What Is Islamic Sharia Law (Islam, Part Eight)

[To see the entire series on Islam, click here]

The Jews received the divine Law (also known as Torah) from God through the prophet Moses, and they tried to live by it because they believed it was the path to true life.  (The heart of the Law was the Ten Commandments, revered still today by Jews, Christians, and Muslims.)  We see this clearly in Psalm 1:

Happy are those

who do not follow the advice of the wicked,

or take the path that sinners tread,

or sit in the seat of scoffers;

2 but their delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law they meditate day and night.

3 They are like trees

planted by streams of water,

which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.

The Pharisees, a Jewish sect of legal scholars, in particular were extremely dedicated to keeping the Mosaic Law, and Jesus came into conflict with them over the keeping of that Law, because he sometimes had a somewhat different view of it.  For example, in Matthew 12, we read about Jesus healing a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath, despite it violating the Pharisaic legal understanding of the Sabbath (the Fourth Commandment).  The Pharisees went crazy and discussed "how to destroy him."   In response, Jesus made one of his classic statements: "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." 

Jesus summarized God's Law this way: Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:34-40).  That is probably the way most Christians try to obey the divine Law.

Which brings us to 'Sharia,' the Islamic version of the law of God.  [For more detailed information and references on this subject, consult this source.]   The Muslims have their own version of the Divine Law, interpreted through the lens of their prophet Muhammad and his take on the Jewish/Christian tradition as well as that which he added to it.  It is in many ways similar to the Jewish law, but also differs at points.  And as you might expect, there is considerable debate in majority Muslim lands as to how to apply the Muslim law to their own societies.

The name 'sharia' comes the Arabic word for 'path to the watering hole' (which connects amazingly well to the Psalm 1 passage quoted above).  It refers to the enormous accumulated collection of civil, criminal, and moral law that has developed throughout the 1,400 years of Islamic religious and social experience, which Muslims believe is the 'path' to the life God desires for us.

In Muslim states like Turkey that are explicitly secular, the traditional Islamic law is limited to personal and family matters.  Other Muslim states like Pakistan, Indonesian, and Egypt have legal systems strongly influenced by Sharia, but cede ultimate authority to their constitutions and the rule of law. Finally, you have dictatorships like Saudi Arabia, where the law is classical sharia law prepared by Muslim religious scholars.  (It is no accident that many of the Islamic radicals like Bin Laden hark back to Saudi Arabia, which oddly remains an ally of the United States.)

Islamic sharia law classifies behavior into the following types or grades: obligatory, recommended, neutral, discouraged, and forbidden. Every human action belongs in one of these five categories.

Actions in the obligatory category are those required of all Muslims. They include the five daily prayers, fasting, articles of faith, obligatory charity, and the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.

The recommended category includes proper behavior in matters such as marriage, funeral rites and family life. As such, it covers many of the same areas as civil law in the West. Sharia courts attempt to reconcile parties to disputes in this area using the recommended behavior as their guide.

All behavior which is neither discouraged nor recommended, neither forbidden, recommended nor required is permissible.

Discouraged behavior, while it is not sinful of itself, is considered undesirable among Muslims. It may also make a Muslim liable to criminal penalties under certain circumstances.

Forbidden behavior is both sinful and criminal. It includes all actions expressly forbidden in both the Old Testament and the Qur'an. Violating any of the Ten Commandments, such as theft, adultery, murder, etc. is prohibited. Certain Muslim dietary and clothing restrictions also fall into this category, such as the prohibition on eating pork, drinking alcohol, or gambling.

Based on Quranic verses and Islamic traditions, classical Sharia distinguishes between Muslims, followers of other Abrahamic monotheistic religions, and pagans or people belonging to other polytheistic religions. As monotheists, Jews and Christians have traditionally been considered "People of The Book," and afforded a special status known as dhimmi.  Hindus were originally considered pagans and given the choice between conversion to Islam and death (or slavery), as pagans are not afforded the rights and protections of the dhimma contract.   By the Middle Ages, the Hindus and Buddhists of India had come to be considered dhimmis by their Muslim rulers.  Eventually, the largest school of Islamic scholarship applied this term to all non-Muslims living in Islamic lands outside the sacred area surrounding Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

All Jews, Christians, and Muslims believe in some form of the divine moral Law, rules of behavior that come from God.  Obviously, interpretation of this Law varies widely, both within and without the three religions.  And there is also a great difference in terms of whether the divine Law can be applied to society.  But though we differ in many things, the Ten Commandments should be able to serve as a way of understanding what Jews, Christians, and Muslims have in common when it comes to God's Law.

Shalom/Salam/Eirene/Pax/Peace. (To be continued)