Why Is The Shari A So Important To Islam
- What Went Wrong? - ways," and it was time again to look to their own Islamic heritage. What needs to be said is...
Submitted by sheepeatgrass on 06/30/2008 05:21 PM
- Category: Social Issues
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Why Is The Shari A So Important To Islam
The Shari'a, meaning "path", is what the Muslims rely on for guidance during their everyday life, whether it being a spiritual issue or not. Just as the Christians have "Ethics" to guide them and the Jews have the Torah, which when translated means "Law". The Shari'a has a dual function of firstly giving them guidance to being a "Good Muslim" and secondly acting as a state law for the whole of the Muslim community, not only providing guidelines to live by but also providing punishment for those who do not abide by these laws.
There has been much debate about how the Shari'a has come to be the law of Islam. The Eastern scholars believe that it has derived from the Qu'ran, where as many Western scholars such as Schacht who believed "Muhammadan law did not come directly from the Koran but developedÂ…out of popular and administrative practice under the Umaiyads"1 Schacht did not believe that it came directly from the Qu'ran but was merely influenced and developed through other practice.
This however in recent years been proven not to necessarily be the case, as 10% of the Qu'ran contains legal matter and the verses tend to be two to three times longer than other verses, and has been quoted "the Qu'ran is the back bone of Islamic Law!"2. Alongside the Qu'ran the Hadith (the teaching and actions of Muhammad) and the Ijiti had (the personal opinion of the Majtajhid) provide "flesh" for the Shari'a. Although over time the Shari'a has evolved through modern thinking and through the teaching and differing opinions of the law schools, forcing certain laws to be altered.
The traditionalist however did not see the new adapted laws as authoritative, as the Sunna of a jurist was not enough, it would have to be the Sunna of Muhammad to be a genuine law. The Sunna of Muhammad to traditionalists was seen as the independent reasoning, for a law to be viable for the traditionalist this would have to present. In accordance to traditionalists...
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