The Sacred Law of Marriage, Statehood, and Judicial Procedures
For Adults | Taught by Hamza Karamali
A detailed study of the Sacred Law of gender roles, marriage, family, divorce, custody, court settlements, polygamy, domestic violence, manslaughter, aggression, war, slavery, religious statehood, and liberal citizenship. Learn 160 pages of real knowledge from The Reliance of the Traveller, ask your real-life questions, and follow an experienced jurist as he shows you how to live and think according to the Sacred Law in light of its abuse by extremists and corrupt religionists, media headlines, and moral conflicts with modern liberalism. (This is the third of three courses that cover The Reliance of the Traveller in its entirety. Each part is a stand-alone course that does not require you to take the other parts.) Although this course is based on the Reliance, it adopts a practical approach that makes it applicable to students of any of the four schools of thought.
12 Live Classes (Recorded For Later Viewing) - 12 Supplementary Recorded Lessons - Guided Reading of 160 pages from Reliance of the Traveler - Midterm - Final Exam
Start Date: Oct 10
End Date: Jan 1
Weekly Live Sessions (Recorded For Later Viewing):
Sundays 11 am - 12.30 pm UTC (Convert to your time zone)
(SCROLL DOWN FOR THE MONTHLY PAYMENT OPTION)
Syllabus
01. Gender, Sex, and Adultery
Allah Most High’s commands that we ourselves according to specific gender roles are an expression of an underlying social philosophy. Hamza Karamali explains the wisdoms of gender-based rules related to the hijab, modest clothing, lowering the gaze, family, interactions with marriageable and unmarriageable members of the opposite sex, marriage, and adultery, and why these rules are not discriminatory.
Reliance of the Traveller: Who Should Marry (m1); Engagement and Looking at the Opposite Sex (m2), Unmarriageable Kin (Mahram) (m6), The Wedding Feast (m9), Becoming Unmarriageable Kin by Suckling (n12)
02. What is Marriage?
Hamza Karamali explains differences in marriage-law in (now secular) Christian societies and in Sacred Law, the legal consequences of those differences, and their relation to different theories of human flourishing and gender roles.
Reliance of the Traveller, Integrals of a Marriage Agreement (m3), A Suitable Match (m4), Conjugal Rights (m5), Defects in a Spouse Permitting the Annulment of Marriage (m7), The Bride’s Marriage Payment (m8.0)
03. Alimony, Divorce Settlements, and Child Custody
Marriage gives rise to financial obligations, but only on the husband. Some of these obligations persist after divorce but others don’t, leading to custody rights (or lack thereof). Hamza Karamali explains and then illustrates what these rules mean in the context of modern divorce settlements in secular courts.
Reliance of the Traveller: The Wife’s Financial Support (m11), Support of One’s Parents and Children (m12), Child Care and Custody (m13)
04. Polygamy, Domestic Violence and Divorce
The goal of Sacred Law is to engender love and mercy between husbands and wives, but men frequently abuse its rules to justify bad marriages, secret affairs, and domestic violence. Hamza Karamali teaches you how to identify this abuse and how women can protect themselves through prenuptial agreements.
Reliance of the Traveller: Relations Between a Husband and Wives (m10), Who May Effect a Divorce (n1), Forswearing One’s Wife More Than Four Months (n8)
05. Kinds of Divorce
Sacred Law places divorce in the hands of the husband (Hamza Karamali explains why) but women, too, can sometimes initiate divorce. Hamza Karamali explains the different kinds of divorce and their implications for whether the spouses can get married again.
Reliance of the Traveller: General Provisions Concerning Divorce (n2), Words that Effect a Divorce (n3), Conditional Expressions That Effect a Divorce (n4), A Release for Payment from the Wife (Khul’) (n5), Doubts About the Fact of Having Divorced (n6), Taking Back a Divorced Wife (n7)
06. Paternity, Lineage, and Adultery
The preservation of lineage is one of the primary goals of Sacred Law (and, in fact, every civilization). Hamza Karamali explains why, how it is preserved, and how it is established.
Reliance of the Traveller: A Woman’s Postmarital Waiting Period (n9), Establishing Paternity (n10), Charging One’s Wife With Adultery (n11), The Penalty For Accusing a Person of Adultery Without Proof (o13)
MIDTERM Apply your knowledge to a variety of real-life problems.
07. Murder, Self-Defense, and the Rule of Law
Hamza Karamali explains how the rules of legal retaliation for injury or death historically upheld the rule of law and preserved human life in Muslim societies and how those rules can be the basis for a religious theory of good citizenship in modern liberal societies where those rules are no longer applied.
Reliance of the Traveller: Who Is Subject to Retaliation for Injurious Crimes (o1), Intentionality in Injurious Crimes (o2), Retaliation for Bodily Injury or Death (o3), Indemnity (o4), The Expiation to Allah for Taking a Human Life (o5), Warding Off Aggressors (o7)
08. Religion, Statehood, and Modern Citizenship
What is a state and what relation should it have to religion? Modern philosophers have sought answers in light of the Western European struggle against a corrupt and politicized church. Hamza Karamali explains how Muslim extremists abuse the concept of the caliphate and how, properly understood, it reveals a robust theory of ethical citizenship in secular states.
Reliance of the Traveller: Apostasy from Islam (o8), The Non-Muslim Subjects of the Islamic State (o11), The Caliphate (o25)
09. War, Revolutions, and Failed States
Hamza Karamali compares the Geneva conventions to the rules of war in Sacred Law to illustrate that the goal of studying the rules of war is to regulate war, not to encourage it, and that what failed states need is the restoration of the rule of law, not an invocation of jihad.
Reliance of the Traveller: Fighting Those Who Rebel Against the Caliph (o6), Jihad (o9), The Spoils of Battle (o10), The Penalty for Highway Robbery (o15)
10. Innocent Until Proven Guilty
The famous principles of the separation of powers and “innocent until proven guilty” have long precedent in Sacred Law. Hamza Karamali describes court procedures and the social dynamics of legal testimony in traditional Islamic societies.
Reliance of the Traveller: The Judgeship (o21), The Judge and the Court (o22), Court Claims (o23), Witnessing and Testifying (o24)
11. Major and Minor Sins
Witnesses must be upright. Scholars of Sacred Law digress at this point to list a host of sins that don’t fit into other chapters of Sacred Law. Hamza Karamali explains the difference between major and minor sins and walks you through one of the most comprehensive lists of everyday-sins-to-avoid.
Reliance of the Traveller: Oaths (018), Examples of Breaking and Not Breaking Oaths (o19), The Expiation For a Broken Oath (o20), Ibn Hajar Haytami’s List of Enormities (w52)
12. Prison and Punishment
The ideal legal punishment is one that never needs to be implemented. Hamza Karamali explains that the few severe punishments in Sacred Law have extremely high standards of proof, making them difficult to apply while retaining their deterring effect.
Reliance of the Traveller: The Penalty For Theft (o14), The Penalty For Drinking (o16), Disciplinary Action (o17)
FINAL Integrate modern liberal citizenship into a conservative Islamic worldview
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