A review on "Quranic Legislation in the modern context"

|This is a critical review written by me and my colleague Mohamed Rasmy, And the original article was written by Naseem Razi, Assistant Professor, Department of Law, Faculty of Shariah & Law, International Islamic University, Islamabad. The link for original article is given at end of the article

Executive Summary

The view of our article shows deep analytic sights of unique and unmatchable Quranic legislation in its modern context. In fact this article reflects ever shined truths and sincere legislative characteristics and techniques of Qur’an.
It completely focused to explore critically the western philosophers’ impacts regarding Islamic laws and Quranic legislation. In the contemporary world as we know the reality Islamic laws and its system of legislation are being claimed as impractical and slow down. But the fact that Quranic legislation always and all-times distinguished and illustrious in many aspects from any other kinds of man made legislation, because Quranic legislation and its ideology fully sheltered by the supreme law-giver.

Hence the modern technics of legislations are incapable to compare with Quran legislation, because the holy Quran contains variety of characteristics and techniques which are purely indicate divine outflows. For the final, it concludes that it was only due to stagnation of Islamic legislation or ijthihad for last few centuries that cause for such allegation from the scholars of modern world. Therefore necessarily its need of time to re-interpret and re-create social, economic and legal legislation according to the context based on the general principals of Quran and Sunnah through ijthihad

Introduction

The Holy book of Muslims, The Quran, comprises of the revelation of Allah to the last Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh) from 609 CE to some 23 year later until his death. It is transmitted to us through authentic narration. The Quran consist of the laws and conducts how a man should live. The law on the Quran have been divided into two parts. The first it aimed to reform corrupt believes of the people. And it talks about the individual guidance. This part of the Quran is revealed in Makkah. The second part speaks of the reformation of Society and State. In this article author try to explain these law in the present context. How these law can be used even today and hoe these laws are superior and more practical than other laws created by the man. It is also explained what are the foundations of these laws. How they took shape. And He also explains how these law  is manipulated by some corrupt mind and followed in an unacceptable manner. How these actions lead to the decrease  in the credibility of Shariah laws.

Key Points discussed in the article

Modern Techniques of Quranic legislation

Quran verses were revealed to solve the dilemmas faced by the Muslim Ummah. The Sharia Law adopted rational and natural argument concerning a problem aroused and then supports them with historical and circumstantial examples. The main objective of Sharia Law is to guide the unguided souls to reform their corrupt believe, standard of morality and the whole hospitable order and custom prevailing in pre-Islamic Arabia. The sharia law possesses the variety of techniques and characteristics that were enjoyed by Muslim Ummah. These characteristics hold all the qualities which any of present law making organizations consists.

Legislation based on the general principles

Islamic Sharia law are based on general principles which make them viable to all times and applicable to all situations. These laws does not contain many details create much problems while it is applied. For example when concerning the moral value the Quran says “O! Believe, fulfil your promises” or when ease people on business matters “O! Believe do not eat up your properties among your selves unfairly, except you have trade by mutual understanding.” As you can see these two examples give in a general context so it can be applicable to all business matter and moral behaviours. For civil matters or contracts, the major concerned is given on the mutual consent of the parties, and this golden rule foreseen in the text of Qur’an which was never existed in any other law of the nation at that time.

Legislation based on the Constitutional Law

The Islamic constitutional law comprises of divine guidance. It is made up of ideology, believes and the basic principle for structure and the function for Islamic State. In Islamic Constitutional law consist two major components. First is the complete set of rules which are to be followed and the second is representative form of government. These laws were made during a period when the divine rights were solely reserved for the Kings.

Provision to provide delegated legislations

Islamic law has provided a major relief by setting the generalities for the rules. And the almighty gave the authority for the follower to decide on the details of the principle according to the needs of time and the situation of the people. Islamic Sharia left the wide field for human representation and gave the choice to legislate by this delegated power of delegation. Most of the conducts practised by human were permissible. In Muamalat all activities are permitted other than prohibited. This mean asking a lot of questions and making the law complicated is not appreciated. . God said: “O! Believe, do not ask about things which if made plain for you, will cause trouble for you. Holy Prophet said: “The Muslims who committed the gravest offence against Muslims are those who asked about things which were not prohibited, but which became prohibited because of their questions.”

Legislation to reform the existing laws

The main concept of the Islamic law is not to remove all existing laws but to reform human condition and society by removing the evil of the laws and to make beneficial for all. Pre Islamic Arabs used to lend money on interest on certain ratio and for certain period and if the borrower could not bay back in lapsed time, the ratio interest I increased. Which will eventually leads to unfair advantage to lender which normally referred as “Ribah”. The Qur’an prohibited it by saying: “O you believe! Eat not Ribah” And God declared: “Because of their saying that trade is like ribah, whereas Allah has permitted trading and forbidden ribah.”

Legislation to adopt customary laws

Islam adopted the customary laws of the Arab with amendments. It did not expel all the customary laws followed by the Arabs and replace it with new set of laws. Islamic law adopted customary laws related to marriage, divorce, parentage, and inheritance through corrections. During the pre-Islamic period among Arabs, there were ten type of marriage. But Islam only allowed one type where one party, male or female, offers to second party to marry with him/her, if the second party accepts that offer then a contract of marriage is to be held and a certain amount or thing is specified by the husband as dower of his wife. Adultery and fornication also declared forbidden by Quranic Legislation, because they can destroy the family bonds and lead to exploitation women.

Legislation based on the public utility

One of the fundamentals of Islamic Sharia law is remove the pain from the people and to ensure the pleasure for them. This principle is based on the approval and the disapproval of every human action. In this case the criteria for evaluation are set by the almighty. Seeking utility and removing harm are the basic purposes at which the creation aims and the goodness of creation consists in realizing their goals. This means the preservation of the objectives of Sharia which consists of five things: preservation of religion, preservation of life, preservation of intellect, preservation of progeny and preservation of property. What ensures the preservation of these five principles is called utility and whatever fails to preserve them is called harm and its removal is utility.

Legislation based on the doctrine of necessity

In case of necessity a prohibited thing becomes permissible to extent of removal of the necessity. For example fasting during Ramadan is an obligation for a Muslim. But under certain circumstances it may be postponed until the necessity is finished. Quran says “(Observing fast) for a fixed number of days, but if nay of you is ill or on journey, then fulfil counting in later days.” And also Quran implies “Forbidden to you dead animals, blood, pork, animals slaughtered in the name of others than Allah, animals killed by strangulation or a blow or a fall or by being gored…”

Direct answers to the questions

In Quran we can see there are many answers which were answered directly for the questions raised by the people. Sometimes when people raise questions to Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh), he will not answer them, later a revelation is given from the almighty on that regards. We can see many such cases in the Quran. For example once, the people asked about fighting during the forbidden months. Allah Almighty revealed the following verse: “They ask you about fighting in the forbidden months. Say, fighting in them is a great offence, but blocking Allah’s path and denying Him is even graver in Allah’s sight.”

Legislation in case of emergency

There are number of legislative provisions cognate to the factual authenticity of a case or incident when transpired. In pre-Arab society, different kinds of divorce were prevailed. One of them was Zihar, if a husband had to pronounce that his wife was to him like his mother’s back. It would become cause of disunion between them. The Holy Prophet had accepted Zihar as valid form of divorce and in one case asked a female companion to accept it. However Allah declared it invalid by saying: “Allah has indeed auricular discerned the verbalization of the woman who disputed with you regarding her husband and carried her complaint to Allah, Allah aurally perceives yours discussion. Surely, Allah auricular discerns and visually perceives all things. If any man among you declares their wives like their mothers, they cannot be their mothers. None can be their mothers except those who gave birth to them. They utilize lamentable words and falsehood.”

Legislation based on International Law

International law denotes the law which governs the conduct of different states among themselves. The global law of Islam is predicated on the text of Quran: “To each among you, we have prescribed a law and a clear way . . . He may test you in what He has given you; so compete in good deeds. The return of you all is to Allah.” The beginning of “Two Nation Theory” is additionally prompted by God Himself. It is verbally expressed in Quran: “Who has engendered you; so some of you are non-believers and some of you are believers.” This text presents a clear definition of a nation, and according to which the Muslims of the whole world component one nation, while non-Muslims are another nation. The international nation of the Muslims being one with other nations of the world can be set up only by asserting the oneness of mankind on the substratum of parity.

Misconceptions regarding Quranic legislation and Islamic law

Although Quranic Legislation consists many of the best attributes, it encounters many problems due to the misconceptions and some religious lunatics. Many non-Muslims and even some Muslims had no idea how Quranic Sharia functions. They merely think that this is just a bunch of rules, which were formed before fourteen centuries. And they were followed word by word until today. And they also get better examples from some lunatics who do not understand the core concept of the Sharia.

Conclusion

In this paper the writer tries to answer and correct the major misconceptions about the Sharia Law. To some point he is successful. But the problem with understanding the Sharia law is many people do not know how to identify them. Even if you ask many Muslims they will say that Saudi Arabia is following Islamic Sharia. This is how they are brainwashed by the media. So it becomes a necessity for every one of the Muslim to learn the concept of pure Sharia law and how it is functioned.

PDF link for the article: http://www.bzu.edu.pk/PJIR/eng2NaseemRazi.pdf