Muslim Personal Law

by Ustaaz, ahmed Fazel Ebrahim

The Islamic identity of the general Muslim public

Muslims globally have relationships with specified or non-specified groups of  Ulema, and other Islamic tutors and Islamic institutions in their locality. Their children are sent to the institutions of their religious allegiances and are, thus, trained from childhood into certain trends of thought, religious views and sets of Islamic teachings. They, thus, continue this framework of specified Islamic identity into their adulthood. 

A large variety of Islamic literature is also available in diverse languages. People often follow interpretations in these works without referring issues to proficient scholars and Ulema. They also have diverse and non-academic choice patterns in the selection of Ulema for the purposes of Islamic rulings and guidance. Often, the hearsay from other Muslims also becomes the "law" for them. They very often fail to attempt to acquire a scholastic interpretation to Islamic Law on major issues. 

It is indeed a lengthy task to acquire a comprehensive and detailed perspective in every issue of Islamic law for the general Muslim public, so the process of teaching Islamic law or particular sections thereof without an interpretative approach of the format through which issues in the law was derived thus continues, especially in the case of children and the youth. In other cases, it is due to either time limits, the absence of the lay Muslim to understand the process of the law, especially in the case of the non-Arab Muslim communities since they do not even grasp Arabic which is the language of the law. To, therefore, deal with the subtleties of the law and juridical formats of interpretation is futile in such cases.

Muslim communities from different races also tend to follow the principle "Birds of a feather flock together." In South Africa, most Indian Muslims follow the Hanafi school while most of the Malays follow the Shafi school. The influx of foreigners as well as South African scholars who studied abroad and influences from the media sources has brought the juridical viewpoints and perspectives of the other Islamic legal schools into the local focus as well.