The SHARIAsource Lab Our central mission at the Program in Islamic Law is to promote research and provide resources for the academic study of Islamic law while engaging with our global community. In times of crisis, it is imperative that we continue to focus on the work of education and innovation in areas of Islamic law and history. These disciplines serve as invaluable anchors providing historical context and ethical guidance that inform our commitments in the present moment. As part of this commitment, we launched this semester’s SHARIAsource Lab as part of our initiative to build data science tools to aid the study of Islamic law and history. The Lab brings together scholars, practitioners, data scientists, software engineers, and students to develop and experiment with our suite of data science tools, including SHARIAsource-Analytics, SHARIAsource-CorpusBuilder, SHARIAsource-Metadata, and SEARCHstrata, to present research, data preparation, and/or text analysis on materials related to Islamic law. These tools are collaborative efforts that we believe will revolutionize the field by facilitating new research and insights into Islamic law and history. This semester, we are piloting canons-tracking search tools to explore how we can effectively trace Islamic legal canons (qawāʿid fiqhiyya) as memes across works of history, literature, biography, and law, as sources for social and legal history.

CONTENT: Primary Sources on Islamic Law in PakistanOne aim of SHARIAsource is to provide access to primary sources of Islamic law to support research on salient issues of Islamic law and history. The portal features a Country Profiles special collection that offers succinct overviews and resources for each country’s legal history, institutional structures, and legal status of Islamic law (sharīʿa), including the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Under Pakistan’s Constitution, Islamic law (sharīʿa or fiqh) is a principal source of legislation. In addition to its Country Profile, our portal also features over 60 primary sources that pertain to Pakistan, including: the Constitution, Muslim Family Laws Ordinance 1961, Supreme Court documents on a recent blasphemy case [Ayub Masih v. State], National Assembly of Pakistan Criminal Laws Act, the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, and more! Explore them today!

CONTEXT: Discussion with Justice Shah of the Supreme Court of Pakistan  Last month, Harvard Law School’s Muslim Law Students Association (MLSA), the South Asian Law Students Association (SALSA), and the Program in Islamic Law hosted a discussion and Q&A with Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, moderated by PIL Faculty Director, Professor Intisar Rabb. During this discussion, Justice Shah reflected on his journey from law school to the Supreme Court bench, reflecting on his motivations along the way. He also gave an overview of the relationship between the traditional branches of Pakistan’s government as well as the democratic difficulties the country has faces since its founding. Justice Shah also looked forward too, highlighting the anticipated impacts of technological developments such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the law. Watch the video today!