-majority countries. What emerges from this study is not only a feminist critique of two major regimes of law, but also the identification of possibilities for reform in the future. The study transitions from the Iranian national context to the international by way of a comparative legal study of international human rights laws and Islamic laws. The book will appeal both to academics and human rights practitioners.

This book, in its effort to formulate compatibility between Islamic law and the principles of international diplomatic law, argues that the need to harmonize the two legal systems and have a thorough cross-cultural understanding amongst nations generally with a view to enhancing unfettered diplomatic cooperation should be of paramount priority.