The Hed Ya Or Guide A Commentary On The Mussulman Laws

Examining the legal history of the order to pay money initiating a funds transfer, the author tracks basic principles of modern law to those that governed the payment order of Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Exploring the legal nature of the payment order and its underpinning in light of contemporary institutions and payment mechanisms, the book traces the evolution of money, payment mechanisms and the law that governs them, from developments in Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, Rome, and Greco-Roman Egypt, through medieval Europe and post-medieval England. Doctrine is examined in Jewish, Islamic, Roman, common and civil laws. Investigating such diverse legal systems and doctrines at the intersection of laws governing bank deposits, obligations, the assignment of debts, and negotiable instruments, the author identifies the common denominator for the evolving legal principles and speculates on possible reciprocity. At the same time he challenges the idea of 'law merchant' as a mercantile creation. The book provides an account of the evolution of payment law as a distinct cohesive body of legal doctrine applicable to funds transfers. It shows how principles of law developed in tandem with the evolution of banking and in response to changing circumstances and proposes a redefinition of 'law merchant'. The author points to deposit banking and emerging technologies as embodying a great potential for future non-cash payment system growth. However, he recommends caution in predicting both the future of deposit banking and the overall impact of technology. At the same time he expresses confidence in the durability of legal doctrine to continue to evolve and accommodate future payment system developments.

The study of Islamic law can be a forbidding prospect for those entering the field for the first time. Wael Hallaq, a leading scholar and practitioner of Islamic law, guides students through the intricacies of the subject in this absorbing introduction. The first half of the book is devoted to a discussion of Islamic law in its pre-modern natural habitat. The second part explains how the law was transformed and ultimately dismantled during the colonial period. In the final chapters, the author charts recent developments and the struggles of the Islamists to negotiate changes which have seen the law emerge as a primarily textual entity focused on fixed punishments and ritual requirements. The book, which includes a chronology, a glossary of key terms, and lists of further reading, will be the first stop for those who wish to understand the fundamentals of Islamic law, its practices and history.

The traditional doctrine of Islamic law in regard to international re lations is well known. The Shari'a includes many excellent provisions about declarations of war, treaties of peace, armistices, diplomatic envoys, negotiations and guarantees of safe conduct. But the fact remains that it divides the world, broadly speaking, into the "Abode of Islam" and the "Abode of 'War," and that it envisages the continu ance of intermittent war between them until the latter is absorbed in the former. In the course of such fighting, and in the intervals in be tween, many civilities were to be meticulously observed; but prisoners of war could be killed, sold or enslaved at the discretion of the Muslim authorities, and the women of those who resisted the advance of Islam could be taken as slave-concubines, regardless of whether they were single or married. The "Abode of Islam" did not, indeed, consist ex clusively of Muslims, for those whose religion was based on a book accepted by Islam as originally inspired and in practice, indeed, those other religions too - were not forced to embrace Islam but only to accept Muslim rule. They were granted the status of dhimmis, were protected in their persons and their property, were allowed to follow their own religion in an unobtrusive fashion, and were accorded the position of essentially second-class citizens. They were also of course, perfectly free to embrace Islam; but for a Muslim to be converted to another faith involved the death penalty.

The Hidayah has dominated the field of Islamic jurisprudence since the day it was written over 800 years ago. It has been the primary text used by Muslims jurist to issue authentic and reliable rulings on Islamic law according to the school of Imam Abu Hanifa (d 150H/767CE). The Hidayah commands such an authoritative position amongst the doctors of law that the knowledge of a scholar who has not read it is not considered reliable. It has been a standard text in the curricula of Islamic law schools since the 12th century. It was first translated into English by Charles Hamilton in 1791. Around 70 huge commentaries, some spread over more than a dozen volumes have been written on it. The number of explanatory glosses is in thousands. Comprehensive in content and conveniently organized, with the publication of this all previous works that discussed Islamic jurisprudence according to the Hanafi law become outmoded and soon fell into disuse. If revealed books are not taken into account, never has a book received so much attention as the Hidayah. This landmark publication of the Hidayah not only has been translated in its entirety for the first time but has been done so from Arabic, the language in which it was written. The author, Shaykh Al Islam, Burhan Al-Din Marghanani (d 593 AH/ 1197 CE) was considered to be the leading jurist of the Muslim world in his times. "The hidayah is justly celebrated as the most practical and useful summary compilation of Hanafi jurisprudence. It has been a standard text in the curricula of Islamic law schools since the 12th century. It was first translated by Charles Hamilton in 1791. A new translation into modern English has been long overdue. This translation by Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee is both precise and straight forward. With his knowledge of Islamic law and jurispudence combined with his command of both the Arabic and English languages, he has conveyed the meaning of the original with great clarity. The hidayah is a dense work, intended for use in teaching Hanafi fiqh - it is a work that needs explication if its arguments are to be understood fully. This the translator has provided through this valuable notes" Dr Mohammad Akram Nadwi, research fellow, Oxford centre for Islamic studies, Oxford