SHARIAsource

One volume of a 30 volume collection of contemporary legal cases in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This specific volume includes various cases and topics pertaining to vehicle accidents, zīna (adultery), prostitution, request of reimbursement, and acquisitions. 

A translation of the Arabic Majallat al-Ahkam al-A'dlīyyah. This is a book on the principles of rules and regulations according to Muslim jurists under the Ottoman Empire. 

A book on the principles of rules and regulations, according to Muslim jurists under the Ottoman Empire. 

An excerpt from the book al-Muqni' fī 'ilm al-Shurūt, this section details the legality on issues of marriage, paternity, and children. 

An excerpt from the book al-Maqsad al-Mahmūd fī Talhīs al-'Uqūd, this section details the legality on issues pertaining to marriage, paternity, and children. 

On 9 November 2019, the Supreme Court of India declared the final judgement in the case regarding disputed land in the Ayodhya region in the District of Faizabad, India where the Babri masjid once stood. The court decided that the 2.77 acres of land be transferred over to a governmental trust for the purpose of building the Ram Janmabhoomi temple and an alternative 5 acres of land be given to the Sunni Waqf Board in order to build a mosque. This decision overturned the 2010 decision by the Allahabad High Court to divide the disputed land among three parties. Until its demolition in 1992, the 16th century Babri masjid existed at this site. Based on archaeological evidence that examined the foundations of the Babri masjid, as well as biographical evidence pulled from Sikh scriptural texts, the Supreme Court reasoned that land’s Hindu history predates the construction of the mosque and should thus be the site of a newly constructed Hindu temple.

The Allahabad High Court decided on 30 September 2010 that the disputed 2.77 acres of land in the Ayodhya region in the District of Faizabad, India, where the Babri masjid once stood, will be divided among the three litigants. This majority 2:1 decision divided the disputed land between the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara, and the Hindu Maha Sabha who represent the party for ‘Ram Lalla’ or infant Ram. The central dispute of the case was over the title of the parcel of land. Although the three-judge bench upheld the decision, there was a dissenting opinion which held that the Babri masjid was not built on demolished ruins and that the ruins predated the construction of the mosque. The remaining judges held that, based on archaeological evidence, the Babri masjid was built after the demolition of a non-Islamic religious structure. The judges reasoned that there was insufficient documentary evidence for any sole party to hold the title over the land, and instead declared the title be jointly held by the three litigants.

On July 23, 2018, the Congress of the Philippines enacted a law establishing the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). This “organic law” allows for the promulgation of an autonomous Muslim government in Bangsamoro, Mindanao, and establishes the BARMM as the only Muslim-majority autonomous region in the Philippines.

On January 17, 2023, the National Assembly of Pakistan passed a bill expanding the country’s laws on blasphemy. Previously, Pakistan’s blasphemy laws subjected those who insulted the Prophet Muhammad to the death penalty. The amended blasphemy laws carry a minimum ten-year prison sentence for those deemed to have insulted any of the Prophet’s Companions or Family members, and it renders blasphemy a non-bailable offense.

Akhbār Miṣr (History of Egypt), a chronicle written by al-Musabbiḥī (d. 420/1030), contains a new literary genre for Islamic criminal justice: criminal reports. Throughout the extant sections of the chronicle covering 414-415/1023-1025, al-Musabbiḥī will narrate in astonishing detail, with a dry and restrained tone, criminal cases that occurred in the Fatimid-era cities of al-Fusṭāṭ and Cairo along with crimes in rural areas. Al-Musabbiḥī’s criminal reports give a unique look on criminal law in action without significant literary embellishments in their portrayal. This criminal report is a rare example of a cold case where a murdered cloth merchant found in the desert is never solved. Such a narrative aptly illustrates the realities of criminal justice where solving some cases was extremely difficult, if not impossible, a fact that holds true today.

The source is edited by W. G. Millward in al-Musabbiḥī, Akhbār Miṣr fī Sanatayn (414-415 H.). Cairo:al-Hayʼah al-Miṣrīyah al- ʻĀmmah lil-Kitāb, 1980. A scan of this criminal case has been made available. 

The first extant investiture letter for a  ṣāḥib al-shurṭa can be found in a compendium of the rasāʼil (government letters) written by the head of the Buyid chancery in Baghdad, Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm al-Ṣābiʾ (d. 384/994). This letter was written for an official appointed as the ṣāḥib al-shurṭa over the city of Wāsiṭ in Iraq during the reign of the Buyid amir of Iraq, ʿIzz al- Dawla (r. 356-367/967-978). The text gives rare insight not only into the investiture genre for the shurṭa, but also into how his duties were shaped by sectarian conflicts raging in Iraq. 

This invesiture letter along with other rasāʼil were edited by  Iḥsān Dhūnūn al-Thāmirī in Diwān Rasāʾil al-Ṣābiʾ: the Registry of al-Ṣābiʾ Letters. London: Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation, 2017.  A scan of this investiture letter from Volume 1 has been made available. 

The fifth/eleventh al-Aḥkām al-Kubra, represents a new and unique legal genre for Islamic criminal justice. The treatise serves as an early example of nawāzil literature composed in al-Andalus made up of a combination of reports on legal cases coupled with the opinions and judgements of jurists and magistrates associated with it. These nawāzil also include criminal cases under the jurisdiction of the shurṭa. Ibn Sahl (d. 486/1093), a jurist living in Cordoba under the Jahwarids (r. 422– 461/1031–1069) and author of al-Aḥkām al-Kubra discusses actual crimes cases which occurred in Cordoba, and portrays the shurṭa working with jurists to arrive at a judgment. This detailed portrayal of jurists being involved in the realities of criminal justice is a distinctive element of this text. The case presented in this text is a murder of a man, allegedly perpetrated by his family, and the complex social-legal challenges of prosecuting such a case. 

The source is edited by Yaḥya Murād in Abū al-Aṣbagh ʿĪsā b. Sahl, Kitab al-Nawāzil al-aʻlām al-musamma Dīwān al-aḥkām al-kubrál. Cairo: Dār al-Hadith, 2007. Scans of this case have been made available.

Nishwār al-muḥāḍara 

The Nishwār al-muḥāḍara, a compilation of anecdotes, offers literary embellished stories which give insight into the realities of Islamic criminal justice. The fourth/tenth-century Baghdadi historian, judge, official, and litterateur ʿAlī al- Tanūkhī (d. 384/944), who served in the Buyid administration, wrote the Nishwār to explore in a literary manner the social, political, and legal complexities of Muslim societies in Iraq. This story provides a full-length criminal case narrated by the victim of comedic and dire circumstances who becomes falsely arrested for murder. An investigation is conducted to find the real culprits. Besides entertaining the readers, al-Tanūkhī wants to convey to his audience what he found was ideal criminal justice where a shurṭa scribe, the hero of the tale, uncovers the case through ingenuity and good police work without resorting to the torture of an innocent man.   

The source is edited by ʿAbbūd Shāljī in ʿAlī al- Tanūkhī, Nishwār al- muḥāḍarah wa-akhbār al-mudhākarah, 8 vols. Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 1971. Scans of this story from volume 5 have been made available. 

This investiture letter was written for a shiḥna (military governor) appointed over the Khorsanian city of Balkh,  found in the Saljūq secretarial compendium of ʿAtabat al-kataba. The  text was written by Muntajab al-Dīn al-Juwaynī  (After d. 552/1157), the head of the Saljūq chancery in Khurasan, and it provides a clearer understanding of criminal justice in the Near East during the sixth/twelfth century. 

The instructions al-Juwayni gives to the shiḥna of Balkh are reminiscent of other administrative texts related to criminal justice, such as Siyāsat al-Mulūk and the Buyid investiture letter for a ṣāḥib al-shurṭa of Wāsiṭ, but it also mentions that the enforcement of criminal law by the shiḥna had an intertwining of both siyāsa (governance) and shariʿa (sacred law).

This source was edited by Muḥammad Qazvīnī and Abbās Iqbāl in  Kitāb-i ʻatabat al-Katabah. Tehran: Shirkat-i Sahāmī-i Chāp, 1950. Scans of this investiture letter have been made available.