Sharia

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Sharia (); , ); also romanized as '''''Sharī'ah'', ''Shari'a'', or ''Shariah'''''}} is the body of Islamic religious law based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and hadith. In Islamic terminology, sharia refers to immutable and intangible divine law, in contrast to ''fiqh'' (Islamic jurisprudence), which refers to its interpretations by Islamic scholars through ''madhhab,'' as enacted by an Islamic court (). ''Sharia'' has always been used alongside customary law in Islamic history. It has been elaborated upon and developed over the centuries by legal opinions issued by qualified jurists—reflecting the tendencies of different schools. It was integrated with various economic, penal and administrative laws issued by Muslim rulers and implemented for centuries by judges in the courts of Muslim locales until modernity, when secularism was gradually adopted in Islamic societies.

Traditional theory of Islamic jurisprudence recognizes four sources for sharia: the Quran; the ''sunnah'' (or authentic hadiths); ''ijma'' (), which may be understood as ()—a whole Islamic community consensus—or (; a consensus by religious authorities); and ''analogical reasoning''.}} It distinguishes two principal branches of law: rituals (''Ibadah'') and social dealings (''Muamalat''); subsections include family law, relationships (e.g., commercial and political/administrative), and criminal law on a wide range of topics, assigning actions—capable of settling into different categories according to different understandings—to categories (''ahkam'') mainly as: mandatory, recommended, neutral, abhorred, and prohibited. Beyond legal norms, ''Sharia'' also enters many areas that are considered private practises today, such as beliefs, worship, ethics, clothing, and lifestyle, and gives to those in command duties to intervene and regulate them.

Over time, with the insight brought by sociological changes based on studies, legal schools have emerged reflecting the preferences of particular societies and governments, as well as Islamic scholars or imams on theoretical and practical applications of laws and regulations. Legal schools of Sunni Islam — Hanafi, Maliki, Shafiʽi and Hanbali etc.— developed methodologies for deriving rulings from scriptural sources using a process known as ''ijtihad'', a concept adopted by Shiism in much later periods meaning mental effort. Although Sharia is presented in addition to its other aspects by the contemporary Islamist understanding, as a form of governance some researchers approach traditional sīrah narratives with skepticism, seeing the early history of Islam not as a period when Sharia was dominant, but a kind of "secular Arabic expansion" and dating the formation of Islamic identity to a much later period.

Approaches to Sharia in the 21st century vary widely, and the role and mutability of Sharia in a changing world has become an increasingly debated topic in Islam. Beyond sectarian differences, fundamentalists advocate the complete and uncompromising implementation of "exact/pure sharia" without modifications, while modernists argue that it can/should be brought into line with human rights and other contemporary issues such as democracy, minority rights, freedom of thought, women's rights and banking by new jurisprudences. In fact, some of the practices of Sharia have been deemed "incompatible'' with human rights, gender equality and freedom of speech and expression or even "evil". In Muslim majority countries, traditional laws have been widely used with or changed by European models. Judicial procedures and legal education have been brought in line with European practice likewise. While the constitutions of most Muslim-majority states contain references to Sharia, its rules are largely retained only in family law and penalties in some. The Islamic revival of the late 20th century brought calls by Islamic movements for full implementation of Sharia, including ''hudud'' corporal punishments, such as stoning through various propaganda methods ranging from civilian activities to terrorism. Provided by Wikipedia