Muslim scholars have historically conflated spheres of “morality” with “law” and in so doing presented a confused picture: Sharia is advanced as a monolithic term that does not distinguish between divine law, natural law, morality and positive law. In examining legal issues, Muslim scholars and analysts make references to the Sharia, Islamic law and State law in the same breath, without attempting to make any distinctions. Thus, there are conscious and unconscious references or referrals to the Sharia as including natural law, morality as well as positive State law. The failure to draw distinctions not only generates confusion but any consequent legal analysis is simply incorrect. This presentation provides a range of examples of the conflation of natural law and morality with positive law; this exercise wrongly represents the role religious morality has acquired in governance within modern nation States. One of the major sources of confusion and ostensible inaccuracy is caused by a failure in developing a proper understanding of the meaning and concept of “law”. This study aims to rectify this failure through its examination of the meaning of law, and law’s relationship with morality.

Dr Javaid Rehman is a Professor of Law at Brunel, University of London, United Kingdom, specialising in Islamic law and Muslim constitutionalism. He is an internationally recognised expert in international human rights law and is the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran (2018-2024).
Professor Rehman is a UWA Institute of Advanced Studies Visiting Fellow. During his visit he will work with hosts Associate Professor Melanie O’Brien in the UWA Law School and Emeritus Professor Samina Yasmeen in the UWA School of Social Sciences.

Venue: Fox Lecture Theatre, Arts Building UWA

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Unravelling Religious Moralities: Muslim Constitutionalism and Legal Reform

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