Islamic law principles and applications

Islam

Plurality is built into Islam's legal and ideological foundations, complicating the political and social structure of the religion and its institutions. Principle means by which to explore and critique the complexity and plurality of Islam include the Hadith and the various schools of Islamic law. Because of the relatively equal veracity of all six books of the Hadith, and of the various schools of law, there is no singular authoritative body in Islam. Each region of the world has instead opted to emphasize some teachings and some legal schools over others.

The Hadith is a collection of writings reflecting the traditions, actions, and actual sayings of Muhammad. The Hadith comprises six books, compiled in the ninth and tenth centuries, and are viewed as "second only to the Quran in their practical significance and authority," (p. 74). The "soundness of their claims of transmission" is one of the central issues in the reliability or veracity of the Hadith (p. 74). Soundness therefore refers to the quality of the source material. Because different individuals compiled the six books of the Hadith, there are presumably different degrees of reliability or soundness in their material. Scholars have identified the Sahih al-Bukhari and the Sahih Muslim as "the most authoritative" (p. 75). Sunni and Shiite Muslims disagree on the relative status, reliability, and soundness of the six books of the Hadith.

There are several law traditions in Islam, but there are four main Sunni and one main Shiite school in addition to the Sharia. The Hanafi, Maliki, Shafii and Hanafi schools are the primary four. Because the Ottomans had embraced Hanafi law and had subsequently colonized so much of what are currently Muslim regions, Hanafi remains a predominant branch of Islamic law. Differences between the different schools of law can be loosely lumped into two camps of traditionalism vs. rationalism, but that would also be oversimplifying the differences between these schools. Traditionalism manifests most strongly in Maliki law, which is rooted in consensus reached in Mecca and Medina. Maliki law is currently preeminent in the Maghreb.

Setting aside the political conundrums, ethical problems, and rhetorical misinterpretations associated with Sharia, the fiqh is itself open to interpretation. There are several methods of jurisprudence, for instance, resulting in multiple means of interpreting legal texts, debating legal issues, modernizing legal discussions, and enforcing the law. The schools of law differ in their approaches to religious matters, such as observances, and civic or secular matters such as taxes or estate planning. Implications for punishments or retribution are such that each Muslim country will have different methods and procedures for executing justice.

Islam certainly has admitted pluralism in its very legal foundations. Far from being monolithic, Islamic law is pluralistic. There are unifying elements, of course. For example, when it comes to devotional issues, the schools of law tend to find more points of agreement than disagreement. However, too much in Islamic law is not tied to the Quran and is therefore open to interpretation and reinterpretation. This would suggest that conflict and miscommunication is inevitable, especially in a globalized society in which Muslims from different regions do business and interact with each other. All of the schools of law struggle with retaining tradition in the face of modernity and social change.