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152-508: Divorce according to Islamic law can occur in a variety of forms, some initiated by a husband and some by a wife. The main categories of Islamic customary law are talaq ( repudiation (marriage) ), khulʿ (mutual divorce) and faskh (dissolution of marriage before the Religious Court). Historically, the rules of divorce were governed by sharia , as interpreted by traditional Islamic jurisprudence , though they differed depending on

304-444: A Sahih graded Hadith which states that Muhammed cursed those who did such marriages. A marriage can also be dissolved by means of judicial divorce. Either spouse can petition a qadi court to obtain judicial divorce, but they must have compelling grounds for dissolving the marriage. The court starts the process by appointing an arbitrator from each of their families in order to seek a mediated reconciliation. If this effort fails,

456-566: A bid'ah (innovation) deviations from it. Talaq al-sunnah is further subdivided into talaq al-ahsan , which is the least disapproved form of talaq, and talaq al-hasan . The ahsan talaq involves a single revocable pronouncement of divorce and sexual abstinence during the waiting period. The hasan divorce involves three pronouncements made during the wife's state of ritual purity with menstrual periods intervening between them, and no intercourse having taken place during that time. In contrast to talaq al-sunnah , talaq al-bid'ah does not observe

608-507: A "firm bond" and by the rules governing divorce. The relationship between the spouses should ideally be based on love ( 30:21 ) and important decisions concerning both spouses should be made by mutual consent. When marital harmony cannot be attained, the Quran allows spouses to bring the marriage to an end, although this decision is not to be taken lightly, and the families of the spouses are called upon to intervene by appointing arbiters to attempt

760-719: A changing world has become an increasingly debated topic in Islam. Beyond sectarian differences , fundamentalists advocate the complete and uncompromising implementation of "exact/pure sharia" without modifications, while modernists argue that it can/should be brought into line with human rights and other contemporary issues such as democracy, minority rights , freedom of thought , women's rights and banking by new jurisprudences. In Muslim majority countries, traditional laws have been widely used with or changed by European models. Judicial procedures and legal education have been brought in line with European practice likewise. While

912-415: A classroom or consulted by judges. A mabsut , which usually provided a commentary on a mukhtasar and could stretch to dozens of large volumes, recorded alternative rulings with their justifications, often accompanied by a proliferation of cases and conceptual distinctions. The terminology of juristic literature was conservative and tended to preserve notions which had lost their practical relevance. At

1064-459: A common consensus that it is unholy and against the word of God to have romantic relations with someone of the same gender. This idea is not explicitly stated in the Quran, but is heavily frowned upon by the Islamic community. It is considered haram for a Muslim woman to marry a non-Muslim man. This is due to the idea that the man is the head of the household, the one who supports the family, and

1216-413: A compensation paid by the wife. The divorce is final and irrevocable, effective when the contract is concluded. The couple cannot reconcile during the waiting period, defined as in the case of talaq, but the husband is required to pay maintenance during its term, unless the requirement is waived by the contract. As in the case of talaq , remarriage is possible until a khul' is concluded for a third time. If

1368-499: A consensus by religious authorities ), and analogical reasoning . Four legal schools of Sunni Islam — Hanafi , Maliki , Shafiʽi and Hanbali — developed methodologies for deriving rulings from scriptural sources using a process known as ijtihad (lit. mental effort). Traditional jurisprudence distinguishes two principal branches of law, rituals and social dealings ; subsections family law , relationships (commercial, political / administrative ) and criminal law , in

1520-403: A deterrent to rash repudiations. Women often entered marriage with substantial capital in the form of mahr and the trousseau provided by their family, which they were not obliged to spend on family expenses, and they frequently loaned money to their husbands. Because of this, and the financial obligations incurred, talaq could be a very costly and in many cases financially ruinous enterprise for

1672-585: A divorcing spouse can get up to one third share in assets. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board issued a code of conduct in April 2017 regarding talaq in response to the controversy over the practice of triple talaq in India . It also warned that those who resort to triple talaq, or divorce recklessly, without justification or for reasons not prescribed under Shariat will be socially boycotted. In India, The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019

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1824-457: A jurist's mentality in finding a solution to a legal question in contrast with taqlid ( conformity to precedent ijtihad). According to theory, ijtihad requires expertise in the Arabic language, theology, religious texts, and principles of jurisprudence ( usul al-fiqh ), and is not employed where authentic and trusted texts ( Qur'an and hadith ) are considered unambiguous with regard to

1976-402: A local master and discuss religious topics. At first, these circles were fluid in their membership, but with time distinct regional legal schools crystallized around shared sets of methodological principles. As the boundaries of the schools became clearly delineated, the authority of their doctrinal tenets came to be vested in a master jurist from earlier times, who was henceforth identified as

2128-409: A man to agree to his wife's wish of divorce if she gives back a garden received from him as part of her mahr . A khul' is concluded when the couple agrees to a divorce in exchange for a monetary compensation paid by the wife, which cannot exceed the value of the mahr she had received, and is generally a smaller sum or involves forfeiting the still unpaid portion. Hanafis and Malikis do not require

2280-756: A marriage ought to be recognized to enable an equal standing between spouses. Many Muslim countries are finding ways and means to account for non-financial contributions of women to a marriage and improve divorce compensations. Some Muslim nations such as Jordan, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Syria, Libya and Tunisia, are effecting rules legislationes to pay additional compensation called 'mata'a' as part of Islamic kindness to departing spouses in addition to dower and maintenance. Many Muslim countries are adding conditions called 'haq meher' (right of financial maintenance and capital awards) in marriage contracts called nikahnama . Changing social conditions have led to increasing dissatisfaction with traditional Islamic law of divorce since

2432-464: A married woman converted to Islam but her husband did not, the marriage would be considered void by Muslim authorities and the woman obtained custody of the children. Seventeenth-century sources indicate that non-Muslim women throughout the Ottoman Empire used this method to obtain a divorce. The husband can end marriage through three types of oaths: the oath of continence ( īlāʿ and iẓhar ),

2584-411: A middle way between the two attitudes such as Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari in theology (syncretists). In the classical age of Islam, there were violent conflicts between rationalists (aqliyyun; al-muʿtazila , kalamiyya ) and traditionalist (naqliyyun, literalists, Ahl al-Hadith ) groups and sects regarding the Quran and hadith or the place of reason in understanding the Quran and hadith, as can be seen in

2736-598: A model ( sunnah ) and transmitted this information to the succeeding generations in the form of hadith . These reports led first to informal discussion and then systematic legal thought, articulated with greatest success in the eighth and ninth centuries by the master jurists Abu Hanifa , Malik ibn Anas , al-Shafi'i , and Ahmad ibn Hanbal , who are viewed as the founders of the Hanafi , Maliki , Shafiʿi , and Hanbali legal schools ( madhāhib ) of Sunni jurisprudence. Modern historians have presented alternative theories of

2888-421: A mufti if faced with a difficult legal issue. The judges were active members of the local community and were also involved in informal arbitration, which was the preferred method of resolving disputes. In court proceedings, they mediated between the letter of the law and exigences of the local social and moral concerns, with the overarching aim of ensuring social harmony. Actual legal practice sometimes deviated from

3040-416: A place and He is everywhere." Judgment that concerns individuals is personal and, for example, in an Islamic Qisas or compensation decisions, jurist must take into account "personal labels" such as the gender , freedom , religious and social status such as mu'min , kafir , musta'min , dhimmi , apostate , etc. Similar distinctions also apply to witnessing practices, which have a fundamental value in

3192-413: A point of reference in modern Muslim identity politics. Important changes in family laws took place in the modern era. The laws underwent codification by legislative bodies and were also displaced from their original context into modern legal systems, which generally followed Western practices in court procedure and legal education. This severed them both from the classical interpretative tradition and from

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3344-468: A reconciliation. The Quran also sets waiting periods to discourage hasty divorces. For a menstruating woman, the waiting ( Iddah ) period before the divorce is finalized, as three monthly periods. For non-menstruating women, including post- menopause women and pre- menarche girls, the waiting period is three months. This is to ensure the woman is not pregnant and thus guarantee the paternity of future children she may have with her next husband, and to give

3496-399: A rule , there was a hierarchy and power ranking among the sources of Sharia; for example, a subcategory or an auxiliary source will not be able to eliminate a provision clearly stated in the main source or prohibit a practice that was not prohibited though it was known and practiced during the prophetic period. If we look at an example such as the abolition of the validity of Mut'a marriage ,

3648-559: A second wife. Islamic law does not recognize the concept of communal property, and division of property is based on its attribution to either spouse. The wife obtains custody of the children until their majority (whose definition varies according to legal school), while the father retains guardianship. Child custody practices under Ottoman rule appear to have followed the rules of Hanafi jurisprudence, although in Ottoman Egypt children generally stayed with their divorced mother beyond

3800-543: A sequence of such smaller topics, each called a "book" ( kitab ). The special significance of ritual was marked by always placing its discussion at the start of the work. Some historians distinguish a field of Islamic criminal law , which combines several traditional categories. Several crimes with scripturally prescribed punishments are known as hudud . Jurists developed various restrictions which in many cases made them virtually impossible to apply. Other crimes involving intentional bodily harm are judged according to

3952-605: A source of law in place of qiyas and extension of the notion of sunnah to include traditions of the imams . Islamic scholar Rashid Rida (1865–1935 CE) lists the four basic sources of Islamic law, agreed upon by all Sunni Muslims : "the [well-known] sources of legislation in Islam are four: the Qur'an , the Sunnah , the consensus of the ummah and ijtihad undertaken by competent jurists" While traditional understanding strongly denies that Quran may have changed ( Al Hejr :9),

4104-568: A specified period of time. In other cases, Hanafi judges invited a Maliki or Hanbali colleague to pronounce divorce, or the woman herself took the initiative to seek out a judge from one of these schools. The same approach was used to effect a divorce in cases of failure to provide maintenance. In the Ottoman Balkans a woman could file for divorce on the grounds that her husband was "not a good Muslim". Since marriages between non-Muslim men and Muslim women are forbidden under Islamic law, when

4256-405: A version of lex talionis that prescribes a punishment analogous to the crime ( qisas ), but the victims or their heirs may accept a monetary compensation ( diya ) or pardon the perpetrator instead; only diya is imposed for non-intentional harm. Other criminal cases belong to the category of taʿzīr , where the goal of punishment is correction or rehabilitation of the culprit and its form

4408-560: A wide range of topics. Its rulings are concerned with ethical standards as much as legal norms, assigning actions to one of five categories : mandatory , recommended , neutral , abhorred , and prohibited . Over time with the necessities brought by sociological changes, on the basis of mentioned interpretative studies legal schools have emerged, reflecting the preferences of particular societies and governments, as well as Islamic scholars or imams on theoretical and practical applications of laws and regulations. Although sharia

4560-415: A wife who is not favorable to him an inheritance. Additionally, it is haram for one relative to deprive another relative of his inheritance through tricks . Riba , any excessive addition over and above the principal, such as usury and interest, is prohibited in Islam in all forms. Interest goes against the Islamic pillar of zakat , which allows wealth to flow from the rich to the poor. Riba

4712-509: Is "specific to" a person, group, institution, event, situation, belief and practice in different areas of life, and usually includes the approval/disapproval of a judgment, is called fatwa . Tazir penalties , which are outside the Qisas and Hudud laws, have not been codified, and their discretion and implementation are under the initiative and authority of the judge or political authority. Mustafa Öztürk points out some another developments in

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4864-410: Is a sin or a crime to perform a forbidden action or not to perform a mandatory action. Reprehensible acts should be avoided, but they are not considered to be sinful or punishable in court. Avoiding reprehensible acts and performing recommended acts is held to be subject of reward in the afterlife, while neutral actions entail no judgment from God. Jurists disagree on whether the term ḥalāl covers

5016-725: Is alike to the Italian use of peccato ). The term can be used formally as a method for chastising strangers who behave inappropriately, or between friends as a form of teasing. The word is also used to instruct children in how to behave by telling them that harming other children or animals is haram, among other things. The binary concepts of halal and haram are used in a number of cultural phrases, most notably ibn (boy) al-halal and bint (girl) al-halal . These phrases are often used to refer to appropriate spouses in marriage, and stand in contrast to ibn al-haram or bint al-haram , which are used as insults. In this case,

5168-487: Is an Arabic term meaning 'forbidden'. This may refer to either something sacred to which access is not allowed to the people who are not in a state of purity or who are not initiated into the sacred knowledge; or, in direct contrast, to an evil and thus " sinful action that is forbidden to be done". The term also denotes something "set aside", thus being the Arabic equivalent of the Hebrew concept חרם ( ḥērem ) and

5320-593: Is applied to: Linguistically, the root of the term haram (compare Ancient Hebrew herem , meaning 'devoted to God', 'forbidden for profane use') is used to form a wide range of other terms that have legal implications, such as hariim (a harem) and ihraam (a state of purity). In addition, the same word ( haram ) is used in the Quran to denote the sacred nature of the Ka'ba and the areas of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem. This category of sacred, holy, and inviolable also includes spouses and university campuses. As such,

5472-401: Is considered haram for a Muslim man to propose to a divorced or widowed woman during her iddah (the waiting period during which she is not allowed to marry again). The man is able to express his desire for marriage, but cannot execute an actual proposal. It is also forbidden for a Muslim man to propose to a woman who is married to another man. Relating to the topic of marriage, there is

5624-425: Is considered to be a particularly disapproved, though legally valid form of divorce in traditional Sunni jurisprudence. According to Islamic tradition, Muhammad denounced the practice of triple talaq, and the second caliph Umar punished husbands who made use of it. Shiite jurisprudence does not recognize talaq al-bid'ah . The husband can delegate the right of repudiation to his wife. This delegation can be made at

5776-473: Is dissolved; if he breaks it, the marriage continues. In the izhar (or ẓihār ) oath a man declares that his wife is as sexually prohibited to him as his mother. The husband is able to break the oath and resume the marriage. Breaking either oath requires expiation by means of feeding the poor or fasting. In the li'an oath, the husband denies paternity of his wife's child. The wife is given an opportunity to take an oath denying infidelity, and if she does so and

5928-401: Is insufficient to distinguish right from wrong , and rational argumentation must draw its content from the body of transcendental knowledge revealed in the Quran and through the sunnah of Muhammad. In addition to the Quran and sunnah, the classical theory of Sunni fiqh recognizes two other sources of law: juristic consensus ( ijmaʿ ) and analogical reasoning ( qiyas ). It therefore studies

6080-401: Is intended to give the couple an opportunity for reconciliation, and also a means to ensure that the wife is not pregnant. Resumption of sexual relations automatically retracts the repudiation. The wife retains all her rights during the waiting period. The divorce becomes final when the waiting period expires. This is called a "minor" divorce ( al-baynuna al-sughra ) and the couple can remarry. If

6232-459: Is largely left to the judge's discretion. In practice, since early on in Islamic history, criminal cases were usually handled by ruler-administered courts or local police using procedures which were only loosely related to Sharia. The two major genres of furūʿ literature are the mukhtasar (concise summary of law) and the mabsut (extensive commentary). Mukhtasars were short specialized treatises or general overviews that could be used in

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6384-452: Is not limited to the person who engages in the prohibited activity, but the sin also extends to others who support the person in the activity, whether it be material or moral support. The five categories of الأحكام الخمسة , al-ʾAḥkām al-Ḵamsa or the hierarchy of acts from permitted to non-permitted are: The two types of haram are: The religious term haram , based on the Quran ,

6536-440: Is not valid without the mahr. The amount of the mahr generally depended on the socio-economic status of the bride. The payment of a portion of the mahr was commonly deferred and served as a deterrent to the exercise of the right of unilateral divorce by the husband, although classical jurists disagreed about the permissibility and manner of deferring payment of the mahr. Islamic jurisprudence has clear guidance on handling of mahr in

6688-419: Is often stated today that Sharia provides many rights to slaves and aims to eradicate slavery over time. However, the widespread use of slavery in the Islamic world continued until the last century, and jurists had no serious objections to the castration of slaves and the unrestricted sexual use of female slaves, with a few exceptions in traditional islamic jurisprudence. A special religious decision, which

6840-403: Is or is not haram based on the scholarly interpretation of the core religious texts (Quran and hadith ). Actions that are haram result in harm one way or another and are therefore considered a sin if carried out by a Muslim . They ask you about wine and gambling. Say, "In them is great harm and (yet, some) benefit for people. But their harm is greater than their benefit..." By bringing up

6992-433: Is ordained for you regarding the people who were killed. Free versus free, slave versus slave, woman versus woman. Whoever is forgiven by the brother of the slain for a price, let him abide by the custom and pay the price well." Modern historians generally adopt intermediate positions regarding origins, suggesting that early Islamic jurisprudence developed out of a combination of administrative and popular practices shaped by

7144-554: Is part of a broader Islamic principle of avoiding luxurious lifestyles. It is considered haram for both men and women to wear clothing that fails to cover the body properly (which stated in clothing guidance, the term aurat/awrah ) and clothes that are transparent. Additionally, Islam prohibits excess beautifying that involves the altering of one's physical appearance. In some Sunni sects, there are physical alterations that are considered haram such as tattoos, shortening of teeth, cosmetic surgery, etc. Some Islamic sects also prohibit

7296-426: Is presented as a form of governance in addition to its other aspects (especially by the contemporary Islamist understanding ), some researchers see the early history of Islam , which has been modelled and exalted by most Muslims, not as a period when sharia was dominant, but a kind of " secular Arabic expansion ". Approaches to sharia in the 21st century vary widely, and the role and mutability of sharia in

7448-596: Is prohibited because it keeps wealth in the hands of the wealthy and keeps it away from the poor. It is also believed that riba makes a person selfish and greedy. All business and trade practices that do not result in a free and fair exchange of goods and services are considered haram, such as bribery , stealing, and gambling . Therefore, all forms of deceit and dishonesty in business are prohibited in Islam. Many Islamic jurists and religious bodies, including Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta of Saudi Arabia , have considered MLM trade to be haram,

7600-523: Is the first of Four Doors and the lowest level on the path to God in Sufism and in branches of Islam that are influenced by Sufism, such as Ismailism and Alawites . It is necessary to reach from Sharia to Tariqa , from there to Ma'rifa and finally to haqiqa . In each of these gates, there are 10 levels that the dervish must pass through. Jan Michiel Otto summarizes the evolutionary stages of understanding by distinguishing four meanings conveyed by

7752-475: Is the highest status of prohibition. Something that is considered haram remains prohibited no matter how good the intention is or how honorable the purpose is. Sins, good, and meritorious acts are placed on the mizan (weighing scales) on the Day of Judgement and are weighed according to the sincerity of the doer. Views of different madhhabs or legal schools of thought can vary significantly regarding what

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7904-456: Is touched upon in the Quran 4:24 , and not prohibited (Sunnis translate the words used in the relevant verse with terms used to describe the ordinary marriage event) according to Sunnis is banned by Muhammad towards the end of his lifetime, and according to Shiites , by Omar , "according to his own opinion" and reliying on power. The Shiite sect did not accept the jurisprudence of Omar, whose political and religious authority they rejected from

8056-461: Is traditionally divided into ʿibādāt (rituals or acts of worship) and muʿāmalāt (social relations). Many jurists further divided the body of substantive jurisprudence into "the four quarters", called rituals, sales, marriage and injuries. Each of these terms figuratively stood for a variety of subjects. For example, the quarter of sales would encompass partnerships, guaranty, gifts, and bequests, among other topics. Juristic works were arranged as

8208-566: Is used by Arabic-speaking peoples of the Middle East to designate a prophetic religion in its totality. For example, sharīʿat Mūsā means law or religion of Moses and sharīʿatu-nā can mean "our religion" in reference to any monotheistic faith. Within Islamic discourse, šarīʿah refers to religious regulations governing the lives of Muslims. For many Muslims, the word means simply "justice," and they will consider any law that promotes justice and social welfare to conform to Sharia. Sharia

8360-520: The Hanafi , Maliki , Shafi'i and Hanbali madhhabs. They emerged in the ninth and tenth centuries and by the twelfth century almost all jurists aligned themselves with a particular madhhab. These four schools recognize each other's validity and they have interacted in legal debate over the centuries. Rulings of these schools are followed across the Muslim world without exclusive regional restrictions, but they each came to dominate in different parts of

8512-458: The Hebrew term Halakhah ["The Way to Go"]), or "path to the water hole" and argue that its adoption as a metaphor for a divinely ordained way of life arises from the importance of water in an arid desert environment. In the Quran, šarīʿah and its cognate širʿah occur once each, with the meaning "way" or "path". The word šarīʿah was widely used by Arabic-speaking Jews during

8664-480: The Islamic creed , leading changes in ahkam such as determining the conditions of takfir according to theologians ; First Muslims believed that God lived in the sky as Ahmad Ibn Hanbal says: "Whoever says that Allah is everywhere is a heretic , an infidel, should be invited to repent, but if he does not, be killed." This understanding changes later and gives way to the understanding that "God cannot be assigned

8816-578: The Mihna example. Although the rationalists initially seemed to gain the upper hand in this conflict, with the rise of literalism, the Mutazila sank into history and literalism continued to live by gaining supporters. In this context, the formulation of the Sunni view can be summarized as follows; Human reason is a gift from God which should be exercised to its fullest capacity. However, use of reason alone

8968-543: The Ottoman Empire , and is from the Turkish şer'(i) . According to the traditionalist ( Atharī ) Muslim view, the major precepts of Sharia were passed down directly from the Islamic prophet Muhammad without "historical development" and the emergence of Islamic jurisprudence ( fiqh ) also goes back to the lifetime of Muhammad. In this view, his companions and followers took what he did and approved of as

9120-536: The Salafi and Wahhabi movements. Other currents, such as networks of Indonesian ulema and Islamic scholars residing in Muslim-minority countries, have advanced liberal interpretations of Islamic law without focusing on traditions of a particular madhhab. Haram Haram ( / h ə ˈ r ɑː m , h æ ˈ -, h ɑː ˈ -, - ˈ r æ m / ; Arabic : حَرَام ḥarām [ħɑˈrɑːm] )

9272-409: The legal school , and historical practices sometimes diverged from legal theory. In modern times, as personal status (family) laws have been codified, they generally have remained "within the orbit of Islamic law", but control over the norms of divorce shifted from traditional jurists to the state. According to the Quran, marriage is intended to be permanent, as indicated by its characterization as

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9424-469: The mahr ; and if the wife asks for a divorce and intercourse has not occurred, then no mahr is required to be paid by the husband. In the modern era, sharia-based laws were widely replaced by statutes based on European models, and its classical rules were largely retained only in personal status (family) laws. Different explanations have been proposed for this phenomenon. Several scholars have argued that because these laws are more extensively specified in

9576-472: The Arabs was governed by unwritten customary law, which varied according to region and tribe, and its observance depended on the authority of the individuals and groups involved. In this system, women were particularly vulnerable. The Quranic rules of marriage and divorce provided a fixed set of norms for all Muslims, backed by divine authority and enforced by the community. The early Islamic reforms included giving

9728-685: The Middle Ages, being the most common translation for the word Torah in the 10th-century Arabic translation of the Torah by Saʿadya Gaon . A similar use of the term can be found in Christian writers. The Arabic expression Sharīʿat Allāh ( شريعة الله ' God's Law ' ) is a common translation for תורת אלוהים ( ' God's Law ' in Hebrew) and νόμος τοῦ θεοῦ ( ' God's Law ' in Greek in

9880-417: The Muslim public that the so-called "gate of ijtihad " was closed at the start of the classical era. Starting from the 18th century, Islamic reformers began calling for abandonment of taqlid and emphasis on ijtihad , which they saw as a return to Islamic origins. The advocacy of ijtihad has been particularly associated with Islamic Modernism and Salafiyya movements. Among contemporary Muslims in

10032-517: The New Testament [Rom. 7: 22]). In Muslim literature, šarīʿah designates the laws or message of a prophet or God, in contrast to fiqh , which refers to a scholar's interpretation thereof. In older English-language law-related works in the late 19th/early 20th centuries, the word used for Sharia was sheri . It, along with the French variant chéri , was used during the time of

10184-524: The Ottoman Levant showed that women could invalidate a declaration of talaq by stating that the husband had shown signs of "diminished rationality" when he made it, while others used a husband's unrevoked declaration of talaq to obtain divorce at a later date if they could prove that he made it. Talaq types can be classified into talaq al-sunnah , which is thought to be in accordance with Muhammad's teachings, and talaq al-bid'ah , which are viewed as

10336-434: The Quran and hadith than others, it has been difficult for believers to accept deviating from these rules. In contrast, Wael Hallaq sees it as a legacy of colonialism: changing family laws would have provided no benefit in colonial administration, and colonial powers promoted the theory that these laws were sacred to the population, advertising their preservation as a mark of respect, which in turn led to them being taken up as

10488-408: The Quran existing today is a religious source, infer from the same verses that it is clearly ordered to pray 2 or 3 times, not 5 times. In addition, in religious literature, wajib is widely used for all kinds of religious requirements, without expressing any fiqh definition. As seen above and in many other examples, classifications and labels have a relative character shaped by the understanding of

10640-540: The West there have emerged new visions of ijtihad which emphasize substantive moral values over traditional juridical undertandings. Shia jurists did not use the term ijtihad until the 12th century. With the exception of Zaydis , the early Imami Shia were unanimous in censuring Ijtihad in the field of law ( Ahkam ) until the Shiite embrace of various doctrines of Mu'tazila and classical Sunnite Fiqh . After

10792-399: The advent of Islam. The subject of divorce is addressed in four different surahs of the Quran, including the general principle articulated in 2:231: If you divorce women, and they reach their appointed term, hold them back in amity or let them go in amity. Do not hold them back out of malice, to be vindictive. Whoever does this does himself injustice. Classical Islamic law is derived from

10944-511: The application and limits of analogy, as well as the value and limits of consensus, along with other methodological principles, some of which are accepted by only certain legal schools. This interpretive apparatus is brought together under the rubric of ijtihad , which refers to a jurist's exertion in an attempt to arrive at a ruling on a particular question. The theory of Twelver Shia jurisprudence parallels that of Sunni schools with some differences, such as recognition of reason ( ʿaql ) as

11096-469: The authenticity of hadiths could only be questioned through the chain of narration, though some western researchers suggests that primary sources may have also been evolved. Only several verses of the Quran have direct legal relevance, and they are concentrated in a few specific areas such as inheritance , though other passages have been used as a source for general principles whose legal ramifications were elaborated by other means. Islamic literature calls

11248-445: The beginning. Fiqh is concerned with ethical standards as much as with legal norms, seeking to establish not only what is and is not legal, but also what is morally right and wrong. Sharia rulings fall into one of five categories known as "the five decisions" ( al-aḥkām al-khamsa ): mandatory ( farḍ or wājib ), recommended ( mandūb or mustaḥabb ), neutral ( mubāḥ ), reprehensible ( makrūh ), and forbidden ( ḥarām ). It

11400-677: The branches of fiqh ), which is devoted to elaboration of rulings on the basis of these principles. Classical Islamic jurisprudence refers how to elaborate and interpret religious sources that are considered reliable within the framework of "procedural principles" within its context such as linguistic and " rhetorical tools " to derive judgments for new situations by taking into account certain purposes and mesalih. Textual phrases usually dealt with under simple antithetical headings: general and particular, command and prohibition, obscure and clear, truth and metaphor. It also comprises methods for establishing authenticity of hadith and for determining when

11552-406: The case of divorce, depending on who asks for the divorce and whether or not the intercourse occurred. If the husband asks for a divorce and intercourse has occurred or he had been alone with her, he pays full mahr ; if the husband asks for a divorce and the intercourse has not occurred, the husband pays half the dower; if the wife asks for a divorce and intercourse has occurred, the husband pays half

11704-475: The concept of sacer (cf. sacred) in Roman law and religion . In Islamic jurisprudence , haram is used to refer to any act that is forbidden by Allah and is one of the five Islamic commandments ( الأحكام الخمسة al-ʾAḥkām al-Ḵamsa ) that define the morality of human action. Acts that are haram are typically prohibited in the religious texts of the Quran and the sunnah category of haram

11856-444: The constitutions of most Muslim-majority states contain references to sharia, its rules are largely retained only in family law and penalties in some. The Islamic revival of the late 20th century brought calls by Islamic movements for full implementation of sharia, including hudud corporal punishments , such as stoning through various propaganda methods ranging from civilian activities to terrorism . The word sharīʿah

12008-417: The course of marriage. Giving the husband a prerogative of repudiation was based on the assumption that men would have no interest in initiating a divorce without good cause, given the financial obligations it would incur. Additionally, classical jurists were of the opinion that "the female nature is wanting in rationality and self-control". Requiring a justification was seen as being potentially detrimental to

12160-440: The court adjudicates the dispute by apportioning fault for the breakdown of the marriage with the associated financial consequences. Examples of fault are cruelty; husband's failure to provide maintenance or pay the immediate installment of mahr ; infidelity; desertion; moral or social incompatibility; certain ailments; and imprisonment harmful to the marriage. Judicial divorce can also be sought over violations of terms stipulated in

12312-465: The courts until recent times, when secularism was widely adopted in Islamic societies. Traditional theory of Islamic jurisprudence recognizes four sources for Ahkam al-sharia : the Qur'an , sunnah (or authentic ahadith ), ijma (lit. consensus) (may be understood as ijma al-ummah ( Arabic : إجماع الأمة ) – a whole Islamic community consensus, or ijma al-aimmah ( Arabic : إجماع الائـمـة ) –

12464-456: The declaration must be made in clear terms; the husband must be of sound mind and not coerced. Upon talaq, the wife is entitled to the full payment of mahr if it had not already been paid. The husband is obligated to financially support her until the end of the waiting period or the delivery of her child, if she is pregnant. In addition, she has a right to child support and any past due maintenance, which Islamic law requires to be paid regularly in

12616-696: The default property regime. In Indonesia and Singapore, the courts have the discretionary powers; in Indonesia courts can split the matrimonial property upon divorce to recognise women's non-financial contributions to the marriage where as in Singapore wife's contribution to family is taken into account, and even in absence of financial contribution 35% assets have to be shared with wife as contributing in caring for home and children, where as in Malaysia depending on length of marriage and each spouse's contribution

12768-410: The denial of paternity ( liʿan ), and conditional ṭalāq. The first two types were pre-Islamic practices confirmed by the Quran (2:226–227 for ila , and 58:2–4 for izhar ), which also makes clear that izhar is reprehensible despite being legally valid. Ila is an oath whereby the husband vows to refrain from sexual relations with his wife for at least four months. If he fulfils his oath, the marriage

12920-572: The divine law, and that its specific aim was preservation of five essentials of human well-being: religion, life, intellect, offspring, and property. Although most classical-era jurists recognized maslaha and maqasid as important legal principles, they held different views regarding the role they should play in Islamic law. Some jurists viewed them as auxiliary rationales constrained by scriptural sources and analogical reasoning. Others regarded them as an "independent" source of law, whose general principles could override specific inferences based on

13072-637: The early 20th century, some villages in western Java and the Malay Peninsula had divorce rates as high as 70%. Islamic law Sharia, or fiqh as traditionally known, has always been used alongside customary law from the very beginning in Islamic history ; has been elaborated and developed over the centuries by legal opinions issued by qualified jurists -reflecting the tendencies of different schools - and integrated and with various economic, penal and administrative laws issued by Muslim rulers; and implemented for centuries by judges in

13224-462: The early 20th century. Various reforms have been undertaken in an attempt to restrict the husband's right of unilateral repudiation and give women greater ability to initiate divorce. These reforms have utilized a number of methods, of which the most important are: According to Sulema Jahangir in Turkey, the revised Civil Code expects equal division of property and assets acquired during the marriage as

13376-546: The efforts of hadith scholars to weed out fabrications. After it became accepted that legal norms must be formally grounded in scriptural sources, proponents of rules of jurisprudence supported by the hadith would extend the chains of transmission of the hadith back to Muhammad's companions. In his view, the real architect of Islamic jurisprudence was al-Shafi'i , who formulated this idea (that legal norms must be formally grounded in scriptural sources) and other elements of classical legal theory in his work al-risala , but who

13528-412: The establishment of judicial provisions, such as the identification of the criminals. According to the traditional understanding, four male fair witnesses were required for the accusation of adultery in court, and two male witnesses were required for any other verdict. In addition, the accusers would be punished with slander for accusations that do not meet the specified conditions as a note. For example,

13680-460: The face of the development of the understanding of law and the increasing reactions to corporal punishment - claim that the verse determines the punishment of "concrete sequential criminal acts" - such as massacre, robbery and rape - in addition to rebellion against the legitimate government, and that the punishment to be given depends on the existence of these preconditions. The body of hadith provides more detailed and practical legal guidance, but it

13832-582: The fard rule. 1. Nass , (only verses of the Qur'an can be accepted as evidence here, not hadiths ) 2.The expression of the text referring to the subject must be clear and precise enough not to allow other interpretations. The term wajib is used for situations that do not meet the second of these conditions. However, this understanding may not be sufficient to explain every situation. For example, Hanafis accept 5 daily prayers as fard. However, some religious groups such as Quranists and Shiites , who do not doubt that

13984-448: The first five Islamic centuries , ijtihad continued to practise amongst Sunni Muslims. The controversy surrounding ijtihad started with the beginning of the twelfth century. By the 14th century, Islamic Fiqh prompted leading Sunni jurists to state that the main legal questions had been addressed and then ijtihad was gradually restricted. In the modern era, this gave rise to a perception amongst Orientalist scholars and sections of

14136-439: The first three or the first four categories. The legal and moral verdict depends on whether the action is committed out of necessity ( ḍarūra ) and on the underlying intention ( niyya ), as expressed in the legal maxim "acts are [evaluated according] to intention." Hanafi fiqh does not consider both terms as synonymous and makes a distinction between " fard " and " wajib "; In Hanafi fiqh, two conditions are required to impose

14288-424: The formation of fiqh while they have accepted the general outlines of the traditionalist account at first. In the late 19th century, an influential revisionist hypothesis was advanced by Ignác Goldziher and elaborated by Joseph Schacht in the mid-20th century. Schacht and other scholars argued that having conquered much more populous agricultural and urban societies with already existing laws and legal needs,

14440-421: The husband persists in his accusation, the marriage is dissolved by a judge and the couple can never remarry. In the oath of conditional ṭalāq, the husband declares that he will divorce his wife if he or she performs a certain act. This oath can serve as a protection for the wife or as a threat by the husband, depending on the specified act. Studies of practices under Mamluk and Ottoman rule found no instances of

14592-475: The husband pressures his wife to agree to khul' instead of pronouncing talaq, which would let him avoid attendant financial responsibilities, the divorce is considered to be invalid. Like talaq, khulʿ takes place out of court. Relative frequency of khul' has been noted in studies of Istanbul, Anatolia, Syria, Muslim Cyprus, Egypt and Palestine. In studies of Mamluk Egypt and the Balkans under Ottoman rule, khul'

14744-495: The husband repudiates his wife for the third time, it triggers a "major" divorce ( al-baynuna al-kubra ), after which the couple cannot remarry without an intervening consummated marriage to another man. This is known as tahlil or nikah halala . Making the third pronouncement irrevocable prevents the husband from using repeated declarations and revocations of divorce as a means of pressuring his wife into making financial concessions in order to "purchase her freedom". It also acts as

14896-437: The husband time to reconsider his decision. Moreover, a man who vows not to have sexual intercourse with his wife, which would lead to automatic divorce, is allowed a four-month period to break his oath. The Quran substantially reformed the gender inequity of divorce practices that existed in pre-Islamic Arabia, although some patriarchical elements survived and others flourished during later centuries. Before Islam, divorce among

15048-484: The husband's right to dissolve the marriage by simply announcing to his wife that he repudiates her. Classical jurists variously classified pronouncement of talaq as forbidden or reprehensible unless it was motivated by a compelling cause such as impossibility of cohabitation due to irreconcilable conflict, though they did not require the husband to obtain court approval or provide a justification. The jurists imposed certain restrictions on valid repudiation. For example,

15200-584: The husband. Many repudiated women used the divorce payment to buy their ex-husband's share in the family house. In the historical record talaq appears to have been less common than khul'. Available evidence from Mamluk Egypt indicates that talaq was not the principal means of divorce. Talaq was considered to be disastrous for the woman because it deprived her of long-term protection and financial support, preventing her from remarrying, since this would cause her to lose child custody. This led to repudiation without good reason being considered socially improper. Studies of

15352-399: The initial Muslim efforts to formulate legal norms regarded the Quran and Muhammad's hadiths as just one source of law, with jurist personal opinions, the legal practice of conquered peoples, and the decrees and decisions of the caliphs also being valid sources. According to this theory, most canonical hadiths did not originate with Muhammad but were actually created at a later date, despite

15504-549: The institutional foundations of the pre-modern legal system into which they were embedded. In particular, control over the norms of divorce shifted from traditional jurists to the state, though they generally remained "within the orbit of Islamic law". In her article 'An unequal partnership', Sulema Jahangir insists that, Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women and other international standards expect that non-financial contributions of women to

15656-448: The judge. According to legal doctrine, a woman's testimony in some areas of law carried half the weight of that of a man, though available evidence suggests that practical effects of this rule were limited and the legal standing of women in pre-modern Islam was comparable to or higher than that of their European contemporaries. The term talaq is commonly translated as "repudiation" or simply "divorce". In classical Islamic law it refers to

15808-556: The laws that can be associated with the Quran in Sharia " hudud " (meaning the limits set by Allah). How the verse Al-Ma'idah 33, which describes the crime of hirabah , should be understood is a matter of debate even today. The verse talks about the punishment of criminals by killing, hanging, having their hands and feet cut off on opposite sides , and being exiled from the earth, in response to an -abstract- crime such as " fighting against Allah and His Messenger ". Today, commentators - in

15960-665: The legal force of a scriptural passage is abrogated by a passage revealed at a later date. The sources of judgment in classical fiqh are roughly divided into two: Manqūlāt (Quran and hadith) and Aqliyyāt (ijma, qiyas, ijtihad and others). Some of them (Aqliyyāt) are considered to be the product of scholastic theology and Aristotelian logic . It was an important area of debate among traditional fiqh scholars how much space should be given to rational methods in creating provisions such as extracting provisions from religious texts, as well as expanding, restricting, abolishing or postponing these provisions according to new situations, considering

16112-459: The legal use of the root ح-ر-م is based on an idea of boundaries between the profane and the sacred, as opposed to prohibitions, as is normally assumed. Colloquially, the word haram takes on different meanings and operates more closely as a dichotomy with halal , which denotes the permissible. In Arabic-speaking countries, saying "haram" can mean 'what a shame' or 'what a pity' (this meaning has been adopted by Modern Hebrew slang as well and

16264-572: The letter of scripture . Taking maqasid and maslaha as an "independent" source of sharia - rather than an auxiliary one - will pave the way for the re-critique and reorganization of ahkam in the context of maqasid and maslaha, thus (including hudud ), which is often criticized in terms of today's values and seen as problematic, in terms of the purposes of sharia and social benefits will be replaced by new ones. Abdallah bin Bayyah goes further with an approach that prioritizes purpose and benefit among

16416-527: The lines of theological differences and resulted in formation of the Twelver , Zaidi and Ismaili madhhabs, whose differences from Sunni legal schools are roughly of the same order as the differences among Sunni schools. The Ibadi legal school, distinct from Sunni and Shia madhhabs, is predominant in Oman. The transformations of Islamic legal institutions in the modern era have had profound implications for

16568-459: The madhhab system. Legal practice in most of the Muslim world has come to be controlled by government policy and state law, so that the influence of the madhhabs beyond personal ritual practice depends on the status accorded to them within the national legal system. State law codification commonly utilized the methods of takhayyur (selection of rulings without restriction to a particular madhhab) and talfiq (combining parts of different rulings on

16720-405: The man is considered responsible for his wife. Muslims do not believe in giving women to the hands of those who do not practice Islam and having them responsible over Muslim women because they are not concerned with protecting the rites of the religion. It is considered haram for a father to deprive his children of inheritance. It is also haram for a father to deprive the women or the children of

16872-400: The marriage contract. Different legal schools recognized different subsets of these grounds for divorce. The Maliki school, which recognized the widest range of grounds for divorce, also recognises wife's hatred for husband as a valid ground for divorce and stipulates a category of "harm" (ḍarar), which gave the judge significant discretion of interpretation. In some areas under Ottoman rule it

17024-502: The name of Allah. Herbivores or cud-chewing animals like cattle, deer, sheep, goats, and antelope are some examples of animals that are halal and only if they are treated like sentient beings and slaughtered painlessly while reciting the words Bismillah and Allahu Akbar . If the animal is treated poorly, or tortured while being slaughtered, the meat is haram. Islam is very strict in prohibiting zina , whether it be adultery or fornication . In terms of marriage proposals, it

17176-413: The number of repudiations to three, after which the man cannot take his wife back unless she first marries another man. Additionally, the pre-Islamic bridewealth ( mahr ), which was paid by the groom to the bride's family, was transformed into a dower , which became property of the wife, though some scholars believe that the practice of giving at least a part of the mahr to the bride began shortly before

17328-421: The oaths of li'an or abstinence being used, while conditional talaq seems to have played a prominent role. It was used to issue various threats to the wife as well as to make promises. In Ottoman Egypt marriage contracts commonly included stipulations of conditional talaq which were not otherwise recognized by the prevailing Hanafi school as grounds for judicial divorce, such as non-payment of maintenance or marrying

17480-540: The people and groups who make them. For example, believing in the existence and miracles of Awliya is presented as a "condition" for orthodox Islam by many prominent Sunni creed writers such as Al-Tahawi and Nasafi and is accepted in traditional Sunnis and Shi'ism. However, this understanding, along with expressions of respect and visits to the graves of saints, are seen as unacceptable heresy by puritanical and revivalist Islamic movements such as Salafism , Wahhabism and Islamic Modernism . About six verses address

17632-418: The popular conceptions, in turn, change how the legal system defines and punishes haram actions. In the Quran and reports by early Muslims, forbidden meat includes pork, carnivores (lions, tigers, wolves, dogs, cats, etc.), non-ruminants (donkeys and horses), animals that were slaughtered in the name of a god other than Allah, animals that died due to illness, injury, stunning, poisoning, or slaughtering not in

17784-478: The precepts of the legal school that was dominant in the area, at times to women's benefit and at times to their disadvantage. Members of all social classes and their witnesses argued their cases in court without professional legal representation, though members of the upper class generally did so through a representative. Women were commonly involved in litigation, usually as plaintiffs, were assertive in arguing their cases, and they were often treated sympathetically by

17936-536: The prescribed age. A divorced woman could keep custody of the children unless she remarried and her husband claimed custody, in which case it generally passed to one of her female relatives. Under the Mamluks, women could waive the right to child support in order to obtain extended custody. Mahr is a nuptial gift made by groom to the bride at the time of marriage. Upon receipt, it becomes her sole property with complete freedom of use and disposal. The marriage contract

18088-490: The purpose and benefit, together with new sociologies, in the face of changing conditions. In this context, in the Classical period, the ulema were divided into groups (among other divisions such as political divisions) regarding the place of " 'Aql " vis-à-vis naql: those who rely on narration ( Atharists , Ahl al-Hadith ), those who rely on reason ( Ahl al-Kalām , Mu'tazila and Ahl al-Ra'y ) and those who tried to find

18240-561: The question, or where there is an existing scholarly consensus ( ijma ). An Islamic scholar who perform ijtihad is called " mujtahid ". In the general understanding, beyond the limitation of ijtihad to those situations that do not have a clear ruling in the Quran and hadiths, scholars who have the ability to give general judgments are also ranked with definitions such as "mujtahid mutlaq", "mujtahid in sect", "mujtahid in issue". Rulings based on ijtihad are not decisions that require obligatory implementation for other Muslims. Throughout

18392-649: The rate of divorce was higher than it is today in the modern Middle East , which has generally lower rates of divorce. In 15th century Egypt , Al-Sakhawi recorded the marital history of 500 women , the largest sample on marriage in the Middle Ages , and found that at least a third of all women in the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and Syria married more than once, with many marrying three or more times. According to Al-Sakhawi, as many as three out of ten marriages in 15th century Cairo ended in divorce. In

18544-630: The reasons behind which are as follows: in this process, followings are related – exchange without labor and labor without exchange, contract on another contract or condition on another condition, similarity with riba (interest), similarity with gambling , widespread uncertainty of profits and losses, not everyone benefiting equally, financial fraud and torture, lying and exaggeration, etc. In Islam, both gold adornments and silk cloths are prohibited for men to wear but are permissible for women as long as they are not used to sexually attract men (other than their husbands). The prohibition of these adornments

18696-438: The religious and ethical precepts of Islam. It continued some aspects of pre-Islamic laws and customs of the lands that fell under Muslim rule in the aftermath of the early conquests and modified others, aiming to meet the practical need of establishing Islamic norms of behavior and adjudicating disputes arising in the community. Juristic thought gradually developed in study circles, where independent scholars met to learn from

18848-422: The reputation of both spouses, since it may expose family secrets to public scrutiny. Talaq is considered in Islam to be a reprehensible means of divorce. The initial declaration of talaq is a revocable repudiation (ṭalāq rajʿah) which does not terminate the marriage. The husband can revoke the repudiation at any time during the waiting period ( iddah ) which lasts three full menstrual cycles. The waiting period

19000-481: The same question). Legal professionals trained in modern law schools have largely replaced traditional ulema as interpreters of the resulting laws. Global Islamic movements have at times drawn on different madhhabs and at other times placed greater focus on the scriptural sources rather than classical jurisprudence. The Hanbali school, with its particularly strict adherence to the Quran and hadith, has inspired conservative currents of direct scriptural interpretation by

19152-632: The same time, the cycle of abridgement and commentary allowed jurists of each generation to articulate a modified body of law to meet changing social conditions. Other juristic genres include the qawāʿid (succinct formulas meant to aid the student remember general principles) and collections of fatwas by a particular scholar. Classical jurisprudence has been described as "one of the major intellectual achievements of Islam" and its importance in Islam has been compared to that of theology in Christianity . The main Sunni schools of law ( madhhabs ) are

19304-422: The school's founder. In the course of the first three centuries of Islam, all legal schools came to accept the broad outlines of classical legal theory, according to which Islamic law had to be firmly rooted in the Quran and hadith. Fiqh is traditionally divided into the fields of uṣūl al-fiqh (lit. the roots of fiqh ), which studies the theoretical principles of jurisprudence, and furūʿ al-fiqh (lit.

19456-435: The scriptural sources of Islam ( Quran and hadith ) using various methodologies developed by different legal schools . It was historically interpreted by jurists ( muftis ) who were expected to give a legal opinion ( fatwa ) free of charge in response to any query. Family disputes are handled in a religious courts presided over by a judge ( qadi ) who had enough legal education to decide some legal questions and queried

19608-749: The sources of sharia and declares it to be the heart of "usul-al fiqh". While the latter view was held by a minority of classical jurists, in modern times it came to be championed in different forms by prominent scholars who sought to adapt Islamic law to changing social conditions by drawing on the intellectual heritage of traditional jurisprudence. These scholars expanded the inventory of maqasid to include such aims of Sharia as reform and women's rights ( Rashid Rida ); justice and freedom ( Mohammed al-Ghazali ); and human rights and dignity ( Yusuf al-Qaradawi ). Ijtihad lit.   ' physical ' or ' mental effort ' refers to independent reasoning by an expert in Islamic law , or exertion of

19760-538: The term haram is used to mean ill-mannered or indecent, instead of strictly meaning 'unlawful'. Halal and haram are also used in regards to money ( mal ). Mal al-haram means ill-gotten money, and brings destruction on those who make their living through such means. These cultural interpretations of what is haram influence and are influenced by the legal definitions used at a local level. This means that popular conceptions of haram are partly based on formal Islamic jurisprudence and partly on regional culture, and

19912-431: The term maqāṣid aš-šarīʿa are the expressions maqāṣid aš-šāriʿ ("intentions of the legislature"), maqāṣid at-tašrīʿ ("intentions of the legislature "), ruḥ aš -šarīʿa ("Spirit of Sharia"), ḥikmat at-tašrīʿ ("Wisdom of Legislation") and falsafat at-tašrīʿ ("Philosophy of Legislation"). They were first clearly articulated by al-Ghazali (d. 1111), who argued that Maqāṣid and maslaha was God's general purpose in revealing

20064-462: The term sharia in discourses. A related term al-qānūn al-islāmī ( القانون الإسلامي , Islamic law), which was borrowed from European usage in the late 19th century, is used in the Muslim world to refer to a legal system in the context of a modern state. The primary meanings of the Arabic word šarīʿah , derived from the root š-r-ʕ . The lexicographical studies records two major areas of

20216-540: The testimony of two women can be equal to the testimony of a man, and a non-Muslim or a sinner cannot serve as an eyewitness against a Muslim. Men's share of the inheritance will be twice that of women. Islamic preachers constantly emphasize the importance of adalah , and in trials, the judge is not expected to observe equality among those on trial, but is expected to act fairly or balanced. Traditional fiqh states that legal and religious responsibility begins with rushd . The domain of furūʿ al-fiqh (lit. branches of fiqh)

20368-400: The time of drawing up the marriage contract ( nikah ) or during the marriage, with or without conditions. Many women included such terms in their marriage contracts. Commonly, the contract gave the wife the right to "repudiate herself" if the husband married a second wife. Delegated repudiation is called ṭalāq al-tafawud or tafwid . Khulʿ is a contractual type of divorce that is initiated by

20520-473: The vast majority of hadiths were handed down by only one or a few transmitters and were therefore seen to yield only probable knowledge. The uncertainty was further compounded by ambiguity of the language contained in some hadiths and Quranic passages. Disagreements on the relative merits and interpretation of the textual sources allowed legal scholars considerable leeway in formulating alternative rulings. In Imam Malik 's usage, hadith did not consist only of

20672-647: The victory of the Usulis who based law on principles ( usul ) over the Akhbaris ("traditionalists") who emphasized on reports or traditions ( khabar ) by the 19th century, Ijtihad would become a mainstream Shia practice. The classical process of ijtihad combined these generally recognized principles with other methods, which were not adopted by all legal schools, such as istihsan (juristic preference), istislah (consideration of public interest) and istishab (presumption of continuity). Considering that, as

20824-450: The waiting period and irrevocably terminates the marriage. It may involve a "triple talaq", i.e., the declaration of talaq repeated three times, or a different formula such as "you are haram for me". Some legal schools held that a triple talaq performed in a single meeting constituted a "major" divorce, while others classified it as a "minor" divorce. Talaq al-bid'ah reflects pre-Islamic divorce customs rather than Quranic principles, and it

20976-432: The way a woman should dress when in public; Muslim scholars have differed as how to understand these verses, with some stating that a Hijab is a command (fard) to be fulfilled and others say simply not. The statement in the Qur'an that determines the status of slaves and concubines in the understanding of Sharia is as follows; ma malakat aymanuhum or milk al-yamin meaning " those whom your right hands possess ". It

21128-450: The wife a possibility to initiate divorce, abrogation of the husband's claim to his wife's property, condemnation of divorce without compelling reason, criminalizing unfounded claims of infidelity made by the husband, and institution of financial responsibilities of the husband toward his divorced wife. In pre-Islamic times, men kept their wives in a state of "limbo" by continually repudiating them and taking them back at will. The Quran limited

21280-583: The wife, while in other cases women would waive all of their husband's financial obligations. According to studies of the Ottoman Levant, various court procedures were put in place to ensure that a khul' was not actually a talaq. Nikah halala (also known as tahleel marriage) is a practice in which a woman, after being divorced by triple talaq, marries another man, consummates the marriage, and gets divorced again in order to be able to remarry her former husband. However such marriages are forbidden in Islam , according to

21432-414: The wife. It is justified on the authority of verse 2:229: It is not licit for you to take back anything you have given them unless the two of them fear that they cannot conform to the bounds of God, no blame attaches to them both. If the woman gives back that with which she sets herself free. These are the bounds set by God; do not transgress them. It is further based on a hadith in which Muhammad instructs

21584-412: The word "benefit" as an opposite to "sin", verse 2:219 of the Quran clarifies that haram is that which is harmful, in opposition to that which brings benefit; therefore, sin is that which hurts others or oneself. An Islamic principle related to haram is that if something is prohibited or forbidden, then anything that leads to it is also considered a haram act. A similar principle is that the sin of haram

21736-491: The word can appear without religious connotation. In texts evoking a pastoral or nomadic environment, šarīʿah and its derivatives refers to watering animals at a permanent water-hole or to the seashore. One another area of use relates to notions of stretched or lengthy. The word is cognate with the Hebrew saraʿ שָׂרַע and is likely to be the origin of the meaning "way" or "path". Some scholars describe it as an archaic Arabic word denoting "pathway to be followed" (analogous to

21888-769: The words claimed to belong to Muhammad as is the case with Shiite Muslims . While hadith does not appear to be an important source of decision for early fiqh scholars such as Abu Hanifa , for later scholars, hadith is perceived as the words of Muhammad merely and is considered as a strong and separate source of decision alongside the Quran. Today, Quranists do not consider hadiths as a valid source of religious rulings. Maqāṣid (aims or purposes) of Sharia and maṣlaḥa (welfare or public interest) are two related classical doctrines which have come to play an increasingly prominent role in modern times. Abū Hāmid al-Ghazālī , Izz al-Din ibn 'Abd al-Salam and Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi used maslaha and madasıd as equivalent terms. Synonyms for

22040-882: The world. For example, the Maliki school is predominant in North and West Africa; the Hanafi school in South and Central Asia; the Shafi'i school in Lower Egypt, East Africa, and Southeast Asia; and the Hanbali school in North and Central Arabia. The first centuries of Islam also witnessed a number of short-lived Sunni madhhabs. The Zahiri school, which is commonly identified as extinct, continues to exert influence over legal thought. The development of Shia legal schools occurred along

22192-399: Was a practice used as a resolution tool in inter-tribal conflicts in pre-Islamic Arab society . The basis of this resolution was that a member from the tribe to which the murderer belonged was handed over to the victim's family for execution, equivalent to the social status of the murdered person. The "condition of social equivalence" meant the execution of a member of the murderer's tribe who

22344-437: Was equivalent to the murdered person. For example, only a slave could be killed for a slave, and a woman for a woman. In other cases, compensatory payment ( Diya ) could be paid to the family of the murdered. On top of this pre-Islamic understanding added a debate about whether a Muslim can be executed for a non-Muslim during the Islamic period. The main verse for implementation in Islam is Al Baqara 178: "Believers! Retaliation

22496-408: Was hardly possible for women to obtain divorce except through khul' due to the restriction imposed by the prevailing Hanafi school, though some exceptions have been found. The most serious problem was abandonment, which was not recognized as grounds for judicial divorce. To address this, in some cases a man setting out for travel would leave his wife a letter authorizing talaq if he did not return within

22648-455: Was passed in July, 2019 which made instant triple talaq (talaq-e-biddah) in any form — spoken, written, or by electronic means illegal, void, and punishable by up to three years imprisonment. Under the new law, an aggrieved woman is entitled to demand maintenance for her dependent children. India is among 23 countries that have banned triple talaq. According to Yossef Rapoport, in the 15th century,

22800-568: Was preceded by a body of Islamic law not based on primacy of Muhammad's hadiths. Some articles that may be considered precursors of sharia law and rituals can be found in the pre-Islamic Arabic Religions ; Hajj , salāt and zakāt could be seen in pre-Islamic Safaitic-Arabic inscriptions, and continuity can be observed in many details, especially in todays hajj and umrah rituals. The veiling order , which distinguishes between slaves and free women in Islam , also coincides with similar distinctions seen in pre-Islamic civilizations. Qisas

22952-503: Was recognized early on that not all of them were authentic. Early Islamic scholars developed personal criteria for evaluating their authenticity by assessing trustworthiness of the individuals listed in their transmission chains. These studies narrowed down the vast corpus of prophetic traditions to several thousand "sound (seeming to collectors)" hadiths, which were collected in several canonical compilations. The hadiths which enjoyed concurrent transmission were deemed mutawatir ; however,

23104-445: Was shown to have been the principal means of divorce. Women employed a number of strategies to force a settlement from their husbands. Some neglected their marital and household duties, making family life impossible for the husband. Others demanded immediate payment of the deferred mahr, knowing that the husband had no means to comply and would be jailed if he failed to do so. In some cases the khul' contract involved no compensation from

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