Sharia Law: exploring the controversy

A lunch time seminar was held on 24th March at the Guildhall, Bath, in an effort to help foster a public understanding of Sharia Law, and to explore the many controversies surrounding its applications and purpose. The speakers were Dr. Iftikhar Malik, Professor at the Bath Spa University, and me. Following this seminar, it was thought that, to encourage further debate and understanding of Sharia’s guiding principles, as well as its intended benefit to human society, we would follow it up on this blog. We would, in addition, welcome any questions or queries regarding Sharia, which should be clear, concise and to the point, for the purpose of elaborating on them.

‘Sharia’ has become the subject of intense debate worldwide, and a symbol for the rejection of anything that is Muslim. It is equally a hot topic in some Muslim countries, with their attitude of pick-n-chose options. It is, apparently, applied only partially in any Muslim country which wants to fulfil the aspirations of their fellow Muslim population, and has come to be most widely known by the application of its penal legal system, with penalties that include flogging and capital punishment.

Recently, and with the emergence of certain Islamist Groups, demanding the application of Sharia Law in certain Western countries, it has generated a plume of heated debate in Western and Eastern Media, and at public and private gatherings. Certain outlets of the media have deliberately run stories with provocative headlines on their front pages, ignoring the fact that a story originates from a person or small group wishing to draw the attention of the public towards them, for no other purpose than to seek publicity for themselves, their agenda, or perhaps for other motives.

When I decided to highlight the controversy surrounding the applications of Sharia law, I wanted to put my understanding of Sharia and my thoughts forward in greater detail to the public. I have been a student of Islamic theology and Sharia (Usool al-Din and Ash-Shariah) in India, Saudi Arabia, as well as in London. I have been dealing with Sharia in my career as an Imam for the last 15 years, both with the Muslim community as well as non-Muslim communities. I hope that I have understood the issues raised well enough to deal with them in a proper manner, and to simplify such issues for the public, while providing a context that would encourage them to explore further and perhaps come to appreciate Sharia’s intended purpose.

I have, unfortunately, witnessed some debates which I found extremely vulgar, unnecessarily personal and debasing to any civilised manner of discourse on issues of mutual concern. This misunderstanding of certain issues has created unnecessary fear and hatred among many people when it comes to Sharia Law.
It is important to understand that a crime against people in Islam is also a crime against God. Notwithstanding, God could only grant His forgiveness after a person has repented of their crimes and reconciled with the victims.

Law is a difficult pill for people to swallow - sometimes too sweet when it favours them, at other times too bitter – when they are caught and punished. Freedom, liberty, independence, and an irrational need to be above (and perhaps beyond) the law are the most desired of human privileges. An absence of law, or a legal framework, creates a vacuum which brings human society to the verge of anarchy or tyranny. Conversely, a sense of complete liberty or fully fledged freedom can also be the cause of harm and suffering for human beings. How to arrive at a balance between the two? Islam takes a holistic view in the solving of human problems; criminal, social, economic and political. It provides a firm and solid foundation for human maturity and a guiding faith and value system, while giving consideration to security during people’s lives. Thus, Islam has a two pronged approach:

1- Cleanse human hearts and minds from the impurity of evil and base thoughts. This process is called Tazkiyah or purification of hearts and actions. The prophet Muhammad, Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him, highlighting this point, said to the Muslims: “Behold! There in your body is a piece of flesh, which if remained righteous, will keep all your body righteous. But if it becomes corrupt, will corrupt all your body (meaning the actions). Behold! It is your heart.”

This approach deals with Human Faith and Beliefs, giving a (legal) framework for personal spiritual behaviour and how to manage your heart in order to manage your actions. If there is filth in human hearts, that filth will not create or produce anything other than more filth. Cleansing the heart should be the first order of priority if extreme external actions are to be avoided.

The Sharia deals with this aspect of human actions by providing guidance in matters of their belief. One should remember that a ‘non-belief’ attitude is also a belief system, which impacts on the lifestyle of that person and his attitude towards others.

Thus the Islamic perspective of a ‘Faith system’ (Articles of Imaan) are defined in such a way to provide the basis of our faith in one Creator, the Almighty, the Just, the maintainer and cherisher who has no partners in His creation. He is the lawgiver, both in the form of revealed scriptures for the guidance of humanity, as well as the source of an eternal legal framework, which sustains the universe and all life systems and structures therein.

The Five Pillars of Islam are designed to connect theses faith articles with practical human life and help create a consciousness of that Creator in the hearts of human beings.

It is in this context that the Quran says: ‘We have not sent down before you any Messenger but we revealed to them that there is no deity worthy of worship except I, so worship me alone’. (S21/V25). That is the unified message sent down to all the prophets and Messengers and disseminated to their peoples, before the prophet Muhammad.

We will explain about each Pillar of Islam and its impact on the character and practical life of a person in other places on our Website, in greater detail, at a later date.

2- Once faith and thoughts are purified, it is important to understand that life must be lived in accordance with the guiding values of eternal divine law. It must be remembered here that the Creator did not create human being to make them suffer. Neither was humankind created to be the cause of any sufferings to others. The policy is ‘live and let others live’. That required a legal framework that could balance out the approach to personal freedom and liberty and protect the rights of every person, men or women, Muslims or non-Muslims, white or black.

For that very purpose, Sharia law or divinely ordained law was given to the prophet Muhammed. That is not to say that this was something new or unique to humanity.

Islam did not arrive in isolation from the teachings of past, revealed scriptures or decent common human values, entertained by law abiding people at all times, supported and strengthened by a sound human instinct or disposition (Fitrah).

Hence, we Muslims believe in the Law (Sharia) of Moses, which was given to the Children of Israel and passed on to them through all succeeding prophets, until the prophet Jesus appeared as the last prophet to them. He preached the same law to the Israelites, with some modifications made by him. However, I understand that while many Christians believe in the Old Testament, in particular the Pentateuch, as references are made to them in the Gospels, there are some who simply say that Mosaic Law ended with the emergence of Christ.

Islam does not prescribe retribution, punishment at random or incoherently, or undertaken in haste. Islam has a far greater understanding of people’s sufferings and is more humane than any human. God’s law is not arbitrary, or unkind, as many people think on the both sides of the divide. It exhausts all channels of endeavour to deal with such predicaments in the kindest and most humane manner. This was one reason why the Quran draws the attention of lawmakers and legislatures of a people by saying: ‘In the Law of Equality, there is (saving of life) to you, o men of understanding, that you may restrain yourselves’.


.............To be continued in Part 2

Engaging with others

The Mosque Open Day and City Centre Awareness Project are the two major channels through which we engage with the wider community. Their principle purpose is to facilitate, for the members of the Muslim community and the wider community, engagement into dialogue and to provide a suitable platform for building bridges of mutual understanding and human fellowship.

Every event brings its own surprises and make us feel how worthwhile is this work and our efforts. It also gives us great satisfaction when we succeed in changing people’s widely held prejudiced perceptions about Islam and the Muslims and when we find they are thankful as a result.

For example, in our February’s CCAP stall we received a commendation from a passing gentleman, who briefly stopped to tell us how much he appreciated our efforts. He told us that he did not believe in any religion but agreed with our work of building bridges of understanding and community cohesion. Such moments bring with them a feeling of deep satisfaction.

On the same stall, we were visited by two ladies, who although at first seemed reluctant to engage us in conversation, after some encouragement, told us that they have had enough of the continuous media focus on Islam and the Muslims and the resulting bad press. Commenting that it was all distortion and misleading information and that they were fed up, they continued “NO MORE. We want to know about Islam and understand Muslims by learning it all from them. We want to read their literature and develop our own understanding”.

I was gratified, and glad that is not always the case that when a lie is repeated hundreds of time it starts to be accepted as the truth. Lies, which in the first place are baseless propaganda, must never be allowed to survive.

My faith and hope continues to grow stronger. I feel that those two ladies represent the sentiments of millions of people who do not want to live in a continual state of confrontation, based as it is, on the outpourings of an ill-informed and prejudiced press. I feel that this is a new beginning, and makes all our efforts worthwhile.

During our Mosque Open Days we are host to many visitors, who often surprise us. For example, in February, we invited one person to tour the Mosque. The Lady responded to our invitation and entered the mosque. She said that it was all scary for her. She started apologising, saying that when she was at school she never studied Islam. She looked extremely confused. I took the lead in our conversation and showed her around.

According to her, Mohammad was God to Muslims and everything was scary about the Muslims.

I started explaining to her the beginning of Islam and its meanings and applications in daily life. I explained the Islamic teachings with regards to God the Almighty, The One Who is the Creator of all and the Master of the Day of Judgement. I also explained to her how Jesus and Mohammad were distant cousins; Mohammad being from the progeny of Ishmael and Jesus being from the progeny of Isaac, both sharing the common lineage from Abraham.

I explained to her the commonalities between the Abrahamic Faiths as well as from where Islam takes its distinct position.

The lady was extremely pleased at her visit, felt it had been worthwhile and said that she would be recommending it to others.

If more people would become involved in this type of activity, it would encourage others to take part in dialogue and social engagement, develop a better understanding of each other’s faiths and beliefs, and contribute to the building of a cohesive human society.