Teaching Islamic law in opposing jurisdictions: UK and Nigeria

This article is impelled by the author's different experiences of teaching Islamic law at Bayero University Kano, Northern Nigeria and the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. These two places represent two opposing jurisdictions in that the former is predominantly Muslim-populated and it applies Islamic law within a hybrid legal system while the latter is a non-Muslim, Western and secular state. The article contrasts the approaches to teaching Islamic law in these jurisdictions and points out that though the culture of questioning is known to the Islamic world, teaching Islamic law in Nigeria adopts a take-it-or-leave-it approach to the legal injunctions provided in the primary sources of the law (Qur'an and Hadith). Students and teachers hardly ever challenge laws built on these sources. In contrast, Islamic law in the United Kingdom is like any other field of study and is therefore subjected to the normal academic critique, which involves a critical analysis of the primary sources. The article explores these and other distinctions in the teaching of Islamic law in the two jurisdictions and concludes that though the UK is secular, its approach is more in tandem with the Islamic tradition which encourages intellectual exercise in order to deduce and develop legal principles.