SHARIAH
Yusuf Kappaya Rels131 Paul Hedges November 6, 2003 The Many Uses of Shariah According to the Quran, every believing Muslim should live their life in ordinance with Shariah, or Islamic law. Shariah covers all aspects of Islamic life, beginning with worship, which can never be altered, and continuing on with social, economic, and political matters, which may be amended if the need arises. ... The common rebuttals made by those opposing Shariah are that that the punishments prescribed by Shariah for criminal offences are too harsh. ... Today, the rulers of most Muslim countries have apostated and passed legislation against Shariah, wishing to cancel or replace it as a result of pressure from foreign governments, and deviating away from the fundamental beliefs of Islam. Shariah traces its origins from the Quran (The Muslim’s holy book), and the Hadith [(A body of laws, stories, and legends about Prophet Muhammad Peace be upon him (PBUH)]. ... Muslim governments around the world have applied Shariah in different ways. The most prominent country where Islamic Law is practised is Saudi Arabia, however it is not the only jurisdiction where Shariah is upheld. Pakistan, Malaysia, Iran, Sudan, Nigeria, (1,2) in addition to most Arab nations base their laws on Shariah. ... This line renders legislation that has been created by man and not revealed in the Quran or Hadith to be insignificant to the application of Shariah. These systems of government cannot described as truly Islamic due to the fact that in modern day, additional legislation has been added as a supplement to Shariah, in order to make the administration and the passing of laws simpler in Islamic countries. ... Evidence of such a discrepancy between Shariah and legal practises may be found may be found in the Quran’s Surah An Nur, ayah 2 (24. ... (2,3) The practise of Shariah can vary greatly from time to time and state to state. In 1977 Pakistan to blaspheme the name of prophet Muhammad (PBUH) would have earned you a life of imprisonment, but just three years later with the approval of full Shariah in Majil-I-shoora (Legislative body) it became a capital crime, punishable by death. (4) To cite a modern day example of how Shariah is being abandoned, recently a court in Malaysia ruled that divorcing one’s spouse through the use of cell phone text messaging is legal if the message is unambiguous, this ruling was made in the case of a man who had texted his wife with the threat of divorce if she didn’t leave her parents‘ house. (14) However, this practise should be illegal in accordance to Shariah. ... Today with the widening effect of globalisation, man countries are subjected to an increasing amount of pressure to nullify Shariah’s effect on criminal law proceedings in their countries.