The Shari'a

Paper Summary:

This paper explores Shari'a, or the institutionalization of Islamic Law. The writer explains that the Shari'a are a set of primarily social laws deeply rooted and mandating religious devotion. Most of the Shari'a deals with social issues such as inheritance and marriage and so forth, while a minority deals with criminal law and another large chunk with ritual duties such as pilgrimage and prayer. The paper attempts to deal with the general misconceptions of these laws and provide a more meaningful understanding than the general misinterpretations evident since September 11.

Contents:
History of the Shari'a : Inspiration and Evolution
The Face of Shari'a: General Examples and Justifications
Shari'a: Beneficial or Detrimental?
Bibliography

From the Paper:

"Those who wish to employ Shari'a often make such claims about its definition as "The shari'a is the Quran" (Zubaida) or that the shari'a is "inseparable from Muhammad." (Bradshaw) As a result, many individuals assume that the Shari'a is similar to the Jewish Torah in that it is a simple, codified set of laws governing the behavior of society and simply and neatly compiled in a book somewhere. Perhaps, like the Torah's Talmud, there are additional bodies of literature that provided further insight into the original work, but surely it is a straightforward set of revealed precepts. "The impression is created that the shari'a is a ready-made body of divine provenance which can be 'applied.'" (Zubaida) Nothing could be further from the truth."

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