Shariah Law

Islamic Shariah Law: Core Concepts and Definition 

via lecture By: Abdool Rahman Khan

Shariah is an embodiment of all laws, beliefs, ordinance and regulations from Allah; a combonation os Allah’s laws that is vital to human life given to us in the 23 year period of revelation of the Quran. If someone says that it is “just laws”, it is so much MORE than that! They are not penal laws or laws that were sent down to punish people, they are laws which impact every aspect of human life. If you read the preamble of the constitution, minus the last sentence, this is the goal of shariah, “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity…” Every religion was sent its on shariah, the Christians were sent the “kha- nun” and the Jews were sent the “halaqa” or “bet-deen”.  Shariah is not some new phenomenon and not just a set of rules, it is truth from Allah.

Shariah vs. Fiqh

Shariah is from Allah whereas fiqh is scholarly interpretations of laws. Shairah is inclusive, meaning that you can wake up in the morning and be obliged to follow the rules given to us by Allah but you cannot become a master of fiqh overnight. Shariah is how to live our life and fiqh is the implementation of these laws. Shairah is complete and will never change but fiqh is never complete it changes from generation to generation, the sheikh even said when he was younger there were teachers of fiqh who said that the microphone was haram because it was not the voice of the person but the voice of shaitan coming from the microphone, but we all know that today, sheikhs would not be able to address their congregations without the use of the microphone.

Limitations with Shariah debates

1.      -You can change what people think but you can’t change the way they feel, so you can be telling the truth and honestly winning the debate but the person can still go away from the conversation thinking “sheery-ah” is evil. Sometimes these debates are a waste of time when it comes to changing the beliefs of a person or trying to eradicate the ignorance amongst them.

2.       -We cannot mock other beliefs where as Christians can say whatever they want about Muhammad or Islam.

3.       -When we are debating these people we are focused on their agenda and there for we are defending ourselves but not really telling people about the beauty of Islam and the basic of our religion. One thing is for certain, Muslims do not need to defend themselves.

Objective of Shariah Law: From the Quranic Perspective

via lecture By: Nouman Ali Khan

Before thinking about the objective of Shariah Law, we need to think about ourselves for a second and the way in which we treat our religion. As Muslims, we cannot compromise with our Islam. Remember when the Prophet (sws) came the people they wanted him to compromise his religion and they will compromise but Muhammad (sws) would never compromise and should not either; so it is either this way or the highway. And yes, we can be polite but we should never compromise. Some Muslims today are caring more about what people think rather than what Allah thinks, it is about the people first and Allah second, when in reality Allah comes first in all of our matters. What does Allah want? It is in Surah Nisa, Allah mentions what he wants, Allah wants us to follow what he has ordained for us, and not to burden us but to lighten our burden. The objective of shariah is for us to learn forgiveness. An easy way to get forgiveness is to obey Allah. Allah also mentions those before us. Think about it, who are the people Allah mentions the most in Quran? The Children of Israel, who were the 1^st given shariah, and every religion, is given their own laws and it is our duty to follow them.  

The summary of shariah is to follow the laws established by Allah and give zakat, all laws serve Allah and humanity. Shariah fulfills the traditions from Ibrahim. 

If Allah says to do something, shut-up and DO IT!