ABSTRACT

This unparalleled Companion provides a comprehensive and authoritative guide to Islamic law to all with an interest in this increasingly relevant and developing field. The volume presents classical Islamic law through a historiographical introduction to and analysis of Western scholarship, while key debates about hot-button issues in modern-day circumstances are also addressed. In twenty-one chapters, distinguished authors offer an overview of their particular specialty, reflect on past and current thinking, and point to directions for future research. The Companion is divided into four parts. The first offers an introduction to the history of Islamic law as well as a discussion of how Western scholarship and historiography have evolved over time. The second part delves into the substance of Islamic law. Legal rules for the areas of legal status, family law, socio-economic justice, penal law, constitutional authority, and the law of war are all discussed in this section. Part three examines the adaptation of Islamic law in light of colonialism and the modern nation state as well as the subsequent re-Islamization of national legal systems. The final section presents contemporary debates on the role of Islamic law in areas such as finance, the diaspora, modern governance, and medical ethics, and the volume concludes by questioning the role of Sharia law as a legal authority in the modern context. By outlining the history of Islamic law through a linear study of research, this collection is unique in its examination of past and present scholarship and the lessons we can draw from this for the future. It introduces scholars and students to the challenges posed in the past, to the magnitude of milestones that were achieved in the reinterpretation and revision of established ideas, and ultimately to a thorough conceptual understanding of Islamic law.

chapter 1|10 pages

Introduction: The Nature of the Sharia

part |2 pages

Part I: The Historical Islamic Law

chapter 2|14 pages

The Origins of the Sharia

chapter 3|14 pages

The Divine Sources

chapter 4|16 pages

The Schools of Law

chapter 5|16 pages

Deriving Rules of Law

chapter 6|20 pages

The Judge and the Mufti

chapter 7|16 pages

State and Sharia

chapter 8|12 pages

Qanun and Sharia

part |2 pages

Part II: Substantive Islamic Law

chapter 9|14 pages

Equality Before the Law

chapter 10|14 pages

Gender Relations

chapter 11|12 pages

Socio-Economic Justice

chapter 12|16 pages

Public Order

chapter 13|14 pages

Constitutional Authority

chapter 14|14 pages

War and Peace

part |2 pages

Part III: Islamic Law through the Prism of the Modern State

chapter 15|14 pages

Sharia and the Colonial State

chapter 16|12 pages

Sharia and the Nation State

chapter 17|12 pages

The Re-Islamization of Legal Systems

part |2 pages

Part IV: Present-day Discussions about Sharia

chapter 18|12 pages

Sharia and Finance

chapter 19|16 pages

Sharia and the Muslim Diaspora

chapter 20|14 pages

Sharia and Modernity

chapter 21|16 pages

Sharia and Medical Ethics