Major, its not a verse its a hadith. As said countless times many hadith are in doubt and some out right conflict with historical record. This one IIRC is not generally accepted.
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Originally Posted by Shek
Asim and Plat,
If women are not of lesser value, then why the double inheritance, double witness, and double compensation rules?
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Sir,
Pretty complicated to explain sir. It was one of the longest and most complicated of my Law School Courses, development of Islamic law.
Lets look at the seventh century century Arab conquests. From being a desert nomadic people the Arabs conquered one of the largest land empire in history. To govern it they were influenced by the laws of the areas they had conquered. The important influence was (and still is) the Code Justinian. Remember the Arabs in Muhammad's time were theoretically Roman Subjects, so it was a law familiar to them. Other sources were the Sanssiad Laws and local Arab customs.
Obviously in religious matters the Quran would predominate. Hadith (collected later, infact the development of Islamic Law was a major factor in the collection of hadiths) could be used for guidence if it was deemed "strong".
Now about 1000 AD 4 or 5 various schools of thought were recognized, each distinct. The law you refer to regarding inheritance are from the hanifi school of law. The question regarding inheritance is not as simple as you made it out under the hanfi school. Basically the Hanif school's law on inheritance is ridiculously complicated. many factors are taken into account, such as whether or not there is a spouse surving,size of holding, marital status of the daughters or son, number of children, whether or not there are any other reletives with an equitable claim etc. On the other hand the Jafari school's inheritance law is simplicity itself, all you hafve to do is if the spouse is alive the estate goes to her absolutly and then the children after her death, otherwise the children get it in equal shares. The Malik school is also different.
Pakistan, where the only real impact of islamic law is in inheritance, the Supreme Court has held that it is bound by none of the school and will make its own interpretation.
Also when you say "Islamic Law" you must find out which school it is from, and see what it is based on.