ABSTRACT
The number of constitutions regulating the position of Islamic law within the sources of law has steadily increased ever since the 1970s and 1980s, with a peak in the 1990s and the new millennium. Most constitutions of countries with a significant Muslim population include references to Islam. Such references have been traditionally classified under four headings: generic references in preambles, religion of the state/establishment clauses, principle of conformity of legislation to sharî'ah, and requirements of the Head of State. Municipal lawyers and foreign scholars struggle to expound the constitutional provisions on sharî'ah with the traditional canons of construction. The wider setting briefly outlined above helps people assess the impact of constitutional provisions on sharî'ah in two systems that apparently have opted for fairly divergent solutions: Egypt and Pakistan. Constitutional provisions on sharî'ah need to be situated in the context of the post-modern development of religious/secular law dynamics.
