Abstract
In this chapter, the author, an international specialist in cross cultural mediation, explains the phenomenon of Alternative Dispute Resolution (hereafter ADR) and its applicability to a range of disputes as a response to the challenges facing the civil justice system globally today. Emphasizing that its underlying philosophy and approach resonates with the principles of dispute resolution embodied in the Holy Qur’an, the Sunna of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), as well as Muslim juridical culture, he makes the point that ADR has the potential of helping Muslims retrieve from the fiqh (jurisprudence), the Maqasid (the higher values) which the Sharia upholds: the protection of life; intellect; property; offspring; and, religion. Citing two contemporary examples of good, Muslim ADR practice, he stresses that this can only be done if Muslim dispute resolvers: (a) refurbish their systems with state of the art mediation training; (b) operate within the public laws of the countries where they provide ADR services; (c) meaningfully involving both men and women to dispel any perceptions of patriarchy; and, (d) draw from the broadest range of the Islamic heritage and not exclusively from their respective fiqh. Given Islam’s creative genius in historically absorbing norms and principles from other cultures and traditions and adapting them to the new universal and ethical vision it championed, ADR, with its limitless remedial imagination, its non-adversarial underpinning and its procedural flexibility, provides, in the author’s view, the best opportunity for Muslims today to resolve their interpersonal disputes amicably, within the ethics of their faith while still respecting the laws of the land.
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Notes
- 1.
Simon Roberts (1993) a leading British legal anthropologist has written extensively on the problems that arise when lawyers conduct mediation. Briefly, his argument is: Can lawyers change their persona? They are trained in adversarial methods which, by definition, are philosophically different from mediation. How can a lion trained to kill, suddenly assume the meekness of a lamb? This is the nub of his argument.
- 2.
See Keshavjee (2014).
- 3.
The author, a member of the Advisory Committee of the International Social Service of Switzerland, discussed this matter personally in 2014 with the ISS in Geneva which is doing some innovative work in this field. It was felt then in discussion, that for the foreseeable future, mediation was the only viable alternative. In fact, it is not an alternative, it is the only method to resolve any dispute in this new field.
- 4.
According to Schmidt and Cohen (2013) the internet is the largest experiment involving anarchy in history. Hundreds of millions of people are, each minute, creating and consuming an untold amount of digital content in an online world that is not truly bound by terrestrial laws. This is the Internet, the world’s largest ungoverned space.
- 5.
Among the footnote commentaries of Mir Ahmed Ali in his translation of the Holy Quran.
- 6.
Source: Sipihr (1960).
- 7.
For an independent assessment of the MLSC’s work, see [Sonia] Shah -Kazemi (2001).
- 8.
- 9.
For an elaboration on this, please see below under “steps Diasporic Muslims can take to refurbish traditional systems”.
- 10.
See Keshavjee and Whatling (2005).
- 11.
Keshavjee and Whatling (2005), p.23–28.
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Keshavjee, M.M. (2016). Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and its Potential for Helping Muslims Reclaim the Higher Ethical Values (Maqasid) Underpinning the Sharia. In: Tiliouine, H., Estes, R. (eds) The State of Social Progress of Islamic Societies. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24774-8_27
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