Chapter 1 : Islamic Family Law in a Changing World - Abdullahi An-Na'Im - HÃ ftad () Bokus Islamic Family Law in A Changing World: A Global Resource Book Paperback - October 11, by Abdullahi A. University of Pennsylvania Press Islam and the Secular State: Cambridge, MA and London, England: Harvard University Press Translations of this manuscript in Bengali, Persian, Urdu, Bengali, Turkish and Russian, are available for download free of charge. African Constitutionalism and the Contingent Role of Islam. Toward an Islamic Reformation: Translated in Arabic, Indonesian, Russian, and Persian General Principles of Criminal Responsibility Arabic. Realizing the Promise for Ourselves. University of Pennsylvania Press, Islamic Family Law in a Changing World: A Global Resource Book. Cultural Transformation and Human Rights in Africa. Proselytization and Communal Self-Determination in Africa. Universal Rights, Local Remedies: Ibn Khaldoun Center, Human Rights in Cross-Cultural Perspectives: Co-editor[ edit ] With Ifi Amadiume: The Politics of Memory: Truth, Healing and Social Justice. Human Rights and Religious Values: Eerdmans Publishing Company, Human Rights in Africa: The Brookings Institution, Translator[ edit ] Arabic translation: Cry of the Owl a political novel. English translation with an Introduction: Ustadh Mahmoud Mohamed Taha: The Second Message of Islam. Syracuse University Press, The Institute for Migrant Rights Press, Foreword in War on Error: Foreword in Radical Conflict: Essays on Violence, Intractability, and Communication, Lexington, Negotiating the Future of the Religious Law of Islam. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign September 5, Video Presentation Conversations With History: Islam and the Secular State May 3, Page 1
Chapter 2 : Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im - Wikipedia This is a uniquely comprehensive and up-to-date volume spanning nine regions and 38 Islamic countries around the world. More than a billion Muslims have their lives governed by certain aspects of the Shari'a, commonly known as Islamic Family Law. The Prayer and the Sermon on Eid day. Takbirs glorifying God after every prayer in the days of Tashriq see footnote for def. The animal must not be wasted; its meat must be consumed. Halal Islamic law lists only some specific foods and drinks that are not allowed. People are also not allowed to eat animals that were slaughtered in the name of someone other than Allah. Intoxicants like alcoholic drinks and drugs are not allowed generally. While Islamic law prohibits already-dead meat, this does not apply to fish and locusts. The animal must be killed in the most humane way: The animal must not be diseased. The animal must not have been exposed to feces, worms, and other impurities. All blood must drain from the animal before being packaged. A marriage is a contract that requires the man to pay, or promise to pay some of the wedding and provisions the wife needs. This is known as the Mahr or Meher. This means that he must be able to house each wife and her children in a different house, he should not give preferential treatment to one wife over another. A female heir inherits half of what a male heir inherits. The concept being that Islam puts the responsibility of earning and spending on the family on the male. Any wealth the female earns is strictly for her own use. The female also inherits from both her immediate family and through agency of her husband, her in-laws as well. Crime and punishment[ change change source ] Sharia recognizes three categories of crime: The prescribed punishments for these crimes range from 80 lashes to death. However, classical jurists developed very strict rules which restrict when these punishments could be applied, so that in many cases it became almost impossible to convict anyone under these rules. For example, there must be four adult male Muslim witnesses to a hudud crime or a confession repeated four times, before someone can be punished. If a criminal could not be convicted of a hudud crime, they could still receive a tazir punishment. Muftis[ change change source ] During the Islamic Golden Age, sharia was interpreted by experts in Islamic law muftis, most of whom were independent religious scholars. Anyone could ask them a question about law, and they were expected to give an answer for free. Their legal opinions were called fatwas. These judges also had a legal education, and they were appointed to their post by the ruler. In simple cases, qadis would pronounce a verdict based on their own knowledge of sharia. In more difficult cases, they would express the details of the case in general terms and ask a mufti for his legal opinion. Mazalim courts were supposed to follow "the spirit of sharia". Qadis and muftis were present in those courts to make sure the verdicts did not go against it. Mazalim courts also handled complaints against government officials. Less serious crimes were often handled by local police and market inspectors according to local customs, which were only loosely related to sharia. The government kept out of their internal legal affairs, except when there was a dispute between people of different religions. Such cases were handled by a qadi. However, non-muslims often won cases against Muslims and even against high government officials, because people thought that sharia was a reflection of divine justice which should defend the weak against the powerful. This led to major changes in the legal systems of these lands. In some cases, this was because Muslim governments wanted to make their states more powerful and they took European states as models of what a modern state should look like. In other cases, it was because Europeans who colonized these lands forced them to abandon parts of Islamic law and follow European laws instead. The constitutions of most Muslim-majority states mention sharia in one way or another. However, the classical rules of sharia were preserved mostly in family laws. In earlier times, sharia was interpreted by independent scholars who often disagreed with each other, and all their opinions were never written down in one place. In the modern era, it was the government who controlled the laws. Different states created their own legal codes, where the laws were clearly stated. The governments wanted to make family laws fit better in the modern world, but they still wanted people to view them as laws based on sharia. In order to do this, the scholars who wrote down these laws decided to pick and choose rules from the different legal opinions available in the classical books of law. When some of the laws they picked disagreed with the current norms of society, the Page 2
government tried to solve this problem by creating additional court procedures. For example, when family laws in some states seemed to treat women unfairly to the population, the government created procedures that made it more difficult for men to take advantage of these laws in an unfair manner. These governments had adopted Western ways in their legal systems and other matters, but many people regarded their actions as oppressive, corrupt, and ineffective. More and more Muslims started to think that things would improve if their government returned to Islamic traditions. They began calling for return of sharia, and conservative members of the public wanted the government to deal with crime using all the traditional methods, including hudud punishments. In a few countries, the government put some elements of classical criminal law into the legal code. However, in some of these countries for example, Iran and Sudan the supreme court has rarely approved the harsher hudud punishments, while in the other countries which adopted hudud laws for example, Pakistan and Nigeria, the supreme court never approves them. It has always continued to use sharia in different areas of law, and it never codified its laws. Its judges have always tried to follow traditional sharia rules for dealing with crimes, and they often impose harsh punishments that inspire international protests. However, these punishments are not necessarily prescribed by sharia. Judges in Saudi Arabia follow the classical principle which says that hudud punishments should be avoided if at all possible, and the punishments which they apply are usually tazir punishments which are left to their own choice. Executions became more frequent because the government and courts decided to crack down on violent crime which became more frequent during the s, as also happened in the U. Uses editors parameter link Knut S. In Emad El-Din Shahin. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics. The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. The Spirit of Islamic Law. University of Georgia Press. Page 3
Chapter 3 : Islamic Family Law » Oman, Sultanate of The book Islamic Family Law in a Changing World: A Global Resource Book, Edited by Abdullahi A. An-Na'im is published by Zed Books. Islamic Family Law in a Changing World: A Global Resource Book, An-Na'im. Why it is important to know. A Global Resource Book. Since IFL is based on human interpretation and judgment, it is not a divine order from God to Muslims. It can be changed based on new interpretations in order to achieve justice and equality for Muslim women in their families and communities today. The pronunciation key is intended to give English-speaking readers a close approximation of the word in Arabic. It can not provide a perfect equivalent, however, because some Arabic sounds do not exist in English. Common Era dates end in CE. It is pronounced SHA-ree-ah. It is the overall way of life of Islam, as people understand it according to traditional, early interpretations. If they had a question, they could just ask him. These stories came to be called Hadith. As time went on, people had new questions about new problems. The goal was to try to get as close as possible to what the Prophet Muhammad PBUH would have said if he were still around. Even very religious, well-educated scholars could make mistakes, though. Sometimes they disagreed with each other. That is why there are different Islamic schools of thought, called madhahib. It includes Islamic principles to help guide people to new answers, and it includes common cultural practices that had to do with a specific time and place in history. To do that, they decided which rules needed to be laws, first. The result was what we call Islamic Law. Because it is a human interpretation, Islamic Law can mean different things in different places and at different times in history. More recently scholars have called for new ijtihad to meet the changing needs of modern Islamic societies. Do Islamic countries today use Islamic Law? These countries actually use some kind of Islamic Law in family matters, and in all other matters apply European-style law left over from colonization. Even those laws which come from Islamic Law are different from place to place because they are interpreted by peopleâ and those people are influenced by their culture. Still, Islamic Law is followed by many Muslims as a way of life, not as law. Are all laws in Islamic countries based on Islamic Law? What is Islamic Family Law? IFL is a type of law that covers topics like marriage, divorce, custody of children and the status of women. It also may be called Muslim Personal Status Law. The idea of IFL was introduced by European colonial powers. All other fields of law came under secular European-style laws. Read on to learn what laws were like in Islamic countries before and during colonization. Were early Islamic societies governed by Islamic Law? These rulers mixed Islamic ideas with secular rules that were already in place or that had been the common practice. Over time, laws changed. Some new rulers tried to bring the law closer to Islamic Lawâ as they understood it at the time, which might have been different from how previous rulers understood it. Others introduced new secular laws based on culture or their personal goals. Did laws in Islamic countries change when they were colonized? Almost all Islamic countries were controlled by European, non-islamic countries. This was called colonization, and the Islamic countries were called colonies or protectorates of the European nations that controlled them. The European countries in power, such as Britain and France, were called colonial powers. These countries brought their own laws and practices and put them to use in the Islamic countries they controlled. For example, before colonization, the parties in a legal case would select the madhab school of thought they wanted to apply to their case. They would select a judge qadi who was an expert in that madhab and present their case. That way both parties gave the judge the authority to make a decision. They knew the judgment was consistent with their own beliefs, and they could accept that the decision of the judge was valid. During colonial rule, that traditional choice was no longer possible. European legal codes were created and applied by the government, according to its own authority. This happened in all fields of law, but it happened differently in family law. Sharia was supposed to continue to apply to family law. Sometimes the rulers mixed very different views from different scholars, turning them into rules that none of the scholars would accept as valid. The result was an Islamic Family Law that is very similar to the European laws from the colonial time. In later times, these two legal systems combined into a system in which secular judges consulted with Islamic scholars, as needed. A secular judge could then use the fatwa to make a legal ruling. Did colonization change the legal systems in Islamic countries? Yes, but not Page 4
entirely. In the s, colonial powers created secular courts, especially to deal with civil and criminal cases using colonial laws. In colonized countries, Islamic Law and existing secular laws were often replaced by these new colonial laws. In practice, Islamic Law became more limited, often reduced to the field of family law. Read on to understand how Islamic Family Law is used today. Islamic countries today apply laws that are based on human interpretation and judgment, even when they are called Islamic Law. Islam gives Muslims the freedom to choose among different viewsâ a choice only the individual believer can make, because in Islam, only the individual is responsible for his or her choices before God. Is there a problem with applying Islamic Law in only a few areas, such as family law? Enforcement by the government encourages hypocrisy saying or doing one thing, while believing another and takes away freedom of belief. Laws governing legal and social relationships changed over the centuries, though. The result is often also far from showing the fairness and justice that the Prophet Muhammad taught. If divorced women are not supported by their ex-husbandsâ and, in some places, are not able to workâ and at the same time, male family members are not required to support them, the result is unjust and contrary to Islam. Is there a reason people resist changing family law in Islamic countries? Colonial powers often controlled everything except family law. Even Muslim rulers often have left this area of law to religious scholars as a way to keep peace and gain political support. For that reason, IFL has become a symbol of Muslim religious identity. Even when IFL is unjust toward women, some Muslims feel that giving it up will mean the end of Islam. The battle over IFL has become a battle for Muslim identity, rather than a battle for what is right in principleâ or what is truly Islamic. Is the status of women particularly affected by politics in Islamic countries? Because family law has become symbolic, it is often used to show the differences between different groups. People have used the status of women as an example of what they believe inâ for example: Some have argued that it is necessary to stopâ and reverseâ any movement towards equality for women. They feel Islamic Law should not be abandoned in the one area where, often, it is still used. Others have argued that abandoning Islamic Family Law is necessary to make Islamic societies more fair for all. In fact, it is all human interpretation. There are several reasons for this. It covers how a person can relate to God and to others ethically. It is open-ended and flexible, while law is not. Islamic countries today are part of a world system, which is based on a European model of nation-state. This affects political, economic and social relationships within and among Islamic nations. By using this model, Islamic countries take on national and international obligations, such as participation in human rights treaties, the World Bank and World Trade Organization, to name a few. However, they are applied under the authority of international law, not under the authority of Islam. It would isolate these societies from the rest of the world, economically and politically. In that case, their choices are not forced by law. Instead, they are guided by faith. Their choices were guided by faithâ not fear of legal action. Even today, Islam is growing in nations that are not historically Muslim and which do not have governments that claim to be Islamic. Is there a place for human will in Islam? That is why children and people with severe mental illness are not considered religiously responsible in Islam. Human will is the very thing that sets people apart from other living things, according to Islamic sources. Human will allows people to make choices and to interpret how they should live their lives. Human will can guide people to moral choices, whether or not there are laws that demand those choicesâ or forbid them. In Islam, when people choose to do the morally right thing, it is more highly rewarded than when they have no choice. Forcing people takes away their choice and prevents them from being able to get closer to Allah through their own choices based on their faith. Page 5
Chapter 4 : Women's Rights and Islamic Family Law In Islamic Family Law in a Changing World, Abdullahi theinnatdunvilla.com-na'im explores the practice of the Shari'a, commonly known as Islamic Family Law. An-Na'im shows that the practical application of Shari'a principles is often modified by theological differences of interpretation, a country's particular customary practices, and state policy and law. Earliest European incursions into area of present-day Oman by Portuguese in early 16th century; expelled in Followed by period of ascendancy of Omani power in Gulf and Indian Ocean region; by end of s, Omani empire included Bahrain and Zanzibar. Decline of Oman began in following century. Treaties of protection signed with British in and as French interest in Indian Ocean increased; series of treaties and agreements concluded with British in 19th century brought Oman under increasing British influence, with treaty bringing Oman under British protection; formal recognition of sovereignty of Sultanate of Oman and Muscat in Ultimate appeal to the Sultan. Highest level of judiciary is Complaints Committee. Magistrates Courts hear misdemeanour cases. Criminal Court in Muscat hears cases involving felonies and serves as appellate court. Specialised courts and quasi-judicial tribunals in various areas of land, commercial, labour and tax law apply state-issued legislation. The decrees formally establish the judiciary as an independent, hierarchical system composed of a Supreme Court, an appeals court, primary courts one located in each region, and, within the primary courts, divisional courts. The general prosecutor, which currently falls under the Royal Omani Police Chief Inspector, is to become an independent legal entity. Implementation of these decrees is expected to take place during Relevant Legislation Personal law is not codified. Criminal Code contains some provisions having bearing on family relations and Special Decree of relates to foreign marriages. Notable Features Classical Ibadi fiqh applied to matters of personal status. Omani tribes adopted the tenets of Ibadi Islam in the 7th-8th century, European incursions into the area of present-day Oman began with the Portuguese in the early 16th century. The expulsion of the Portuguese in was followed by a period of ascendancy of Omani power in Gulf and Indian Ocean region; by the end of the s, the Omani empire included Bahrain and Zanzibar. The decline of the empire began in the following century. Omani leaders signed treaties of protection with the British in and as French interest in Indian Ocean increased and a series of treaties and agreements concluded with the British in the 19th century brought Oman under increasing British influence, with an treaty bringing Oman under British protection. Efforts at judicial reform began with the overthrow of the previous Sultan Said bin Taimur, r. Since that time, Oman has adopted a number of codes relating to commercial, criminal, labour, and tax laws, among other areas. Personal status remains unlegislated. Ultimate appeal lies with the Sultan. There have been tentative efforts at establishing a more representative form of government. Sultan Qaboos introduced a Majlis al-istishari consultative council in, an informal advisory body comprised entirely of appointed members. This was replaced by a Majlis al-shura in with members chosen by the Sultan from slates of three citizens put forward by notables of each district. The new Majlis is empowered to review legislation and state development plans and adopt and recommend amendments by a two-thirds majority. Oman is the only state in which the Ibadi school is the predominant madhhab. Constitutional Status of Islam ic Law. The highest level of judiciary is Complaints Committee. The Criminal Court in Muscat hears cases involving felonies and serves as appellate court. Other specialised courts and quasi-judicial tribunals in various areas of land, commercial, labour and tax law apply state-issued legislation. The Sultan issued several royal decrees to establish a law on judicial authority and to affirm the independence of the judiciary as called for in the Basic Charter. Implementation of these decrees is expected to take place during Notable Features: Classical Ibadi fiqh is applied to personal status matters. International Conventions with Relevant Reservations: Oman acceded to the CRC in with a number of reservations. Political Development in a Changing World, London, Chapter 5 : Download [PDF] Islamic Family Law In A Changing World Free Online New Books in Politics Get this from a library! Islamic family law in a changing world: a global resource book. [Ê»Abd AllÄ h Aá mad Naʻīm;] -- Socio-cultural and historical contextualizations precede legal profiles for nine regions and 38 Islamic Page 6
countries around the world. Chapter 6 : Islamic Family Law in A Changing World: A Global Resource Book - free PDF, DJVU, FB3, RTF In Islamic Family Law in a Changing World, Abdullahi A. An-Naim explores the practice of the Sharia, commonly known as Islamic Family Law. An-Naim shows that the practical application of Sharia principles is often modified by theological differences of interpretation, a countrys particular customary practices, and state policy and law. Chapter 7 : Foundation Islamic Family Law â DE The Islamic College Islamic Family Law in a Changing World, a survey of family law in Islamic countries, is the result of a collaborative effort including Abdullah A. An-Na'im, the editor of the book, and several other scholars. Chapter 8 : Islamic Family Law in A Changing World: A Global Resource Book - Google Books ISLAMIC FAMILY LAW IN A CHANGING WORLD Download Islamic Family Law In A Changing World ebook PDF or Read Online books in PDF, EPUB, and Mobi Format. Click Download or Read Online button to ISLAMIC FAMILY LAW IN A CHANGING WORLD book pdf for free now. Chapter 9 : Sharia - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This is a uniquely comprehensive and up-to-date volume spanning nine regions and 38 Islamic countries around the world. More than a billion Muslims have their lives in such matters as marriage, divorce, maintenance, paternity and the custody of children governed by certain aspects of the Shari'a, commonly known as Islamic Family Law. Page 7