As one of the Islamic tradition, the creation of the law was a significant accomplishment in Islamic history. After the disordered period when the numerous schools of religious law emerged, a unified jurisprudence -- “Shari’a” finally was established in the tenth century. The term of “Shari’a” used to refer to the path leading to the water hole in the desert; now, it represented the rules that Muslims needed to follow, which means the Islamic law. Followed by the emergence of “Shari’a”, Sunni experienced the consolidation of the Madhhabs which referred to the different schools of law; Shii, on the other hand, developed its own madhhabs distinguishing from the Sunni madhhabs. The four sources of Shari’a included Qur’an, Hadith, analogy and consensus. The Qur’an and Hadith are the two primary sources, and analogy and consensus represented the interpretation of the law. The Qur’an, which originally was written by the Prophets, recorded Muhammad’s own examples of facing the confliction of life. In the sixth century, the Qadi (judge) endowed Qur’an with legal meaning. Thus, Qur’an eventually represented the principle of the rules of daily life for Muslims. Hadith originally represented the collection of Muhammad’s saying and behaviors under certain circumstances. Because there has been 600,000 Hadith since the sixth century, Al-Bukhari and other tradition collectors started evaluating the internal evidence of the Hadith and determining whether those traditions were worth to be passed through generations. After the evaluation, only 2700 Hadith was included in al-Bikhari’s collection. Therefore, the Qadi and ulama (religious scholar) determined the Qur’an and Hadith to be the standards of legal practice. 2 However, the Q... ... middle of paper ... ...s of Sunni significantly influenced the uniformity of Muslim communities during the High Caliphate. The period of the High Caliphate exhibited that the bureaucracy was highly centralized. The unified content of Islamic law helped the government to maintain centralized political power by providing a common identity to the Muslims. All in all, after the period of a disordered judicial condition, “Shari’a” finally became the authorized rule of Muslim life. Judged would use the four basic sources of Shari’a as the guide in the court. Sunni and Shii developed their own madhhabs based on the four essential sourced of the Shari’a: Qur’an, Hadith, analogy and consensus. The emergence of the Shari’a not only contributed to unify the numerous schools of law, but also helped the government to establish the common identity to the Muslim communities.
The Sunnites recognize the six "authentic" books of the Hadith, which contain the spoken tradition attributed to Muhammad. In the 20th century the Sunnites constituted the majority of Muslims in all nations except Iran, Iraq, and perhaps Yemen. They numbered about 900 million in the late 20th century and made up nine-tenths of all the followers of Islam.
Alfarabi endeavored to encourage political order against an environment of unsteadiness and changes, where two factions competed for rule in the Muslim world. This instability was unrelenting even with the establishment of the Abbasid caliphs. Following this phase of hostility, there were five different Caliphs in just nine years. This episode of volatility happened approximately at the moment in time that Alfarabi began his political writings. Perhaps this era influenced his writings on political theories with his focus to educate fellow Muslims and easing tensions between groups. This text expresses the deep concerns of the Muslims with the growing factions and expansion of Islamic cities.
EMON Anver M., “The Limits of Constitutionalism in the Muslim world: History and Identity in Islamic Law”, New-York Law School, Islamic Law and Law of the Muslim World Research Paper Series 08-09, 37 pages. Accessible at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=[1086767]
In Islam, the close association of political power, moral authority, and religious beliefs made authority its biggest issue. (Page 43)
Tolerance – Caliphates respected the diets and rituals of “milla”, or religious off- shoots. Certain amount of tolerance within the Islamic Empire that allowed for even balance between the natives and Islamic authorities that took them over.
Because of the important role that political Islam plays in the world today, a careful examination into the roots of these ideologies, how they evolved into the current form, how they are similar or different from each other, in addition to their perspectives for today and the future will shed light on their actions and way of thinking.
There are more Muslims who are Sunni rather than Shia (246). The Sunni and Shia disagreed on who the successor of Muhammad was supposed to be (246). They were at odds with each other because they did not agree with what the other group believed to be right (246). Muslims that were part of the Sunni thought that Muhammad’s father in law was the next in line as the next caliph, while the Shia believed that Muhammad’s son in law was to be the next caliph (246). The Sunnis also believed that the Qur’an approved and backed the majority decision of the Muslim community (246). Muslims who were Shia thought the all inheritors of the title Caliph must be of direct blood relation to Muhammad and his son in law, such as a child or grandchild and so forth (246). The Shia also believed that that Ali, Muhammad’s son in law, had special gifts like Muhammad and could explain and clarify the Qur’an (246). It was because of both groups lack of approval of the other ones beliefs, that many wars began over the decision on who would lead the Muslim religion since the death of Muhammad
2) Qur’an- The Qur’an is the holy book of Islam. It contains parts of the Christian Bible and the Jewish Torah. The Qur’an was originally written in Arabic and is still memorized today in Arabic. The Qur’an is believed to be a sacred guide for all human kind and contains the Five Pillars of Islam which Muslims must do throughout their lifetime.
The Islamic tradition, as reflected in Naguib Mahfouz’s Zaabalawi, has over the course of history had an incredible impact on Arab culture. In Mahfouz’s time, Islamic practices combined with their political relevance proved a source of both great power and woe in Middle Eastern countries. As alluded to in Zaabalawi, Mahfouz asserts the fact that not all Muslims attain religious fulfillment through this common tradition, and other methods outside the scope of Islam may be necessary in true spiritual understanding.
Throughout his life, the Prophet Muhammad proved to be exceptionally adept at uniting diverse groups, negotiating a series of alliances and loyalty arrangements that spanned religious, tribal, ethnic, and familial lines (Berggren 2009). Among other things, this ability enabled Muhammad to forge a shared identity and found a nascent Islamic state from a diverse and even heterogeneous community (Rahman 1982; Ernst 2003, pp. 87-93). This diversity proved to be both a source of strength and conflict for Islam, and following the death of Muhammad early Islamic communities engaged in extensive debates not only about the nature of his teachings or how to carry his legacy forward, but also about the terms that should be used to define his authority. Although this debate produced a colorful array of movements within the tapestry of early Islamic civilization, this essay offers a critical examination of two particularly distinct perspectives on the nature of prophetic authority: namely, those articulated
Islam is an Arabic word that means surrender, obedience and submission to Allah (God) (Khorfan et al., 2010). Islam is one of the three major religion in the worlds which Christianity and Judaism. Islam has two main resources that Muslims depend on them in their daily life. These sources are Holy Quran (the words of Allah) and the saying of the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) that called Sunnah (Almatary et al., 2014). In addition, a third source was considered for making the decision for complicated issues after evaluating these conditions. This source is called Ejtihad (ijma’a) which means moral agreement between religion leaders about specific situation (Khorfan et al., 2010). In other words, the leaders are meeting to discuss some issues and proof that decision from the Holy Quran and The Sunnah (Almatary et al., 2014). The fourth source is Qiyas which means the religion scholars are using the logic to evaluate moral issues in general (Khorfan et al., 2010). Muslims are using all of the sources to support most of the issues such as abortion. Islamic law is flexible and deals with every aspects of our life to eliminate any threat a person might face in the life.
Islam is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion alongside Judaism and Christianity. It is currently the second largest religion in the world today. Its beliefs come from the Qur'an which literally means "the recitation" which is believed to be a literal transcription of the word of God. Its main prophet is named Muhammad who began Islam by speaking with the angel Gabriel in a cave during his meditation and then acting as an instrument of God to help write the Qur’an. Muhammad then spread Islam to the scattered tribes of Arabia by becoming the leader of Yathrib and using his wonderful leadership abilities to then grow his influence over virtually all of Arabia. Muhammad is known by Muslims to be the seal of the profits because no profits after Muhammad should be considered legitimate. Muhammad also left behind the Hadith or “tradition” which is a collection of writings compiled of reports of Muhammad’s actions as leader of Yathrib. These reports are used as a more specific code of ethics in day to day life and from these reports the 5 Pillars of Islam are derived (Smith 160). Although Islam shares many similarities to Judaism and Christianity it is often viewed in the US with hate derived from preconceived notions following the attack on September 11th 2001. This paper seeks to provide an overview of Islam’s history as well as its two major sects and 5 main pillars to remove preconceived notions and provide a glance into the minds of the Islamic people.
The structure of pre-British Sharia during the Mughal reign was characterized by a relationship of relative distance between the state government and legal proceedings in the courtroom. (Giunchi 2010, 1121) Though, quadis (judges) were appointed and dismissed by the emperor, they often based their decisions on non-binding opinions; fatwas, of learned Muftis, who sanctioned a particular course of action in reference to textual evidence from the sources of law. Though fatwas were requested in response to real social situations, the muftis used a hypothetical template to document their decisions, not bearing any details about the identity of the plaintiff and thus allowing for the document to serve as a reference for later occasions. (Hallaq 1994, 32-33) Fatwas did not bear a...
Religion is an important factor in many lives in today’s society. A particular western religion that is taken very seriously by many is known as Islam. Essentially, Islam means “submission”, or in other words a person is to abide by God and peace will follow. In order to comprehend the Islamic religion, it is consequential to view the major themes associated with this religion. By going through the central themes of Islam it could help others comprehend what is involved with this specific religion.
In this book , Esposito provides a succinct, up-to-date survey of the Islamic experience, an introduction to the faith, belief, and practice of Islam from its origins to its contemporary resurgence. He traces the emergence and development of this dynamic faith and its impact on world history and politics. He discusses the formation of Islamic belief and practice (law, theology, philosophy, and mysticism), chronicling the struggle of Muslims to define and adhere to their Islamic way of life. Equally important is the essential information Esposito provides on the contemporary world of Islam, from Muslim responses to the challenges of colonialism and modernization to the reassertion of Islam in politics and society.