Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives - Islamic Books ...

R ace, Ideology, and Islam in Contemporary South Africa 2 7 1The Muslim Personal Law Board set about to discuss the system “of personallaw and family law” allowed by the constitution. The members reached agreementon the desirability of the state’s recognition of Islamic personal law. Thisagreement is significant because the implementation of Muslim personal lawis only a small part of the Islamic legal code. The present Muslim personal lawis a product of the nineteenth century, a fact that has not been lost on criticswho argue that all of Islamic law should be applied. The Muslim Personal LawBoard, though, agreed that Muslim personal law should be applied to Muslimsin South Africa.However, the board split into two camps over the substantive content of thel a w. Wo m e n ’s interest groups and progressive Islamic organizations insistedthat the particular article in question should be read in its entirety. For them,the crux of the matter rested on the fact that the system of Islamic law implementedin the new South African state should be consistent with the “otherprovisions of the Constitution.” Thus, they argue that the system of Muslimpersonal law in South Africa should be interpreted with this condition inmind. Most important, they contend that this condition should ensure an interpretationof Islamic law that would not disadvantage women. The leadingand most articulate spokesperson for this new interpretation of Muslim personallaw has been Ebrahim Moosa. In both academic and newspaper articles,he has argued that many traditional provisions associated with the s h a r i ’ ashould be regarded as human rulings that were produced by earlier generationsof male scholars whose interpretations need no longer be held as valid(Moosa 1991, 1996a). Making a distinction between a divine and idealizedshari’a and humanly constructed fiqh, Moosa argued that the latter could bereconstructed in terms of the constitution. Moosa taught and inspired studentsand activists to revisit traditional issues in Islamic law. Reflecting this approach,Najma Moosa, a member of the new project committee, concurred:“Muslims can only give practical legal effect to the Constitution if due recognitionis given to a reformed [my emphasis] MPL [Muslim personal law] and itsimplementation” (Moosa 1998, 201). With Ebrahim Moosa in the lead, astrong and principled voice thus emerged for a significant reformulation ofIslamic law.Nevertheless, his view was not acceptable to all the members of the MuslimPersonal Law Board. Before looking at the key counterarguments, however, itwould be important to note that the innovative definitions and interpretationswere facing not only traditionalist rejections. The landmark case of Rylands v.E d ro s s in 1996 had raised the issue of the interpretation of Islamic law in court.The judgment revealed the impact of the new constitution, then still an interimconstitution, on the recognition of Islamic mores in South African societ y. The case involved a woman who demanded a fair share in the conjugal estateat the time of divorce. The marriage had been conducted only according