SHARIAsource

This commentary examines Dubai International Financial Centre as an example of a systems-based model of regulating sharīʿa compliance in Islamic finance.

The landmark Shah Bano case brought to the fore tensions between communal politics and Muslim women's economic rights in India.

This commentary seeks to analyze changes made to the juvenile crimes and punishment under Iran's new Islamic Penal Code.

The Danial Latifi illustrates the impact of communal tensions on the Supreme Court’s decision-making process, and the careful lines it attempts to draw in order to promote Muslim women’s gender equity while also limiting its intervention into Islamic personal law to avoid potential backlash.

In this piece, I argue that the implied and overt support of major Muslim institutions in India, grounded in the reasonableness of such an interpretation of the Qurʾān, made the Indian Supreme Court more amenable to upholding limitations on triple talaq (male-initiated unilateral divorce) in the Shamim Ara case and made reform in the direction of strengthening the family law rights of Muslim women more tenable.

In this post, I analyze the recent Khursheed Ahmad Khan case (2015), and argue that this case opens the door to future challenges to the constitutionality of polygamy, as well as other aspects of Muslim personal law in India.

This commentary examines Malaysia as an example of a centralized model of regulating sharīʿa compliance in Islamic finance.

This commentary examines the U.S. and the U.K. as an example of a model of competitive equality for the regulation of sharīʿa compliance in Islamic finance.

This commentary discusses the comparative of costs and benefits of different models of ensuring sharīʿa compliance in Islamic finance.

This post reviews and critiques a new article in the Suffolk Law Review by Intisar Rabb entitled Against Kadijustiz: On the Negative Citation of Islalmic Law as Foreign Law. Her main focus is on the use of the term throughout American court practice to describe what it is that US courts are against, rather than what they are for. This post highlights two points that merit further emphasis and elaboration, especially with regard to similar trends in Shi'i Law in Iraq and beyond. Origional post by Haider Hamoudi at http://muslimlawprof.org/2015/05/judges-on-cushions-and-under-trees-thoughts-on-qadi-justice-and-hyperpolemics/ (May 29, 2015).

Ibn Ḥārith al-Khushanī recorded the following case as a ḥikāya, an anonymous report: A Christian appeared before the judge Aslam b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, petitioning to be executed. The anecdote offers insight into the historical role of judges during a period of religious dissent in the Umayyad Caliphate, while the author's narrative voice demonstrates past judicial approaches to rationality, humor, and violent penalization. 

This text is part of Maribel Fierro, The Judges of al-Andalus, forthcoming.

This case, recorded by Ibn Ḥārith al-Khushanī, concerns an accusation of apostasy during the reign of the Cordoban Umayyad emir Muḥammad (r. 238–273/852–886). A vizier conspires to confiscate the fortune of a talented state secretary upon the latter's death by accusing him posthumously of apostasy. The vizier attempts to use a muḥtasib (lay person) and notable Cordoban bureaucrats and scholars as witnesses who could testify to the secretary's Christianity. The accusation's language provides an example of how the state was conceptualized at the time, while its proceedings demonstrate how internal faith was judged in a court of law. 

This text is part of Maribel Fierro, The Judges of al-Andalus, forthcoming.

Last year, the Tangiers First Instance Family Court allowed for DNA tests to be admitted into evidence in family law cases. The plaintiff was a mother who wanted to prove the paternity (bunuwwa) and lineage (nasab) of her daughter born out of wedlock. The case illustrates how, as medical science advances, international law and conventions may interact with domestic, Islamic constitutional law.

State level discussions, suggested legislation, and case law surrounding Islamic marriage suggest that government officials in England and Wales view the matter, and perhaps Islam as a whole, as incompatible with marriage in the West. This piece examines some English and Welsh public commentary on Islamic marriage, analyzes statutes and case law, and contemplates reform of current marriage law. It looks at Al-Saedy v. Musawi (2010), Dukali v. Lamrani (2012), MA v. JA (2012), and the July 2018 decision of Akhter v. Khan (2018). The piece concludes that marriage law in England and Wales is outdated because of its historical roots, but is beginning to change its inflexible approach to allow for consideration of the intention of the parties to marry by applying rules of cohabitation.