Devine Edicts And Societies
“God’s laws are eternal; there are of course exceptions as with any set of laws.” I couldn’t agree more that God’s laws are eternal and I also agree with you that they have to be understood on a case by case basis in the application of these laws. But I do beg to differ on your stance that “the evolving nature of societies has nothing to do with it”. I believe Allah has left enough wiggle-room in the application of His laws to cater for that. For instance given the ugly khula situations in today’s Muslim world governments can suggest a solution to facilitate women better as explained by Mr Hussain in his explanatory note above. Or because of the whole shift in the dynamics of the workforce these days ( where increasing number of women are financially independent and/or supporting their husbands) husbands may write wills to allow their wives to have a greater share of their inheritance due to their wives’ financially supportive role in their lives. These are the kind of flexibilities I was talking about. ” If the societies evolve to become more atheistic or immoral in nature, we cannot expect God’s laws to evolve with the preferences of the societies.” I have to be utterly insane to suggest even remotely that religion should offer enough flexibility to the societies to facilitate them to move towards atheism or immorality!! Maybe I should have phrased my question differently to not cause this ambiguity in my query. All I wanted to know was if Islam leaves enough wiggle-room WITHIN THE PARAMETERS of it’s laws to cater for different situations and cultures.