The muslim judicial council a descriptive and analytical investigation

Abstract

This thesis proposes to investigate the application of the Shari'a or Islamic Law in South Africa. To this end, the work of the Cape Town-based Muslim Judicial Council, which follows the Shafi's school of thought, is focussed on. Perspectives gained from the history of Islam at the Cape reveal the emergence of a social structure in terms of which the imam or leader of the congregational prayer assumes pastoral care for his constituents in all walks of life. Constituted. by the theologians and imams of the Cape Peninsula, the MJC consequently reflected, since its inception in 1945, something of the societal involvement of its membership. Here it is however its function as a judiciary that deserves and receives the greater emphasis. To evaluate the judicial work of the MJC in terms of its own, i.e. Islamic, principles, the basic functions of Islamic legal theory have been employed to constitute a viable methodological approach. Against this backdrop, the operations of the MJC can both be understood and assessed. To gain insight into the work of the MJC, a selection of its legal decrees or fatawa are investigated. To facilitate a logical description of these pronouncements, a division into political matters, matters of belief and worship, and civil matters has been followed.