Disability in Islamic Law

Excerpt

Vardit Rispler-Chaim, the author of the book, has an extensive experience on Islamic Medical Ethics. She has previously written her book “Islamic Medical Ethics in the Twentieth Century” where she missed some of the important issues that have been addressed in this book, Disability in Islamic Law. Her contribution is worth appreciation as it took her over 3 years to write this book, but research and collecting the material from various medieval and modern sources stretched over more than 10 years. From classical Islamic sources and contemporary literature, the book has driven and interwoven very important concepts and terms exploring as to how Islamic law views disability and people with disabilities. She finds the general attitude to the disabled in Islamic law, marked by tolerance, acceptance, accommodation, and forgiveness regarding the fulfillment of the religious duties, or not fulfilling them, as well as in matters of criminal justice. To her, against the abusive attitudes to the disabled in the Roman and Byzantine empires, as well as during the dark Middle Ages in Europe, the attitudes in Islamic law were in every way enlightened and farseeing. …