What is Shari'ah Law? Understanding the Divine Path in Islam
What is islamic law?
Islamic
law i.e. shariah is the divine law or divine will of almighty Allah revealed to
Prophet Muhammad {saw} the last and final messenger in the latest and most
perfect form. According to traditional Muslim beliefs, the word of God is law, and law
is God's order. This law is known as sharia. Fiqh, which is the jurisprudence in
character, is the ascertainment of the right principle. In the word of God is
included, of course, the Quran, but the divinely inspired sunnah of the prophet
ranks equal. These two are immutable and the only room for the exercise of
human reason is in their understanding. These two sources, namely, the Quran and
the sunnah may thus be said to form the fundamental roots of Islamic law. The
word shariah itself is derived etymologically
forms a root meaning “road”. It is the path that leads to God, the concrete
manifestation of the divine will through which man should live his individual
and social lives. The most profound cause for the necessity for revelation is
the presence of impediments in man's intelligence that limit its concerted
functioning.
The proper conception of law requires a complete perception of the earth for
all time to come, and the type of human life hereafter. The main trouble with
the man is that he cannot have before him the complete picture of human life and
nature.In the word of Kant, perception without conception is empty. For muslims
the source of the law is revelation because it is for almighty Allah alone to
know with precision what rules of conduct are most expedient for the majority
of humanity in his world. Islam law was the most far-reaching and successful
force in shaping the social order and community life of the Muslim people. By its very comprehensiveness,
it exerts the steady pressure upon all private and social activities, setting a
standard to which they conformed more closely as time went on, in spite of the resistance
of ancient habits and time honoured customs, especially amongst the more independent
nomadic and mountain tribes. Moreover, Islamic law gave practical expression to
the characteristics muslim quest for unity. In all essentials it was uniform,
although the various schools differed in points of details The Muslim scholars did not
consider law to be an autonomous or empirical subject. Mohammad {saw}'s
religious and social theory had no separation between legal and religious
aspects, making it practical for early Muslims. The two aspects are found side
by side, or rather interlaced, in the Quran, as well as in the Hadith.
The divine law is analogous to a network of injunctions and attitudes that
control all aspects of human existence and, in their whole and all-encompassing
nature, are capable of integrating man and society in accordance with Islam's
guiding ideal, unity or Tawhid. In Islam, law is an intrinsic part of the
revelation rather than an foreign element. According to the Islamic belief,
religions should not be modified to conform to the ever-changing and imperfect
nature of men; rather, persons should reform in order to live according to the tenants
of revelations. Holy Quran is the fundamental source of revelation and Prophetic
tradition and practices the second at the starting point.
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