What does Shari’ah mean?

Many words have multiple meanings. They are used in different ways by different people, and even one person might use them in different ways in different contexts. Shari’ah is one of these words, and I think it’s useful to try to clarify some of its different meanings and connotations.

Literally translated, shari’ah means “the path to water.” Other legitimate translations include “God’s laws,” “natural law,” “the path to salvation,” “the natural order of things,” and “the Islamic code of law.”

At its most broad, shari’ah means simply, and profoundly, the divine patterns on which the natural and human worlds are founded. All of the world’s religions have come up with the concept that the world is orderly and that there is some sort of divine or moral law manifest in the structure of the universe. Catholic theology calls this natural law. Confucius’s disciple Chung Yung wrote:

Oh, how great is the divine moral law in humanity. Vast and illimitable, it gives birth and life to all created things. It towers high up to the very heavens. How wonderful and great it is! All the institutions of human society and civilization – laws, customs, and usage – have their origin there.

This, in the words of a classical Chinese scholar, is shari’ah.

In this meaning, there is no way for us to live outside shari’ah. Shari’ah is how God put the universe together. It includes things as fundamental as the law of gravity, as subtle as the human capacity for love, and as disturbing as the inevitability of death.

A second meaning of shari’ah is more normative but no less universal. We human beings have been endowed with the blessing and burden of free will. We are not like a rock or a tree, which has no choice but to obey God’s laws, natural laws. Indeed, a human infant does not have free will in this sense. No one holds infants morally responsible for their actions. Only over time do we grow into having a conscience, and therefore into being ethical agents.

Every human society recognizes that healthy adults have an intuitive sense of right and wrong. Our intuitive sense may sometimes lead us astray, and we may sometimes ignore the promptings of conscience, but having such moral intuitions is part the definition of a fully functioning human being. We also recognize that sometimes some people are so damaged that they cannot distinguish between right and wrong (certain forms of brain injuries, for example, can do this), but that is very much the exception to the rule.

In this context, shari’ah is God’s laws in the sense of what we should do. The fundamental moral teachings of many societies are very similar – do not murder, do not steal, do not lie, do not betray marriage vows. Or, to state it more positively, to do justice and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. This particular phrasing comes from the prophet Micah, but the basic teachings are universal. And in that sense shari’ah is universal. How indeed could God’s laws not be universal?

For many Muslims, this meaning of shari’ah provides an important counter-balance to arbitrary human powers. Especially in a dictatorship, it’s all too easy for the world to seem like a “might makes right” sort of place. The idea of shari’ah, of divine law, says no – there are limits on what people can do, and there are aspirations that should be universal. For example, shari’ah says that societies should be just, so an unjust society is counter to God’s will. It’s rather like a famous line written by Thomas Jefferson:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

The idea that a good society depends on the recognition of natural and inalienable rights that come from a divine Creator should be familiar to Americans.

A third meaning of shari’ah is God’s intentions for humanity as interpreted by Muslim scholars. Shari’ah here is very analogous to Jewish law. Indeed, the Hebrew word that is usually translated as “law” is halakhah, which literally means “the path that one walks.” Sounds a little like the “path to water” doesn’t it? Especially if one remembers that Islam started in the Arabian peninsula, where water was the precious source of life.

Halakhah is based on the Torah, on laws instituted by rabbis (religious scholars) over the centuries, and on long-standing customs. In its most detailed forms, it includes rules and practices that affect every aspect of life – how you eat, how you do business, how you raise a family, how you observe religious holidays and rituals, how you treat other people, and how you relate to God.

Shari’ah is based on the Qur’an and sunnah (traditions about Muhammad’s words and actions), on laws instituted by the ulama (religious scholars) over the centuries, and on long-standing customs. In its most detailed forms, it too includes rules and practices that affect every aspect of life – how you eat, how you do business, how you raise a family, how you observe religious holidays and rituals, how you treat other people, and how you relate to God.

Just like Jews, Muslims have different understandings of how this meaning of shari’ah is supposed to work. Some believe that what is important is the basic principles, and that God expects us to apply those basic principles differently in different times and places and contexts. Others believe that it is important to observe every iota of the religious laws developed by medieval scholars. And others have other interpretations. There are something like 1.4 billion Muslims in the world today. That gives a lot of room for differences of opinion!

For example, many people have heard that, in shari’ah, the punishment for theft is the amputation of a hand. Fewer people have heard that the medieval ulama surrounded this basic idea with a whole set of precautions designed to protect the rights of innocent people, ensure proportionality, provide opportunities for contrition and forgiveness, etc. And many scholars believe that this prescription – like the biblical prescription of an eye for an eye, a life for a life – was actually intended to reduce human violence in a time when retribution was the primary source of security but often led to blood feuds.

In the Qur’an, each statement legitimating retribution is nearly always followed by a statement that forgiveness is better and God is merciful. Many Muslims therefore believe that God wants us to forgive others, especially when they recognize that they have done wrong, but does not want the total anarchy of a society in which anything goes and no one faces sanctions for anything. It’s a balancing act.

No one would accuse someone of not being a good Jew or a good Christian if they do not embrace the biblical standard of an eye for an eye, a life for a life. Many Americans, for example, believe that capital punishment is appropriate in some circumstances, but not in every case in which one person takes another person’s life. Intention matters.

Similarly, most Muslims use their understanding of God’s nature and principles, and of what makes a good society, to inform their understanding of God’s intentions for humanity.

If we think of someone as not a good Muslim because they do not interpret each verse of the Qur’an literally, without regard to its context or history of interpretation or larger theological implications, then we are implicitly agreeing that only literalists are good Muslims. Most Muslims, however, are not literalists, just like most Christians and Jews are not literalists. Some people in each of these three tradition claim to be literalists, and therefore more “true” or “authentic” than other people, but they always run into contradictions when they try to put their philosophy into practice. Such people do not have the sole right to determine the definition of their tradition, and we should not explicitly or implicitly cede them that right by suggesting that they are the only “true” Muslims.

Many cruel things have been done in the name of shari’ah. But many cruel things have been done in non-Muslim societies too, often in the name of God. I live in Massachusetts, a state founded by Christian Puritans who beat, dunked, maimed, stoned, and hung people they disagreed with. I consider that bad theology both then and now, but the only effective way to fight bad theology is with good theology. And there are plenty of sources within Muslim traditions that speak of God as compassionate and merciful, starting with the opening verse of the Qur’an.

So when you hear or read, “shari’ah says this,” ask yourself which meaning of shari’ah is intended, and which Muslims would agree with this particular interpretation. Do not assume that literalist interpretations of shari’ah are the only possible interpretations. And do not assume that every Muslim who wants their society to be based on shari’ah is a fundamentalist or an extremist. Many of them are more like Thomas Jefferson: they want earthly rulers to recognize a divinely-given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

For more reflections on shari’ah and its history and various meanings and interpretations, I recommend Sumbul Ali-Karamali’s very readable and informative The Muslim Next Door: The Qur’an, the Media, and that Veil Thing.