Introduction

This course will cover the details of financial transactions, inheritance, marriage, divorce, child custody, injurious crimes, fixed Sharia punishments, hunting and halal slaughtering of animals, oaths and vows, and court proceedings according to the Shafi’i School of Islamic jurisprudence.  It will cover the who can undertake a financial contract, what can be sold, and various details of a wide number of contracts like hiring, agency, companies, and investments. The course also goes over the various shares in inheritance, its conditions and execution, and other related matters. There will also be some detail on polygamy, the Islamic juristic and political structure, and jus ad bellum and jus in bello.

Curricular Context

  • Before taking this course, take the Essentials of Worship (Shafi’i): Ba Fadl’s The Short Abridgement Explained

  • Take this course before all courses in Level Three.

Course Outline

Session 1 Al Bai’ – Sales Transactions
Al Riba – Interest
Sales Cancellations
Session 2 Al Salam – Paying in Advance
Al Rahn – Putting up Collateral
Al Hajr – Suspension
Session 3 Al Sulh – Reconciliation
Al Hawala – Transferring a Debt
Al Dhaman – Guaranteeing Payment
Al Kafalah – Guaranteeing a Person’s Appearance
Session 4 Al Sharika – Cooperative Partnerships
Al Wakala – Authorisation
Al Iqrar – Admissions
Session 5 Al ‘Ariyyah – Lending Items
Al Ghasb – Wrongfully Taken Property
Al Shufa’ – Preemption
Session 6 Al Qirad – Profit Sharing Venture
Al Musaqah – Watering Crops for a Stipulated Portion
Al Ijarah – Renting Goods and Hiring Services
Session 7 Al Ja’alah – Job Wages
Al Mukhabara – Sharecropping
Ihya al Mawat – Regenerating Uninhibited Lands
Water Rights and Access
Session 8 Al Waqf – Endowments
Al Hiba – Gifts
Al Luqata – Lost and Found
Session 9 Al Laqit – The Foundling
Al Wadi’ – Deposits for Safekeeping
Al Wasiyah – Bequests
Session 10 Al Fara’id (Inheritance) – Introduction
Male Inheritors
Female Inheritors
Those Who Always Inherit
Those Who Never Inherit
Al ‘Asabat – Universal Inheritors
Al Furud – Fixed Shares
Al Hajb – Elimination
Shares of Brothers and Sisters
Session 11 Al Nikah (Marriage) – Introduction
Looking at the Opposite Sex
The Integrals of the Marriage Contract
Al Khitba – Marriage Proposals
Al Ijbar – Compelling Women to Marry
Unmarriageable Women
Session 12 Spousal Defects Permitting Annulment
Al Sadaq – The Wife’s Marriage Payment
Al Walimah – The Wedding Feast
Session 13 Conjugal rights;  divorce and related issues;
Session 14 Child custody and financial support.
Session 15 Blood money
Session 16 Fixed Sharia punishments
Session 17 Jihad: Jus ad bellum and jus in bello
Session 18 Jihad: Jus post bellum
Session 19 Hunting and halal slaughter
Session 20 Competitions and Entertainment
Session 21 Oaths and Vows
Session 22 Caliphate
Session 23 Court proceedings
Session 24 Manumission

What You Will Learn:

  • The technical side of the vast majority of financial and familial relations that a Muslim will get involved in his/her life.
  • the various types of sale, how “interest” can be avoided in sales and currency exchange, the various forms of cancelling a sales contract, forward sales, and debt transfers.
  •  The concept of financial liability and legal liability it discussed along with various forms of investing money in a halal way.
  • Other key topics include charitable engagements, and who should get married, and how it should be done from beginning to end.
  •  The details of the shares inherited from one family members are explained, those one inherits from and those one does not, and how the shares can vary based on the combinations of living heirs.

  • How an Islamic marriage is terminated, and what the financial obligations are towards one’s family members.

  • How Islam joins between the spirit and the letter of the Sacred Law

  • How Islam promotes law and order

  • How flexible Sharia law can be

  • What valid oaths and vows are

  • How Islamic law fits into the current political climate

About the Course Text

This course is an explanation of Matn Abi Shuja’ , written by the learned and pious Shafi‘i scholar from Basra, Ahmad ibn al Hussein al-Asfahani (d. 500’s AH / 1100’s CE), more famously known as, Abu Shuja‘. Abu Shuja‘ taught the Shafi‘i school for 40 years in Basra, working as a scholar and judge, before retiring at the end of his life to Medina, where he worked as a servant at the mosque of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace). His Matn Abi Shuja‘, a short introduction to the Shafi‘i school of sacred law, is one of the most blessed textbooks of the school–although it was written almost a millennium ago, it remains an integral part of Shafi‘i fiqh curricula all over the world, and has been the subject of dozens of commentaries and super-commentaries ever since it was written all the way down to the present age.

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“Whoever guides someone to goodness will have a similar reward”– The Prophet (Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him)