More About Sharia

Peace of God and His mercy to you.

I would like to share more information about Sharia, the divine laws that govern our life in the aspects of rights and justice for Allah, the individual, groups, and all.

This presentation is prepared because I faced many less informed people about Sharia. Their views were very limited, and their information was based on the negative Western views about Islam.

I say to you:

Read and know the truth!

But first, please read these quotes that will help you see what Sharia is all about:

First, let me start by saying that in modern times Shari`ah was inaccurately translated as “Islamic Law”. This portrayed Shari`ah as merely a collection of laws and regulations. Perceiving Shari`ah as such has produced great confusion in regards to its importance in Islam.

There is no doubt that the main sources of the Shari`ah are the Qur'an and the Sunnah in addition to the consensus of Muslim scholars (’ijma`) and the personal judgment of Muslim scholars in conformity with the prescriptions of the Qur’an and the Sunnah (ijtihad).

The word shari`ah literally means a waterway that leads to a main stream, a drinking place, and a road or the right path. From this meaning, the word shari`ah was used to refer to a path or a passage that leads to an intended place, or to a certain goal.

Water is life for everything, Shari`ah is life for the Muslims’ souls and a way of life for them.

Shari`ah embraces worship, morals and conduct, as well as it embraces the political, social and economic, as well as other spheres.

Many non-Muslims, however, think that the Shari`ah is mainly a collection of fixed ancient laws that belong to a time other than ours. On the contrary, Muslim scholars agreed on the fact that applying the Shari`ah requires two essential types of understanding. These two types are; understanding the sources from which the rules are derived, the Qur’an and the Sunnah (the traditions of the prophet), and understanding the reality in which these rules are applicable. Hence, the application of the Shari`ah is not in a vacuum; rather it is in a reality that is changeable due to time and space.

The purpose of the shari`a is not to protect Allah or His rights, but to protect the lives, honor and property of all people who live under this shari`a.

It is important to remember that before the implementing hudud, we have to establish the huquq that is the rights of the people. Islam implements certain rights: the right of life, property, freedom, justice, etc. These rights must be established before we talk about punishing people who violate the rules of Allah.

Here are the topics looking at Sharia in the form of Q&A taken from Reading Islam:

• The Importance of Shariah
• Sources of the Shariah: Man-made or Divine?
• Wisdom of Shariah
• Harmony between Shari`ah and Positive Law
• Islamic Shari`ah Knows no Discrimination
• Islamic Criminal Justice: Is it Barbaric?
• Islamic Fixed Penalties: Striking Balance between Causes & Results
• The Concept of Punishment in Islam
• Civil Laws in Shari`ah
• Islamic Law, Fatwas, and Muslim Scholars Today

In the end...
You can see, after knowing about Sharia, that:

Shari`ah is based on wisdom and achieving people's welfare in this life and the afterlife. Shari`ah is all about justice, mercy, wisdom, and good. Thus, any ruling that replaces justice with injustice, mercy with its opposite, common good with mischief, or wisdom with nonsense, is a ruling that does not belong to the Shari`ah, even if it is claimed to be so according to some interpretations. (Shamsuddin Ibn al-Qayyim, I`lam Al-Muwaqi`een, ed. Taha Abdul Rauf Saad (Beirut: Dar Al-Jeel, 1973) vol.1, p. 333:)