Related Research Articles
Sharia is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the Hadith. In Arabic, the term sharīʿah refers to God's immutable divine law and is contrasted with fiqh, which refers to its human scholarly interpretations. Over time, legal schools have emerged, reflecting the preferences of particular societies and governments, as well as islamic scholars or imams through their work on the theoretical (usul) and practical application (füru'/Fatwa) of laws and regulations. However, sharia has never been the sole valid legal system in Islam, and has always been used alongside urf from the beginning. Although sharia is presented as a form of government in addition to its other aspects, especially by the contemporary Islamist understanding, some researchers see the early history of Islam, which was also modelled and exalted by most Muslims; not a period when the understanding of sharia was dominant, but a kind of "secular Arabic expansion".
A waqf, also called a ḥabs, or mortmain property, is an inalienable charitable endowment under Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot of land or other assets for Muslim religious or charitable purposes with no intention of reclaiming the assets. A charitable trust may hold the donated assets. The person making such dedication is known as a waqif ('donor'). In Ottoman Turkish law, and later under the British Mandate of Palestine, a waqf was defined as usufruct state land from which the state revenues are assured to pious foundations. Although the waqf system depended on several hadiths and presented elements similar to practices from pre-Islamic cultures, it seems that the specific full-fledged Islamic legal form of endowment called waqf dates from the 9th century AD.
A qāḍī is the magistrate or judge of a sharīʿa court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and minors, and supervision and audition of public works.
Divorce according to Islamic law can occur in a variety of forms, some initiated by the husband and some by the wife. The main categories of Islamic customary law are talaq, khulʿ and faskh. Historically, the rules of divorce were governed by sharia, as interpreted by traditional Islamic jurisprudence, though they differed depending on the legal school, and historical practices sometimes diverged from legal theory.
The Egyptian Civil Code is the primary source of civil law for Egypt.
The Mudawana, short for mudawwanat al-aḥwāl al-shakhṣiyyah, is the personal status code, also known as the family code, in Moroccan law. It concerns issues related to the family, including the regulation of marriage, polygamy, divorce, inheritance, and child custody. Originally based on the Maliki school of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence, it was codified after the country gained independence from France in 1956. Its most recent revision, passed by the Moroccan parliament in 2004, was praised by human rights activists for its measures to address women's rights and gender equality within an Islamic legal framework.
Qisas or Qiṣāṣ is an Islamic term interpreted to mean "retaliation in kind", "eye for an eye", or retributive justice.
Diya in Islamic law, is the financial compensation paid to the victim or heirs of a victim in the cases of murder, bodily harm or property damage by mistake. It is an alternative punishment to qisas. In Arabic, the word means both blood money and ransom, and it is spelled sometimes as diyah or diyeh.
The relationship between Islam and domestic violence is disputed. Even among Muslims, the uses and interpretations of Sharia, the moral code and religious law of Islam, lack consensus. Variations in interpretation are due to different schools of Islamic jurisprudence, histories and politics of religious institutions, conversions, reforms, and education.
In the Ottoman Empire, women enjoyed a diverse range of rights depending on the time period, as well as their religion and class. The empire, first as a Turkoman beylik, and then a multi-ethnic, multi-religious empire, was ruled in accordance to the qanun, the semi-secular body of law enacted by Ottoman sultans. Furthermore, the relevant religious scriptures of its many confessional communities played a major role in the legal system, for the majority of Ottoman women, these were the Quran and Hadith as interpreted by Islamic jurists, often termed sharia. Most Ottoman women were permitted to participate in the legal system, purchase and sell property, inherit and bequeath wealth, and participate in other financial activities, rights which were unusual in the rest of Europe until the 19th century.
Freedom of religion is the freedom to practice religion, change one's religion, mix religions, or to be irreligious. Religion in the State of Palestine plays a pervasive role in society, including in the legal system and the educational system.
The Constitution provides for the freedom to practice the rights of one's religion and faith in accordance with the customs that are observed in the kingdom, unless they violate public order or morality. The state religion is Islam. The Government prohibits conversion from Islam and proselytization of Muslims.
The Basic Law, in accordance with tradition, declares that Islam is the state religion and that Shari'a is the source of legislation. It also prohibits discrimination based on religion and provides for the freedom to practice religious rites as long as doing so does not disrupt public order. The government generally respected this right, but within defined parameters that placed limitations on the right in practice. While the government continued to protect the free practice of religion in general, it formalized previously unwritten prohibitions on religious gatherings in locations other than government-approved houses of worship, and on non-Islamic institutions issuing publications within their communities, without prior approval from the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs (MERA). There were no reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious belief or practice.
The constitution of the Syrian Arab Republic guarantees freedom of religion. Syria has had two constitutions: one passed in 1973, and one in 2012 through the 2012 Syrian constitutional referendum. Opposition groups rejected the referendum; claiming that the vote was rigged.
People of the Palestinian territories—the West Bank and the Gaza Strip—are bound by differing laws that handle marital unions on the basis of the couple's national status and religious affiliation. After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the Palestinian residents of the Jordanian-annexed West Bank and the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip became subject to Jordanian marriage law and Egyptian marriage law, respectively. After the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, which saw Israel capture the Palestinian territories from Jordan and Egypt, those original laws largely remained in place.
The judicial system of Syria is a synthesis of Ottoman, French, and Islamic laws. The civil, commercial and criminal codes are primarily based on the French legal practices. Promulgated in 1949, those laws have special provisions sanctioned to limit application of customary law among beduin and religious minorities. The Islamic religious courts continue to function in some parts of the country, but their jurisdiction is limited to issues of personal status, such as marriage, divorce, paternity, custody of children, and inheritance. Nonetheless, in 1955 a personal code pertaining to many aspects of personal status was developed. This law modified and modernized sharia by improving the status of women and clarifying the laws of inheritance.
The Shafi'i school, or Madhhab al-Shāfiʿī, is one of the four major traditional schools of religious law (madhhab) in the Sunnī branch of Islam. It was founded by Muslim theologian Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī, "the father of Muslim jurisprudence", in the early 9th century.
Sharia means Islamic law based on age-old concepts. Since the early Islamic states of the eighth and ninth centuries, Sharia always existed alongside other normative systems.
The Ottoman Empire was governed by different sets of laws during its existence. The Qanun, sultanic law, co-existed with religious law. Legal administration in the Ottoman Empire was part of a larger scheme of balancing central and local authority. Ottoman power revolved crucially around the administration of the rights to land, which gave a space for the local authority develop the needs of the local millet. The jurisdictional complexity of the Ottoman Empire was aimed to permit the integration of culturally and religiously different groups.
Islamic Leadership in Jerusalem refers to the leading cleric (ulema) of the Muslim community in Jerusalem. Historically, the primary religious leader was the Qadi. During the late Ottoman Empire, the Muftis became pre-eminent, particularly the Mufti of the Hanafi school, and during the British military administration the post of Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was created, which continues today.
References
- Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck; Stowasser, Barbara Freyer (2004). Islamic Law and the Challenges of Modernity. Rowman Altamira. ISBN 978-0-7591-0671-0.
- Joseph, Suad (2000). Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East . Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-2865-1.
- Nazir, Sameena; Tomppert, Leigh (2005). Women's Rights in the Middle East and North Africa: Citizenship and Justice. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-4992-0.
- Mehozay, Yoav (2016-10-20). Between the Rule of Law and States of Emergency: The Fluid Jurisprudence of the Israeli Regime. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-1-4384-6340-7.
- Patai, Raphael (2015-12-08). Kingdom of Jordan. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-7799-7.
- Welchman, Lynn (2004). Women's Rights and Islamic Family Law: Perspectives on Reform. Zed Books. ISBN 978-1-84277-095-5.
- UNICEF (2007). Protecting the World's Children: Impact of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Diverse Legal Systems. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-46503-8.