SHARIAsource

This is a reference to unusual sexual behaviors that were espoused by the school of Medina based on the idea that a wife's entire body was available for her husband's pleasure. Hossein Modarressi cites this reference to show that, along with other schools and jurists, Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq strictly forbade such sexual relations.

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

This is a reference to reports from Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq that condemn certain sexual behaviors (e.g., anal intercourse) and clarify the meaning of Q. 2:223: "Your women are a tilth to you, so go unto your tilth as you will." Hossein Modarressi cites this reference in the course of his discussion on the attribution of conflicting legal views to al-Ṣādiq on the subject.

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

This is a reference to the tradition of the House of the Prophet that held the call to prayer (adhān) to be taught to the Prophet by the angel Gabriel. Hossein Modarressi cites this reference as an example of how the tradition of the House of the Prophet compared to the Sunnī belief that the call to prayer originated in a Companion's dream.

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

This is a reference to a report by Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq that holds the original call to prayer (adhān) to have included a call to "the best of acts" (ḥayya ʿalā khayr al-ʿamal). Hossein Modarressi cites this report as an example of one of the differences between the legal legacy of the House of the Prophet and other legal schools with respect to cases concerning prayer.

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

This is a reference to a report by Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq in conversation with his disciple Abān b. Taghlib concerning restitution for bodily injury to a woman. Hossein Modarressi cites this reference in the course of his discussion about the authority of the Imam to determine correct answers when legal cases arose that appeared to contradict common sense.

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022). 

This is a reference to 400 books thought to be compiled by Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq's disciples and including his legal opinions. Hossein Modarressi cites this reference in the course of his discussion on the extremely large number of reports and statements attributed to al-Ṣādiq, which, in the Shīʿī tradition, are held to have originated with the efforts of his many disciples.

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

This is a reference to the similarity between "seven years of servitude" in the report in Kulaynī, Kāfī, 6:196–97 and in Deuteronomy 15:12–15. Hossein Modarressi cites this source in the context of his selection of legal responses by Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq on the maximum number of years of servitude by a believer, drawing attention to the similarity between the case in Jewish and Islamic law. 

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

This is a reference to the common Medinan practice of women asking for their dowers before moving to the matrimonial home. Hossein Modarressi cites this reference to clarify the context surrounding Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq's view with respect to when a wife may no longer be entitled to request her dower (in Kulaynī, Kāfī, 5:385-86).

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

This is a reference to the disagreements of the early jurists and various schools on the question of liability if one's riding animal hits another person. Hossein Modarressi cites this source to present a comparison between these views and that of Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, which restricted liability to the case of the animal hitting another person with its forelegs, not hind legs. 

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

The court found that the respondents had principally sought from the lower court a distribution of the estate of D.G, who had passed away in 1945. Citing Supreme Court Jurisdiction No. 181.K/AG/1994, the court noted that the rights of a deceased's children, parents and spouse take precedence over those of any other concerned parties. This decision, the court found, was all the more authoritative as it was based on the opinion of Ibnu Abbas, an interpreter and commentator from Muhammad's inner-circle, who interpreted the word 'walad' in verse 176 of Surah An-Nisa' to include both boys and girls.

Accordingly, the court found that A binti D.G (sibling of the deceased H.G) could not be stipulated as a beneficiary of H.G because H.G had a daughter, Z binti H.G. That said, Z binti H.G could similarly not be stipulated as a beneficiary of A binti D.G's estate, despite having been stipulated as a replacement beneficiary, because A binti D.G was survived by her daughter M binti D.

The lower court's distribution of D.G's estate did not reflect this, causing the court to pass its own, far more detailed judgment. The distinguishing inclusion was a lineage of beneficiaries relevant to the distribution of the estate.

The primary purpose of this presidential determination is captured in art 1, which prohibits all persons from intentionally and publicly conveying, endorsing, or soliciting public support for an interpretation of a religion followed in Indonesia, or conducting religious activities that resemble the religious activities of that religion, where such interpretation and activities deviate from the fundamental tenets of that religion. Article 4 also amends the Indonesian Criminal Code to include art 156a, thereby criminalising such behaviour.

The elucidation lists the six religions to which the vast majority of Indonesians adhere: Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. The elucidation clarifies, however, that this list is not exhaustive, and that other religions such as Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Shintoism, and Taoism are not prohibited. That said, the list of religions to which the vast majority of Indonesians adhere would subsequently become the base definition for the term 'religion' in Indonesia.

This presidential determination was later exalted to the status of a statute (undang-undang) after the enactment of Law No. 5 of 1969 on the Declaration of Various Presidential Determinations and Presidential Regulations as Laws.

In these excerpts, Baghawī provides interpretations of two Quranic verses pertaining to the heavenly court on the Day of Resurrection. Commenting on Q. 39:69 (“The earth will shine with the light of its Lord. . . .”), Baghawī presents reports explaining that God will manifest Himself (yatajallā) and illuminate the “open grounds of resurrection” (ʿaraṣāt al-qiyāma) with His light. Regarding the expression fī ẓulalin min al-ghamāmin Q. 2:210 (“God will come to them in canopies of clouds [fī ẓulalin min al-ghamām]”), Baghawī writes that God is in fact “shrouded in clouds, in ‘something like white fog’ (ka-hayʾat al-ḍabāb, abyaḍ).” He insists that the ẓulalimplied here connotes “canopies” or “awnings,” not “shrouds” or “shadows.” In his chapter comparing earthly justice with heavenly justice in the early Islamic imagination in Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, Christian Lange uses this source to highlight medieval exegetes’ efforts to avoid anthropomorphic interpretations of the Quran by reading verses in abstract terms.

This source is part of the Online Companion to the book Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, ed. Intisar A. Rabb and Abigail Krasner Balbale(ILSP/HUP 2017)—a collection of primary sources and other material used in and related to the book.

In this excerpt, Māwardī, commenting on Q. 50:21 (“Every soul shall come, and with it a driver [sāʾiq] and a witness [shahīd]”), relates a report from Ḍaḥḥāk that explains the sāʾiqas God’s command. As for shahīd, Māwardī addresses the thorny question whether God, being all-knowing, should need witnesses by proposing two interpretations. First, he suggests that the witness (shahīd)is the resurrected themselves; second, he states that the sinner’s own hands and feet are the witnesses that testify against their owner. In his chapter comparing earthly justice with heavenly justice in the early Islamic imagination in Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, Christian Lange uses this source to highlight medieval exegetes’ efforts to avoid anthropomorphic interpretations of the Quran by reading verses in abstract terms.

This source is part of the Online Companion to the book Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, ed. Intisar A. Rabb and Abigail Krasner Balbale(ILSP/HUP 2017)—a collection of primary sources and other material used in and related to the book.

This entry provides a definition and analysis of the term ḥadīth, drawing on works by SHARIAsource Senior Scholar, Joseph Lowry, Associate Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania.

This status update derives from Indonesian Constitutional Court decision MK Nomor 101/PUU-VII/2009 (30 December 2009), where the Court found that art 4(1) of Law No. 18 of 2003 conflicted with the 1945 Constitution (Undang-Undang Dasar Negara Republik Indonesia Tahun 1945). Specifically, the Court found that the section had no legally binding authority if the phrase 'in an open session of a High Court in a legal jurisdiction' ('di sidang terbuka Pengadilan Tinggi di wilayah didomisili hukumnya') was not met. Moreover, this phrase was not to be interpreted as 'a High Court, pursuant to a legal order, shall swear an oath for advocates before they join the profession, without associating with the membership of the Organisation of Advocates which, de facto, exists at this moment, in the two years from when these findings are pronounced.'

University of Washington, School of Law

In this text Abū Bakr al-Jaṣṣāṣ (d. 370/980) and Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭaḥāwī (d. 321/933) documents the Hanafī position—upheld by al-Shāfiʿī’s (d. 204/820) teacher Mālik (d. 179/795)—which maintained stricter criteria for the qualification of witnesses. Mālik held that the testimony of witnesses who displayed any degree of heresy should be rejected automatically. In Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts Ahmed El Shamsy contrasts Mālik’s position with that of his student Shāfiʿī who had more leniently maintained that heretical beliefs can only disqualify a witness if they have no precedent and have no basis in any possible interpretation of revelation.

This source is part of the Online Companion to the book Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts (ILSP/HUP 2017)—a collection of sources and other material used in and related to the book.  

The constitution of the State of Brunei was composed at the end of the British Residency (1906-1959) and recorded in Brunei Constitutional Documents, a collection of all of the constitutional documents that came into force between September 29, 1959, and July 1, 1960. It was enacted by proclamation of the Sultan of Brunei, Omar Ali Saifuddin Sa'adul Khairi Waddin Ibni Almarhum Mohamed Jamal-ul Alam. It has twelve parts: Part I, Preliminary; Part II, Religion; Part III, Executive Authority; Part IV, Privy Council; Part V, The Executive Council; Part VI, The Legislative Council; Part VII, Legislation and Procedure in the Legislative Council; Part VIII, Finance; Part IX, The Public Services; Part X, The State Seal; Part XI, Miscellaneous; Part XII, Amendment and Interpretation of the Constitution.

In this passage, the Quran addresses the Islamic community as witnesses against mankind, declaring: “We have appointed you a middle nation, that ye may be witnesses against mankind, and that the messenger may be a witness against you.” Some suggest that this passage could be interpreted as having implications for legal procedure in Islamic courts. However, Ahmed El Shamsy maintains in "The Logic of Excluding Testimony in Early Islam" in Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts that this passage does not have practical relevance to judicial procedure but rather relates to ethical witnessing in this world or the hereafter. 

This source is part of the Online Companion to the book Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts (ILSP/HUP 2017)—a collection of sources and other material used in and related to the book.