Sharia (; , ), also transliterated as Sharī'ah, Shari'a, Shariah, or referred to as Sharia Law is a body of religious law that forms the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology sharīʿah refers to immutable, intangible divine law, in contrast to fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), which refers to its interpretations by Islamic scholars. Sharia, or fiqh as traditionally known, has always been used alongside customary law from the very beginning in Islamic history;"Customary law has also been an important part of Islamic law. It was used to resolve disputes that were not covered by sharia, and it also helped to adapt sharia to the needs of men in different societies and cultures." Islamic Law: An Introduction by John Esposito (2019) Esposito, John. Islamic Law: An Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2019. Page 31"Another key principle that the early Islamic jurists developed was the concept of urf, or customary law. Urf is the customary practices of a particular community. The early jurists recognized that urf could be used to supplement or complement Islamic law. For example, if there was no clear ruling on a particular issue in the Quran or hadith, the jurists could look to urf for guidance." The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Law; Emon, Anver M., and Rumee Ahmed, editors. The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Law. Oxford University Press, 2018. p. 25. it has been elaborated and developed over the centuries by legal opinions issued by qualified jurists – reflecting the tendencies of different schools – and integrated with various economic, penal and administrative laws issued by Muslim rulers; and implemented for centuries by judges in the courts until recent times, when secularism was widely adopted in Islamic societies.
Traditional theory of Islamic jurisprudence recognizes four sources for al-sharia: the Qur'an, sunnah (or authentic ahadith), ijma (lit. consensus) (may be understood as ijma al-ummah () – a whole Islamic community consensus, or ijma al-aimmah () – a consensus by religious authorities), and analogical reasoning.John L. Esposito, Natana J. DeLong-Bas (2001), Women in Muslim family law , p. 2. Syracuse University Press, . Quote: "... by the ninth century, the classical theory of law fixed the sources of Islamic law at four: the Quran, the Sunnah of the Prophet, qiyas (analogical reasoning), and ijma (consensus)." It distinguishes two principal branches of law, rituals (Ibadah) and social dealings (Muamalat); subsections family law, relationships (commercial, political / administrative) and criminal law, in a wide range of topics assigning actions – capable of settling into different categories according to different understandings – to categories (ahkam) mainly as: mandatory, recommended, neutral, abhorred, and prohibited. Beyond legal norms, Sharia also enters many areas that are considered private practices today, such as belief, worshipping, ethics, clothing, and lifestyle, and gives to those in command duties to intervene and regulate them.
Over time with the necessities brought by sociological changes, on the basis of interpretative studies legal schools have emerged, reflecting the preferences of particular societies and governments, as well as Islamic scholars or imams on theoretical and practical applications of laws and regulations. Legal schools of Sunni Islam – Hanafi, Maliki, Shafiʽi, Hanbali, etc. – developed methodologies for deriving rulings from scriptural sources using a process known as ijtihad, a concept adopted by Shiism in much later periods meaning mental effort. Although Sharia is presented in addition to its other aspects by the contemporary Islamist understanding, as a form of governance some researchers approach traditional sīrah narratives with skepticism, seeing the early history of Islam not as a period when Sharia was dominant, but a kind of "secular Arabic expansion" and dating the formation of Islamic identity to a much later period.Robert G. Hoyland: In God's Path. The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire (2015)Patricia Crone / Martin Hinds: God's Caliph: Religious Authority in the First Centuries of Islam (1986)
Approaches to Sharia in the 21st century vary widely, and the role and mutability of Sharia in a changing world has become an increasingly debated topic in Islam. Beyond sectarian differences, fundamentalists advocate the complete and uncompromising implementation of "exact/pure sharia" without modifications, while modernists argue that it can/should be brought into line with human rights and other contemporary issues such as democracy, minority rights, freedom of thought, women's rights, and banking by new jurisprudences.Al-Suwaidi, J. (1995). Arab and western conceptions of democracy; in Democracy, war, and peace in the Middle East (Editors: David Garnham, Mark A. Tessler), Indiana University Press, see Chapters 5 and 6; Several practices of Sharia have been deemed incompatible with human rights, gender equality, and freedom of speech and expression. In Muslim majority countries, traditional laws have been widely used with or changed by European models. Judicial procedures and legal education have been brought in line with European practice likewise. While the constitutions of most Muslim-majority states contain references to Sharia, its rules are largely retained only in family law and penalties in some. The Islamic revival of the late 20th century brought calls by Islamic movements for full implementation of Sharia, including hudud corporal punishments, such as stoning.
Terminology The Arabic word () derives from the root š-r-ʕ. In the Quran, () and its cognate () occur once each, with the meaning "way" or "path". This term was borrowed into Ottoman Turkish as (),: "şerʿ /şeriʿ: (Ar.) Şeriat, İslam şeriatı, Peygamberin bildirdiği kurallar.": "şeriʿ (< Ar. şerʿ) Allah'ın emri, dinin kuralları, şeriat." which then entered the English language as Sheri,, Number LXXXIV "The religious law of the Sheri, of which the ultimate source is the Koran,[...]" – A review of Corps de Droit Ottoman a term that was used in late 19th- and early 20th-century law-related works, along with the French variant . (info page on book at Martin Luther University) // Cited: (PDF p. 41/338) // ""Chéri" may sound ambiguous in French but the term, used in our context for Islamic law (Turkish: şer'(i), is widely used in the legal literature at that time."
According to lexicographical studies, this word and its derivatives —in texts reflecting a rural or nomadic setting— refer to the watering of animals at a permanent water source or along the seashore. Another area of usage is associated with the concepts of extension or length and is non-religious in nature. The word is cognate with the Hebrew saraʿ () and is likely to be the origin of the meaning "way" or "path". Some scholars regard this as an archaic Arabic word bearing similarities to Halakha (Jewish law)Abdal-Haqq, Irshad (2006). Understanding Islamic Law – From Classical to Contemporary (edited by Aminah Beverly McCloud). Chapter 1 Islamic Law – An Overview of its Origin and Elements. AltaMira Press. p. 4. and suggest that its adoption as a metaphor for a divinely ordained way of life stems from the importance of water in an arid desert environment..Weiss, Bernard G. (1998). The Spirit of Islamic Law. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. p. 17. . The word () was widely used by Arabic-speaking Jews during the Middle Ages, being the most common translation for the word in the 10th-century Arabic translation of the Torah by Saadia Gaon. A similar use of the term can be found in Christian writers. The Arabic expression ( ) is a common translation of () and ( in Greek in the New Testament [Rom. 7: 22]).
Contemporary usage In everyday usage and the language of sermons, the terminological and semantic distinction of the word is disregarded; instead, it is used interchangeably with —and as a substitute for— the concept of Dīn, which encompasses areas such as belief, morality, and custom. For example, () means "law" or "religion of Moses" and () can mean "our religion" in reference to any monotheistic faith. Within Islamic discourse, () refers to religious -strict- regulations governing the lives of Muslims. For many Muslims, the word means simply "justice," and they will consider any law that promotes justice and social welfare to conform to Sharia. A related term (, Islamic law), which was borrowed from European usage in the late 19th century, is used in the Muslim world to refer to a legal system in the context of a modern state. Mehmet Görmez draws a distinction between the concepts of shar'i (derived from Sharia) and mashru' (lit. approved by Sharia, legal); he states that not every ruling based on the sources of Sharia (nass) can be accepted as mashru' —a term he interprets as implying conformity with the principle of justice.Bir şer‘iyet vardır, bir de meşruiyet. Şer‘iyet, bir hükmün İslam’daki varlığını, hükmün bir ayette, hadiste var olması şer‘iliğini ifade eder. Yasal olan şer‘idir. Adil olan meşrudur. Her şer‘î olan meşru değildir. Her meşru olan şer‘îdir.....Görmez, bu teorik ayrımı kölelik, eşin dövülmesi, müellefe-i kulûba zekât verilmesi, hırsızlık cezasının uygulanması ve Ehl-i kitap kadınlarla evlenme gibi örnekler üzerinden somutlaştırmaktadır. Ona göre bunların bir kısmı naslarda yer aldığı için “şer‘î” olmakla birlikte adalet ve maslahat açısından her zaman “meşru” olmayabilir. Hz. Ömer’in bazı uygulamaları da bu meşruiyet anlayışının örnekleri olarak sunulmaktadır.https://www.yavuzkoktas.com/mehmet-gormezin-serilik-mesruluk-ayrimina-dair-bir-degerlendirme/
Theories of origin and roots
According to the traditionalist (Atharī) Islamic perspective, the fundamental Principles of Islamic jurisprudence and Sharia are traced back to Muhammad through the Companions, who adopted his actions and approvals as a model (Sunnah) and transmitted this knowledge to subsequent generations in the form of hadith. These narrations paved the way first for informal discussions and later for systematic legal thought; this framework was most authoritatively articulated during the eighth and ninth centuries by the great jurists Abu Hanifa, Malik ibn Anas, al-Shafi‘i, and Ahmad ibn Hanbal —recognized as the founders of the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi‘i, and Hanbali schools of Sunni jurisprudence. Although modern historians initially accepted the general outlines of the traditionalist narrative, some have proposed new theories regarding the formation of 'fiqh', because Sharia laws did not possess the shallowness or inadequacy that would stem from the daily life practices of a rural tribal society numbering only a few thousand people.