Confession and retraction: the application of Islamic legal maxims in Safiyyatu and Amina’s cases in Northern Nigeria

The legal procedural system of the Islamic law has been constructively or destructively mounted with criticisms. One of the reasons for these criticisms is assumingly based on the lack of incorporating the objective of the Islamic Law through “intertexualizing” the textual evidences on one hand and...

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Main Author: Zakariyah, Luqman
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 2010
Subjects:
Online Access:http://irep.iium.edu.my/32049/2/Confession_and_Retraction.pdf
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author Zakariyah, Luqman
author_facet Zakariyah, Luqman
author_sort Zakariyah, Luqman
collection IIUM
description The legal procedural system of the Islamic law has been constructively or destructively mounted with criticisms. One of the reasons for these criticisms is assumingly based on the lack of incorporating the objective of the Islamic Law through “intertexualizing” the textual evidences on one hand and failure to extrapolate all sources available for “dynamizing” the legal system of the Sharicah (Islamic law) on the other. The criticisms that trailed Amina Lawal and Safiyyatu Husaini’s cases in Nigeria are, in our opinion, based on the above phenomenon. “Islamic legal maxims” as a subject is one of the sciences which aphoristically subsume all the spectrums promoted by the Sharicah. In Islamic jurisprudence, there are many legal maxims, including legal maxims of confession and retraction, on which the tenets of Islamic law are based. This article focuses on how these legal maxims can be explored to ensure justice in Islamic criminal procedures, as it is established that confession is recommendable in crimes that involve rights of men as opposed to crimes that involve rights of God, in which confession is detestable. Some of the questions raised in this article are; is it possible for someone to confess to a criminal act and to retract later? When is retraction of confession allowed in Islamic judiciary procedure? What is the effect of retraction? And in what offences can retraction avert the punishment assigned to the offence?
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spelling oai:generic.eprints.org:320492013-12-24T04:12:16Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/32049/ Confession and retraction: the application of Islamic legal maxims in Safiyyatu and Amina’s cases in Northern Nigeria Zakariyah, Luqman KBP Islamic Law The legal procedural system of the Islamic law has been constructively or destructively mounted with criticisms. One of the reasons for these criticisms is assumingly based on the lack of incorporating the objective of the Islamic Law through “intertexualizing” the textual evidences on one hand and failure to extrapolate all sources available for “dynamizing” the legal system of the Sharicah (Islamic law) on the other. The criticisms that trailed Amina Lawal and Safiyyatu Husaini’s cases in Nigeria are, in our opinion, based on the above phenomenon. “Islamic legal maxims” as a subject is one of the sciences which aphoristically subsume all the spectrums promoted by the Sharicah. In Islamic jurisprudence, there are many legal maxims, including legal maxims of confession and retraction, on which the tenets of Islamic law are based. This article focuses on how these legal maxims can be explored to ensure justice in Islamic criminal procedures, as it is established that confession is recommendable in crimes that involve rights of men as opposed to crimes that involve rights of God, in which confession is detestable. Some of the questions raised in this article are; is it possible for someone to confess to a criminal act and to retract later? When is retraction of confession allowed in Islamic judiciary procedure? What is the effect of retraction? And in what offences can retraction avert the punishment assigned to the offence? Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 2010-06 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/32049/2/Confession_and_Retraction.pdf Zakariyah, Luqman (2010) Confession and retraction: the application of Islamic legal maxims in Safiyyatu and Amina’s cases in Northern Nigeria. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 30 (2). pp. 251-263. ISSN 1469-9591 (O), 1360-2004 (P) http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13602004.2010.494074#preview 10.1080/13602004.2010.494074
spellingShingle KBP Islamic Law
Zakariyah, Luqman
Confession and retraction: the application of Islamic legal maxims in Safiyyatu and Amina’s cases in Northern Nigeria
title Confession and retraction: the application of Islamic legal maxims in Safiyyatu and Amina’s cases in Northern Nigeria
title_full Confession and retraction: the application of Islamic legal maxims in Safiyyatu and Amina’s cases in Northern Nigeria
title_fullStr Confession and retraction: the application of Islamic legal maxims in Safiyyatu and Amina’s cases in Northern Nigeria
title_full_unstemmed Confession and retraction: the application of Islamic legal maxims in Safiyyatu and Amina’s cases in Northern Nigeria
title_short Confession and retraction: the application of Islamic legal maxims in Safiyyatu and Amina’s cases in Northern Nigeria
title_sort confession and retraction the application of islamic legal maxims in safiyyatu and amina s cases in northern nigeria
topic KBP Islamic Law
url http://irep.iium.edu.my/32049/2/Confession_and_Retraction.pdf
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