Muslim Law in India

Muslim personal law in India is not wholly codified in a single statute. Classical principles continue to operate in personal-law fields, but important areas have been modified, clarified or supplemented by legislation and constitutional adjudication.

The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 provides that, notwithstanding contrary custom or usage, Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) is to be the rule of decision in the matters specified by Section 2 where the parties are Muslims, subject to the statutory text.

Accordingly, it is more accurate to describe Muslim personal law in India as a combination of classical personal-law rules, legislation and judicial precedent rather than simply as "uncodified law".

For general legal study, a Muslim is a person who professes Islam. Muslim status may arise by birth into a Muslim family or through a bona fide conversion to Islam, subject to the legal context in which the question arises.

Questions concerning the legal effect of conversion may differ depending on the subject-for example marriage, succession or another statutory field-and must be answered under the applicable law rather than by a single universal formula.

The Five Pillars are religious concepts rather than statutory rules of Indian personal law, but they are frequently included in introductory LLB notes:

1. Shahada: profession of faith.
2. Salah: prescribed daily prayers.
3. Zakat: obligatory almsgiving in accordance with Islamic principles.
4. Sawm: fasting during Ramadan.
5. Hajj: pilgrimage to Mecca for those able to undertake it.

Sunni schools

The principal Sunni schools of jurisprudence are:

• Hanafi
• Maliki
• Shafi'i
• Hanbali

The Hanafi school has historically had the widest application among Sunni Muslims in India, though other Sunni schools are also relevant.

Shia schools

Important Shia traditions include:

• Ithna Ashari / Twelver
• Ismaili
• Zaydi

Exam correction: it is incorrect to say that Shia law "does not prevail in India." Shia communities exist in India and Shia personal-law principles may apply where the parties belong to the relevant Shia school.

Primary / classical sources

1. Quran: the foundational religious text and primary source.
2. Sunnah and Hadith: traditions concerning the practices, sayings and approvals associated with Prophet Muhammad.
3. Ijma: juristic consensus, with its authority and scope understood differently across schools.
4. Qiyas: analogical reasoning, particularly significant in Sunni jurisprudence; Shia jurisprudential approaches differ.

Supplementary sources in Indian legal practice

• Custom: historically relevant where legally recognised, though the Shariat Act, 1937 displaced contrary custom in the matters specified by that Act.
• Judicial precedent: decisions of constitutional courts and other courts shape the application of personal-law rules.
• Legislation: Parliament has enacted important statutes governing Muslim personal-law matters.
• Justice, equity and good conscience: historically used by courts where applicable legal rules did not provide a complete answer, subject today to statutory and constitutional law.

Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937

Section 2 makes Muslim Personal Law the rule of decision in the personal-law matters specified in the section where the parties are Muslims, notwithstanding contrary custom or usage, subject to the Act.

Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939

The Act consolidates and clarifies grounds on which a woman married under Muslim law may obtain a judicial decree dissolving the marriage. Section 2 contains the statutory grounds; Section 4 addresses the effect of renunciation of Islam or conversion by a married Muslim woman; Section 5 protects rights to dower.

Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986

The Act protects specified rights of Muslim women who have been divorced or have obtained divorce, including provisions concerning reasonable and fair provision, maintenance, mahr/dower and properties, subject to the Act and Supreme Court interpretation.

Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019

The Act declares pronouncement of talaq-e-biddat or another similar instantaneous and irrevocable form of talaq to be void and illegal. It also creates criminal consequences for the prohibited pronouncement and provides for subsistence allowance and custody-related relief.

In Shayara Bano v. Union of India (2017), the Supreme Court invalidated the practice of instant triple talaq (talaq-e-biddat) by a 3:2 majority, though the judges used different constitutional and legal reasoning.

Parliament subsequently enacted the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019. Under Section 3, a pronouncement of the prohibited instantaneous and irrevocable talaq is void and illegal. Section 4 provides criminal punishment, while Sections 5 and 6 provide specified civil protections.

Halala caution: the old shorthand that a woman divorced by "triple talaq" must marry and consummate another marriage before remarrying the former husband is misleading as a statement of current Indian law. Instant triple talaq itself is void and illegal under the 2019 Act. Questions about remarriage after other forms of valid and final divorce depend on the applicable Muslim-law doctrine and the facts; "nikah halala" is not a general statutory requirement created by Indian legislation.

The maintenance framework includes the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 and the secular summary-maintenance remedy now contained in Section 144 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023.

In Mohd. Abdul Samad v. State of Telangana (10 July 2024), the Supreme Court held that the maintenance remedy under former Section 125 CrPC was available to a divorced Muslim woman and was not excluded by the 1986 Act. The corresponding current summary-maintenance provision is Section 144 BNSS.

Accordingly, an exam answer should not state that a divorced Muslim woman's maintenance rights are confined only to the iddat period or only to the 1986 Act.

• Shariat Act, 1937: application of Muslim Personal Law in specified matters.
• Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939: statutory grounds for judicial dissolution at the instance of a Muslim wife.
• 1986 Act: rights of divorced Muslim women.
• 2019 Act: instant and irrevocable triple talaq is void and illegal.
• Section 144 BNSS: current summary-maintenance provision for wives, children and parents.
• Sunni schools: Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali.
• Shia traditions: include Ithna Ashari, Ismaili and Zaydi.
• Primary sources: Quran, Sunnah/Hadith, Ijma and Qiyas, subject to school-specific differences.
• Nikah: marriage; mahr: enforceable marital financial obligation; iddat: waiting period.