ABSTRACT
‘Islam is not only a religion, it is a political system’—and, it may be added, a social system. Of the various schools of Mohammedan law, the two which mainly affect Africans south of the Sahara are the Maliki school and the Shafi'i school—both representative of the Sunni persuasion. Customary law seems to be less ready to recognize the separate legal identity and independent capacity of a wife. The marriage of Muslims is frequently the subject of special statutory provision. Muslim law prohibits marriage between a Muslim woman and any non-Muslim man, and between a Muslim man and any woman who is not either a Muslim or a ‘Kitabiya’. In estimating the flexibility of Muslim law, account must be taken not only of its capacity to accommodate itself to the traditional rules of African society, but also of its readiness to accept the necessity for reforming its own system.
