THE USAGE OF CUSTOM IN THE CONTEMPORARY LEGAL SYSTEM OF SAUDI ARABIA: DIVORCE ON TRIAL

Year 2019, Volume: 6 Issue: 11, 395 - 419, 30.12.2019

Sumeyra Yakar

Abstract

Islamic law plays a crucial role in the survival of Saudi Arabia and establishes the parameters of what is permissible; within this framework, a great variety of individually unique and culturally specific relationships can exist. The practices of divorce
and woman-initiated divorce are controversial issues amongst Muslim scholars in
general, Saudi Arabia specifically. To a great extent, Saudi Arabia’s cultural, social,
and political features have been shaped by the Wahhābī understanding that adopts
a literal interpretative technic when handling issues regarding marital problems.
Social and cultural environment in which Saudi judges are born and grow up sometimes visibly sometimes invisibly influence these judges’ thoughts and perceptions.
The main questions that the paper aims to answer: how do the Saudi scholars succeed in generating a workable religious system from the accumulation of Ḥanbalī
works? Which legal principles the judges applied and how they utilized the concept
of ‘urf for the court decisions? The descriptive conclusion aims to clarify Wahhābī
approaches to custom (mainly referred to as ‘urf and ‘āda) and compare them to
the decisions of contemporary Saudi judges. Whether the decisions in the contemporary legal system completely depend on the classical Ḥanbalī religious sources
or draw indirectly on customary norms is central to this research. With the intent
of perceptibly unfolding the interaction between ‘urf and legal practice related to
divorce issues, the article examines the usage of custom or ‘urf in the shar‘ī system
of Saudi Arabia and the approaches of Saudi judges towards custom in the divorce
implementation.

Keywords

Saudi jurisprudence, Islamic law, Sharī’a, Sharī’a, Wahhabism, Court divorce (tafrīq), Judicial custom (‘urf)

GÜNÜMÜZ SUUDİ ARABİSTAN HUKUK SİSTEMİNDE ÖRFÜN KULLANIMI: MAHKEMELERDEKİ BOŞANMALAR

Abstract

Bu makale Suudi Arabistan’daki güncel hukuk uygulaması ve bu hukuk uygulamasının temel kaynağı olan Hanbeli fıkhı arasındaki ilişkiyi göstermektedir. Günümüz
Suudi Arabistan’ında özelikle Hanbeli fıkıh mezhebine ait klasik kaynaklar temel
kanun hükmünde kabul edilerek, hukuk sistemi bu eserler üzerine bina edilmiştir.
Diğer Müslüman ülkelerden bir nebze farklı olarak Suudi Arabistan’ın sosyal kimliği
ve devletin otoritesi şeriat üzerine kurulmuştur. Ülke sınırları içerisinde kanunlara
dayalı anayasal maddelerden oluşan resmi bir medeni kanun metni yoktur ve bunun eksikliği özellikle evlilik, boşanma, miras gibi kişisel hukuk davalarında çok
daha belirgin bir şekilde ortaya çıkmaktadır. Bu sistemin bir sonucu olarak bugünkü Suudi mahkemelerinde Hanbeli fıkhına ait füru’ hükümleri Vehhabi anlayışla
yorumlanarak kullanılmakta ve hükümler klasik kaynaklardan güncel problemlerin
çözümüne uyarlanmaktadır. Klasik kaynakların güncel problemlere uygulanması
aşamasında, Vehhabi anlayışının temelini oluşturan kelimelerin gerçek ve sözlük
anlamını mecaz veya yorumsal anlamların üzerinde tutma anlayışı ön plana çıkmaktadır. Hukuki hükümlerin klasikten güncele uyarlanması aşamasında, hakimler
içinde bulundukları toplumun örfünü ve sosyokültürel yapısını göz önünde bulundurmakta, eğitim aldıkları ilim merkezlerinde hâkim olan genel Vehhabi anlayışı
kararlarına yansıtmaktadırlar. 

Keywords

İslam hukuku, Şeriat, Suudi Arabistan hukuku, Vehhabilik, Mahkeme boşanması (tafrīq), Örf

References

• Abou El Fadl, Khaled. Speaking in God’s Name: Islamic Law Authority and Women. Oxford: Oneworld, 2001.
• Abū Dāwud, Sulaymān ibn al-Ash‘ath. Masā’il al-Imām Aḥmad Riwāyat Abū Dāwud Sulaymān ibn al-Ash‘ath al-Sijistānī. Beirut: Dar al-Ma’rifah, 1980.
• Al-Atawneh, Muhammad. “Wahhābī Legal Theory as Reflected in Modern Official Saudi Fatwās: Ijtihād, Taqlīd, Sources, and Methodology”. Islamic Law and Society 18 (2011), 327-355.
• Al-Atawneh, Muhammad. Wahhābī Islam Facing the Challenges of Modernity, Dār al-Iftā in the Modern Saudi State. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
• Al-Dabbagh, May ve Gargani, Ghalia. “Saudi Arabia”. Arab Family Studies: Critical Reviews. Edited Suad Joseph, 275-294. New York: Syracuse University Press, 2018.
• Al-Jarbou, Ayoub M. “The Role of Traditionalist and Modernists on the Development of the Saudi Legal System”. Arab Law Quarterly, 21 (2007),191-229.
• Al-Sīsī, Fahd ibn Maḥmūd bin Aḥmad. “Makānat al-‘Urf fī al-Sharī‘ati al-Islāmiyyet wa Athāruhū fī Sinni al-Inẓimati fī Mamlakat al-Arabiyya al-Su‘ūdiyya”. Medina: Kulliyya al-Shar‘iyya fī al-Jāmi‘a al-Islāmiyya, Master thesis, 2009.
• Bābakī, ‘Alī Ibn Yaḥyā. Qaḍāyā al-Ṭalāq wa al-Ḥaḍānat wa al-Nafaqāt wa alZiyārat. Riyadh: Maktaba Dīwān al-Muḥāmīn, 2015.
• Ibn Qudāma al-Maqdisī, ‘Abdullah ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad. Al-Kāfī fī Fiqh Ahmad Ibn Ḥanbal. Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 1994.
• Ibrahim, Ahmed Fekry. “Customary Practices as Exigencies in Islamic Law Between a Source of Law and a Legal Maxim”. Oriens 46 (2018), 222-261.(Forthcoming).
• Kamali, Mohammad Hashim. Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence. Cabridge: St Edmundsbury Press, 1991. Layish, Aharon. “Saudi Arabian Legal Reform as a Mechanism to Moderate Wahhābī Doctrine”. Journal of the American Oriental Society 107 (1987), 279-292.
• Layish, Aharon. Women and Islamic Law in a Non-Muslim State: A Study Based on Decisions of the Shari’a Courts in Israel. Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 1975. 393
• THE USAGE OF CUSTOM IN THE CONTEMPORARY LEGAL SYSTEM OF SAUDI ARABIA: DIVORCE ON TRIAL Marar, Amr Daoud. “Saudi Arabia the Duality of the Legal System and the Challenge of Adapting Law to Market Economies”. Arab Law Quarterly, 19 (2004), 91-123.
• Mubārakī, Aḥmad ibn ‘Ali Sīr. Al-‘Urf wa Atharuhū fī al-Sharī‘ati wa al-Qānūn. Riyadh: 1993.
• Nasir, Jamal J. The Status of Women Under Islamic Law and Under Modern Islamic Legislation. London: Graham Trotman, 1990.
• Oman, Nathan B. “Bargaining in the Shadow of God’s Law: Islamic Mahr Contracts and the Perils of Legal Specialization”. Wake Forest Law Review 9/46 (2010), 1-27.
• Rapoport, Yossef. “Matrimonial Gifts in Early Islamic Egypt”. Islamic Law and Society 7/1 (2000), 1-36. Recki, Birgit. “Culture”. Religion, Past, Present: Encyclopedia of Theology and Religion, 4th ed. 3. Leiden: Brill, 2007.
• Rosen, Lawrence. The Anthropology of Justice: Law as Culture in Islamic Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
• Rosen, Lawrence. The Justice of Islam: Comparative Perspectives on Islamic Law and Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
• Shabana, Ayman. “Custom, as a Source of Law”. Encyclopedia of Islam. 3rd ed. Brill Online. Accessed 25 October 2018, http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-3/custom-as-a-source-of-lawCOM_24632.
• Shabana, Ayman. Custom in Islamic Law and Legal Theory: The Development of the Concept of ‘Urf and ‘Ādah in the Islamic Legal Tradition. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
• Spectorsky, Susan A. Chapters on Marriage and Divorce Responses of Ibn Hanbal and Ibn Rahwayh. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993.
• The Qur’an English Meanings. Translated by Ṣaḥeeḥ International. Riyadh: AlMuntada al-Islami, 2010. Vikor, Knut S. Between God and the Sultan: A History of Islamic Law. London: C. Hurst - Co, 2005.
• Vogel, Frank E. Islamic Law and Legal System: Studies of Saudi Arabia. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
• Welchman, Lynn. Women and Muslim Family Laws in Arab States: A Comparative Overview of Textual Development and Advocacy. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007.
• Wilcke, Christoph. “Saudi Women’s Struggle”. The Unfinished Revolution: Voices from the Global Fight for Women’s Rights. Edited Minky Worden, 93-106. Bristol: The Policy Press, 2012.
• Wynn, Lisa. “Marriage Contracts and Women’s Rights in Saudi Arabia: Mahr, Shurūt, and Knowledge Distribution”. In The Islamic Marriage Contract Case Studies in Islamic Family Law. Edited Asifa Quraishi and Frank E. Vogel, 200-214. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2008.
• Yamani, Maha A. Z. Polygamy and Law in Contemporary Saudi Arabia. Reading: Ithaca, 2008.
• Yargi, Mehmet Ali. Suudi Arabistanin Yargi Sistemi. Istanbul: IFAV, 2014.
• Yasarī, Muhammad. Al-Maṣlaḥa fī al-Tashrī‘ al-Islāmī. Cairo: Dār al-Yasr, 1954.
• http://www.alifta.net/Default.aspx?languagename=en.
• https://www.saudiembassy.net/basic-law-governance.