In the Name of God

Islamic Family Law

27th November 2024– 26th February  2025 (11 sessions)

Wednesdays: 6pm – 8pm

Fee: £220 (30% discount available for students (with valid ID), senior citizens (60+), and low-income art enthusiasts.

Aims

-This course provides an in-depth study of the Islamic family law in traditional and contemporary contexts. Special focus will be given to the Quranic context of the Islamic family law.

-Islamic family law general principles of Shari’a govern such matters as marriage, divorce, maintenance, paternity and custody of children, inheritance, the equality and Qawama.

-The course discusses major issues of family law in Islam.

-Moreover, it will cover the extent to which Shari’a law in this respect is applied in Muslim communities in non-Muslim countries.

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge

On completion of this course, the successful student will be able to:

1. Critically comprehend sophisticated arguments in knowledge of family law in Islam.
2. Demonstrate a critical comprehension of various schools of jurisprudence regarding family law.
3. Evaluate and critically analyse different approaches to Islamic family law in contemporary

Contexts.

4. the student will gain advanced ability to identify and critically evaluate the main schools of Islamic law.
5. Critically analyse different approaches, classical and modern, regarding issues of family law.

-Main topics of discussion:

1. The law of marriage and its different types, also covering respective duties, condition of marriage and defects, terms of marriage, duration of marriage and dowry (mehr/mahr),
2. The law of divorce and its different forms of divorce, also covering the dissolution of the

contract, death of a partner and the waiting period,

3. Guardianship,
4. The Custody of children (kefālah/hadanah) and adoption (tabanni)
5. Maintenance (nafaqah),
6. Polygyny, (taa’dod al zwajat)
7. Marriage related Inheritance laws, (werāthah/mawarith)
8. Bequest/will (waşiyyah)
9. Family law and domestic violence
10. Islam and gender, and the rights of the women

-With the aim of providing an overview of the topics as well as focusing on specific issues, each session above will address the relevant Islamic legal framework and particular contemporary issues of special importance, but will only touch on comparative aspect.

-Formative assessment for this course will consist of verbal feedback from the lecturer, questioning and discussion during class.

-Summative assessment: Individual essay (???) words focusing on a particular Islamic law topic agreed between the student and the course leader.

-The student is required to obtain a mark of at least (??? mark) out of 100 for the essay.