Islamic Culture: An Analysis of Law, Society and Modern Influences

This essay provides an overview of Islamic culture and its interaction with modern society, focusing on the influence of Sharia law. It discusses the historical context of Islamic law, referencing the Qur'an and Hadith as primary sources. The essay examines how globalization and modernism have impacted traditional Islamic legal systems, highlighting modifications in legal codes and the influence of European legal models. It explores the persistence of Sharia law in criminal justice and contrasts it with modern legal systems that incorporate technology for fairness. The essay also addresses changes in family law, particularly the banning of triple talaq in many Muslim-majority countries. Ultimately, the essay concludes that while modernization has influenced aspects of Islamic culture and legal systems, the core principles of Sharia law remain significant, reflecting the religion's divine foundations. The essay uses references like Coulson, Kuran, and Layish to support the arguments.

Running head: ISLAMIC CULTURE
Islamic Culture
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1ISLAMIC CULTURE
Islamic Law in Modern Society
Introduction
Coulson (2017) states that Islamic law is one of the greatest laws of the world. It was
responsible to influence the legal systems of the religion of Islam where the traditional
Islamic law is termed as “Sharia”. Sharia in Islamic language means following the right path
and the people who did not follow the right path was subjected to punishments. According to
the sharia law the Muslims are expected to abide by the rules of Islam which include
believing in Allah and working according to his wishes. The primary source of the Islamic
law is the holy boom of the Muslims, the Qur’an and Hadith (Yilmaz 2016).The following
essay deals with this concept of Islam religion and how the Muslims abide by them in the
present day scenario.
Discussion
However according to Kuran (2013), after globalisation and modernism the traditional
laws of the Islamic religion have been abandoned and the modern European laws and legal
models have influenced the Islamic culture to a great extent. There have been modifications
in the legislative codes of the Islam without alterations in the traditionalism. The colonialism
under the British rule had influenced the changes in the criminal laws and the commercial
laws of the Muslims (Lavish 2017). For example, in the 20th century, the legal codes had been
revised by the Egyptian scholar Abd El-Razzak El-Sanhuri (Miller, Ziad-Miller and Elamin
2014). He had an argument that the Islamic legal heritage needed a reformation based on the
contemporary societal rules but without any form of alternation with the traditional laws.
Miller, Ziad-Miller and Elamin (2014) also states that he drafted the legal codes of Iraq in the
year 1951 following the European laws. His new drafted legal code included both the

2ISLAMIC CULTURE
classical sharia rules as well as the new reforms. This legal code system however was then
adopted by a lot of Arab countries (Fluehr- Lobban 2013).
However Fluehr- Lobban (2013) states that the modern day world do not see any
particular changes in terms of the criminal law of the Muslims. The Islamic criminal law has
the characteristics of Sharia laws which are permanent and are not flexible since according to
the Islamic culture the sharia laws are based in the divine codes and their Prophet
Muhammad had created the same. Thus they do not have the right to change the code of
criminal laws. However, Yilmaz (2016) presents the argument that the criminal justice
system of the Islamic culture which is clearly different from the criminal laws, involves
trying the criminal out, investigating the case and then detention of the convicted. In the
present world, after modernisation, the Islamic legal justice system involves the use of
technology which ensures the effectiveness and the fairness of the individual cases. The
modern Islamic law system has been digitalized where there is the use of television,
newspapers, cameras and recorders (Kuran 2013).
In accordance with this, the modern society of the Muslims have found the collapse of
the age old traditional family law. Lavish (2017) states that in earlier times the Muslim men
in the families had the right dissolve their marriage just by announcing the word “talaq” three
times. This tradition of triple talaq has been banned by the majority of the Muslim inhabited
countries such as Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, just to give priority to the women
rights and since the practise of instant triple “talaq” is highly patriarchal and unconstitutional
(Lavish 2017).
Conclusion
However, regarding the legal system of the Islamic culture, there have been few
alterations regarding the brutality of the criminal laws but in most cases the legal code of

3ISLAMIC CULTURE
conduct do follow the Sharia law still, since according to the Muslims, the Sharia law is
based upon the divine rules. Thus modernisation has influenced changes in the culture and
legal systems but the traditional concept remains the same.

4ISLAMIC CULTURE
References
Coulson, N., 2017. A history of Islamic law. Routledge.
Yilmaz, I., 2016. Muslim laws, politics and society in modern nation states: Dynamic legal
pluralisms in England, Turkey and Pakistan. Routledge.
Kuran, T., 2013. The rule of law in Islamic thought and practice: A historical perspective.
In Global perspectives on the rule of law (pp. 87-106). Routledge-Cavendish.
Layish, A., 2017. Women and Islamic law in a non-Muslim state: A study based on decisions
of the Shari'a courts in Israel. Routledge.
Miller, A.C., Ziad-Miller, A. and Elamin, E.M., 2014. Brain death and Islam: The interface of
religion, culture, history, law, and modern medicine. Chest, 146(4), pp.1092-1101.
Fluehr-Lobban, C., 2013. Islamic law and society in the Sudan. Routledge.