A longitudinal history of Islamic child custody law, challenging Euro-American exceptionalism to reveal developments that considered the best interests of the child.

In this informative book written and compiled by Saeid Nazari Tavakkoli, we learn the many different laws on the rights of the mother, the father, the child, and their related topics such as breastfeeding, weaning, child custody in case of divorce, responsibilities of the parents, rules regarding abandoned children, and a great many other laws related to these very important topics according to Islamic Shia jurisprudence. Laws discussed in this book are based on the Quran, and Hadith of the Prophet (saws) and holy Ahlu-Bayt (as). Various fundamental opinions of other Islamic schools of thought are also mentioned herein and discussed.

This book is one of the many Islamic publications distributed by Mustafa Organization throughout the world in different languages with the aim of conveying the message of Islam to the people of the world. Mustafa Organization is a registered Organization that operates and is sustained through collaborative efforts of volunteers in many countries around the world, and it welcomes your involvement and support. Its objectives are numerous, yet its main goal is to spread the truth about the Islamic faith in general and the Shi`a School of Thought in particular due to the latter being misrepresented, misunderstood and its tenets often assaulted by many ignorant folks, Muslims and non-Muslims. Organization's purpose is to facilitate the dissemination of knowledge through a global medium, the Internet, to locations where such resources are not commonly or easily accessible or are resented, resisted and fought!

This book is the first analysis of parental care regimes in Muslim jurisdictions, both in a comparative and country-specific sense. It contains the proceedings of a workshop on Parental Care and the Best Interests of the Child in Muslim Countries that the Max Planck Research Group “Changes in God’s Law: An Inner-Islamic Comparison of Family and Succession Law” hosted in Rabat, Morocco in April 2015. This workshop saw a total of 15 country reports presented on questions of custody, guardianship and their development within different Muslim jurisdictions (ranging from Indonesia to Morocco), a number of which are included in full in the book. Each of these country reports contains a historical perspective on the evolution of domestic rules regarding custody and guardianship, and on the introduction and development of the notion of the best interests of the child. Most importantly, the prevailing legal norms, both substantive and procedural, are explored and particular attention is given to legal practice and the role of the judiciary. In addition to a selection of country reports from the workshop, the volume includes two comparative analyses on questions of parental care in both public and private international law. With a high practical relevance for legal practitioners working in the area of cross-border custody disputes and the most up-to-date assessment of parental care regimes beyond a pure analysis of statutory law, this book combines a number of country reports authored by experts who have worked or are still based in the respective countries they are reporting on and thus contains in-depth discussions of legal practice and custody law in action. Nadjma Yassari is Director of the Research Group “Changes in God’s Law: An Inner-Islamic Comparison of Family and Succession Law” while Lena- Maria Möller and Imen Gallala-Arndt are Senior Research Fellows at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg and the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle respectively.

In "Islamic Family Law in a Changing World," Abdullahi A. An-Na'im explores the practice of the Shari'a, commonly known as Islamic Family Law. An-Na'im shows that the practical application of Shari'a principles is often modified by theological differences of interpretation, a country's particular customary practices, and state policy and law.

Custody is a right of the child from its birth. Islamic law issues rules for custody in the light of the interest of the minor. In Islamic law custody goes to the mother unless she is disqualified and then to other relatives. This paper discusses and analyses the rules of child custody in Islamic law and argues that most of these rules are not divine. These are a product of ijtihād. A large extent of these rules is actually presumptions which may be rebutted in a given situation.

This book contains selected contributions presented during the workshop “Establishing Filiation: Towards a Social Definition of the Family in Islamic and Middle Eastern Law?”, which was convened in Beirut, Lebanon in November 2017. Filiation is a multifaceted concept in Muslim jurisdictions. Beyond its legal aspect, it encompasses the notion of inclusion and belonging, thereby holding significant social implications. Being the child of someone, carrying one’s father’s name, and inheriting from both parents form important pillars of personal identity. This volume explores filiation (nasab) and alternative forms of a full parent-child relationship in Muslim jurisdictions. Eleven country reports ranging from Morocco to Malaysia examine how maternal and paternal filiation is established – be it by operation of the law, by the parties’ exercise of autonomy, such as acknowledgement, or by scientific means, DNA testing in particular – and how lawmakers, courts, and society at large view and treat children who fall outside those legal structures, especially children born out of wedlock or under dubious circumstances. In a second step, alternative care schemes in place for the protection of parentless children are examined and their potential to recreate a legal parent-child relationship is discussed. In addition to the countr y-specific analyses included in this book, three further contributions explore the subject matter from perspectives of premodern Sunni legal doctrine, premodern Shiite legal doctrine and the private international law regimes of contemporary Arab countries. Finally, a comparative analysis of the themes explored is presented in the synopsis at the end of this volume. The book is aimed at scholars in the fields of Muslim family law and comparative family law and is of high practical relevance to legal practitioners working in the area of international child law. Nadjma Yassari is Leader of the Research Group “Changes in God’s Law: An Inner-Islamic Comparison of Family and Succession Law” at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law while Lena-Maria Möller is a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute and a member of the same Research Group. Marie-Claude Najm is a Professor in the Faculty of Law and Political Science at Saint Joseph University of Beirut in Lebanon and Director of the Centre of Legal Studies and Research for the Arab World (CEDROMA).