by Dr. Ali Shehata
The Shariah of Islam – An Often Misunderstood,
Complete Way of Life
Chopping off hands, stoning adulterers, whipping fornicators, beheading murderers—headlines from the grocery aisle shock tabloids or ancient forms of criminal punishment? Actually, these are some of the words that come to mind when the Islamic legal code, or Shari’ah, is mentioned these days. In this chapter, the Shari’ah will be examined and understood in the light of not only the pertinent evidences from the Quran and Sunnah, but also comparatively, from the standpoint of modern crime statistics.
Firstly, Shari’ah is the Islamic term that represents the complete and comprehensive system for regulating both public and private activities in an Islamic territory. It is based entirely upon the laws and rulings found in both the Quran and Sunnah, in one way or another. It is designed to govern the person’s relations and duties towards God, his fellow man, his environment and even himself. It thus directs every sphere of human activity including the spiritual, moral, social, economic and political aspects of life.
The issues dealt with by the Shari`ah, in specific, can be broken into three categories: theology, ethics and law (fiqh). Fiqh, or Islamic law, is the branch which relates to the regulation of the outward behavior of people. This includes the rulings pertaining to the conduct of the human being with respect to his Creator (verdicts concerned with prayer, fasting, charity, pilgrimage, etc.). It includes those rulings concerned with the interactions between people, such as those pertaining to the penal system, business transactions, marriage, and divorce. Likewise, it also includes the rulings pertaining to the individual and the state, in both war and peace, such as military obligations, wills and property laws, amongst other things.
The ultimate aim of the Shari’ah, though, is the common good of mankind as a whole—Muslim and non-Muslim. As such, the Shari’ah is responsible for protecting or preserving five universal rights in the human being; the right to life, intellect, lineage, religion and property. One might ask though, why is the right to freedom not included?
Freedom in Islam
Islam considers freedom to be a natural right of every human. Without freedom, life loses all of its meaning. Islam elevates freedom to such a high level that it has made free thought the primary way of realizing God’s existence, His existence being a fact that needs no external proofs or miracles to be known. God says in the Quran:
There is no compulsion in religion. Guidance is clear from error. {2:256}
This verse states that you cannot force someone to believe anything if they themselves are not convinced, even if you were to put a gun to their head or sword to their neck. A person must be convinced through their own free thought. If compulsion is forbidden in the matter of the worship of God, the most vital and essential concern in the life of a human (as seen in Islam), then how can it be tolerated in any other matter? This Islamic emphasis on free will and free choice can further be noted in the words of the great Companion and Caliph Umar ibnul Khattab, who is recorded to have said to one of his governors, “Have you enslaved the people after God had created them free?”
The Definition of Freedom
Freedom is a person’s choice to do something, or not to do it, based upon their own free will and without interference from anything. It establishes the fact that every human is in control of their own affairs and that they are not owned by anyone, neither on the individual or state level.
But, does “freedom” mean we should be left entirely without any rules or regulation?
Islam’s recognition of everyone’s individual freedom does not mean that it leaves the person free of all rules and restrictions, because that kind of “freedom” is more aptly characterized as anarchy, and actually infringes upon the rights and security of others. No one's freedom should come at the expense of another’s. For this reason, Islam sets down certain guidelines that guarantee balanced freedom for all. These guidelines are:
1. The freedom of individuals or communities should never jeopardize the general order of society or destroy its foundations.
2. The freedom of the individual should not lead to the loss of more general societal rights (e.g., one’s personal right of free speech should not jeopardize the general security of another group of people).
3. The freedom of an individual should infringe upon the freedom of another individual.
It should also be remembered that one of the primary goals of the message of Islam is to release people from the constraints of the worship of their desires and the created beings, and to free them to the openness of the worship of the Creator.
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