REMINDER TO MUSLIMS ALL AROUND THE WORLD

I read this article in American Thinker that was published in 2005 titled "Top 10 reasons why Shariah is bad for all societies” and laughed hard until I almost fall out of my chair (yeah, so “un-ladylike” of me) but then again, the author ( a chap by the name of James Arlandson from Quebec Canada) had the chit to quote “out of context” hadith and verses of the Holy Quran to support his preposterous claim. There you have it - another ignorant person whom I 1000% believe is a non-Muslim commenting on Shariah matters that he did not have any knowledge of .

To all the 1 billion Muslims out there, I leave you with this hadith that stresses on the importance of removing evil acts from society and to maintain what is right and fight what is wrong :

Abu Said al-Khudri reported the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) as saying : “Whosoever of you sees an evil action, let him change it with his hands; if he is not able to do so, then with his tongue; and if he is not able to do so, then with his heart – and that is the weakest of faith” (Muslim, 40 hadith, Al-Nawawi, no 34).

BASICS ABOUT SHARIAH

Shariah is often referred to as Islamic law, but this is wrong, as only a small part is irrefutably based upon the core Islamic text, the Quran. Also, calling the Shariah 'law' can be misleading, as Shariah extends beyond law. Shariah is the totality of religious, political, social, domestic and private life. Shariah is primarily meant for all Muslims, but applies to a certain extent also for people living inside a Muslim society.

Dogmatically, Shariah is not something the intelligence of man can prove wrong, it is only to be accepted by humans, since it is based on the will of God.

The regulations of the Shariah can be divided into two groups:

1. regulations on worship and ritual duties

2. regulations of juridical and political nature

But despite this, many parts of the Shariah have no or little importance in most Muslim societies, except in those that have gone through a phase of Islamization (Sudan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and to some extent Libya). But the Shariah has much importance in domestic judicial fields like family, marriage and inheritance.

In Islam, there are four schools (madhhab), which all coexist in peace. No war has ever been fought over the issue of different schools, and students of religious subjects in most Muslim countries have to learn about all four schools. It is in many cases permissible to use a law from another school, if one feels that it is more appropriate. All schools have a lot in common, but there are many cases where the same act is regarded very differently. For the very same issue the schools can stretch from classifying things to be everything between forbidden and meritorious.

The modernist movement in Islam has opposed the traditional view of Shariah stating that the law cannot be changed by man, insisting that it should be applied to the actual situation and new ideas, meaning that new interpretations are allowed, provided that they do not contravene any Shariah rules.