Comparative and Critical Analysis of the Offences in Islamic and English Criminal Law

Abstract

There have been debates and discussions globally, which is ongoing, over the nature of rights and obligations under Islamic criminal justice systems, particularly when it comes to Human Rights law as developed in the west. If we take a closer look we find that over the centuries there has been a gradual paradigm shift in the western jurisprudence while enlisting rights, obligations and offenses including those against God. Whereas, Islamic legal history never witnessed throughout its age of one and a half millennium such a shift in the Muslim jurists’ writings as regards rights, obligations and offenses particularly those against God. Moreover, it is interesting to note that offenses against God do not mean in Islamic criminal law what they mean in English law of crimes. In Islamic law they mean violation of the rights of Allah Almighty which are in fact not ‘God-centric’ rather they belong to His servants although He attributes violation of such rights as offenses against Himself. Thus, this article attempts to compare the nature and classifications of offenses and their legal effects on Islamic and English criminal law so as to better understand the scheme of rights and obligations in both the legal systems.