Islamic Jurisprudence in the Western Diaspora

The book ""Islamic Jurisprudence in the Western Diaspora: Theory and Practice in Norway"" (Fiqh al-Mahjar fī al-Gharb: Taʾṣīl wa-Tanzīl fī Ḍawʾ al-Wāqiʿ al-Narwījī), by His Excellency Professor Dr ʿAlī Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ, constitutes an advanced contribution to the rigorous scholarly efforts concerned with fiqh al-aqalliyyāt (the jurisprudence of Muslim minorities) in the West. It is-without doubt-a qualitative landmark in juristic production that responds to the challenges of the Norwegian context, both at the level of uṣūlī grounding and disciplined fiqh application. The author-may God preserve him-distinguishes himself by a meticulous research method that combines robust legal verification with a deep, empirical reading of the lived realities of Muslims in the diaspora. His knowledge framework is built upon documented data from one hundred and sixty-eight Norwegian government departments spanning diverse sectors of civil life. This evidentiary base is reflected in the depth of analysis and realism of application, the careful linkage of scriptural texts to people's circumstances, and the devising of sharʿī solutions appropriate to new nawāzil (emergent cases and problems). It is noteworthy that this substantial work is not the product of a passing moment. Rather, it crowns an accumulation of knowledge and a sustained field experience that the author has built over a quarter of a century of residence and direct engagement with the Norwegian context-across daʿwa, social, juristic, and educational domains. This has imparted authenticity to the lived dimension of the work, depth to its treatment, and balance to its practical implementation. The book proceeds through its topics in a carefully structured manner: it begins with the fiqh of ʿibādāt (acts of worship), addressing subtle issues such as the rulings of prayer and fasting in polar regions; then turns to the fiqh of foods and professions; then presents the principal political and economic questions affecting the Muslim presence in the West; and finally treats post-mortem nawāzil in a different legal environment-matters of wills, burial, and inheritance. This distinctive scholarly work is not merely a foundational juristic study: it is an integrated intellectual project that offers an applied model of fiqh al-wāqiʿ (jurisprudence attentive to context) in a non-Islamic setting, and consolidates fiqh al-aqalliyyāt as an independent ijtihādī field-one that attends to maqāṣid (the higher objectives of the law) and takes heed of the laws of society (sunan al-ijtimāʿ) without compromising the uṣūl and spirit of the sharīʿa. In so doing, it addresses an urgent gap in the contemporary Islamic library and merits being taught and adopted as a reference in institutes and faculties of fiqh concerned with the affairs of Muslims in the West. Professor Dr Fayṣal Ḥamad Ḥāmid al-ʿUqaylī Professor of Juristic and Uṣūl Studies at al-Jāmiʿah al-Waṭaniyya al-Malīziyya (National University of Malaysia).