Commercial and Social Exchange with the Hanafite School of Law: 'Marriage and the Concept of Equality of Ranking (Kafa’Ah)'

Abstract

This is a critical research paper that investigates the Hanafite conceptualization of the commercial and social spheres of interaction in relation to women and men equality. This paper aims to show that both genders are equal within the realm of commercial exchange, however, unequal in the realm of social exchange. At the same time, advancing the argument that the view of women as sexual beings and the social demographics’ of the time will allude to the rationale of Hanafite jurists regarding the in/equality between genders. More so, posing the claim that inequality exists because stability is the most sought after value of society and a hierarchy in the realm of social exchange enables such stability to occur. The latter claim will be supported by primarily examining the social institution of marriage between free persons in light of the Hanafite doctrine of equality or suitability (kafa’ah) as a way to shed some light to relevance of gender in/equality in Islam. Ultimately, to illustrates that inequality that manifests within marriage is grounded in the patriarchal, paternalistic ideology and social norms that are reflective of the pre-Islamic Arabia era up unit the establishment of Islamic jurisprudence all of which seems to have contributed to gender inequality. Overall, the rationale for the Hanafite School behind the dichotomy within the social and commercial exchanges’ in my opinion is the view of women as sexual being within the social demographics’ of their time reflected in the doctrine of equality or suitability (kafa'a) of marriage.