This book explains a perspective on the system of justice that emerges in Islam if rules are followed and how the Islamic system is differentiated from the conventional thinking on justice. It examines conceptions of justice from the Enlightenment to Bentham to Rawls to contemporary philosophers including Sen, Cohen, Nussbaum, and Pogge. The authors present the views of twentieth century Muslim thinkers on justice who see Muslims upholding rituals but not living according to Qur’anic rules. It provides empirical surveys of the current state of justice in Muslim countries analyzing the economic, social, and political state of affairs. The authors conclude by assessing the state of justice-injustice in Muslim countries and highlighting areas in need of attention for justice to prevail.
Majid Khadduri, one of the world's preeminent authorities on Islamic justice and jurisprudence, presents his extensive study and reflection on Islamic political, legal, ethical, and social philosophy. This book is both a magisterial historical synthesis and an illumination of the beliefs and practices of modern Islam. (World Religion)
This book examines the conceptions of justice from Zarathustra to Islam. The text explores the conceptions of justice by Zarathustra, Ancient Egypt, India, Mesopotamia, Noah, Abraham, and Moses. During the Axial Age (800-200BCE), the focus of justice is in India, China, and Greece. In the post-Axial age, the focus is on Christianity. The authors then turn to Islam, where justice is conceived as a system, which emerges if the Qur’anic rules are followed. This work concludes with the views of early Muslim thinkers and on how these societies deteriorated after the death of the Prophet. The monograph is ideal for those interested in the conception of justice through the ages, Islamic studies, political Islam, and issues of peace and justice.
In The Islamic Conception of Justice, Majid Khadduri, one of the world's preeminent authorities on Islamic justice and jurisprudence, presents his extensive study and reflection on Islamic political, legal, ethical, and social philosophy. This book is bot
From its roots in the Qur’an and the life of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) to its branches in contemporary political and social movements, Islam has always been concerned with the question of social justice. The promise of a just order on earth has motivated both the reflections of the community of scholars and the actions of Muslims who have striven to realize it within their societies. Despite the disappointments that history has often delivered, the hope for justice remains undimmed as does the struggle to achieve it today. This concise volume focuses on some of the ways that the theme of justice is explored in emerging currents of Islamic thought. Chapters discuss new theological and ethical proposals in the light of contemporary philosophical developments; ideas of gender justice that provoke a reformist challenge to the received tradition; and regional contexts, such as Turkey, Iran and Japan, in which the question of Islam’s relationship to justice is sharpened by the particularities of history and locale. The contributions to this collection raise the prospect that if justice can be imagined more perfectly as an Islamic ideal, perhaps it can be brought into reality.
Justice is one of the essential features of Islam. It has about considerably different responses in various comnnunities. We have discussed some of these responses and their theoretical foundations. The present study is divided into five chapters. The first chapter deals with the definition of justice in general. In view of the fact that Muslim philosophers had been influenced with Greek Philosophy, we have therefore delineated the concept of justice in Greek Philosophy. We have also discussed the meaning and significance of justice in Christianity. It has been done to clearly bring out the inverse relation between the two. Having retained the reformative, Islam has also propounded a different theory of justice which takes into account the reformative and the retributive both. The second chapter deals with the definition of justice in Islam and also describes the views on justice of the various schools of the early Islam. We have focused herein on the Khawarij, Murjia, Jabriya and Qadariyah. The third chapter deals with the justice explained in the later schools of Islamic Philosophy. We have deliberated here on the rationalistic point of view of indeterminism. Besides the Mutazilah we have also included Farabi as the representative of rationalist thinkers. It has been concluded on the discussion of orthodox Ashariyah determinism. With its representative thinkers, like, Baqilani, Al-Ghazzali, Abdu, etc. We have also discussed Shiah interpretation of justice which is an intermediary between the Mutazilah and the Ashariyah. The subsequent chapter discusses the modern Islamic philosophers who have deliberated on justice: such as, Shariati, Mutahhari and Qutb, etc. In the conclusion we have explained our point of view. The Purpose of the study is to bring out various point of views of important schools of Muslim Philosophy together and to make the assessment as to which of them has represented the basic idea of justice. The schools of Muslim Philosophy have worked either the influence of Greek philosophy or orthodox Islam. The Modern philosophers like Mutahhari and Shariati have emphasized the social significance of justice, and they have given their ideal method.
Meant for the general reader, this book gives a historical expose of the Western definitions of justice - mainly economic and social justice - from Plato to the modern day and compares it with the Islamic concept of justice. He draws upon the fundamental and central concepts of the Quran to the permanence and universality of that concept. He shows that the combination of adl (justice), qist (equity) and mizan (balance) goes towards creating that notion in comparison to the shifting definition of the Western conception which depends on which ideology is dominant.
Gender equality is a modern ideal, which has only recently, with the expansion of human rights and feminist discourses, become inherent to generally accepted conceptions of justice. In Islam, as in other religious traditions, the idea of equality between men and women was neither central to notions of justice nor part of the juristic landscape, and Muslim jurists did not begin to address it until the twentieth century. The personal status of Muslim men, women and children continues to be defined by understandings of Islamic law codified and adapted by modern nation-states that assume authority to be the natural prerogative of men, that disadvantage women and that are prone to abuse. This volume argues that effective and sustainable reform of these laws and practices requires engagement with their religious rationales from within the tradition. Gender and Equality in Muslim Family Law offers a groundbreaking analysis of family law, based on fieldwork in family courts, and illuminated by insights from distinguished clerics and scholars of Islam from Morocco, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia, as well as by the experience of human rights and women s rights activists. It explores how male authority is sustained through law and court practice in different contexts, the consequences for women and the family, and the demands made by Muslim women s groups. The book argues for women's full equality before the law by re-examining the jurisprudential and theological arguments for male guardianship (qiwama, wilaya) in Islamic legal tradition. Using contemporary examples from various contexts, from Morocco to Malaysia, this volume presents an informative and vital analysis of these societies and gender relations within them. It unpicks the complex and often contradictory attitudes towards Muslim family law, and the ways in which justice and ethics are conceived in the Islamic tradition. The book offers a new framework for rethinking old formulations so as to reflect contemporary realities and understandings of justice, ethics and gender rights. "
The concept of 'social justice' comes within the broader concept, 'justice', and can hardly be understood detached from the latter. It is accepted as an unchallengeable fact that a sense of justice is one of the very important attributes for the healthy functioning of both individuals as well as societies. Objects of justice occupy a very broad range and there is a wide umbrella above them. We often, make judgments on people and their deeds on the basis of our conception of justice or injustice. Therefore, to get at least a basic idea of what justice is, one has to look at the dichotomy, the binary oppositions of 'just' and 'unjust' or 'justice' and 'injustice.' In such situations it will be fruitful to examine the contexts that we generally characterise as 'unjust'. Robbery, criminal acts against fellow beings, discrimination in employment on the grounds of colour or sex, unequal distribution of profits among the individuals of a collective group, or an inequitable supply of food which ends up in the sumptuous eating by one group and the starvation of another group may be instances of injustice. Then, what can be taken as justice? Justice has a great deal
