Role of religious sources in forming the Muslim Criminal Law under modern conditions

Abstract

The topicality of the problem under study is conditioned by the need to determine the role and position of the religious sources which participated in forming and developing of the modern Islamic criminal law. The objective of the research is to disclose the significance of the religious sources in the development of Muslim criminal law under modern conditions, basing on the Russian and foreign literature and on the analysis of the sources. The leading approach to research is comparative-legal method, which enables to comprehensively study the features of the source of the modern Muslim law. The research revealed such features of the Muslim law as close interconnection of the legal and religious norms determining the institutions of crime and punishment on the modern Muslim countries.  The Quran and Sunnah are important sources, having both juridical and religious character, which influenced the development of criminal law in many countries of the Muslim world. Democracy is recognized in many Islamic states, where the ancient religious sources coexist with modern constitutions and criminal codes modeled by the European legislation patterns. The research materials will be useful for the further studies of the Islamic criminal law, as well as for the educational process at law universities.

Keywords: Islamic law, Muslim countries, the Qur’an, Sunnah, religion