What is Shariah Law?

This is a brief piece I wrote for FOSIS to be delivered to all Student Union Executives, as part of a FOSIS pack. I was asked to explain the shariah... a humble task indeed, and one which I somehow managed to pull off in just over 500 words:

SHARIAH LAW

In 21st Century Britain, when one thinks of 'Shariah Law' one cannot help but conjure up images of the darkest, most barbaric practices. This creates a major barrier to understanding the way in which Muslims conceive of the world, their existence in the West, and their apparent rejection of any notion of secularism. It also creates a barrier to understanding the real difference between 'normal' Muslims and actual extremists, because of the temptation to blanket all Muslims who support this legal system as 'barbaric', as opposed to being the progressive, democratic force for good Britain needs.

So, what is the Shariah? Muslims believe the Shariah is 'the Way' to the Creator. It is the system of morals, beliefs, and practices that guide the life of every believer. In other words, it is the legal, spiritual and belief system that shows one how to be a faithful Muslim, in any given context. Its four primary sources are the two scriptural sources of Islam (the Qur'an and the Sunnah), the consensus of the majority of scholars who have dedicated their lives to studying those sources (ijma), and rational deduction (qiyas). There are also a number of scholastic tools within the framework of the Shariah, that provide the adaptability that have allowed Muslims to live in almost every culture on Earth for centuries. Those tools are ijtihad (the scholarly struggle to find a solution to a new problem not explicitly dealt with by the scriptural sources, by a scholar with the highest level of training in the Shariah), maslaha (weighing up the common good in a situation and minimizing the harm), and the fatwa (a non-binding legal ruling given by a scholar capable of ijtihad, in answer to a specific question or problem, to be applied only by the particular person(s) of a specific time and place).

The overall objectives of the Shariah are five: the preservation of life, intellect, property, family and religion. Many Muslim scholars, capable of ijtihad are of the understanding that the legal system of Britain is the Shariah for British Muslims, as it fulfils these five overall objectives.

In order to be productive, the Christian tradition went through an important process: the separation of the church from the state. This approach is so deeply engrained in our Western tradition, that the thought of anyone disagreeing with this separation seems absurd. However, the Islamic tradition had a different separation that essentially fulfils the same purpose: the separation of the acts of worship (the 5 pillars of Islam) from all other worldly affairs. Shariah still guides those 'other worldly affairs' but in a different respect. In worship, everything is forbidden, except for what has been clearly instructed by the scriptural sources. In life, everything is permissible, except for the few exceptions, which have been clearly forbidden by the scriptural sources. This is the 'Islamic' equivalent to secularism, which allows the legal code of the Shariah to demarcate the moral barriers that cannot be crossed by Muslims in any sphere of life.

Therefore, in the realm of participating in political life in the UK, Muslims are free and actually encouraged to be involved in British politics, as nothing in the scriptural sources contradicts this, and several stories from the scriptural sources encourage civic and political participation. The moral values and principles one can derive from the scriptural sources are those of truth, justice and transparency, which FOSIS aim to uphold. It must be noted at this point that the flexibility of Shariah has allowed for numerous, perfectly valid interpretations within different contexts, particularly in the political arena. Therefore, one may encounter Muslims following traditional or literal interpretations of the scriptural sources that, contrary to the reformist approach, will not permit any political participation in the West.