Sharia, Fiqh and Jurisprudence

In The Right to Education, Work and Welfare in Islam Professor M.H. Kamali develops an Islamic perspective on three connected and complementary areas of rights and liberties. He urges that education is often a necessary ingredient of professional work even more so now than in earlier times when the range and variety of specialised knowledge were relatively limited. A person who acquires education, whether generally or at advanced levels of specialisation, is more likely to stand in a better position to enter the workforce and thus to contribute to the welfare of the community.

The author commences his discussions on education, work and welfare in Islam by focusing on how each is treated in the Qur’an; and follows this by the example of the Prophet and, after him, the Pious Caliphs who gave prominence to the education and welfare needs of people at times both of scarcity and affluence. Professor Kamali then moves forward to our time and discusses the right to education, the education of children, institutionalisation of learning, academic freedom and the debate between science and religion.

The section on work elaborates on the value of work, work ethics, workers’ and employers’ rights and responsibilities, and the role and responsibility of governments.
Finally, the section on welfare focuses on the importance in Islam of caring for those who are in need and the different forms of provision that can be made available by individuals, the state and charities.

A person’s right to life, personal security, privacy, and ownership are the most basic of all the fundamental rights and liberties and are of concern to all legal systems and traditions. To address them side by side with one another, as is attempted in the present volume, is reflective of their natural priority and significance. These rights are simultaneously the most vulnerable to aggression and abuse.

The right to life is the basic right from which all the others derive. The discussion of this fundamental right includes: the sanctity of life from the Islamic perspective, murder, unintentional killing, the death penalty and compensations for victims. This chapter also includes discussions of abortion, suicide, and euthanasia.

The second of the rights discussed is the right to security and this includes: the security against unlawful arrest, the right to fair treatment, the right to counsel, freedom from aggression and torture.

The third right is that of privacy and is mainly concerned with the privacy of one’s home, confidential correspondence, and immunity against invasion of privacy in the forms of interception of correspondence, eavesdropping and other such violations.

Finally, the discussion of the right of ownership includes the four aspects of ownership in Islam, legitimate and illegitimate means of acquisition of ownership, and the restrictions that the Shariah imposes on the exercise of this right including taxation, inheritance and bequests.

A translation of Abu Shuja’ al-Asfahani’s introduction to classical Islamic law, Matn al-Ghayat wa al-Taqrib. This enduring classic covers the full range of basic topics within the Shafi’i school of law. It includes the full Arabic text and notes to point out where later Shafi’i jurists have differed from the author, Imam al-Nawawi’s preferences, and minor clarifications and explanations.