Islamic Law

• Author: Doranda Maracineanu
• Position: Galati Court
• Pages: 157-160

Islamic Law

Doranda Maracineanu

Galati Court, dorandasiiulianmaracineanu@yahoo.com

Abstract: The law system of a State represents the body of rules passed or recognized by that State in

order to regulate the social relationships, rules that must be freely obe yed by their recipients, otherwise

the State intervening with its coercive power. Throughout the development of the society, pedants have

been particularly interes ted in the issue of law systems, each supporting vari ous classifications; the

classification that has remained is the one distinguishing between the Anglo-Saxon, t he Roman-German,

the religious and respectively the communist law systems. The third main internat ional law system is the

Muslim one, founded on the Muslim religion – the Islam. The Islam promotes the idea that Allah created

the la w and therefore it must be preserved and observed as such. Etymologica lly, the Arabian word

“Islam” means “to be wanted, to obey” implying the fact that this law system promotes total and

unconditioned submission to Allah. The Islamic law is not built on somebody of laws or leading cases,

but has as s ource. The Islam is meant a s a universal religion, the Kora n promoting the idea of the unity

of mankind; thus, one of the precepts in the Koran asserts that “all men are equal (…), there is no

difference between a white man and a black man, between one who is Ara bian and one who is not,

except for the measure in which they fear God.” The Koran is founded mainly on the Talmud, Hebrew

source of inspiration, and only on very few Christian s ources. The Islam does not forward ideas which

cannot be materialized; on the contrary its ideas are purely practical, easy to be observed by the co mmon

man, ideas subordinated to the principle of monotheism. The uncertainties and gaps of the Koran, which

have been felt along the years, imposed the need for a nother set of rules, meant to supplement it – that is

Sunna. Sunna represents a body of laws and, consequently, the second source of the Koran. Sunna

narrates the life of the prophet Mohamed, the model to be followed by all Muslims. This prophet teaches

the Muslims f ive basic rules t hey must strictly obey: prayer five times a day, gifts to the poor, faith in

Allah, fasting in the month of Ramadan and pilgrimage to Mecca, a t least once in a lifetime. The K oran

excludes the passage of laws by a legislative body, the divinity being the sole “authority” capable of

governing life in all its dimensions. However , on the other side, as it would have been expected due to

the old times w hen it was created, the Koran encouraged a series of injustices and limitations of the

human rights, from a contemporary point of view; the Islamic law settled the inf eriority of women in

relation to men. If in the 7th century the woman’s p osition in society was rather humble, the voice of the

prophet Mohamed improved her condition, the woman becoming her husband’s “partner and close

helper”, and the develop ment of the society led to the emancipation of the woman, especially due to

external influences. After the beginning of the 19th century, the application area of the Sharia law was

reduced at first due to the western influence, but its proponents succeeded in reviving it, phenomenon

known as “the Islamic rebirth”. Thus, the penetration of modern educa tion as well as the constitution of

national States led to the acceptance of the introduction of the codes specific to the continental system.

In some countries, the Islamic law was officially ab olished – this is the c ase of Albany, Turkey and t he

former USSR. International jurisdictions (Hague International Court), supranational (Strasbourg Court

of Human Rights), and even tra nsnational ones (the one from Kosovo) have already been c reated. In the

light of this international trend, legal systems interfere and tend towards external influence and even

globalization. Given this context, we must mention the Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights

(the 19th of September 1981), and the European Union – Islamic Confer ence Organization bilateral

forum held in Ankara, 2002.

Keywords: Islamic law, principle of monotheism, Koran

The law system of a State represents the body of rules passed or recognised by that State in order to

control social relationships, rules that must be freely obeyed by their recipients, otherwise the State

intervening with its coercive power.

Throughout the evolution of the society, pedants have been particularly interested in the issue of law

systems, each supporting various classifications; the classification that has remained is the one

distinguishing between the Anglo-Saxon, the Roman-German, the religious and respectively the

communist law systems.

If the Anglo-Saxon law system (known as “common law” as well) rests upon the leading case, the

Roman-German one is based on the law.

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