KOCHI: The Kerala High Court has observed that the Islamic clergy who have no legal training or knowledge in legal sciences cannot be relied on by the court to decide on a point of law relating to the personal law applicable to the Muslim community.
“The court shall not surrender to the opinions of the Islamic clergy, who have no legal training on the point of law. No doubt, in matters related to beliefs and practices, their opinion matters to the court, and the court should have deference for their views,” said the court.
The court issued the order on a petition seeking to review its earlier judgment declaring that the right to terminate the marriage at the instance of a Muslim wife is an absolute right conferred on her by the holy Quran and is not subject to the acceptance or the will of her husband.
The review petition was filed by the husband and said that though a Muslim woman has a right to demand divorce of her own will, she has no absolute right to pronounce ‘khula’ like the right of her counterpart to pronounce ‘talaq’. Although the Quran grants women the right to obtain khula (verse 2:229), it does not prescribe a procedure for the same. In such an instance, the counsel submitted that the correct procedure for ‘khula’ can be evidenced from the Hadith of Thabit.
The counsel for the husband also said that the verses of the Quran cannot be the subject matter of interpretation of secular courts. The court said the legal conundrum, in this case, is not an isolated one. It has evolved over the years as the scholars of Islamic studies, who have no training in legal sciences, started elucidating the point of law in Islam, on a mixture of belief and practice.
Islam has a code of law, apart from rules relating to beliefs and practices. Legal norms are the cornerstone of creating a social and cultural order within the Muslim community. The Islamic clergy failed to distinguish between the legislative authority of the Quran and the executive power of the Islamic ruler to meet particular contingencies.