Muslim Jurists' Quest for the Normative Basis of Sharia

Abstract

Muhammad Khalid Masud, ISIM Chair at Leiden University and Academic Director of the ISIM, delivered his inaugural lecture on 'Muslim Jurists' Quest for the Normative Basis of Sharia' on 20 October 2000. In the lecture, he argued that the conception of the S h a r ia as divine law has problematized the binding nature of law in Islam because it conceals its material bases in the social norms. It also obscures Muslim jurists' continuous efforts to maintain general acceptance of Islamic law by bringing the legal norms closer to social norms. He argued that the current debates on the Sharia are also triggered by this conception as it ignores the inner contradictions between legal and social norms emerging in contemporary Muslim societies. The following contains a few excerpts from this lecture.