I want you to know Shari'ah

Assalaamu alaikum [Peace be to you],


JUST WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT SHARI'AH?
Shariah or Islamic Law has become one of the heavily debated issues in the West for the past few years where many countries have moved towards measures of banning Sharia, drawing a lot of reactions and criticisms.

So, what is Sharia after all?

In this series of articles, in sha'Allah [God willing] I will try to explain in details what is Shari'ah law and why it is important for Muslims, and why many Non-Muslims see it as a threat.


SHARI'AH IS EVERYTHING FOR THE MUSLIM:
Sharia is more than simply "law" in the prescriptive sense; it is also the methodology through which a jurist engages the foundational religious texts (Qur'an and Sunna) to search for divine will. As a jurist-made law, the outcome of this process of ascertaining divine will is called fiqh (positive law), which is the moral and legal anchor of a Muslim's total existence. Everything from the way Muslims eat, to how they treat animals and protect the environment, to the way they conduct commercial trade, to the way they solemnize their marriage and to the way their estate must be distributed at death is governed by Sharia, for Sharia dictates every aspect of an observant Muslim's moral life. Therefore, Sharia is extremely personal to the majority of Muslims regardless of their level of religiosity.

At the most basic level, Shari`ah is the Muslim universe of ideals. It is the result of their collective effort to understand and apply the Noble Qur'an and the supplementary teachings of the last Prophet of Islam, Mohammed -peace and blessings be upon him-, - i.e. Sunnah - in order to earn God's pleasure and secure human welfare in this life and attain human salvation in the life to come.

IT COVERS ALL ASPECTS OF MUSLIM LIFE:
Having said all of this, Shari`ah is not just "rules." While the common translation, "Islamic law," is not entirely wrong, it is under-inclusive, for Shari'ah includes scores of moral and ethical principles, from honoring one's parents to helping the poor to being good to one's neighbor. Moreover, most of the "rules" of Shari`ah carry no prescribed earthly sanctions at all. The prescriptions covering ablution or not eating pork or how to dress are just as much a part of Shari`ah as are those governing sale, divorce or jihad. Yet there are no stated earthly punishments prescribed for those who violate these dictates. Like the bulk of Shari`ah's "rules," reward and punishment in these areas are the preserve of God in the Afterlife.


NOT JUST RULES AND PUNISHMENTS
Unfortunately, many Americans have been led to believe that Shari'ah equals not only rules but criminal punishments i.e. floggings, for example. Here are three quick points:
First, criminal sanctions constitute a tiny sliver of Shari`ah. Of the 1,081 pages of the two-volume Arabic text from which I studied Shari`ah, only 60 pages were devoted directly to criminal sanctions! (Jihad, incidentally, took up only 19.)
Second, the criminal sanctions of Shari`ah did not emerge as the property or instrument of the Muslim state but functioned in fact to impose limits on the use of state power.
Third, the punishments for criminal behavior cannot be separated from the evidentiary rules - equally Shari`ah! - that provide for their application (e.g., multiple eye-witnesses). In practical terms, in other words, short of confession, rules on such things as adultery or fornication function almost entirely as moral exhortations. God-consciousness spawned by Shari`ah, not fear of being punished, sustains these ideals. Of course, many Americans will object that such issues should not be subject to any rules or religious exhortations at all. But given some of our increasingly worrisome realities (out-of-wedlock births, etc.), perhaps this would make for fruitful conversation. Why does Shari`ah matter? It matters for Muslims because it represents the ideals that define a properly constituted Islamic existence.


THERE IS NO ISLAM WITHOUT SHARI'AH
Islam without Shari`ah would be Islam without Islamic ideals. While most non-Muslim Americans may think of Islam without Shari`ah as simply Islam without rules or criminal sanctions, for Muslims Islam without Shari`ah would also mean Islam without prescriptions on ablution, Prayer, alms, sales, diet, filial piety, civics, etc. While the discourse in America around Shari`ah will probably continue to succumb to the self-serving tendency to "compare my ideals with your realities," Shari`ah itself will continue to inspire Muslims, especially in their personal lives, to strive, with hope and humility, to narrow the gap between the unacceptable "is" and the ever-elusive "ought."

... To be continued, in sha'Allah.


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I hope this was beneficial

for more about Shari'ah, please read my other article:



If I am right, it's from the God. if I am wrong, it's from myself.