This booklet is a re-examination of the concept of ‘land of Islam’ in the fiqh (understanding) of the classic schools of the Islamic jurisprudence. The objective is to understand the criteria that jurists use for rendering a certain land to be a ‘Land of Islam’. A careful study in the classic sources reveals that neither Muslims being a majority, nor the application of the corporal part of the Islamic criminal law (ḥudud), is a valid criterion.
The study also reveals that the fundamental criteria used in the Islamic jurisprudence have to do with security (al-amn), freedom to practice the Islamic acts of worship (sha˒a’ir al-islam), and justice (al-˒adl). Thus, although a comprehensive and realistic survey/index is required, a rough assessment of how many Muslim-minority countries in general fare on the surveyed criteria gives them a relatively high score on the ‘Land of Islam’ scale.
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