WHAT IS THE SHARI’AH?
The word Shari’ah conjures up notions
of chopping hands and stoning women to death for many people due to the
negative portrayal of Islam and Muslims in the media nowadays. However the word
Shari’ah actually means an ‘Oasis’ in the Arabic language and in Islam it means
a ‘way of life’. It could actually mean any way of life, even a non-Islamic way
of life such as communism, but juristically in Islam it means the Islamic way
of life. It is intended in this short leaflet to explain in more detail what
the Shari’ah actually entails and its superiority over any other laws in the
world. We must first understand that the Shari’ah for Muslims encompasses
everything that one can imagine from matters of belief, to the penal code, to
matters relating to the governance of the state, to marriage. The branches of
the Shari’ah are therefore many and all of them are derived from the revelation
as contained in the Qur’an (the actual word of Allah/God) and in the example of
the Messenger Muhammad (saw); whose sayings and actions are called the
‘Sunnah’.
The juristic scholars of Islam
categorised The Purposes of the
Shari’ah (Al-Maqaasid Al-Shari’ah)
broadly into five:
1. Hifz ul-Deen - To protect Islam
(NB. Islam is called a ‘Deen’, which means a complete way of life)
Capital punishment for the apostate from Islam and the strict implementation of
all the Shari’ah rules by an Islamic State (Khilafah) and even to fight anyone
who opposes this would fall under this, the most important, category.
2. Hifz ul-Nafs - To protect life
The illegality of abortion and
suicide and the payment of blood-money (Diyyah) would fall under this category,
in fact every part of the body has a specific amount of blood-money specified
by the Shari’ah should it be harmed unlawfully.
3. Hifz ul-Irdh - To protect honour
The duty for both men and women to
cover their own bodies according to the revelation, where women can only show
their face and hands in public and men must cover at least from the navel to
the knees, the prohibition of free-mixing between the unrelated (non-Mahrem)
men and women and also 100 lashes for the fornicator (the unmarried male or
female) or stoning to death for the male or female adulterer would come under
this category. The Muslim women is in fact revered as a mother, sister or
daughter and her honour is protected in every way by the Shari’ah
4. Hifz ul-Aql - To protect the mind
The prohibition of anything that
intoxicates the mind such as alcohol and cannabis and the prohibition of making
or showing films or to publish material which could upset or confuse the mind
would come under this category. To expose children to false ideas and religions
until they become mature, when they can refute them, is prohibited by the
Shari’ah.
5. Hizf ul-Maal - To protect wealth
Cutting of the hand of the thief and
ensuring that wealth is not hoarded but rather is fairly distributed within
society would fall under this category. The Shari’ah in fact guarantees free
food, clothing and shelter and also free water and energy (such as gas and
electricity) to all citizens whether rich or poor, Muslim or non-Muslim.
As can be seen the Shari’ah has the
main aim of bringing benefit to the society and preventing any harm in this
life and also in the hereafter. In fact when one looks at the history of the
implementation of the Shari’ah (under what is called the Khilafah system of governance)
from 622 AD until 1924 AD one can see from the judicial records that less than
200 hands were ever cut and that there were less than 60 reported rapes
(compare this with current statistics for theft and rape convictions under the
oppression of man made laws in the world!). Indeed, at certain times in its own
glorious history, poverty was almost completely eradicated and the citizens of
the Islamic State had much wealth.
An in depth study of the Shari’ah
shows a way of life able to cater for all the problems that face society from
the time of the Messenger Muhammad (saw) until the day of judgement. The
Shari’ah can today give divine solutions to problems as diverse as immigration,
inflation, poverty, exploitation, cheating, inequality and the epidemic crimes
like murder, robberies and rape etc… not to mention perfect and detailed
rulings for inheritance, trade, marital relations, foreign policy matters and
so on.
The Shari’ah is the divine way of
life that Allah (God) has revealed to the final Messenger to mankind, Muhammad
(saw) and it has been preserved in the Qur’an and in the sayings and actions of
the Prophet himself. Wherever one looks one will never find more perfect or
resolute solutions to the questions and problems that we face whether as
individuals or as a society. From ritual actions such as praying and fasting,
to the judiciary, to matters pertaining to belief; the Shari’ah in practise is
yet another reason to embrace Islam, to save oneself from the hellfire, to
enter the paradise in the hereafter and to become part of the fastest growing
religion/ideology in the world today, Al-Islam!
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