Three thousand years ago, the ancient Hebrew people lived in the Near East in an area called Canaan. This ancient people developed the idea of monotheism, the belief in one god. They believed that their god gave them laws to regulate their society, their religious practices, and their relationships with other people.
Conquered by the neo-Babylonians and later by the Romans, the Hebrews eventually became a scattered people, living in many countries under different legal systems. But they continued to develop their own law and tried to follow it even in foreign lands. Their law was based on the Ten Commandments and other sacred writings, which today we find in the Hebrew Bible. In developing their law, they sometimes borrowed legal concepts from other civilizations as well as passing on their own ideas. The Jewish law that developed influenced Roman law, English law, and our own Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
Development of Jewish Law
According to Hebrew teachings, a man named Moses led the Jews out of slavery in Egypt around 1250 B.C. and received the Ten Commandments f rom God. The Hebrews began writing down the commandments and other legal principles. By the sixth century B.C., they were contained in the Torah and eventually became the first five books of the Bible. The written Torah (“teaching” provided the ancient Hebrew people with a code of religious and moral laws.
https://creation.com/the-christian-...acy-of-liberty-and-resistance-against-tyranny The Christian foundations of the rule of law in the West: a legacy of liberty and resistance against tyranny
by Augusto Zimmermann
The Bible has been historically recognized as the most important book for the development of both the rule of law and democratic institutions in the Western world. However, we have seen over these last decades a deep erosion of individual rights, with the growth of state power over the life and liberty of individuals.
If the future we want for ourselves and our future generations is one of freedom under law, not absolute subjection to the arbitrary will of human authorities, we will have to restore the biblical foundations for the rule of law in the Western world. As such, the rule of law talks about the protection of the individual by God-given liberties, rather than by an all-powerful, law-giving government endowed by god-like powers over the civil society.
http://www.crf-usa.org/america-responds-to-terrorism/the-origins-of-islamic-law.html The Origins of Islamic Law Islamic law represents one of the world's great legal systems. Like Judaic law, which influenced western legal systems, Islamic law originated as an important part of the religion. Sharia, an Arabic word meaning "the right path," refers to traditional Islamic law. The Sharia comes from the Koran, the sacred book of Islam, which Muslims consider the actual word of God. The Sharia also stems from the Prophet Muhammad's teachings and interpretations of those teachings by certain Muslim legal scholars. Muslims believe that Allah (God) revealed his true will to Muhammad, who then passed on Allah's commands to humans in the Koran.
Since the Sharia originated with Allah, Muslims consider it sacred. Between the seventh century when Muhammad died and the 10th century, many Islamic legal scholars attempted to interpret the Sharia and to adapt it to the expanding Muslim Empire. The classic Sharia of the 10th century represented an important part of Islam's golden age. From that time, the Sharia has continued to be reinterpreted and adapted to changing circumstances and new issues. In the modern era, the influences of Western colonialism generated efforts to codify it. Family Law
Cases involving violations of some religious duties, lawsuits over property and business disputes, and family law all came before the kadis. Most of these cases would be considered civil law matters in Western courts today.
Family law always made up an important part of the Sharia. Below are some features of family law in the classic Sharia that would guide the kadi in making his decisions.
Usually, an individual became an adult at puberty.
A man could marry up to four wives at once.
A wife could refuse to accompany her husband on journeys.
The support of an abandoned infant was a public responsibility.
A wife had the right to food, clothing, housing, and a marriage gift from her husband.
When the owner of a female slave acknowledged her child as his own, the child became free. The child's mother became free when the owner died.
In an inheritance, a brother took twice the amount as his sister. (The brother also had financial responsibility for his sister.)
A husband could dissolve a marriage by repudiating his wife three times.
A wife could return her dowry to her husband for a divorce. She could also get a decree from a kadi ending the marriage if her husband mistreated, deserted, or failed to support her.
After a divorce, the mother usually had the right of custody of her young children.
Criminal Law
The classic Sharia identified the most serious crimes as those mentioned in the Koran. These were considered sins against Allah and carried mandatory punishments. Some of these crimes and punishments were:
adultery: death by stoning.
highway robbery: execution; crucifixion; exile; imprisonment; or right hand and left foot cut off.
theft: right hand cut off (second offense: left foot cut off; imprisonment for further offenses).
provided the ancient Hebrew people with a code of religious and moral laws.
