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There can be little doubt that today, as Islam steadily surges forward,
powerful and decisive in directing and shaping the flow of events in the Muslim countries,
the world is witnessing a phenomenon of far-reaching importance to its future. In this
whole movement of Islamic resurgence, nothing stands out as more symbolic of Muslim
aspirations than the commitment to re- establish the Shari'ah, the code of conduct for
total life laid down by Islam. Every country of the Muslim world is pulsating with an
intense longing to shape life in accordance with its precepts. The Shari'ah, in short, in
the eyes of friend and foe alike, has come to epitomise the goal towards which Muslims are
restlessly trying to advance in quest of their destiny.
But, paradoxically, it is the Shari'ah which, more than any other
element in Islam, seems to arouse the greatest misgivings and most intense feelings of
fear, hostility and ridicule both among those who are not within the fold of Islam and
those Muslims who are either unaware of or have become intellectually alienated from their
own traditions. For many of them, the Shari'ah is something barbaric and cruel, inhuman
and uncivilised, which is trying to turn the clock back on progress and modernisation and
plunge the world back into the Dark Ages (as if it was 'dark' in the world of Islam at the
time it was 'dark' in Europe!): women will be no better than slaves and non-Muslims
treated as second-class citizens. Cut off the hand of a thief; stone the adulterer; veil
the woman; this, according to its opponents, is the sum substance of that Shari'ah which
is so deeply inspiring Muslims everywhere today.
On a more sophisticated, though no less vociferous, level is the chorus
of objectors who attempt to question the very basis, nature and role of the
Shari'ah. The
objective seems to be to cast doubt upon its relevance and applicability to modern life;
and thus it to lead Muslims either to abandon it or to change it beyond recognition by
severing its unique continuity with the past. Man has grown up; why should he look to an
extra-human source for guidance on how to conduct his affairs? Why should God condescend
to interfere in man's day-to-day life? Why should He be concerned with such mundane and
trivial matters? The Shari'ah is all formalism which consigns the sublime man-God
relationship to the straitjacket of law and obedience at the expense of the joys of love
and spiritual devotion and religiosity. A law laid down fourteen centuries ago in a
nomadic desert setting can hardly meet the complex demands and pressures of modern
technological civilisation. The essential message of the Qur'an is moral; its laws could
not have been meant to be eternal. The concept of the Prophet as the perfect model and of
his Sunnah as the binding source of the Shari'ah are much later inventions of the Muslim
mind. These and similar arguments are heard quite often.
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Such prejudices and opinions do not augur well for the future of
mankind. They can only exacerbate the deep antagonisms and animosities between the West
and Muslims which have persisted throughout history and which, if renewed and aggravated,
may ultimately tear apart a world already dangerously divided. The need to understand the
Shari'ah is therefore no less urgent and compelling than the Muslim desire to implement
it.
The Shari'ah is not merely a collection of do's and don'ts, nor just a
code of criminal laws prescribing punishments for certain crimes. Though it does contain
both, its sweep is much broader and deeper, encompassing the totality of man's life.
Shari'ah literally means a 'clear path'. It is the path that man, in Islam, must walk as
he toils and strives to reach his Creator. It is the yearning deep within to seek the Lord
and the Master that the Shari'ah translates into steps, concrete and specific, on the
pathways of life. The Shari'ah is the fulfilment of the total man- inner and outer,
individual and corporate-as he seeks to live by the will of his one and only God.
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