By Rozaliya Garipova[1] On October 15, 1853, akhund[2] ‘Izzatullah ‘Abdelaziz ughli[3] prepared a report to the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly[4] (hereafter the OA) after hearing the testimonies of all the involved parties and the witnesses in front of the arbiters (mediators) that both the plaintiff (muddaʿī) and the defendant agreed upon. Akhund ‘Abdelaziz ughli included an oath document signed by all the testimony givers. The plaintiff, Fakhreddin Bakhtiyar ughli claimed that he promised to give his daughter, Kamaliya, in marriage to ‘Ali Salawat ughli with her consent. The parties agre ..read more

ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS “The prime minister [of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim] said the government will engage with all muftis and Islamic scholars, both domestically and internationally to ensure the strength and reliability of [proposed laws to amend the jurisdiction of sharī’a courts] before presenting it to the Conference of Rulers.” “Religious authorities in Malaysia have stepped up moral policing efforts during the holy month of Ramadan in what critics warn has been part of a wider recent shift toward a more conservative form of Islam in the multi-racial and cul ..read more

SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law In “Fundamentals Of Contract Law In Islamic Law and Afghanistan Civil Law” (Shariahlex: Journal of Islamic Law and Legal Studies 1, no. 1 (2024)), Habiburrahman Rizapoor (Badakhsan University) “discuss[es] Sharia contracts, their definitions, types, permitted agreements, [and] prohibited agreements” in the context of Afghanistan. In “The Relationship Of Islamic Business Ethics With Muamalah Fiqh And Islamic Alliance Law” (Zona Law and Public Administration Indonesia 1, no. 4 (2024)), Shofya Humaira Siti Salma (UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung) and others ..read more

ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS “A unit of Djibouti-based Salaam Group launched in Uganda . . . as the country’s first Islamic banking-compliant financial institution, the Ugandan president’s office said.” The Taliban leader has announced that the country “is resuming publicly stoning women to death.” For more content and context on harsh interpretations and applications of Islamic criminal law, consult our Editor-in-Chief, Professor Intisar Rabb’s “Resource Roundup: Islamic Criminal Law.” For more news blurbs relating to harsh applications of Islamic criminal law, consult our “Islamic Criminal Law i ..read more

Rozaliya Garipova is Assistant Professor at the Department of History, Philosophy and Religious Studies at Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan. Her interests include Islam under Russian and Soviet rule, religious authority (male and female), Islamic family and inheritance law, women and gender in Islam, and the question of legal pluralism, in particular, the interaction between Islamic law and Russian imperial law. Her recent publications include “‘Emancipating’ Muslim Women in Early Nineteenth-Century Russia: Ākhūnd Fathullah bin Huseyn al-Uriwi, Hanafī Law, and Muslim Women’s Rights,” Journal ..read more

SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law In “My Father, The Madrasah, and Me” (Zocalo Public Square, March 20, 2014), Ahmad Adedimeji Amobi reflects on his father and his own experience learning Islamic sciences (and Islamic law) in traditional madrasas in Nigera. In “Analysis of the Influence of Fiqh and Maqasid al-Syariah in the Formation of Islamic Legal Policy in Indonesia” (West Science Islamic Studies 2, no. 1 (2024)), Sabil Mokodenseho (Institute Agama Islam Muhammadiyah Kotamobagu) and others “delve[] into the complex interplay of Fiqh and Maqasid al-Syariah in shaping Islamic legal po ..read more

Thank you, Ahmed El Shamsy & seminar participants, for joining us as guest blog editor in March. In case you missed their essays, here they are: Al-Qaʿnabī’s recension of Mālik’s Muwaṭṭaʾ: The single surviving copy (Hamza Baig, Adam DeSchriver, Ammar Farra and Ahmed El Shamsy) Al-Qaʿnabī’s recension of Mālik’s Muwaṭṭaʾ: Paths and vectors of transmission (Kainat Jalaluddin, Yousef A. Wahb, Hamza Baig and Ahmed El Shamsy) Legal language in al-Qaʿnabī’s recension of the Muwaṭṭaʾ (Raza Baqai, Zainab Hermes and Ahmed El Shamsy) What else c ..read more

ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS “In September 2023, Morocco embarked on a long-awaited journey of legal reform with the initiation of the family code revision process by King Mohammed VI.” The regional government of Catalonia has reportedly imposed a fine on criticizing Islam. “Qadi at the High Sharia Court of Appeals in Israel, the highest court of appeals in the array of Sharia courts in Israel, and director of the Sharia Courts in Israel,” Iyad Zahalka, commented on Ramadan: “Ramadan is the ninth month in the Muslim calendar. The Quran commanded Muslims to fast during this month due to its sanctit ..read more

SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law In “Real estate and business fixed assets in the early Islamic economy from a Zakah perspective” (International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management, March 13, 2024), Zaid Al-Aifari, Mehmet Bulut and Monzer Kahf (Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University) “confirm the[ir] hypothesis that real estate for investment purposes and business fixed assets were quasi-non-existent during the lifetime of the Prophet (sas) and, therefore, irrelevant from a Zakah perspective.” “Sharia and the Modern State: How the British Empire—an ..read more

By Raza Baqai, Zainab Hermes and Ahmed El Shamsy Previous studies of Mālik’s Muwaṭṭaʾ have relied primarily on the recension of Yaḥyā b. Yaḥyā al-Laythī (d. 234/848) to understand Mālik’s legal reasoning.[1] The recent publication of other full recensions of the Muwaṭṭaʾ and the discovery of a manuscript of ʿAbd Allāh al-Qaʿnabī’s (d. 221/833) full recension have made it possible to reconstruct Mālik’s legal thought with a higher degree of detail.[2] This essay begins to address this task by comparing the legal language used in four recensions: those of Yaḥyā b. Yaḥyā, Abū Muṣʿab al-Zuhrī (d ..read more