Since the Second World War, there has been a significant migration of Muslims to countries in the Western world. Muslims in Non-Muslim Land traces the process by which these migrants arrived in Western Europe - in particular Britain - and explains how the community developed its faith identity through three particular stances: assimilation, isolation and integration. The findings argue that the assumption that Islam causes Muslims to isolate from the indigenous population and form a 'state within a state' is false and that Islamic Law actually gives Muslims confidence and the ability to integrate within the wider society. The theological view that all non-Muslim lands are dar al-arb (domain of war) is challenged, and the study shows that the traditional interpretive model of Islamic Law inherently possesses the flexibility and applicability to take into consideration minority-status of Muslims in Britain. Muslims in Non-Muslim Land focuses on Islamic Law as interpreted by the anafi Law school and highlights in detail the multi-pronged and robust nature of its legal theory and subsequent application. What is ground-breaking about Muslims in Non-Muslim Lands is that it illustrates the ability of &anafi Law to deal with contemporary issues in a wide range of subjects. It also provides Muslims with ways of Islamically resolving medical, financial and political concerns. The study concludes that Islamic Law can facilitate the integration of Muslim minorities within secular societies while allowing them to still remain true to their faith.

This book offers a new theoretical perspective on the thought of the great fifteenth-century Egyptian polymath, Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 1505). In spite of the enormous popularity that al-Suyuti's works continue to enjoy amongst scholars and students in the Muslim world, he remains underappreciated by western academia. This project contributes to the fields of Mamluk Studies, Islamic Studies, and Middle Eastern Studies not only an interdisciplinary analysis of al-Suyuti's legal writing within its historical context, but also a reflection on the legacy of the medieval jurist to modern debates. The study highlights the discursive strategies that the jurist uses to construct his own authority and frame his identity as a superior legal scholar during a key transitional moment in Islamic history. The approach aims for a balance between detailed textual analysis and 'big picture' questions of how legal identity and religious authority are constructed, negotiated and maintained. Al-Suyuti's struggle for authority as one of a select group of trained experts vested with the moral responsibility of interpreting God's law in society finds echoes in contemporary debates, particularly in his native land of Egypt. At a time when increasing numbers of people in the Arab world have raised their voices to demand democratic forms of government that nevertheless stay true to the principles of Shari'a, the issue of who has the ultimate authority to interpret the sources of law, to set legal norms, and to represent the 'voice' of Shari'a principles in society is still in dispute.