SOME OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ISLAMIC SHARIA (EPISODE III)

An article written by Sheikh Abd al-Karim Zidan in the year 1338 AH - 1963 CE under the title (Some Characteristics of Islamic Law) and published in the Islamic Education Magazine in three episodes in its ninth, tenth and eleventh issues respectively of that year .

Below is the third episode of this article, which was published in the eleventh issue of the Islamic Education Journal. For the sake of benefit, it is recommended to read the first and second episodes before this article because they are related to this episode in form and subject .

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Written by Dr. Abdul Karim Zidan

Teacher of Islamic law, Faculty of Law

Fourth : the inclusion of Sharia

The fourth characteristic is the inclusion of Islamic law in all life affairs, and this is a clear matter for everyone familiar with the provisions of Islamic law. In light of this comprehensiveness, the provisions of Sharia can be divided into three groups, namely :

A) Judgments related to belief, such as belief in God and the Last Day, and these are belief rulings and the subject of study is theology or monotheism .

B) Judgments related to morals, such as the necessity of truthfulness, honesty, fulfillment of the pledge, sincerity, the inviolability of lying, betrayal, lack of a covenant, seeking a reputation, etc. These are the moral judgments and the subject of study in ethics or mysticism .

C) Rulings related to man’s sayings and actions in his relations with others. These are the practical rulings .

The practical legal rulings regarding what they relate to are divided into two parts :

  The first section : acts of worship such as prayer and fasting, which are intended to regulate an individual's relationship with his Lord .

  The second section : customs, i.e. transactions, and these regulate the relationships of individuals with each other, and it includes all links of public law and private law in modern legal convention, because the provisions of transactions include the following :

Rulings related to the family, such as marriage, divorce, alimony, paternity, and the like, which are nowadays called family law or personal status law .

- Provisions related to individuals' financial relationships and transactions, such as selling, renting, mortgage, bail, and the like.These provisions are nowadays called the transactional law or civil law, and among these provisions are those related to companies, bankruptcy and other commercial matters that are regulated at the present time by the commercial law .

Provisions related to the judiciary, case, testimony, oath, and all other evidence, which are included in what is today called the Law of Procedures .

- The provisions relating to the treatment of non-Muslim foreigners (trustees) in the Islamic State and the regulation of their relations between them or with the nationals of the Islamic State, and they are included in what is today called private international law .

- The provisions relating to the regulation of the relationship of the Islamic State with other countries in the event of peace and war, and they are included in what is today called general international law .

- The provisions relating to the system of government and its rules, the rights of individuals in the Islamic State and their relations with it, and they are included in what is today called constitutional law .

- Provisions related to the resources and banks of the Islamic state and the regulation of financial relations between individuals and the state, and between the rich and the poor, and they fall within the scope of financial law with its various branches .

- The provisions related to determining the individual’s relationship with the Islamic State in terms of the prohibited acts (crimes) and the amount of punishment for each crime. These rulings are included in what is today called the Criminal Law or the Penal Code, and the procedures that are followed in investigating crimes and punishing criminals are attached to them, which is what is called today the Criminal Investigation Law .

This comprehensiveness that the Sharia brought, as we explained above, has no parallel in the man-made laws, as it does not regulate the issues of belief, morals, or worship, and even in the aspect of customs (transactions) which these man-made laws dealt with regulation, we find that the Sharia regulation of it came on In a way that distinguishes it from man-made laws, the moral aspect is fully observed in the Sharia, and among the manifestations of this observance is the prohibition of usury, gambling and adultery, and the obligation to fulfill covenants by the Islamic state in its relationship with other countries in peace and war, and taking care of the aspect of morality and virtue, even if this costs it a high price. This is the text of the jurists On provisions that are very splendid and majestic, and among these provisions, it is not permissible to extradite a foreigner in the Islamic state to his state, even as a ransom for a Muslim prisoner, because the foreigner entered the home of Islam safely, and the Islamic state must fulfill its pledge to him, so that he remains safe and untouched by harm. In Islamic law, it is forbidden, and there is no license in it, so it is not permissible. And he stated to them that if a foreign state kills the subjects of the Islamic state in it, then the Islamic state is not allowed to kill the citizens of that state who enter the Dar al-Islam in safety, and he stipulated to them that a foreigner who entered the Dar al-Islam in safety, a tax on his commercial property is taken from him in proportion to what his state takes from a Muslim If he enters it with commercial money, but if the money taken from a Muslim takes all his money, then the Islamic state does not do that with regard to the citizens of that country, and the jurists justify this behavior that taking all the money of a foreigner is unjust and does not follow through with injustice and that we do not create bad morals and that you create them with it because Islam He forbade us from that, as if they killed those who entered us safely, so we do not meet them in kind, so we do not kill those who entered us safely .

Just as the aspect of morality is taken into account in the legal transactions, the religious aspect is also taken into account in it, and this is what differs in the Shari’a from the man-made laws. Because he fulfills the conditions of health, but it is considered forbidden for violating his inner reality and the intention of his owner to what is commanded by Islamic law, such as the one who intends by marriage to dissolve the divorced woman three times for the divorced woman, and as the one who claims a debt on another unjustly and proves it before the judiciary, and as the one who marries a woman to harm her and not for another purpose. The principle relates to the attachment of rights and the establishment of the legal effects of actions and behaviors on the reality of the act and its being permissible, apparent and hidden. The validity of his presumption over the authenticity of the inner, because the ruling on the outward does not make the forbidden permissible Neither what is permissible is forbidden, and therefore it is not permissible for a Muslim to allow himself to do what is forbidden, even if he is permitted to do that based on the apparent meaning of the act. I do not hear from him, so whoever I judge for him from his brother’s right with something, let him not take anything from him, for I cut him a piece of fire.” For this reason, if the inward appearance appears sufficiently and its truth is revealed, then what matters is that it is not apparent, whether this appearance is in terms of the situation or a condition in the disposal, so the sale of the terms by which he reaches usury is like someone who sells from the last commodity for one thousand credits and then buys it from him immediately for nine hundred cash is considered a void sale according to most of the jurists Because the fact of the act of usury took the form of selling, and the context indicated this fact, there is no lesson in the apparent sale, and such is also the marriage of the analyzer, which is indicated by the evidence of the case, a corrupt marriage according to many jurists and is considered corrupt according to their audience by stipulating the marriage contract. There is no doubt that observing the religious aspect of transactions and the consequent description of the act as permissible and forbidden based on its inner reality and the intention of its owner makes the Muslim not take an action unless it is permissible and permissible, both outwardly and inwardly, even if the judiciary allows him to do so based on the apparent.