What Is Islamic Law? - Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf

• Citation: Vol. 57 No. 2
• Publication year: 2006

What is Islamic Law?

The Fifth Annual John E. James

Distinguished Lecture Walter F. George School of Law Mercer University

Macon, Georgia September 20, 2005by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf^*

HORACE W. FLEMING: We are indebted to John E. James and the Mercer Law School for their generosity for making this event possible. Mr. James has made an outstanding contribution not only to the legal profession, but also to his community and to his Alma Mater, Mercer University.

Among his many valuable contributions to Mercer, John James chaired the Law School Board of Visitors in 1979. Mr. James negotiated the largest settlement ever entered into the united States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, and you will note from your program that Mr. James received the Tradition of Excellence Award from the General Practice and Law Section of the State Bar of Georgia, and the Outstanding Alumnus Award from the Walter F. George School of Law Alumni Association just this year.

Now John James is seated here with us up front. Dr. Lil James is also here. Dr. James will you please stand and let us recognize you. Thank you. Thank you both. This distinguished annual lecture is an excellent opportunity for our law school students and other citizens in the community of legal interest to hear from some of the world's renowned orators.

At the initial John E. James lecture four years ago, we were honored to have the Honorable Lord Gordon Slynn of Hadley speak to us, and he has graciously returned each year to introduce our speaker. Lord Slynn has visited Mercer annually for several years and is really a true friend of the university. We are delighted that Lord Slynn is back with us.

Since March 1992 Lord Slynn has served as Lord of Appeal and Ordinary of the House of Lords. He is an honorary fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge university College, Buckingham Saint Andrews College, the university of Sydney, John Morres Liverpool and Goldsmiths College, university of London. Lord Slynn is a graduate of the University of London and Cambridge. Lord Slynn was called to the bar in 1956. He became a Master of the Bench in Grays Inn in 1970. He has served as Vice Treasurer and Treasurer of Grays Inn.

Lord Slynn has served as a High Court Judge and as Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Community. Since 1999 Lord Slynn has served as the Prior of England of the Islands of the Most Venerable Order of Saint John. We want to thank, once again, John James and Dr. Lil James for making this afternoon's event possible, and we look forward to this year's lecture.

At this time, I want to introduce Dr. Craig McMahan, University Minister and Dean of the Chapel of Mercer University, to lead us in our invocation.

CRAIG T. MCMAHAN: Would you pray with me please? Oh Great God, Creator of this world and Giver of life, You have made us so that we would live together as brothers and sisters, and by our own shortcomings, there is so much that separates and divides us much to Your sorrow and ours. We are grateful for this one who comes, Imam Feisal, to speak to us today about how we might be one. How we might live together in peace, and into the deepest purposes for which You have made this world and us. Be among us with every heart and mind that in our hearing, we might learn the truth and that in our leaving, we might practice and do the truth. We are grateful to be in this place together, for the generosity that makes this event possible, and for the wisdom that makes this event so good and so strong. Be among us, be pleased with all that is said and done to Your Glory, Amen.

HORACE W. FLEMING: Daisy Floyd is in her second year of service as our Dean, and she is doing a wonderful job. We are so pleased that she is here, and I am pleased to present Dean Floyd's greetings from our Law School.

DEAN DAISY HURST FLOYD: Thank you Dr. Fleming, Imam Feisal, Lord Slynn, Mr. James, Dr. McMahan, and distinguished guests. It is indeed my great privilege and honor to welcome you on behalf of the Walter F. George School of Law, to our John E. James distinguished lecture. This is an event we look forward to each year, and we are grateful for your presence here, and we are grateful for the generosity of Mr. James that allows us to have distinguished international speakers. Welcome to you, thank you, Mr. James, and we are glad that you are here.

HORACE W. FLEMING: Thank you Dean Floyd, and it is now my pleasure to welcome to the podium the Honorable Lord Gordon Slynn of Hadley, Court of Appeal and Ordinary, who will introduce tonight's lecturer.

THE RIGHT HONORABLE LORD GORDON SLYNN: Provost, Dean, Mr. and Mrs. James, ladies and gentlemen, as it has already been said, it is to the considerable generosity of John James that this lecture series has produced remarkably interesting talks on topics of considerable and contemporary relevance. Topics which have been dealt with by three distinguished speakers. They provided not only intellectual stimulus for the Law School, but also some very agreeable social occasions before and afterwards.

The fifth lecture in this series, I exclude the first, concerns a topic of no less interest and importance, and it is to be given by a no less distinguished speaker. That topic is of importance to everybody, including lawyers. No one in this room can fail to be conscious of the place of Islam in the contemporary world. The problems which it faces, the problems which a misunderstanding of its philosophy, its faith, and its motives causes both for its adherents and for others. Perhaps it is the problems, which an apparently overzealous assistance of some of its aspects causes for other people, which is no less important for non-Islamic lawyers, that compels us to look at this topic of what is Islamic Law. It is a system, a due process, a procedure which is largely unfamiliar to those of us who are common lawyers or civil lawyers, and we need to be able to understand and to distinguish Islamic Law from civil law and common law.

Without an explanation, we cannot begin to understand the substance or the differences. Understanding is the only way in which, between these different legal systems and faiths, we can avoid conflict and disharmony not just in the Middle East, but increasingly, everywhere in the world.

Some years ago in the International Law Association, we saw the need to set up a working committee on Islamic Law. It was given pride to the task of research and exposition, but also a more general education. I will have to say it was not easy to get it going, and we are only just beginning to achieve some success.

The chairman of the International Law Association and I, in particular, saw the need very clearly for this study of Islamic Law. I am convinced that it is not only important in a large organization like the International Law Association, but that it is equally important in law schools throughout the world that we should set out to learn and to understand what is Islamic Law. We could not begin with a better guide and teacher than what the John James Lecture program has provided for us today.

The speaker is, I know from my own experience, a speaker of charm and eloquence, and a speaker who speaks from very real learning as the Imam of a very large Mosque in New York. He has had, over the years, considerable experience of pastoral work and work as a lecturer and writer. He has produced important books and articles on the Islamic Faith, Philosophy, and I emphasize, Law. He has participated in important conferences. I met with Archbishop Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, a few days ago, and he told me he had recently participated in a valuable discussion with Imam Feisal and others at the World Economic Forum in Jordan. But it is, perhaps above all, his work in the United States that has been important.

He is a co-founder of the Cordoba Initiative, a multi-faith organization with offices in New York and in Aspen, Colorado, whose objective is to help the relationships between the Islamic world and America, to help the relationship not just between groups, but also between individuals. The Cordoba Initiative aims to increase an intercultural understanding, tolerance, and interface between the different religions to inculcate respect of one for the other. It was described by Senator George Mitchell, when this proposal was first put forward, as a most important proposal for dealing—and I quote—"for dealing with what will increasingly be a critical issue for the nation and the world." You will find in the programs today details of Imam Feisal's work in this respect, and I do not repeat it. It is, however, my very great pleasure on behalf of the trustees of the John James Lecture Series to invite Imam Feisal now to address us on the question, what is Islamic Law? Imam Feisal.

IMAM FEISAL ABDUL RAUF: Thank you, thank you. Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen for the very gracious hospitality that you have extended to me. Thank you Lord Slynn for having invited me to this very lovely town and having introduced me to these very lovely people, to the Provost, to Dean Daisy, to Dr. James and to Dr. McMahan, to whom we are thankful for the lovely benediction and prayer he made. I hope that his prayer may be answered in my efforts with you today, and I add my voice to his in praying that we surrender to the Spirit, and that it may be with us all.

It is customary for Muslims when they begin an event to invoke the name of God, the one God; the God of Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac; the God of Moses and Aaron; the God of Jesus Christ and John the Baptist; the God of Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ, whom Muslims regard as the best of women who ever lived; and the God of Mohammad. Peace and blessings be upon all these noble souls and prophets.

The faith of Islam sees itself as within and fulfilling the Abrahamic religious traditions. In fact, when Jesus was asked by a lawyer what the greatest commandment in the law¹ was...