1. The Shari’a: Summary J K Wilson Heckmondwike Grammar School Add Corporate Logo Here To insert your company logo on this slide From the Insert Menu Select “Picture” Locate your logo file Click OK To resize the logo Click anywhere inside the logo. The boxes that appear outside the logo are known as “resize handles.” Use these to resize the object. If you hold down the shift key before using the resize handles, you will maintain the proportions of the object you wish to resize.

2. Qur’an given by Allah Contains everything about religion: –Islam is submission to God –Job of man as vice-regent is to make earth what God wants it to be –There will be a Day of Judgement when people will be judged. Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets

3. Muhammad - Statesman & Prophet With the setting up of the Umma this meant that from the start Islam was concerned with rules & regulations. No division between civil & religious law - Sharia - the one & only law.

4. Sharia –means –“a clear straight path” –“the way God wants men to walk” –It sets out exactly what should should not be done. Removes the power of superstition and protects man from evil.

5. Origins of the Shari’a –Qur’an –Secondary Sources: To cover areas not in Qur’an Sunna Hadith Customs Consensus Opinion Analogy

6. Qur’an The Qur'an contains unassailable legal rulings. In effect, these are the ultimate set of "rules": Remember Allah, pray five times a day, fast during Ramadan, avoid alcohol and gambling, etc

7. Qur’an + The Qur'an tell s us to avoid alcohol, but we know that not only is it haram to drink alcohol, but also to associate with those who drink it, to finance a business that produces it, indeed, it is haram to sell grapes to someone if it is known that he will make wine out of it! Where did these other "rules" come from?

8. Authority of Muhammad. The Qur'an says, "Whoever obeys the Prophet, has obeyed Allah." Allah also says in the Qur'an, "Do whatever the Prophet commands you to do, and abstain from that which he forbade us."

9. Sunna –Based on Way of life of the prophet Muhammad as the final prophet must be the final example of how a perfect human being should live. –Recorded in the Hadith –Always secondary to Qur’an

10. Hadith –The sayings of the Prophet If he was the final Prophet his advice would be the closest we can get to God’s word. –Which sayings are genuine? Unlike the Qur’an there are variations. But Muslims believe that Allah has helped to preserve memories –Hadith of Bukhari –Isnad - guarantors who could say that Hadith went back to a Companion of the Prophet.

11. Custom or Practice –Especially as operated in Medina –This was because Muhammad set up the Umma at Medina.

12. Fiqh means knowledge, understanding and comprehension. It refers to the legal rulings of the Muslim scholars, based on their knowledge of the shari`ah; and as such is the third source of rulings.

13. The science of fiqh started in the second century after Hijrah, several issues which were not explicitly covered in the Qur'an and Sunnah of the Prophet (saas). Rulings based on the unanimity of Muslim scholars and direct analogy are binding. The four Sunni schools of thought, Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali, are identical in approximately 75% of their legal conclusions.

14. Consensus & Opinion –Consensus Decisions by lawyers that this is the way to do things. –Opinion Decision by one lawyer based on matters not covered in Qur’an, Sunna, or Hadith –Analogy –The idea that if something is not in Qur’an, Sunna or Hadith then you should look for analogy in Qur’an

15. Sunni Muslims About 680 million adherents. believe that the first three caliphs were all legitimate successors of the prophet Muhammad, and that guidance on belief and life should come from the Qur’an and the Hadith, and from the Shari'a, not from a human authority or spiritual leader. Imams in Sunni Islam are educated lay teachers of the faith and prayer leaders. The name derives from the Sunna, Arabic 'code of behaviour', the body of traditional law evolved from the teaching and acts of Muhammad

16. Shi'ite or Shiah Believe that Ali was Muhammad's first true successor.Believe that AliMuhammad are doctrinally opposed to the Sunni Muslims. They developed their own law differing only in minor directions, such as inheritance and the status of women. In Shi'ism, the clergy are empowered to intervene between God and humans,

17. Sunni Imam –Islamic title whose most usual meaning is “the one who leads the prayer”. –It may also signify the head of a community or group –founders of the four Sunnimadhhabs (schools of law). –It is also one of the titles given to the head of the Islamic community after the death of the Prophet, and is often interchangeable with the title Khalifa (caliph).

18. Sunni + –Mainstream Muslims regard many of their community's early caliphs (after the first four) as usurpers and unworthy of recognition as Imams. –For Sunnis, the Imam is, at least in theory, an ordinary man (although he must belong to the tribe of Quraish) elected to office by his peers by virtue of his outstanding piety and religious knowledge.

19. Shiites Imam –For Shiites, the Imam must be a descendant of both the Prophet and Ali ibn Abi Talib. –For almost all Shiites too (excepting the Zaydi Shiites), the Imam is the divinely ordained leader of the world who succeeds to the office by virtue of his being designated by his predecessor (on God's instructions).

20. Shiites + the Imam possesses attributes which Sunnis normally reserve solely for the prophets –infallibility and divinely endowed knowledge: –his presence in the world is crucial for its continued existence..