Book•
The Islamic marriage contract : case studies in Islamic family law
01 Jan 2008-
TL;DR: In this article, the authors collected papers from many disciplines examining the Muslim marriage contract, including legal advice from thirteenth-century Spain, contemporary legal and social practice, and projects of activists for women worldwide.
Abstract: It is often said that marriage in Islamic law is a civil contract, not a sacrament. If this is so, this means that the marriage contract is largely governed by the same rules as other contracts, such as sale or hire. But at the same time marriage is a profound concern of the Islamic scriptures of Qur'an and Sunna, and thus at the very core of the law and morality of Islam and of the individual, familial, and social life of Muslims. This volume collects papers from many disciplines examining the Muslim marriage contract. Articles cover doctrines as to marriage contracts (e.g., may a wife stipulate monogamy?); historical instances (e.g., legal advice from thirteenth-century Spain); comparisons with Jewish and canon law; contemporary legal and social practice; and, projects of activists for women worldwide.Demonstrating a new and powerful focus for comparative and historical inquiries into Islamic law and social practices, this book marks a fresh point of departure for the study of Muslim women.
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TL;DR: Seedat as mentioned in this paper argues that Islamic feminism may appear to be the inevitable result of the convergence of Islam and feminism yet it is also inadequate to concerns for sex equality in Islam.
Abstract: This essay argues for maintaining a critical space between two intellectual paradigms that inform Muslim women’s anticolonial equality struggles in the neocolonial present, Islam and feminism. Seedat distinguishes between scholarly trends that preclude the convergence of Islam and feminism, that argue for a necessary convergence, and finally, those that make no argument for or against the convergence but “take Islam for granted” using feminist methods suited to various reform aspirations. The last group may consider their work the natural continuation of historical Muslim consciousness of the treatment of women or as redress for the historical absence of sex equality in Islam. This article argues that Islamic feminism may appear to be the inevitable result of the convergence of Islam and feminism yet it is also inadequate to concerns for sex equality in Islam. Not only do some scholars resist the naming but, as an analytic construct, Islamic feminism also precludes new understandings of sex difference originating in non-Western and anticolonial cultural paradigms.
52 citations
14 Jul 2011
TL;DR: The authors examined how lay Muslims understand foundational concepts in Islamic law and found that there is a substantial disjuncture between long-held epistemological commitments in Islamic legal theory and popular legal consciousness.
Abstract: Drawing on original survey research from Malaysia, this paper examines how lay Muslims understand foundational concepts in Islamic law. The survey finds a substantial disjuncture between long-held epistemological commitments in Islamic legal theory and popular legal consciousness. The article illustrates the practical implications of these findings through grounded examples of the efforts of women’s rights activists to reform family law provisions in Malaysia. The examples suggest that popular misunderstandings of core principles in Islamic legal theory limit the possibilities for political mobilization for activists working to reform family law codes, while strengthening the hand of conservative actors wishing to maintain the status quo.
38 citations
01 Jan 2019
TL;DR: In this paper, a case study of Malaysia examines how legal arrangements enable litigation and feed the construction of a 'rights-versus-rites binary' in law, politics, and the popular imagination.
Abstract: Most Muslim-majority countries have legal systems that enshrine both Islam and liberal rights. While not necessarily at odds, these dual commitments nonetheless provide legal and symbolic resources for activists to advance contending visions for their states and societies. Using the case study of Malaysia, Constituting Religion examines how these legal arrangements enable litigation and feed the construction of a 'rights-versus-rites binary' in law, politics, and the popular imagination. By drawing on extensive primary source material and tracing controversial cases from the court of law to the court of public opinion, this study theorizes the 'judicialization of religion' and the radiating effects of courts on popular legal and religious consciousness. The book documents how legal institutions catalyze ideological struggles, which stand to redefine the nation and its politics. Probing the links between legal pluralism, social movements, secularism, and political Islamism, Constituting Religion sheds new light on the confluence of law, religion, politics, and society.
31 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined how lay Muslims in Malaysia understand foundational concepts in Islamic law and found a substantial disjuncture between popular legal consciousness and core epistemological commitments in Islamic legal theory, and demonstrated how popular misconceptions of Islamic law hinder the efforts of those working to reform family law codes while strengthening the hand of conservative actors.
Abstract: Drawing on original survey research, this study examines how lay Muslims in Malaysia understand foundational concepts in Islamic law. The survey finds a substantial disjuncture between popular legal consciousness and core epistemological commitments in Islamic legal theory. In its classic form, Islamic legal theory was marked by its commitment to pluralism and the centrality of human agency in Islamic jurisprudence. Yet in contemporary Malaysia, lay Muslims tend to understand Islamic law as being purely divine, with a single “correct” answer to any given question. The practical implications of these findings are demonstrated through examples of efforts by women's rights activists to reform family law provisions in Malaysia. The examples illustrate how popular misconceptions of Islamic law hinder the efforts of those working to reform family law codes while strengthening the hand of conservative actors wishing to maintain the status quo.
30 citations
27 Aug 2013
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated and analyzed the representation of people's personal feelings in almost all published Arabic private and business letters on papyrus covering the first four centuries of Muslim rule in Egypt (1st-4th/7th-10th), focusing mainly on the earliest two and a half centuries.
Abstract: People in early Muslim Egypt, like people everywhere at this time, had good and bad experiences, went through sad and happy occasions, suffered from sickness and depression and faced the inevitable fate, death, when their time came. In their writings, they expressed to each other their emotions, their grief and hope, and how they experienced these turns of the fate. This study is an attempt to explore the social and emotional aspects as they appear in their personal letters endeavoring to show how people in early Islam expressed themselves, their joy and sorrow, how they responded to misfortunes in their writings, what interested and stirred them and what they worried about and believed in. In addition to editing forty-three letters relevant for the study of emotions, this study investigated and analyzed the representation of people’s personal feelings in almost all published Arabic private and business letters on papyrus covering the first four centuries of Muslim rule in Egypt (1st-4th/7th-10th), but focusing mainly on the earliest two and a half centuries. The study also used some of the unpublished letters which are relevant to the main theme of this study.
29 citations