Presumption of Innocence in the Islamic Law

The principle of the Presumption of Innocence is one of the main principles of all modern legal systems. It is also an important right of the accused mentioned in the human rights documents. The principle simply means that an accused considered innocent until proved guilty by a competent court. Using the descriptive-analytical method, this article studies this principle from the Islamic Law perspective exploring its meaning, basis, and exceptions. The article finds that Islamic law recognizes this principle in its highest sources, That are the Holy Quran and Hadith (sayings and actions of the Holy Prophet Mohammad). The Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) himself and so Muslim jurist applied this principle in both civil and criminal cases. Furthermore, the article identifies two main exceptions of the Presumption of Innocence in Islamic law that are: transferring burden of proof from the plaintiff to the accused when there are reasonable doubts against him/her such as strangely enrichment of a public servant after employment and the second exception is the precautionary imprisonment; however the Muslim jurist have different views regarding the application of the precautionary imprisonment which shows their doubts towards this measure specially when there are not enough proofs.