Islamic Law
Islamic
law is a very complex, yet disciplined religion full of carefully thought out
doctrines designed to bring a people closer to adhering to God’s will and
building a society that shared this same belief. Below will be discussed a sample comparison between early
developing Islamic Law and the legal system of Western culture. Next, the importance and emphasis of
the Shari’a’s (i.e. Islamic Law) postmortem authenticity and interpretation
once Muhammad was no longer available to lead and mentor his people and how
these meanings have been formulated for today’s society. Last, we will visit attempts to alter
or adjust Islamic law in the Middle East currently.
Once
Muhammad was absent as Islam’s prophet, “Shi’ites looked to their Imams for guidance…Sunnis
found it in the Shari’a” (Egger p 114).
As an example of complexity and discipline of Islamic law, we can
inspect the tenets of the Mu’tazila patronized by caliph al-Ma’mun (Egger p
116). “1) God is one…2) God is
just,…3) God does not cause evil; 4) People, responsible for their own
acts…5)…reason…guide people to know God; 6) …try to justify God’s ways to
humanity; and 7) the Qur’an was created…” (Goldschmidt Jr., Davidson p
114). With that in mind, the table
below shows the implication that Western law is full of adjustments, updates
and most importantly, they are not universally accepted. Islamic law on the other hand is
complete, created by Allah, who is perfect, “all knowing and all-powerful…and
complete” (ITO table). Equally
important, Islamic law is “for Man, His creation…for all nations, all
countries, and for all time…universal” (ITO table).
Like
most developments in accordance to law and reasoning, there will be skeptics
and questions that challenge whether Man will be able to accept and follow
law’s commandments. Islamic law is
a division of political, legal, theological and spiritual premises. Going back to the Mu’tazila, Ahmad ibn
Hanbal is founder of the Sunni legal system and influential for major
theologian al-Ash’ari to conclude “that divine revelation was a better guide
than reason for human action” (Goldschmidt Jr., Davidson p 116). For example, where Mu’tazilites
believed that the Qur’an was a “creation” of God, al-Ash’ari insisted the
sacred word “was an attribute of God-“ (Goldschmidt Jr., Davidson p 116). Another dissimilarity was interpreting
God’s word as an allusion versus allegorically. “If the Qur’an mentioned God’s had…[it] must be accepted as
is-without specifying how”. Mu’tazilites
took the Qur’an’s divine acts or using God’s physical features as an account of
a story, which represented symbols of other things. Last, is accountability, questioning “does God ordain all
human actions, or is each person accountable…” (Goldschmidt Jr., Davidson p
117). In modern day Saudi Arabia,
the Hanbali legal rite is still practiced.
During
the eighth and ninth centuries, designated scholars, or ulama, collected
reports called Hadith that were
incorporated with the Qur’an to keep Islamic law in its ‘primacy’ deemed the
Sunna of the Prophet.
This, in turn, erected an “initiative to codigy God’s will…”, yet
“multiplied the differences among the…ulama” (Eggers p117). An example today is the “avowedly
secular Turkey” that “doesn’t base its laws on the Qur’an, and some government-imposed
rules-such as a ban on women’s veils-are contrary to practices often understood
as Islamic (Radical Islam.org).
Another attempt to redefine Islamic law was in 1959 where Iraq “modified
its Sharia-based family law system and became one of the Middle East’s least
religious states (Radical Islam.org).
History
has shown a most committed effort to keep Islamic law uniform and universal,
yet there will always be some type of alteration of most laws within today’s
society. However, given the
extensive debates concerning the genuine nature of the Qur’an applied with the
Shari’a, it has extraordinarily kept the initial values intact and purpose mostly
followed by the more devout of Muslims.
Works Cited:
Egger, Vernon (2004) A History of the Muslim World to
1405. The Making of a Civilization. Pearson Education Inc., New York
Goldschmidt, Arthur, Jr. (2009) A Concise History of the
Middle East. Westview Press, Boulder
Intellectual Take Out|Feed Your Mind. Comparison between
Man-made Law and Shariah Law [table] http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/library/chart-graph/comparison-between-man-made-law-and-shariah-law
(accessed 2/10/13)
No comments:
Post a Comment