Name: Sharia
SKU: 12865
Price: 51.43 INR
Availability: InStock

Details

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.

Review

A well-balanced, accessible and informative study establishing the historical context of issues such as adultery, apostasy and blasphemy that regularly surface in the news. ― Times Literary Supplement

This rich and important book is a lucidly argued and accessibly written corrective … The authors are particularly good at laying out the evolution of the classic schools of Islamic jurisprudence. ― Financial Times

About the Author

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.