The Socio-scientific Inimitability of the Quran in the Legal Framework of the Institution of Family

The legal social framework of the institution of the family is deemed to be one of the most important social issues. The Holy Qurʾān, as an infallible source of guidance, is the most important source of law in an Islamic society and has a special place in the explication of social law. The Holy Qurān, contains verses that address social issues related to the laws pertaining to the institution of the family. In this regard, the socio-scientific inimitability of the Qurʾān has been explicated with emphasis on the family institution. The research method employed was qualitative and documentary, descriptive-analytical and comparative. The framework of social law that was investigated pertains to the propositions of the Qurʾānic verses about the institution of family and this was derived from the Qurʾān in three ways. The first method involved studying the verses that are directly related to the family (such as marriage, relations between maḥram and non-maḥram etc.). The second method involved looking at the verses that refer to a particular community in association with the institution of family in terms of learning from their fate; for example, the verses about the people of Lot, who were destroyed because of not respecting the laws pertaining to the institution of the family. The third method involved examining the verses that could conditionally be used to determine the status of the family institution if the condition was realized, such as the verses that state that one of the conditions of salvation for the believers is chastity. The result of our study was that the legal framework of the family institution in the Qurʾān is indeed an example of the Qurʾān’s inimitability. This is because the verses that speak about family were revealed at a time when ignorance was rife in society and no legal frameworks pertaining to family existed. Furthermore, the laws pertaining to the family in the Qurʾān are in complete harmony with what has been proven in the field of sociology; in this respect, the legal framework of the family found in the Qurʾān is evidence for the socio-scientific inimitability of the Qurʾān.