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This paper calls for a paradigm shift in the face of the remarkably common, but ultimately stereotypical and simplistic perceptions of 'Islamic' constitutions requiring all laws to conform to Shari'a. It problematizes the term 'Islamic' to describe disparate constitutions and constitutionalism(s) in Muslim majority countries demonstrating the plurality of 'Islamic' constitutions, locating this descriptor within varied socio-cultural, historical and political contexts of the Muslim world. Plural interpretations of the religious texts in Islam — i.e., the Qur'an and Sunna — and meanings of complex concepts — 'Shari'a' and 'Islamic law', are integral to Islam's (legal) traditions. In Muslimmajority countries, a variety of constitutional texts, court decisions and state practices, demonstrate this plurality. We argue that use of 'Islamic' as a descriptor for heterogeneous constitutional texts, is a product of 'realpolitik' and deployed in this manner, un-nuanced, simplistic, and reductive of the dynamic and plural nature of Shari'a [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between religious identity, ethnic identity, and politics has always been a problematic one, especially in plural societies like Sudan. This article is an attempt to understand the reasons behind the insistence of the popular parties of the Muslim majority in Northern Sudan on establishing shar'ia law as the law of the land. By using secondary data on party programmes, public opinion, and an analysis of political events, I reconstruct the evolution of the debate in order to identify its prime movers. My conclusion is that this debate emerged as a result of the quest for a national identity by the majority group, who are predominantly Muslim and identify as Arab. Contrary to the common belief that principles of identity politics generally only apply to minority groups, I argue that the constant pressure from popular parties in Sudan to apply shari'a law shows that where the identity of the majority group is unclear or problematic, there is a tendency to use strong cultural symbols as an aid to political mobilisation by elites who claim to meet the presumed demands of the public. Raising the banner of shari'a is an effective way not only to exclude non-Muslims from playing central roles in national politics, but also to undermine the roles of other politically moderate Muslims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cumhuriyet Ilahiyat Dergisi / Cumhuriyet Theology Journal is the property of Cumhuriyet Universitesi, Ilahiyat Fakultesi / Cumhuriyet University, Faculty of Theology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper studies the development in the thought and praxis of Islamic movements that aim to revive a political system governed by Islamic law. Post-Caliphate Islamic movements - the subject of the current study - have undergone recent reforms in thought, approach, and even branding since the Arab Spring. Notwithstanding the movements’ legal and theological diversity, the author argues that they share common features of reform characterized by (a) appeal to public opinion and grassroots work; and (b) willingness to work with groups outside their movement. These reforms were shaped in tandem with and in reaction to the War on Terror, the Arab Spring, and the Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan. The author argues that these changes gave rise to dynamic reform in the latest generation of Islamic movements, leading to substantive revisions in their approach (manhaj) to achieving Islamic change. Despite tightening proscription and censorship, the author argues that the fruit of these reforms has been a resurgence in the form of highly efficient and creative collaboration between movements. Examples studied include collaboration between the Muslim Brothers (MB) and Hizb ut Tahrir in the West, and between former-al-Qaeda and MB affiliates in Syria. The author estimates these strategies - following a period of political failure and internal skepticism - have precipitated a resurgence that makes the future of Islamic movements highly potent, despite resulting in a dilution of each group’s identity and possible decline in membership. As a result of this trajectory, this study argues for the need to theorize contemporary Islamic movements beyond historical categories that have fossilized in Western academia, and often do not capture the dynamic, fluidity and comprehensiveness of Islamic struggle. This study utilizes a mixed methodology, including archival analysis and intellectual genealogy.

This article discusses the slavery system, which the jihadist organisation “Islamic State” has recently implemented in parts of Iraq and Syria. The ideological and religious basis for the jihadist organisation’s establishment of slavery can be found in the Salafist understanding of worship and monotheism. According to this understanding, the concept of slavery, which was originally formulated in the Sunni shari’a, is seen as eternally valid and also absolutely unchangeable, and its implementation is perceived as a religious act – as worship of Allah. The author of the article argues that the “Islamic State” in this case is conceptually acting within the theoretical framework of the Sunni legal tradition and, by materializing slavery, is making a replication and transfer of the centuries-old Sunni concept to the present day.

Against the view that only men are liable for blood-money payment due for homicide, which goes back to pre-Islamic custom and was adopted by the Sharīʿa, by the fifth/eleventh century a new opinion appeared in Ḥanafī doctrine. According to this opinion, women who perpetrated a homicide were required to pay a share of the blood money due. Examining the context of this opinion in Ḥanafī literature, I suggest that it reflects the jurists' tendency to put more weight on the Islamic principle of individual responsibility, regardless of gender. I propose that this opinion developed among Persian Ḥanafīs in eastern Iran, and follow the path through which it was incorporated into Ḥanafī standard law. Finally, I estimate the extent to which this opinion did influence Ḥanafī doctrine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Yusuf al-Qaradawi – a prominent Muslim jurist of the contemporary period, the jurisprudence of priorities is intended to mitigate excess and negligence in legal reasoning. This article examines the fundamental principles of the jurisprudence of priorities as propounded by Yusuf al-Qaradawi in relation to the foundational sources of Islamic law. The purpose of this article is to dissect the constituent legal principles of the jurisprudence of priorities and critically evaluate their validity and coherence against the textual and rational evidences of Islamic law. This article argues that the fundamental principles of the jurisprudence of priorities are validated in the sources of Islamic law, and do facilitate the mitigation of excess and negligence in legal reasoning.

This research pursues the explanation of the approach of Firas al-Sawah (born 1941), the Syrian sociologist and theologian toward religion. Adopting the phenomenological method, he has studied and understood religion from a mythological point of view. In this article, we will show that his theory has many deficiencies coming from his focusing on the historical and mythological point of view: secularizing the foundations of the religious beliefs and origins of religious traditions, relying on unregulated interpretation, reducing revelation to religious experience, paving the way for diverse readings of religion, giving a mythical explanation of sacred events and figures in the history of religions, presenting a vague interpretation of the monotheistic nature (Fitrah) of human beings. Having an analytical method and citing excerpts from his works, we will explain these disadvantages in his theory.

This paper focuses on maṣlaḥah (benefit or well-being) and adab (righteous behavior or character) as ethically intertwined concepts that are discussed by classical Muslim scholars in relation to the acquisition of wealth (kasb) and overall economic engagement. Particularly in certain works of al-Shaybāni (d. 805), al-Muḥāsibī (d. 857), Ibn Abī al-Dunyā (d. 894), al-Māwardī (d. 1058), and al-Ghazālī (d. 1111), personal piety is closely related to righteous economic behavior under the banner of adab’s moral stipulations. In light of al-Ghazālī’s understanding of economic provision as part of his overall theory of eternal happiness (saʿādah), the concept of maṣlaḥah can be analyzed in the context of adab as an extension of Sharīʿa law. While maṣlaḥah is from a legal standpoint crucial for safeguarding economic activities and preserving wealth, concomitantly, in this paper I treat maṣlaḥah as a derivative of adab and its holistic vision of human nature. In particular, I address what constitutes economic provision as an ethical endeavor in selected classical texts; and how the concept of adab preserves and enhances economic behavior as conceived by classical Muslim scholars.

In his 2012 book Islamism and Islam, Bassam Tibi argues that Islamism, a political ideology, is quite distinct from Islam, which he defines as a religion focused on faith and spirituality. This article analyzes and evaluates the six arguments that Tibi advances for this thesis and finds all of them unconvincing. The main problem with Tibi's case is that it ignores the figure of Muḥammad, whom Islamic sources uniformly portray as someone who fused politics and religion and sought to overthrow a non-Islamic socio-religious order and to replace it with an Islamic one. For mainstream Muslims, Muḥammad is the perfect role model who possessed divinely granted infallibility against sin and error. Due to Muḥammad's example, as enshrined in classical Islamic sources, Islamists have a strong claim to be following orthodox Islamic principles when they embrace an ideology in which religion and politics are tightly intertwined. The article concludes with some tentative suggestions as to how a Muslim reformer like Tibi might develop more promising arguments for a progressive form of Islam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The major Muslim group in China, the Hui, discussed the issue of haircut for Muslim women in their own newspapers and magazines in the 1930s. Authors of those publications include ordinary male and female Hui Muslims, Islamic clerics, and Muslim students from the new Islamic educational institutions. Based on various sources of Islamic jurisprudence (Sharīʿa), the participants put forward varying opinions on the issue. In this article, I have investigated the debate on the Hui women's haircut by assessing how the debate started and developed, and what it meant for a Hui Muslim woman to cut or not to cut her hair in relation to the Sharīʿa in the sociopolitical context of Republican China. I argue that different narratives tried to construct a proper Muslim woman, and furthermore, I also assess how Muslims in China during the Republican period defined their own identities of being Chinese and Muslim via debating on the "authentic" interpretation of the Sharīʿa. Finally, I point out that liberation of Chinese Muslim women is impossible unless there is comprehensive participation of them in the debate. 在一九叁〇年代，作爲中國穆斯林主體的囘族在其創辦的各類報紙及雜志上討論了關於穆斯林女性剪髮的議題。參與這一討論的作者包括普通男女穆斯林，伊斯蘭神職人員，以及來自新式伊斯蘭教育機構的穆斯林學生們。基於多種伊斯蘭教法（沙里亞）法源，這些參與者們對該議題提出了不同的看法。本文就圍繞囘族婦女剪髮而產生的討論進行了研究，對其發生和發展進行了評價，并由此説明在民國時期特定的社會政治語境中，剪或者不剪髮對囘族穆斯林女性而言在教法上到底意味著什麽。我主張，首先，在這場辯論中各方不同的敘事都旨在建構一個合格的穆斯林女性。此外，我進一步研究了，民國時期的中國穆斯林是如何通過對所謂沙里亞"真正"含義的論辯來定義其作爲「中國人」與作爲「穆斯林」的身份認同的。最後，本文指出，如果沒有穆斯林女性自身在該討論中的全面參與，就不可能有穆斯林女性的解放。 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to examine the opposition in the Islamic perspective (especially the study of verse/hadith texts) and in the Indonesian constitution. The type of research used is a literature study with a qualitative approach which is analyzed by means of content analysis. The results of the research are that the opposition in meaning as a counterweight, warning or as checks and balances, is justified in Islamic law. Even when this role is lost in the life of the state, the community will not only suffer losses but will also have the potential to receive punishment from Allah SWT. Meanwhile, from a constitutional perspective, the opposition is not literally written down, but the role of the House of Representatives with the function of controlling and supervising the administration of the state is at least a signal that opposition is not taboo in the Indonesian state system. Even the opposition is needed so that the state process can run well

In the first half of the twentieth century, the legal landscape of the Arabian sheikhdoms was pluralistic and fragmented. The legal actors who settled disputes included local rulers, qāḍīs, pearl merchants, tribal shaykhs, and British officials. Drawing on fatwas and correspondence between religious scholars and notables in Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus, Doha, Kuwait and Manama, I examine how Islamic law shaped pearling – the region's central economic activity – during this critical juncture. I show that Islamic law furnished a structure and repertoire of argumentation that actors in the industry were able to mobilize selectively. I argue that seasonal questions about diver obligations during Ramadan led to broader debates about the economic arrangements that structured the trade, in particular usury and labor coercion. These debates reflect shifting power dynamics in the Gulf and the impact of new ideas about Islam and capitalism in the age of print. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1960s, the shari'a has been equated with belligerent calls for the establishment of Islamic states. One effect of such "global shari'a‐phobia" is the growth of alarmist coverage of Islamic penal law (hudud). Indonesia and Malaysia, which jointly form the home of the largest Muslim population in the world, has witnessed constitutionalization, nationalization, and localization of the shari'a amidst fierce resistance by secular forces. This article examines the ideas of one active Southeast Asian participant in discussions over the shari'a ‐ the late Ahmad Ibrahim (1916‐1999). A legal practitioner, scholar, and social activist, he lived through the key phases of shari'a activism in the Muslim world. In this article, I argue that Ahmad Ibrahim sought to rehabilitate the shari'a, that is, he viewed the shari'a as a legal and ethical code needing of a thorough reinterpretation and repositioning in order to make it applicable for all citizens in modern nation‐states. Rehabilitating the shari'a entailed underlining three modalities of reforms: historicization, amplification, and harmonization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work examines some recent developments and transformations in the Islamist discourse in Morocco. The emphasis is laid on how sharīʿa, or Islamic law, is redefined within an objective-based outlook to fit with what this article argues to be a symptom of post-Islamism. Central to these developments is the abandonment of establishing a khilāfah, "caliphate" or an Islamic state, as the main purpose for which Islamism has toiled to achieve since its inception. The article argues that the metamorphoses of Islamism in Morocco are not necessitated by some ephemeral political exigencies exclusively, but rather they reflect a paradigm shift in the ideology underpinning the Islamist discourse. To explore the aspects and implications of this shift, the article focuses on some recent works of two Islamic leaders: Ahmad al-Raysuni and his reformulation of Islamic law based on an emasculated utilitarianism and Saadeddine Othmani in his attempt to lay down theoretical and legal foundations for a silent religious secularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with assessments by a number of contemporary Sunni fiqh experts on the legal duration of pregnancy. Most of them strive to demonstrate that classical jurisprudence (fiqh) and modern medicine are perfectly compatible, despite the fact that the former contemplates gestational periods far longer than nine months. Also, they make proposals for national legislative bodies to best accommodate medical evidence to shari'a's ethical and legal standards. In this way, they legitimize the drastic shortening of the legal duration of pregnancy that had already taken place in the family codes of most Muslim majority countries in order to adapt the Islamic jurisprudence on which these codes are avowedly based to modern medical knowledge. In this specific legal change case‐study, legislation appears to have drawn jurisprudence rather than the reverse. The adoption of the medical duration of pregnancy affects such extremely sensitive issues like the criminalization of non‐marital sexual intercourse and the denial of paternal filiation to the resulting offspring. As long as the latter two fields are not revised accordingly, the contemporary fiqh and legislation on the matter will seem flawed since their implementation leaves women and their children deprived from legal protections they used to have under the corresponding classical jurisprudence in the pre‐modern period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tetkik is the property of Oku Okut Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this article I propose that questions about the nature of contemporary Sufism, especially in Western contexts, can be addressed with further precision and nuance by shifting the focus from Sufism's relationship to Islam, to its relationship to shari'a, or Islamic law (fiqh). As very few questioned Sufism's Islamic nature prior to the modern period, this analytical shift offers the advantage of contextualizing contemporary debates about Sufism within the much richer history of intra-Islamic difference over Sufism and shari'a. I suggest that traditional Sufi-shari'a conceptions, though varied in nature, can be categorized for analytical purposes as (a) juristic, (b) supersessionist, and (c) formless Sufism. I propose these terms not as archetypal categories, but rather as a tentative template for mapping Sufi approaches to the shari'a, which can allow us to better appreciate how contemporary Western Sufi orientations towards the shari'a reflect premodern tendencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the contemporary era, the social justice has been focus of special attention, and explained and interpreted variously in the form of the theories of justice. In the climate of the Islamic thought, the belief in the perfection of Shariʿa and the capacity of the Islamic teachings for optimal management of the human societies has brought about a belief in self-sufficiency of Shariʿa and no need to any attempt for some movements such as identity neo-Salafism. In the present article, while explaining the view of identity neo-Salafism regarding the status of Shariʿa in establishing justice with a focus on Sayyid Quṭb's thought, we attempt to explore various aspects of the discussion on the relationship between Shariʿa and social justice. In this way, we try to present a vivid picture of the function of jurisprudence and Shariʿa in the sphere of establishing social justice as defined by Islam.

The paper concerns the present role played in law-in-the-books and law in action as well by a very traditional law type, namely that of personal law. In spite of the dominating role that the other type, i.e. territorial law, has played in Western law for more than a thousand years, there are numerous contemporary expressions of the existence and application of personal laws. In particular, this is the case of the vivacity of traditional personal laws characteristic of non-Western legal traditions (above all shari’a), including attempts at their application in the Western environment. There are also various other examples of the recognition, at least in the practice, of personal laws in the Western law jurisdictions, which is indicated with the example of Polish law.

This research aims to know the relation between religion and environtment in a deep comprehensive understanding. How religion and environtment in some extents they are too related. In Islam for example, concept of shari’a seemingly agreed and supported the idea of nature and animal conservation. But, in some extent they are contradictive. This contradictive discouse could be seen from any kinds of texts of religious scriptures in how they deal with preservation of nature and animal (killing animal). The role of religious text we may say “yes” that it deal and closely related how the ecological views are constructed. How it overcomes the natural degradation, pollutions for instance. But, religion also should be understood as an orientation of the cosmos and how actually our human existence has an important role to the world. In broadest sense, we understand that religion also means of how people know the limits of reality and how humans interact with their own environment. Religion often talk about the cosmological stories, systems and symbols, ritual practices, norms and ethics, the history, and the institutional structure that transmits the view where human beings as an integral part in the world—and has a sense of responsibility towards nature. This article use the analytical approach in analyizing the issue of religion and environtment. Thus, the relation between Islamic law, Quranic verses and Shari’a are compactible in responding the issue of environtment

Islamic banking is a banking which works as per Sharia rules pertaining to risk management, trading processes, leasing, holding physical goods and assets management for income generation. Global financial sector has witnessed unprecedented growth of Islamic banking, especially its spread where Muslim community is residing in a sizable number. There have been rapid innovations in financial markets all over the world and with the globalization impacting almost every aspect of life; these innovations have also affected Islamic banking system, which has resulted into newer issues and need for quick and Sharia compliant response to those issues. The Islamic financial system prohibits riba and gharar which include interest and uncertainty. There are certain norms which an Islamic bank has to follow, as it cannot invest in commodities which are prohibited. After coming into contact with Western world, esp. with Western banking system, after their fall, Muslims had two choices, either to accept their system as it was, without arguing that the interest was riba as stated in Quran or to device a banking system of their own by declaring interest as riba. They opted for the second choice. Pakistan was among those three countries which took the initiative to implement the Islamic banking system at the national level and adopted Islamic banking friendly policies and approaches in this regard. This article will provide a brief introduction to Islamic banking in Pakistan, its origin, development, services being provided by these banks and also provide a comparison between conventional banking and Islamic banking. During the recent past State Bank of Pakistan has taken many positive steps for the promotion of Islamic Banking in Pakistan. Few of the issues faced by Islamic banking sector along-with recommendations to improve the overall situation will also be provided at the end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Il presente contributo analizza gli strumenti giuridici predisposti a tutela della minoranza musulmana nel Regno Unito, di fronte al fallimento delle politiche multiculturali e alla proposta interculturale, nel tentativo di comprendere il contesto attuale nonché l’evoluzione dei rapporti tra il sistema di common law britannico e il modello islamico. Il contributo ricostruisce pertanto le politiche di governo della diversità, passando attraverso l’analisi del modello multiculturale e dell’offerta interculturale, e soffermandosi sull’applicazione, ufficiale e non ufficiale, delle regole islamiche in Inghilterra. L’analisi del caso inglese illustra il carattere aperto del sistema di common law britannico, facendo emergere, al contempo, le polemiche connesse alle regole e alle pratiche islamiche nelle materie del diritto di famiglia, in particolar modo in relazione alla risoluzione intracomunitaria delle controversie attraverso istituzioni islamiche di Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).

Copyright of Abhath is the property of Brill Academic Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Abhath is the property of Brill Academic Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article considers the four eyewitness threshold for zinā' in Islamic criminal law. In some Muslim-majority countries where zinā' remains an offence, judiciaries have by-passed the threshold by accepting singular confessions from male fornicators or, otherwise, inferring fornication from pregnancy outside of marriage. As a result, a disproportionate number of women have been prosecuted, convicted, and even punished for zinā'. I assert that the four-eyewitness threshold allows for an alternative way to view zinā' that can result in a different set of consequences. If the threshold is taken seriously such that it becomes the only evidentiary basis upon which a zinā' conviction can be entered, it will create an effective or de facto exemption where alleged perpetrators can never be convicted, except in the rarest cases where four independent eyewitnesses can be corralled. If adopted, this approach would provide a principled basis to reject opportunistic confessions that deflect punishment to accused female fornicators. And as an 'internal' solution that arises within the framework of the sharī'a, a de facto exemption approach is more likely to be perceived as legitimate when compared with proposed solutions that find their basis in international human rights legal instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of the relations between religion and philosophy has a long history in the works of Muslim philosophers. Al-Farabi may be considered the pioneer of Muslim philosophers in presenting a coherent and comprehensive theory of the relations between religion and philosophy. Believing in the unity of the doctrines of these two systems of thought, he views religion as a manifestation of teaching and adopting of wisdom. Practical wisdom, as part of the absolute wisdom that speaks the language of truth and demonstrative proof (Burhan), is no exception. In the same vein, he regards the religious teachings of human voluntary actions as the doctrines of practical wisdom, which are instilled in the language of allegory and persuasion, introducing the practical aspect of religion, the Shari'a, as the philosophical teachings in regard with regional and temporal circumstances. He attempts to explain the validity, inclusiveness, and durability of the teachings of the Shari'a by elaborating trans-historical and supernatural elements. He, therefore, secures the validity and inclusiveness of the religious doctrines through revelation and guarantees the survival of shari'a by introducing jurisprudence (Fighaha) as a complementary part for concluding prophethood.