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Islam and international law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2010

Sheikh Wahbeh al-Zuhili
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Abstract

This article by an Islamic scholar describes the principles governing international law and international relations from an Islamic viewpoint. After presenting the rules and principles governing international relations in the Islamic system, the author emphasizes the principles of sovereignty and non-interference in the internal affairs of other States and the aspiration of Islam to peace and harmony. He goes on to explain the relationship between Muslims and others in peacetime or in the event of war and the classical jurisprudential division of the world into the abode of Islam (dar al-islam) and that of war (dar al-harb). Lastly he outlines the restrictions imposed upon warfare by Islamic Shari'a law which have attained the status of legal rules.

Type
Religion
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 87 , Issue 858: Religion , June 2005 , pp. 269 - 283
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 2005

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References

1 Qur'an, (Translation by Ali, Abdullah Yussuf, el-liwa, Dar, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (nd), Reprint of Third Edition, Lahore 1938), 49/13Google Scholar.

2 Ibid., 2/256.

3 Ibid., 3/64.

4 Ibid., 29/46.

5 Ibid., 2/208.

6 Ibid., 60/8–9.

7 Cf. Ibid., 3/64.

8 The political-religious State comprising the Muslim community and the lands and peoples under its domination in the centuries following the death (AD 632) of the Prophet Muhammad.

9 Sultan, Hamed, Ahkam al-qanun ad-duwali fi-ash-shari'a al-islamiyya (Rules of international law in Islamic Shari'a), Dar an-nahda al-'arabiyya, Cairo, 1970, p. 115.Google Scholar

10 Ridha, Sheikh Rachid, Al-wahy al-muhammadi (Muhammadan Revelation), Dar-al-manar, Cairo, 1955, p. 228Google Scholar, and by the same author, Tafseer al-manar (al-manar exegesis), Dar-al-manar, Cairo (nd), Vol. 10, pp. 139–144Google Scholar; Mohammed Abu-Zahra, Introduction to the as-siyar al-kabir of Mohammed Ibn al-Hassan ash-Shaybani, Cairo (nd), pp. 41–53 and Wahbeh M. al-Zuhili, Athar al-harb fi-l-fiqh al-islami (The effects of war in Islamic law), reprint of the 3rd ed., Dar-al-fikr, Damascus, 1998, pp. 141–147.

11 Qur'an, 2/213.

12 Ibid., 17/70.

13 Omar I, Second Caliph of Islam (634–644).

14 Ayyad, Jamal, Nuzum al-harb fi-l-Islam (Statutes of war in Islam), Maktabat al-Khangi, Cairo, 1951, p. 43Google Scholar.

15 Qur'an, 16/90.

16 Ibid., 5/8.

17 Related by Muslim Ibn al-Hajjaj (according to Abi Dhar al-Ghaffary), in his Sahih (The Genuine).

18 Related by Abu Hatem-ar-Razi, in his Ital al Hadith, and others.

19 Related by the authors of the six books of Hadith, except for Ibn Majah.

20 Qur'an, 5/1.

21 Ibid., 16/91.

22 Ibid., 8/72.

23 Ibid., 16/126.

24 See H. Sultan, op. cit. (note 9), p. 118.

25 Qur'an, 16/92.

26 Ibid., 2/208.

27 Ibid., 4/94.

28 Ibid., 4/90

29 Ibid., 8/61.

30 Makhtut (manuscript) fatawa Ibn as-Salah, Dar al-kutub of Cairo, No. 337, p. 224.

31 Ad-Dabboussi, Ta'sis an-nazar, al-matba'a al-adabiyya, Cairo (nd), p. 58.

32 See H. Sultan, op. cit. (note 9), p. 245.

33 Rushd, Ibn, al-muqaddimat al-mumahhidat, as-sa 'ada Press, Cairo, 1905, Vol. I, p.258Google Scholar; al-Khirashi (the First Sheikh of al-Azhar), fath al-Jalil 'ala mukhtasar al-'Allama Khalil, Boulaq Press, Cairo, 1880, Vol. III, p. 107.Google Scholar

34 The Hegira (Hijra) is the emigration of the Prophet from Mecca to Medina in AD 622 (= year 1 of the Hegira, the first year of the Muslim Era).

35 Qur'an, 22/39–40.

36 Related also by Abdul Razzaq and Ibn al-Mundhir from az-Zuhry in al-Alussi's tafsir, Idarat at-tiba ‘a alamiriyya, Cairo, 1853, vol. XVII, p. 162.

37 Qur'an, 2/216.

38 Arnold, Thomas, ad-da'wa ila-l-islam (The Islamic Preaching), (Arabic translation), Cairo, 1957, 2nd ed, p. 47.Google Scholar

39 Related by al-Bukhari and Muslim in their Sahih, from Abi Hurayra in other words: “If you meet them, be patient”.

40 Qura'an, 2/256.

41 Ibid., 8/61.

42 Ibid., 4/94.

43 W. al-Zuhili, op. cit. (note 10), pp. 93–94.

44 Qur' an, 22/39.

45 Ibid., 2/191.

46 Ibid., 4/75.

47 Ibid., 2/190.

48 Ibid., 8/60.

49 Ibn Taymiyya, risalat al-qital, p. 125.

50 Qur'an, 2/190.

51 Related by al-Bayhaqi (according to Malik ibn Anas).

52 Ghulul means misappropriation of booty or spoils of war.

53 Related by Imam Malik. See Jalal-u-din al-Sayuti, tanweer al-hawalik, sharh a'la muwatta' Malik, al-Halabi Press, Cairo (nd), Vol. II, p. 6.

54 i.e. those who have overstepped the limits in atheism and have attacked Muslims.

55 Related by Malik, tanweer al-hawalik, op. cit. (note 53), p. 7.

56 Qur'an, 76/8.

57 Related by al-Tabarani (according to Abu Âziz al-Jumahi), as-sunan al-kubra, da'irat al-ma'arif al-usmaniyya, Hyderabad, 1st ed., 1935.