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Concept
Sharia
Summary
Sharia (ʃəˈriːə; sharīʿa ʃaˈriːʕa) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the Hadith. In Arabic, the term sharīʿah refers to Allah's immutable divine law and is contrasted with fiqh, which refers to its human scholarly interpretations. The manner of its application in modern times has been a subject of dispute between Muslim fundamentalists and modernists.
Traditional theory of Islamic jurisprudence recognizes four sources of Sharia: the Quran, sunnah (authentic hadith), qiyas (analogical reasoning), and ijma (juridical consensus). Four Sunni Madhhab (legal school of Sunni Islam), Hanafi, Maliki, Shafiʽi, Hanbali and Zahiri, developed Sunni methodologies for deriving Sharia rulings from scriptural sources using a process known as ijtihad. Traditional jurisprudence (fiqh) distinguishes two principal branches of law, ʿibādāt (rituals) and muʿāmalāt (social relations), which together comprise a wide range of topics. Its rulings are concerned with ethical standards as much as with legal norms, assigning actions to one of five categories: mandatory, recommended, neutral, abhorred, and prohibited. Fiqh was elaborated over the centuries by legal opinions (fatwas) issued by qualified jurists (muftis) and historically applied in Sharia courts by ruler-appointed judges, complemented by various economic, criminal and administrative laws issued by Muslim rulers.
In the 21st century, the role of Sharia has become an increasingly contested topic around the world. There are progressives who argue that Sharia is compatible with democracy, human rights, freedom of thought, women's rights and banking. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (ECtHR) ruled in several cases that Sharia is "incompatible with the fundamental principles of democracy". In Muslim countries in the modern era traditional laws have been widely used with European models.
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Related concepts (24)
Fiqh
Fiqh (fiːk; فقه fɪqh) is Islamic jurisprudence. Fiqh is often described as the human understanding and practices of the sharia, that is human understanding of the divine Islamic law as revealed in the Quran and the Sunnah (the teachings and practices of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his companions). Fiqh expands and develops Shariah through interpretation (ijtihad) of the Quran and Sunnah by Islamic jurists (ulama) and is implemented by the rulings (fatwa) of jurists on questions presented to them.
Fatwa
A fatwā (ˈfætwɑː USˈfɑːtwɑː; فتوى; plural fatāwā فتاوى) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (sharia) given by a qualified Faqih (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist issuing fatwas is called a mufti, and the act of issuing fatwas is called iftāʾ. Fatwas have played an important role throughout Islamic history, taking on new forms in the modern era.
Salman Rushdie
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (sælˈmɑːn_ˈrʊʃdi; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations, typically set on the Indian subcontinent. Rushdie's second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was deemed to be "the best novel of all winners" on two occasions, marking the 25th and the 40th anniversary of the prize.