THE IMPACT OF NEUROPATHOLOGICAL CONDITIONS ON LEGAL CAPACITY(AHLIYYA) AND RELIGIO-MORAL RESPONSIBILITY(TAKLĪF): AN ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Recent developments in neuroscience have provided a deeper understanding of the brain, neurons, neurocognitive disorders, their processes and functions, and how changes in brain functionality can impact mental capacity. With such developments, neuroscience has significantly deepened modern clinical understanding of brain activities by providing in-depth descriptions of the causes of cognitive impairment and suggesting various methods for treating or alleviating the effects of associated mental illnesses. This quantum leap has widened the range of techniques for identifying several neurological disorders often caused by brain damage or disruption of blood flow to the brain, such as dementia and amnesia. While pre-modern Muslim jurists addressed cognitive impairment cases such as junūn (insanity), ‘atah (idiocy), safah(feeble-mindedness), nisyān (occasional forgetfulness), they did not methodically examine modern neurological disorders like dementia and amnesia, which involve partial, progressive, or fluctuating cognitive and memory impairments. Furthermore, current jurisprudential discourse briefly touches on these conditions under the general topic of ‘disability and legal capacity’ without fully engaging with contemporary medical understanding or recognizing the complex spectrum that amnesia and dementia represent. To fill this lacuna, this thesis develops a stage-based religio-moral analysis framework and a multidisciplinary study that critically examines how classical juristic discussions can be of relevance to cases involving people with dementia and amnesia. It also proposes ways to integrate these principles with current scientific and juristic (fiqhī ) insights. The study concludes that dementia and amnesia should be reframed and approached as a distinct impediment to legal capacity(‘awarid al-ahliyyah) resulting from “acts of God”(asbāb samāwiyya) because none of the current categories of impediments can effectively map and mirror the complexities and nuances of these disorders. The study argues that equating dementia with the Arabic term “kharaf” and amnesia with “nisyān” risks conflating two diametrically opposed epistemological and ontological frameworks. While the study rebuffs a one-size-fits-all approach to address dementia and amnesia, it strongly advocates for a binary and graded capacity model framework when evaluating actions of individuals with these conditions from a religio-legal perspective. Such a model is operative and would facilitate juristic rulings that reflect the complexities and subtleties of these neurological disorders.

Date of Award	2026
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	HBKU College of Islamic Studies