Understanding Sharia

Raficq Abdulla is a lawyer, writer, public speaker and broadcaster. He is a Visiting Fellow of the Faculty of Business and Law, Kingston University, UK; and a founder member of the Advisory Panel of the UK's Muslim Law Shariah Council.Mohamed Keshavjee is a lawyer, scholar and author on the subject of Sharia and Islamic law.

I.B.Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili StudiesSharia has been a source of misunderstanding and misconception in both the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds. Understanding Sharia: Islamic Law in a Globalised World sets out to explore the reality of sharia, contextualising its development in the early centuries of Islam and showing how it evolved in line with historical and social circumstances. The authors, Raficq S. Abdulla and Mohamed M. Keshavjee, both British-trained lawyers, argue that sharia and the positive law flowing from it, known as fiqh, have never been an exclusive legal system or a fixed set of beliefs. In addition to tracing the history of sharia, the book offers a critique concerning its status today. Sharia is examined with regard to particular issues that are of paramount importance in the contemporary world, such as human rights; criminal penalties, including those dealing with apostasy, blasphemy and adultery, commercial transactions, and bio-medical ethics, amongst other subjects. The authors show that sharia is a legal system underpinned by ethical principles that are open to change in different circumstances and contexts, notwithstanding the claims for `transcendental permanence' made by Islamists. This book encourages new thinking about the history of sharia and its role in the modern world.

Explores the reality of sharia, identifying the context in which it was conceived and how it developed in line with historical circumstances until the present day

Explores the reality of sharia, identifying the context in which it was conceived and how it developed in line with historical circumstances until the present day

Preface and AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Islamic Law in the Contemporary World.Chapter 1: Sharia - Origin through Revelation, Historical Development and Change.Chapter 2: Legal Practice under the UmayyadsChapter 3: Consolidation of the Schools of Law under the AbbasidsChapter 4: Developments after Shafi?iChapter 5: Further Geographical Expansion and Cultural AccommodationChapter 6: Call for Reform - from Tanzimat to the Arab SpringChapter 7: Shi?i Legal Understanding and Theory of LawChapter 8: The Multiple Manifestations of ShariaChapter 9: Neo-IjtihadChapter 10: Sharia and Human RightsChapter 11: Criminal Justice in IslamChapter 12: Islam and EthicsChapter 13: CritiqueAppendixSchools of Law in Islam (madhahib)GlossaryIndexBibliographyIndex