Encyclopedia of Islam

“just witness,” trumping the judicial system as
such. In other words, the status and personal
qualities of juridical actors is paramount.
Exemplified in the works of Sayyid qUtb
(1906–66), Muslim intellectuals typically concen-
trate on pressing questions of distributive justice,
thus lacking the full historical compass and ethical
range of prior philosophical and jurisprudential
discussions. Most recently, Muslim scholars have
persuasively argued for the relevance of Islamic
conceptions of justice and jurisprudence to the
ideals and values intrinsic to international hUman
rights, such rights being the primary means for
realizing and exploring principles of interna-
tional justice. As Nigerian legal scholar Mashood
Baderin writes, in principle, “the Sharia does not
oppose or prohibit the guarantee of political and
civil rights, liberal and democratic principles, or
the liberty and freedom of individuals in relation
to the State” (Baderin 167). This line of juridical
thinking opens the door for interpreting Islamic

law in accordance with modern legal and ethical

notions of justice.

See also allah; crime and pUnishment; ethics

and morality; Fat e; Five pillars; ibn sina, abU ali

al-hUsayn; intercession; mUtazili school.

Patrick S. O’Donnell

Further reading: Khaled Abou El Fadl, Speaking in

God’s Name: Islamic Law, Authority and Women (Oxford:

Oneworld, 2001); Mashood A. Baderin, International

Human Rights and Islamic Law (New York: Oxford Uni-

versity Press, 2003); Michael Cook, Commanding Right

and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 2000); Sohail H. Hashmi,

ed., Islamic Political Ethics: Civil Society, Pluralism, and

Conflict (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,

2002); Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal

Age: 1798–1939 (Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press, 1983); Majid Khadduri, The Islamic Conception

of Justice (1962. Reprint, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins

University Press, 1983).

K 418 justice