Question

1.) Discuss the term Shari’a and its various shades of meaning. Why is it inadequate to simply translate Shari’a as law? What other dimensions does the term include?

Answer 1

It is part of the religious law of Islam and is a derivation of the precepts of Quran. It states that ordinary Muslims must defer judgement to people learned in religion to use the reason that was explained the contents in the Quran This exercise of using analogy (qiyas) was called ijtihad. and justifications could be found in the Hadith. When general agreement was found as a result of this reasoning process, the status was stated as the ultimate truth. All interpretation was to be conducted in Arabic and it was helt true only if the Imam was included. The ambiguity of the whole concept is the reason behind its difficulty to be truly accepted as a law.