Outlines of Muslim Personal Law

Book excerpt: This small book is exactly what the title says it is: an outline. It is meant as a convenient handbook for the student. A more detailed ``code'' is being written to meet the needs of lawyers and researchers, and will hopefully be published soon. The purpose of this small book is to lay down the traditional law of Islam first, especially the law of the Hanafi school, and then to identify the points on which this law has been altered by statute or by case law. The purpose is not to identify the law first and then to fill the gaps with traditional law, which is what is done for the common law. On a few occasions, this outline differs from the position taken by other publications, especially Mulla's Code. The reason is that the position taken by such works, in these cases, is not in conformity with the traditional Islamic law. The differences have been indicated along with the position stated in such codes. Nevertheless, these occasions are not too many and the reader will not feel that there is a major departure from the earlier literature in the field. The outline also indicates those points where a decision taken by the learned courts is totally contrary to the rulings of traditional law. Reasons for disagreement have been indicated very briefly as a small outline cannot be burdened with detailed discussions. Despite its concise nature, the book has been quoted by some courts, including the Supreme Court of Pakistan.