![]() ![]() ![]() Do all Muslim countries adhering to Sharia engage in stoning and amputations as punishment for crimes? This prohibition applies to all religions equally. If and when religious laws conflict with American law, the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment prohibit American government, including the courts, from substituting religious laws for civil law or following religious laws that violate civil law. For example, both legal systems allow rights to personal property, mutual consent to contracts, the presumption of innocence in criminal proceedings, and the right of women to initiate divorce proceedings. Many aspects of Sharia or Islamic law are consistent with modern legal rules found in American law. Is Sharia compatible with American law and values? ![]() For that reason, it is important to be familiar with the history of a religious tradition and understand the widely-shared interpretation of its beliefs and practices. This explains the great variety of ways Muslims have practiced their faith all over the world for the past 1400 years.Īny theological or moral system is vulnerable to misuse by extremists to promote violence. Interpretation is also subject to conditions and times specific to a particular community of believers.Interpretations may vary significantly from country to country and community to community. Since interpretation is a human process, it has always been pluralistic, prone to error and dependent on human understanding, no matter the religion in question. No single official document encapsulates Sharia. There is no one interpretation called “Sharia.” A variety of Muslim communities exist around the world, and each understands Sharia in its own context. Within Islam, certain interpretations and applications of Sharia have changed over time and continue to change today. Islamic law is one of the richest sources of Islamic civilization through the ages and must be applied appropriately to new times and places. Each school offers a vast body of rulings and opinions. Islam has a number of valid traditional schools of law, each of which constitutes a distinctive methodology in deriving the law from its sources and applying it to concrete situations. It requires trained scholars and is similar to the roles of religious scholars in working out the details of Rabbinical law in Judaism. The process of legal interpretation is called “fiqh,” which means understanding. The revealed and other sources of the Sharia require interpretation for the creation of substantive law. Thus, the Sharia mandates that Muslims follow the good and generally wholesome customs of the lands in which they live. Many regional and local customs are also accepted as a source of the Sharia when they are consistent with the general good. They are (1) the Qur’an, Islamic sacred scripture, which Muslims believe God revealed to humanity through the Prophet Muhammad, (2) the Sunna (or Prophetic model of behavior recorded in a literature called the Hadith), (3) the consensus of religious scholars, and (4) analogy. Within Islam, there are four principle sources of Sharia, which are accepted by consensus. The diverse manner in which these countries apply Sharia to daily life highlights how Sharia is neither static nor rigid but instead a reflection on how different communities interpret it.5 Just as many observant Jews follow Halakha, many observant Muslims follow some aspect of Sharia.Ĭurrently, 35 countries incorporate Sharia into their civil, common or customary law. Sharia is overwhelmingly concerned with personal religious observance such as prayer and fasting. The acknowledgement of sound local customs throughout the world is one of the five basic maxims of the Sharia according to all Islamic schools of law. The five major goals of the Sharia are the protection of sound religious practice, life, sanity, the family, and personal and communal wealth. Among the primary aims of the Sharia are the achievement of justice, fairness and mercy. That divine law was then interpreted by Muslim scholars over the centuries. It may be generally defined as the Islamic law revealed by God to the Prophet Muhammad. Sharia represents how practicing Muslims can best lead their daily lives in accordance with God’s divine guidance. The general definition of Sharia as understood by most American Muslims is as follows: It is an Arabic word meaning “the way” or “the path to water.” For centuries, Muslim scholars have given a broad definition of Sharia reflecting the diversity of interpretations on how Muslims have attempted to best understand and practice their faith. What is the Truth About American Muslims? ![]()
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