REL 137g 1st Edition Lecture 10 Current Lecture Islamic Law Arabic The major language No one could be a scholar or an authority without mastering Arabic The Koran and haddith is in Arabic Sunna in Arabic Insistence on Arabic is a part of the refusal to play telephone An obsession in Islam Part of the Classical Synthesis All debates and differences of opinion happen in Arabic Shari ah Islamic Law Much broader than what westerners generally think of law Law rules backed by earthly sanctions punishments Court and judges that make decisions Distinct limits to the law Areas in which the law must stay out of Personal rights Does not recognize difference between secular and religious Therefore it has no limits Regulates every aspect of human life Even things that have no earthly sanction Eating pork There is another worldly sanction but no earthly sanction Shirk Associating divine power quality with something other than God The only unforgivable sin in Islam All others are redeemable Kufr Unbelief Not atheist Rejecting message of the prophet Just as unforgivable People cannot be persecuted for actions as long as they have faith in God and nothing else The legal moral spiritual liturgical and inspirational dictates and exhortations of God as they exist in the divine mind and are communicated through divine revelation Main bodies of revelation Koran and the Sunna All this revelation must be interpreted by human beings who do not have divine protection from error like Muhammed did They are fallible A human understanding Fiqh Shari ah and Fiqh make up Islamic law Fiqh is dealt with on a daily basis Characteristics Pluralistic Not unanimous consent Development of orthodox schools of law Hariaf Maliki Shaf i Haribali Equally orthodox and authoritative Not a relationship of mutual exclusivity Overlapping ideals They agree on certain things but disagree on other issues Must distinguish between the view and a view
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