The Impact of Epilepsy on the Termination of Marriage: A Comparison of Viewpoints Offered by Jurisconsults in the Five Schools of Islamic Thought (Madhāhib-i Khamsih) and the Civil Law in Light of Recent Scientific Findings

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Farzad Parsa ¹
• Om-i Kolsum Bahrami Jaf ²

¹ Associate Professor, Department of Fiqh and Shāfiʿī Law, Faculty of Humanities and Sociology, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran

² MA Graduate of Fiqh and Shāfiʿī Law, Faculty of Humanities and Sociology, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran

10.22067/jfiqh.2022.78539.1438

Abstract

Epilepsy was mainly considered a mental illness in traditional medicine and the understanding of jurisconsults, attributed to the influence of bodily humors or supernatural events and Jinns. Based on this analogy, the majority of jurisconsults considered epilepsy to be one of the defects that could nullify the marriage contract, comparing it with insanity and believing that epilepsy is a mental illness. However, at the moment neuroscience holds that epilepsy is a neurological and nervous disorder. The present research uses the descriptive-analytical method and recent scientific findings to invalidate the analogy between epilepsy and insanity and contends that epilepsy does not nullify the marriage, unless it becomes a factor in hardship and inconvenience, in which case it can nullify the marriage.

Keywords

• Marriage defects
• epilepsy
• The Five Islamic schools of thought (Madhāhib)
• Civil Law

Main Subjects

• Civil jurisprudence

---

References

Abū al-Yaman, Ibrāḥīm  ibn Muḥammad. Lisān  al-Ḥukkām. Cairo: al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī. 1973/1351.

Anjuman Ravānpizishkī Āmrīkā. Rāhnamāy Tashkhīṣī va Āmārī Ikhtilāl-hā-yi Ravānī. Translated by Farzīn Riżāʿī va et al. Tehran: Arjmand. 2015/1393.

Anṣārī,  Zakarīyā ibn Muḥammad. Asnā al-Maṭālib fī Sharḥ al-Rawḍ Ṭālib. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyya. 2001/1422.

Anṣārī,  Zakarīyā ibn Muḥammad. Fatḥ al-Wahhāb bi Sharḥ Manhaj al-Ṭullāb. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyya. 1997/1418.

Anṣārī,  Zakarīyā ibn Muḥammad. Ghurar fī Sharḥ al-Bahjah al-Wardīyah. s.l. s.n. s.d.

ʿĀṣimī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad. Ḥāsīya al-Rawḍ  al-Murbiʿ Sharḥ Zād al-Mustaqniʿ. s.l. s.n.  1977/1397.

Bābartī, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad. al-ʿInāyah Sharḥ al-Hidāya. s.l. s.n. s.d.

Bayhaqī, Aḥmad ibn Ḥusayn. al-Sunan al-Kubrā. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr. 2000/1378.

Buhūtī, Manṣūr ibn Yūnus. Kashshāf al-Qinā ʿ ʿan Matn al-Iqnā ʿ. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr. 1982/1402.

Bujayrimī, Sulaymān ibn Muḥammad. al-Tuḥfah al-Ḥabīb ʻalā Sharḥ al-Khaṭīb. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyya. 1996/1417.

Būṣīrī, Aḥmad ibn Abī Bakr. Itḥāf al-Khiyarah al-Maharah bi-Zawāʾid al-Masānīd al-ʿAsharah. Riyāḍ: Dār al-Waṭan. 1999/1420.

Dardīr, Aḥmad  ibn Muḥammad. Sharḥ al-Kabīr ʻalā Mukhtaṣar li-l-Khalīl. s.l. s.n. s.d.

Dasūqī,  Muḥammad. Ḥāsīya al-Dasūqī ʻalā al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr. s.d.

Fāḍil Hindī, Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan. Kashf  al-Lithām fī Sharḥ Qawāʾid al-Aḥkām. Qum: Mūʾassisa al-Nashr al-Islāmī. 2000/1420.

Ghazālī, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad. al-Wasīṭ fī al-Madhhab. Cairo: Dār  al-Salām. 1997/1417.

Gulpāyigānī, Muḥammad Riżā .Majmaʻ al-Masāʾil. Qum: Dār al-Qurān-i al-Karīm. 1993/1372.

Ḥaddād ʻAbādī, Abū Bakr ibn ʿAlī.  al-Jawharah al-Nayyirah fī Sharḥ Mukhtaṣar al-Qudūrī. s.l. s.n. s.d.

Ibn  Qudāmah, ʻAbd Allāh  ibn Aḥmad. al-Kāfī fī Fiqh ibn Ḥanbal.  s.l. s.n. s.d.

Ibn  Qudāmah, ʻAbd Allāh  ibn Aḥmad. al-Mughnī fī Fiqh al-Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal al-Shībānī. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr. 1985/1405.

Ibn  Taymīyih, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd  al-Ḥalīm. al-Rad ʿalā al-Manṭiqīyn. Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa. s.d.

Ibn Abī Shayba, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad. al-Muṣannif Ibn Abī Shayba. s.l.: s.n. 1989/1409.

Ibn ʻĀbidīn, Muḥammad Amīn ibn ʻUmar. Ḥāshīya Rad al-Mukhtārʻalā al-Dur al-Mukhtār  Sharḥ Tanwīr al-Abṣār  Fiqh Abū Ḥanīfa. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr. 2006/1427.

Ibn Ḥajar Haythamī, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad. Tuḥafa al-Muḥtāj fī Sharḥ al-Minhāj. s.l. s.n. s.d.

Ibn Ḥājib, ʿUthmān ibn ʿUmar. Jāmiʿ al-Umahāt. s.l. al-Yamāmah. 2000/1378.

Ibn Mulaqqin, ʿUmar ibn ʿAlī. ʿUjālat al-Muḥtāj ilā Tawjīh al-Minhāj. Urdun: Dār al-Kitāb. 2001/1422.

Ibn Qayyim Jawzīyāh, Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr. Zād al-Maʿād fī Hudā Khayr al-ʿAbād. Kuwait: al-Minār al-Islāmīyya. 1994/1414.

Ibn Rifaʿah, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad. Kifāya al-Nabīh fī Sharḥ al-Tanbīh. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyya. 2009/1387.

Ibn Rushd, Muḥammad  ibn Aḥmad. Bidāyah al-Mujtahid wa Nihāyat al-Muqtaṣid. Miṣr: Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī. 1975/1395.

Ibn Sīnā, Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh. Qānūn. Translated by ʻAbd al-Raḥmān Sharafkandī. Tehran:  Surūsh. 2011/1389

Jundī, Khalīl ibn Isḥāq.  al-Tawḍīḥ fī Sharḥ al-Mukhtaṣar al-Farʿī li-Ibn al-Ḥājib. Markaz-i  Najībawayh. 2008/1429.

Kātūzīyān, Nāṣir. Davrah-yi  Muqadamātī Ḥuqūq Madanī; Khānivādih. Tehran: Yaldā. Chāp-i Awwal, 1992/1371.

Kharshī, Muḥammad ibn ʻAbd Allah. Sharḥ al-Kharshī ʻalā Mukhtaṣar Sayyidī Khalīl. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr. s.d.

Khaṭīb Shirbīnī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad. Mughnī al-Muḥtāj ilā Maʿrifa Maʿānī Alfāẓ Minhāj. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr. 2006/1427.

Khumaynī, Rūḥ Allāḥ. Taḥrīr al-Wasīlah. Najaf: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyya. 1970/1390.

Maqdisī, Bahāʾ al-Dīn. al-ʿUdda Sharḥ al-ʿUmda. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyya. 2005/1426.

Māwardī, ʻAlī ibn Muḥammad. al- Ḥāwī fī Fiqh  al-Shafiʿī. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyya. 1994/1414.

Mawwāq, Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf.  al-Tāj wa al-Iklīl li-Mukhtaṣar Khalīl. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr. 1978/1398.

Muḥaqqiq Ḥillī. Jaʻfar ibn Ḥasan. Sharāʾiʿ al-Islām. Tehran: Istiqlāl. 1989/1409.

Murdāwī, ʻAlī ibn Sulaymān. al-Inṣāf fī Maʿrifa al-Rājiḥ min al-Khilāf ʿalā Madhhab al-Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Tūrāth al-ʻArabī. 1999/1419.

Muṭarrizī, Nāṣir ibn ʻAbd al-Sayyid. al-Mugharrab fī Tartīb al-Muʿarrab. Ḥalab: Usāma ibn Ziyd. 1979/1399.

Nawawī, Yaḥyā  ibn Sharaf. al-Rawḍa al-Ṭālibīn wa ʿUmda al-Muftīn. Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī. 1985/1405.

Nawawī, Yaḥyā  ibn Sharaf. Minhāj al-Ṭālibīn wa ʿUmda al-Muftīn. Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa.  s.d.

Qalyūbī, Aḥmad ibn Aḥmad. Ḥāsīya al-Qalyūbī ʻalā Sharḥ al-Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī ʻalā Minhāj al-Ṣāliḥīn. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr. 1998/1419.

Qurṭabī, Yūsuf ibnʿAbd Allāh. al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurān. Riyāḍ: Dār ʿĀlim al-Kutub. 2003/1424.

Rāfiʻī Qazwīnī, ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn Muḥammad. al-ʿAzīz  Sharḥ al-Wajīz. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyya. 1997/1417.

Sabziwārī, ʻAbd al-Aʿlā. Muhadhdhab al-Aḥkām fī Bayān al-Ḥalāl wa al-Ḥarām. Qum: Dār al-Tafsīr. 1997.1417.

Ṣāwī, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad. Ḥāsīya al-Ṣāwī ʻalā al-Sharḥ al-Ṣaghīr. s.l. s.n.  1995/1415.

Shah Arzānī, Muḥammad  Akbar ibn Muḥammad. Ṭibb-i Akbarī. Muntashir Shudih bi Ṣūrat Iliktrūnīkī. 2014/1393.

Shahīd Thānī, Zayn al-Dīn ibn ʿAlī.  al-Rawḍa al-Bahīya fī Sharḥ al-Lumʿa al-Dimashqīya. Qum: al-Dāwarī. 1990/1410.

Shams al-A’immah Sarakhsī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad. al-Mabsūṭ. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr. 2001/1421.

Shirwānī, ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd; Aḥmad ibn Qāsim ʿAbbādī. Ḥawāshī al-Shirwānī wa al-ʿAbbādī. s.l. s.n. s.d.

Sīstānī, ʿAlī. Minhāj al-Ṣāliḥīn. Qum: Chāpkhānah-yi  Sitārih. 1996/1416.

Suyūtī,  Muṣṭafā ibn Saʻd. Maṭālib Ulī al-Nuhā fī Sharḥ Ghāya al-Muntahā. Dimashq: Maktaba al-Islāmī. 1961/1380.

Taftāzānī, Masʿūd  ibn ʻUmar. Sharḥ  al-Talwīḥ ʻalā al-Tawḍīḥ li-Matn al-Tanqīḥ fī Uṣūl al-Fiqh. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyya. 1995/1416.

Ṭūsī, Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan. al-Khilāf fī al-Aḥkām Qum: Mūʾassisa al-Nashr al-Islāmī. 1987/1407.

Tusūlī, ʿAlī ibn ʻAbd al-Salām. Al-Bahjah fī Sharḥ al-Tuḥfah. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyya. 1997/1418.

ʿUthaymīn, Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ. al-Sharḥ al-Mumtiʻ ʻalā Zād al-Mustaqniʿ. s.l. Ibn Jawzī. 2007/1428.

Yazdī, Muḥammad Kāẓim ibn ʻAbd al-ʿAẓīm. Mulḥaqāt al-ʿUrwa  al-Wuthqā. Najaf: Maṭbaʻa Ḥaydarīyya. 1921/1339.

Zarkashī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh. Sharḥ al-Zarkashī ʻalā al-Mukhtaṣar al-Khiraqī. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyya. 2002/1423.

Zaylaʿī, Fakhr al-Dīn. Tabyīn al-Ḥaqāʾiq Sharḥ Kanz al-Daqāʾiq. Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmī. 1895/1313.

Zayn al-Dīn, Muḥammad Amīn.  Kalimah al-Taqwā. s.l. Chāpkhānah-yi Mihr. 1993/ 1413.