Islamic marriage and the English legal system: Nikkah

Introduction

Islam is now the second largest religion in the United Kingdom with results from the United Kingdom 2011 Census giving the UK Muslim population in 2011 as 2 516 000 4.4% of the total population while more recent Office of National Statistics sources have it in 2018 as 3 372 966. With the rapid rise in numbers it is no surprise that there are occasions when Sharia Law conflicts with English law. Hence why it is ever more important to look at this in the context of the English Courts. There is an increasing number of cases coming before the courts in England arising from this very conflict. To compound matters with further complications the Muslims are mainly split up into two groups Sunni and Shia with several subgroups depending on which madhhab school of thought Islamic jurisprudence the individual believes in. This article considers the Sunni jurist’s view according to the four main schools of thought each named after the classical jurist who taught them. The four primary Sunni schools are the Hanafi Sahafi Maliki and Hanbali rites. The legal interpretation and...

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