Other areas of daily life where Muslims may turn to Sharia for guidance include family law, finance and business. Like any legal system, Sharia is complex and its practice is entirely reliant on the quality and training of experts. Islamic jurists issue guidance and rulings. Guidance that is considered a formal legal ruling is called a fatwa. There are five different schools of Islamic law. The five schools differ in how literally they interpret the texts from which Sharia law is derived.
Interpretation of Islamic law is also nuanced according to local culture and customs, which means Sharia may look quite different in different places. Islamic scholars says Sharia is mainly a code of ethical conduct and about worship and charity but a part of it deals with crime. Sharia law divides offences into two general categories: "hadd" offences, which are serious crimes with set penalties, and "tazir" crimes, where the punishment is left to the discretion of the judge.
Hadd offences include theft, which under the strictest interpretations of Sharia, can be punishable by amputating the offender's hand. Most nations that follow Sharia law have their own interpretations. This means that no two nations are exactly alike in what is allowed, what is forbidden, and the consequences for engaging in forbidden actions.
However, Sharia law has come under scrutiny in recent years due to what many believe is hard, intrusive, and restrictive laws, particularly against females. Some examples include amputation of the hands as a punishment for theft, the punishment of death for denying the Quran, and laws surrounding the rape of women.
Some countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Brunei, however, have interpreted Sharia harshly. In , Brunei introduced death by stoning for homosexuals under its Islamic law.
International pressure later forced the country to back down. While many Sharia punishments relate to issues of morality, Afsaruddin clarifies that Islam does take a strong position on adultery. In other words, they are cultural and not religious practices.
Female genital mutilation is practiced by non-Muslims as well. Fact : In earlier centuries, celebrations of same-sex love did not flout Islamic law. Al-Shabrawi dedicated a love poem to his male student and wrote many others celebrating young men. Fatwa is an Arabic term that means a ruling or legal opinion that has been deduced by a qualified Islamic scholar or someone claiming authority in Islam on issues pertaining to Islamic law that generally have not been previously decided.
Since these opinions are non-binding, Muslims are free to choose whether or not to follow them. Understandings of Sharia vary widely among Muslims; the same is true of concepts of human rights, which differ widely in different countries and among different people.
The Declaration of Human Rights enumerates both civil liberties e. The rights affirmed include freedom of thought and expression, freedom of religion and conscience including the right of other religious communities to live according to their own beliefs and laws , and, in particular, rights for women, including the right to inherit and own property, which were not granted to European women until the 19 th or even the 20 th century.
While no Muslim-majority country—and indeed no country in the world—has fully lived up to the ideals of the Declaration of Human Rights, Sharia as understood by the majority of Muslims clearly supports the aspiration to do so.
This is clear evidence that while there is no universal understanding or application of Sharia or Islam generally, groups such as the Taliban do not represent the mainstream and are definitely extreme in their practices, which is why they have been condemned by other Muslims.
Muslims follow Sharia in the same way that people of other faiths follow their sacred laws and traditions. The American way, as enshrined in the religion clauses of the First Amendment of the U. Constitution, protects freedom of religion and religious practice. It allows religious and secular groups to follow any way of life, so long as it is voluntary and they respect the rights of others.
America has always had numerous religious groups who follow their own sacred laws and lifestyles Catholics, Jews, Baptists, Amish, Buddhists, Quakers, religious communes, etc. American Muslims practice Sharia on a voluntary, private basis in a manner similar to Catholics who obey the magisterium or Jews who follow halakhah. The essential parts of Sharia are practices such as daily prayers, fasting during the month of Ramadan, marriage contracts, and rules for charity and investments.
For example, if a Muslim eats a halal or kosher hamburger, nothing prevents someone else from eating a bacon cheeseburger! Muslims can be true to both America and to their religion just as Christians, Jews, Hindus, or adherents of any other religion can be true to both their country and their faith. According to our understanding of Islamic teachings, anyone living under the protection of a civil government in the country in which they reside owes obedience to that government, regardless of what type of government it is or whether or not one is living in a Muslim-majority country.
However, the First Amendment clearly provides protection for the free exercise of religion, which includes protecting the rights of Muslims, as well as Jews, Christians, and others, to observe their own laws in matters of faith, including the adherence to rules regarding personal worship and some family laws. However, no religious law can supersede state or federal law.
Moreover, Sharia commands Muslims to abide by the law of the land in which they reside. No, America Muslims are merely trying to follow Sharia in their personal life just as practicing Jews try to follow Jewish law halakha. There is no evidence of American Muslims individually or as a group trying to force Sharia on others. Muslims are obligated to adhere to the law of the land, and the observance of any laws that run contrary to the Constitution such as polygamy would be prevented even if someone tried to implement them.
American democracy is based on the Constitution. The Constitution protects rights such as religious freedom, privacy, and private property. Muslim Americans can follow Sharia Islamic values and way of life in the same way that adherents of other religions follow their sacred laws, values, and lifestyles. The basic parts of Sharia rituals, marriage and family life, charity and ethical business practices are private and voluntary.
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