(Part 51)
The Tenth Topic:
Means of Resolving Disputes in the Present Age
After the invasion of Western colonial powers into Islamic countries, Islamic jurisprudential laws were displaced due to the influence of Westernized rulers and were replaced by imported Western human-made laws. Those laws were presented to the people as if they were the same as Islamic and jurisprudential laws. The enforcement of human-made laws was never accepted by Muslims, as they recognized such enforcement as a deviation from Islamic Sharia and a violation of Allah’s commandments. This dissatisfaction eventually led to individual and collective reform movements aimed at abandoning statutory laws and returning to Islamic jurisprudence, which sparked movements across the Islamic world.
It should not be ignored that Western statutory laws, having developed and expanded over more than two centuries through the efforts of scholars in Western countries, have gained the capability to be applied in most countries worldwide, both in domestic and international legal contexts. Even in many current Islamic countries, those laws are in some way accepted. This reality reflects the weakness of efforts by Islamic countries, their infatuation with statutory laws, their disregard about religious laws, and their exclusion of scholars from legislative fields. Due to the prejudice of the Western world, religious laws have undoubtedly not gained international acceptance, as there has been significant opposition to implementing the Hudud (divinely prescribed punishments) of Allah. Acceptance of religious laws requires strong political, military, and economic support, something that has not been attainable for Muslims since the fall of the Ottoman Caliphate.
Moreover, internal disputes and sectarianism are other contributing factors to the proliferation of statutory laws in Islamic societies. Those disagreements, which often lead to accusations of disbelief (takfir), branding others as misguided, rejection, and even physical attacks, have given rise to more reliance on man-made laws due to their perceived neutrality and equal application to all.
In the current situation of the Islamic world, the sciences of comparative jurisprudence (fiqh muqaran) and maqasid al-shariah (objectives of Islamic law) can serve as crucial tools for eliminating harmful sectarianism, fostering unity, and promoting development in Islamic societies. Comparative jurisprudence possesses characteristics that make it a strong alternative to statutory laws.