Family Laws and Welfare of Muslim

Society

Name: Sikander Yar Khan

Roll No: 133

Department: LAW LLB (5 years)

Semester: 4th C Section

Subject: Islamic Jurisprudence II

The Islamia University of Bahawalpur

Family law in Islam:
 Islamic family jurisprudence
(Arabic: ‫فق ه األس رة اإلس المية‬, faqah al'usrat al'iislamia)
or Islamic family law or Muslim Family Law is the fiqh
of laws and regulations related to maintaining of Muslim
famiy, which are taken from Quran, hadith, fatwas of
Muslim jurists and ijma of the Muslims.

ISLAMIC family laws, which cover important matters such

as marriage, divorce and inheritance, have had a pivotal
place in the Sharia. There are more Quranic teachings
and prescriptions on establishing justice, kindness and
compassion in the domain of family relationships than on
any other subject

Family Laws and Quran:

Dr Abdalati defines family as

“a human social group whose members are bound
together by the bond of blood ties and/or marital
relationship”. The Quran enacted critical reforms for
improving women's position in the family by introducing
new laws as well as by reforming customary practices.
These reforms are a significant part of the classical Islamic
family laws.

To understand the Quran's profound impact on women's

position in pre-Islamic Arab society, it is important to
remember that in this society female infanticide was not an
uncommon practice. The Quran itself refers to the burying
alive of newborn girls in two specific passages, namely
Surah 818-9 and Surah 1657-59.

In a society in which even the most fundamental of human

rights, namely, the right to life, was not guaranteed to
women, the Quran introduced the idea that men and
women were equal in the sight of God. In numerous
passages the Quran referred to the simultaneous creation
of humanity by God. Totally missing from it is any hint of
the belief that woman was created from man's rib; that she
was responsible for man's expulsion from paradise or that
she was created to be his 'helpmate'. These beliefs are
derived from Genesis, the opening book of the Bible, and
not from the Quran.
One of the most revolutionary steps taken by the Quran
for the empowerment of women was to give women the
right of inheritance. Few women in the world have had this
right until the modern period. According to Quranic
prescription not only could women inherit on the death of a
close relative, they could also receive bequests or gifts in
the lifetime of a benevolent caretaker.

Islamic welfare state:

Islamic welfare state is an

ideal state which strives to improve the spiritual and
material wellbeing of its people with available resources at
its disposal. But this does not qualify it to be ideal, unless
the resources are harnessed to the optimum in ensuring
the spiritual and material welfare of its people.

The natural worth of anything consists in its fitness to

supply the necessities and serve the conveniences of
human needs. Welfare state always strives to put in place
the necessary impetus that will ensure the material and
spiritual well being of people in its domain. Islamic Welfare
State (IWS) shapes the social, economic, cultural and
political engagements as a complementary whole guided
by the basic principles (Sharia), to establish a society
where justice, equity and economic prosperity are
prominent, as well as rape the benefits of this life and the
next. This paper seeks to examine the interrelationship
between the political and economic contents of the Islamic
way of life and discusses the nature and functions of the
Islamic State toward peoples’ well being in the light of
basic imperatives (principles) within the framework of
financial constraints.

Islam & the Welfare State:

The commitment of the

Islamic state to welfare is derived, according to Dr.
Chapra, from the mercy (Rahmah) that the Prophet (peace
be upon him) was sent with. Thus, “welfare” and “good
life” become synonymous. Ironically, welfare must be
understood in its general and comprehensive meaning
that includes all aspects of human life, the economic
aspect is but one of them. Chapra feels that there exists
abundant evidence to make it “absolutely unjustified not to
term the Islamic state as a welfare state.”2 El-Ghazali
expresses this concept of welfare saying:  “The objective
of Shari'ah, as far as people are concerned, is five-fold:
The protection of their religion, life, mind, offspring, and
property. Thus everything that implies promoting these five
things (or any of them) is Maslahah (interest) and
everything that implies harming them is Mafsadah (harm).”
The economic implication of this comprehensive welfare
concept is that the Islamic state is responsible for the
following:

a. To eradicate poverty and to create conditions for full

employment and a high rate of growth,
b. To promote stability in the real value of money,
c. To maintain law and order,
d. To ensure social and economic justice,
e. To arrange social security and foster equitable
distribution of income and wealth,
 f. To harmonize international relations and ensure
national defence.”

In the course of the fulfilment of these responsibilities, the

Islamic state resorts to tools like planning, undertaking
social and physical infrastructure, providing measure for
ensuring just wage rates and just prices, economic
assistance to the elderly, the disabled, and the handi-
caped.

The financial resources suggested by Chapra to meet the

requirement of this role of the Islamic government are four:
Zakah, income from natural resources, taxation, and
borrowing. Zakah’s ratio, collection and disbursement are
very well treated in the original sources of Islam leaving
not much to be added, while taxation and borrowing still
need more elaboration. Chapra suggested that the “right
of the Islamic state to raise resources through taxes
cannot be challenged.”  Loans may be obtained from the
public on the basis of profit-sharing in certain projects or
on the basis of their zeal and inspiration. Loans from
central bank, although inflationary in nature, may be
reverted in a few cases where the anticipated harm of
price instability is less than the expected benefit of such
borrowing. Although Chapra stressed the principle of
justice as far as the size and the distribution of the tax
burden are concerned, he did not articulate this principle
with respect to the validity of the use of taxation in
financing different activities of the Islamic state. How much
of these activities can be financed through taxes and how
much through borrowing? And how could the economic
priorities be listed? What reflects more justice — having
higher standard of living for the poor and more taxes, or
lower standard and less taxes? What expenses of the
state can be financed from each of these three sources:
taxes, Zakah, and borrowing?

Questions of this kind deal with the legitimacy and the

extent of tax levying. Their answers represent constraints
on the economic behaviour of the Islamic state. The role of
promoting “economic” welfare that Chapra assigns to the
Islamic state requires two sets of activities: production
activities that can be summarized as the promotion of
better utilization of economic resources which he called,
“full employment and high rate of growth”; and distribution
activities that may be summarized as the reduction of
income differential between the rich and the poor. This is
the goal of social and economic justice and the equitable
distribution of income and wealth of Chapra. The extent of
these two major economic functions of the Islamic state
depends on three factors, namely, the endowment of
natural resources, the level of technology and the amount
of financial resources that can be raised from within and
from outside the economy. But since both natural resource
endowment and the state of technology are given in any
short- and medium-term analysis, and the ratio and
categories of disbursement of Zakah are also given, the
amount of taxes that the state can legitimately collect
becomes a principal determinant of the level of its
performing the above-mentioned functions in any Islamic
society (one should not forget foreign aid and borrowing).