Mohammed Asaf Pazheri

The proposed study broadly focuses on dispute settlement culture among Muslim communities in South India, giving a specific ethnographic attention to a Masjid in Kodinhi Village, Malabar. More than just a place of worship, this Masjid functions as a distinctive mediation center for the traditional Muslims where oath-swearing is practiced ceremoniously, inviting God into the disputes not just as a witness but as an actor. The extraordinary power of the Masjid is attributed to its deeper spiritual connection with its founder, a Sufi Sayyid known as “Mamburam Thangal (d. 1845),” the most venerated Sufi saint in Malabar region. A wide range of cases is addressed here, including family disputes, theft, and sorcery. In contast to some earlier scholarship that has helped us to analse such institutions through a non-state legalistic lens, this research takes a different approach. It aims to explores the cultural and ethical embeddedness that underlies the Masjid’s dispute resolution practices, and takes seriously the interplay of visible and invisible forces in shaping this legal-ethical space. By examining the moments of “divine intervention” following oath-swearing, the study investigates how such a notion expands, challenges, and reforms existing conceptions of law, ethics, and justice.