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WHAT IS THE SHARI'AH
To understand the essence of the Shari'ah, one must understand the
relationship between man and God that Islam lays down. There is no god but One God;
Muhammad is the Prophet of God: this simple sentence is the bedrock of the Islamic creed.
God is the Creator; to Him alone therefore belongs the kingdom and He
is the only Sovereign: 'Surely Your only Lord is God who has created the heaven and the
earth... verily to Him belong the creation and the sovereignty' (al-A'raf 7: 54).
And: 'He has created the heavens and the earth with a purpose. He wraps
night about day and He wraps day about night... He has created you from one being... That
then is God, your only Lord; His is the kingdom. There is no god but He' (al-Zumar 39:
5-6).
God is the Creator. To Him alone, therefore, as his only Lord and
Master, man must submit his entire being: 'Your God is One God, so only to Him submit'
(al-Hajj 22: 34).
That then is God, your only Lord; there is no god but He, the Creator
of everything. So Him alone serve' (al-An'am 6: 102).
God is the only true Provider. It is He who has bestowed on man such
faculties and capabilities as seeing, hearing, thinking and articulating - attributes
which man cannot live without, but which he cannot create for himself. It is He who has
made available the resources of the external world which man may discover, exploit and
develop but, again, cannot create.
Yet surely man's greatest need is to know how to live his life so as to
fulfil successfully the purpose of his creation; how to relate himself to his Creator, to
his own self, to his fellow human beings and to everything around him. To Him alone he
must therefore turn to seek guidance. For there is no one apart from or beside Him who can
truly provide answers to man's eternal questions or is capable of guiding him. All else
can only be speculation and conjecture. And why should the One who has provided even for
man's most trivial material needs not also have provided for his more important moral and
spiritual needs?
The Qur'an says:
'Say: Is there any of those you associate (with God) who guides to the
Truth? Say: only God guides to the Truth. Does then, He who guides to the Truth deserve
more to be followed or he who can guide not unless he be guided? What ails you? How judge
you? And most of them follow naught but speculation, and speculation can never take the
place of truth' (Yunus 10: 35-6).
And further: 'Or, do they (claim to) have associates who have laid down
for them the Way for which God gave not leave' (al-Shura 42: 21).
It was to provide for this greatest human need that God sent His
Prophets from amongst men in all ages and to all nations, bringing them the light of the
divine guidance revealed to them. Among them were Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus.
And Muhammad was the last of them, in no way different or new. May God bless all of them.
'He has laid down for you the Way that He entrusted to Noah, and that
We have revealed to you, and that We entrusted to Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Establish
fully the Way and follow not different ways' (al-Shura 42: 13).
Man's relationship to God is expressed by the very word
'Islam'-submitting to Him by following His will and guidance as brought by His prophets.
But this submission must be total and all-embracing. A Muslim submits his entire 'person'
to his Creator as his only Lord and Master. No part of his life can be exempt from the
need of divine guidance or from the writ of divine sovereignty. God and His lordship and
sovereignty are indivisible; and so is man's life in its submission to Him. It would
indeed be an imperfect God who could only be experienced or related to in the realm of the
spirit or the provision of material needs like one's daily bread-a God unconcerned,
uncaring or incompetent to help man in the more arduous and complex task of living his
life. Him he worships; Him he invokes; Him he depends upon; Him he trusts; Him he seeks;
and, equally important, Him he obeys. Man has been given the freedom to reject God; but,
once having accepted Him, he must follow His guidance. He is not free to follow one part
of it and ignore another, nor to seek guidance from sources other than God. Denial of part
is denial of the whole.
'What, believe you in part of the Book and deny part thereof? And what
is the reward of those who do so except ignominy in the present life, and on the Day of
Resurrection to be returned unto most grievous punishment' (al-Baqarah 2: 85).
'What, do they seek another way other than God's Way; whereas unto Him
submits whoso is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly' (Ale-'Imran 3:
83).
'And who seeks a way other than Islam, it shall not be accepted from
him' (Ale-'Imran 3: 85).
In its fullest sense, the Shari'ah is therefore virtually synonymous,
and can be used interchangeably, with the word Din, which can only inadequately be
translated as 'religion'. Din literally means 'way of life', 'submission', 'following' or
the 'Way'. Though the word Shari'ah in its various derivative forms is found in five
places in the Qur'an, (1) its extensive use only came into vogue much later; for the words
Islam and Din were more commonly employed to express the same meaning in the early days of
Islam.
The Shari'ah includes both faith and practice. It embraces worship,
individual attitude and conduct as well as social norms and laws, whether political,
economic, familial, criminal or civil.
It may also sometimes be used to imply, in a more restricted sense,
do's and don'ts- the rules and regulations for conduct and behaviour. Lastly, it is also
used as the equivalent of the Islamic laws.
The Shari'ah is thus nothing less than the divinely ordained way of
life for man. To realise the divine will, man must follow the Shari'ah. To live in Islam
is to live according to the Shari'ah. To give up the Shari'ah or any part of it knowingly,
wilfully or deliberately is to give up Islam. A Muslim must therefore do his utmost to
observe and to implement the whole of it, wherever and in whatever situation he finds
himself. Hence the Muslim insistence, persistence, commitment and passion for it.
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The act of total submission to God in accordance with the Shari'ah
given by Him in no way diminishes human dignity, freedom and responsibility. The act of
submission is the highest act of human volition and freedom, for it implies freedom to
disobey God. Indeed, in submitting to God, all the chains and shackles of every form of
serfdom, servility and bondage are broken, whether they be to other men, to ideas, to
nature, to man- made objects or to institutions. For before the affirmation of One God
must come the forsaking of every false god.
More importantly, total submission to God elevates man to the state of Khilafa, (vice-regency), whereby he is accorded the highest place on earth by being
endowed with reason, articulation, volition, freedom and responsibility. The
responsibility to follow the Shari'ah according to the Qur'an (al-Ahzab 33: 72), is the
fulfilment of amanah, the trust which even the heavens, the earth and the mountains dare
not bear.
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How do we know the Shari'ah, the will of God? There are four sources:
(I) the Qur'an, (2) the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (may Allah bless him), (3)
ijma,
and (4) Ijtihad.
The principal source of the Shari'ah could only be the word of God
revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. These revelations are compiled in the Qur'an which-and
nobody disputes this-has come down to us word for word as it was conveyed by the Prophet.
Both the meaning and words of the Qur'an are God's, as it clearly
states in different ways in various places. It extensively uses the word 'sending down' in
preference to any other word to describe the process of revelation. The very first
revelation was: 'Read'. The Prophet always clearly indicated when he was using his own
words and when he was using words he had received.
The Qur'an's main emphasis is unquestionably on faith and the moral
conduct of men and nations; but it does lay down, both explicitly and implicitly, though
with brevity, the principles, broad outlines and necessary rules and regulations which are
essential for the formation of the community of Islam. For one cannot be realised without
the other; the trust of the Shari'ah cannot be fulfilled without the presence of moral
fibre of the highest quality.
The argument that, because the prime concern of the Qur'an is moral,
its legislative element cannot be meant to be literally eternal, can only hold good if the
Qur'an itself says so. But it does not. Nor does it in any way even suggest a different
status for one part as against the other. There is absolutely no Qur'anic argument or
injunction that 'to pray' is an eternal imperative, while 'to cut off the hand of a thief'
or the permission for polygamy are valid only at certain times and under certain
circumstances. One can only say, in the language of the Qur'an: 'Have you a Book wherein
you have read (this)' (al-Qalam 68: 37). If so, then: 'Bring me any Book (revealed) before
this, or evidence from knowledge' (al-Ahqaf 46: 4).
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The Prophet himself was not a mere postman who delivered the Book of
God and then disappeared. Acting under divine guidance, he not only delivered the message,
but launched a movement. He changed men and society; founded a community; established a
state; and spent every moment of his prophethood in guiding, directing and leading his
followers. His life example of living by God's guidance, consisting of whatever he did or
said or approved, is the Sunnah, the second basic source of the Shari'ah. The authority of
the Sunnah is firmly rooted in the Qur'an and in the historically continuous consensus of
the Muslim Ummah.
The explicit statements in the Qur'an in this respect are many. Every
Prophet was sent to be obeyed (al-Nisa' 4: 64). The Prophet Muhammad is the last and
perfect model (al-Ahzab 33: 21, 40). To obey him is to obey God (al-Nisa' 4: 80). God and
the Prophet are frequently coupled together, especially where obedience is enjoined, but
the imperative 'obey' is also used separately for God and for His Prophet (al-Nisa' 4:
59). To follow and obey the Prophet is the only way one can love his God and be loved by
Him and have one's sins forgiven (Ale-'Imran 3: 31-32). All matters which cause
differences or disputes are to be referred to God and His Prophet as the final authority
(al-Nisa' 4: 59). No one can be truly a believer unless he accepts the Prophet as the
final arbiter in all affairs and submits to his decisions, willingly and free from all
misgivings (al-Nisa' 4: 65). The Prophet has the authority to permit and prohibit
(al-A'raf 7: 157). And, finally, whatever the Prophet gives, must be taken; whatever he
forbids, must be eschewed (al-Hashr 59: 7).
The historically continuous consensus and practice of the Ummah dates
back to the moment when Abu Bakr, the first Caliph, assumed office and, in his inaugural
address, explicitly accepted 'God and (the example of) His Prophet as deserving obedience
and binding upon him'. There is also ample evidence that the first community of Islam
invariably looked to the Sunnah for guidance in every sphere of life. Indeed, ever since
that time the entire Ummah has almost always been agreed on the Sunnah as the second
source of the Shari'ah: the very few isolated voices that have been raised in disagreement
from time to time have never enjoyed support.
The Sunnah is mostly recorded in books of ahadith (sayings or
Traditions). Initially, mainly because people were concerned that the reports of what the
Prophet said or did or approved would get confused with the actual text of the Qur'an,
they were not recorded on a large scale; many compilations were, however, written down
privately by individuals, of which authentic evidence exists. As those who had known the
Prophet began to die, the need to compile his life example became pressing, and tremendous
efforts were made to do so. By the middle of the third century the first comprehensive
source books, those now in use, were completed by Bukhari (d. 256/870) and Muslim (d.
261/875). More followed and are still extant. Bukhari lists 2,762 Traditions and Muslim
4,000 Traditions, without taking into account repetitions .
That some reports were forged by various political and theological
factions was inevitable: the authority of the Sunnah was so widely accepted that to
fabricate their own Traditions was the only course open to the unscrupulous to project
their own opinions. But, first, fabrication itself constitutes strong evidence that the
Sunnah was accepted as binding from the very earliest times; why otherwise bother to
fabricate it? Second, the existence of historical records of forgery also proves that the
problem was recognised and tackled as soon as it arose. Finally, and most importantly, to
argue, as some have argued, that all the scholars of the Ummah for the first two hundred
years of Islam were engaged in a carefully co-ordinated plot to do nothing but fabricate
ahadith and put into the mouth of the Prophet their own opinions, is untenable. Such
fabrication would have required a stupendous, superbly organised effort of a scope beyond
even perhaps the most sophisticated means of communication available today. It is, too,
difficult to believe that a single individual like Shafi'i, two centuries after the
Prophet, when Muslims had spread far and wide, could force all the scholars and the entire
Ummah against their will to accept the Sunnah as the source of the Shari'ah.
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The consensus of the Ummah in understanding, interpreting and applying
the teachings of the Qur'an and the Sunnah forms the third basic source of the
Shari'ah.
This can be the only natural, feasible and wise course to determine the Shari'ah.
Any consensus which has a historical continuity from the days of the
four Caliphs and the Companions of the Prophet is accepted to be binding. Any other
consensus serves as a strong precedent but one which is nonetheless replaceable by another
consensus.
Ijma' (within the limits set by the Qur'an and the Sunnah) provides a
mechanism for the Ummah to undertake legislation collectively on issues and problems it
may face in an ever-changing world, and even venture fresh thinking on past
interpretations.
The Shi'as would prefer to look to Imams and mujtahids to meet this
need. But the acceptance of any particular Imam or mujtahid will finally also depend on
the acceptance and consensus of the followers. There are no divine signs to support any
particular person; and the differences have been many among the Shi'as as to who really
was the Imam.
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The exercise of reason and judgement to determine the Shari'ah is
called Ijtihad. It subsumes various categories of endeavour such as opinion (ra'y),
analogy (qiyas), equity (istihsan), public good (istisah) and so on. Ijtihad is a
precursor to ijma' and has to be exercised within the framework provided by the Qur'an and
the Sunnah. It is a key element in ensuring the dynamism of the Shari'ah, but it is often
misunderstood, misrepresented and even misused. We shall have more to say about it later.
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