Sharia, Sharī'ah , Shari'a , Shariah or Syariah ( Arabic : شريعة , lit. 'path (to water)') is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam , particularly the Qur'an and hadith . In Islamic terminology sharīʿah refers to immutable, intangible divine law ; contrary to fiqh , which refers to its interpretations by Islamic scholars .
121-857: Athar may refer to: Hadith , Islamic historical accounts about Muhammad, alternately called Athar in Arabic language, meaning tradition Faisal Athar (born 1975), Pakistani cricketer Athar Ali Bengali , politician Sohaib Athar , Pakistani computer scientist Athar ( Planescape ) , a faction of Sigil in the Planescape campaign setting Attar or athar, an essential oil used as perfumes Antiquities Trafficking and Heritage Anthropology Research Project (ATHAR) See also [ edit ] Attar (disambiguation) Atar (disambiguation) Atari (disambiguation) Athari , Sunni Islamic theological school Athari (surname) Topics referred to by
242-719: 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 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
363-415: A classroom or consulted by judges. A mabsut , which usually provided a commentary on a mukhtasar and could stretch to dozens of large volumes, recorded alternative rulings with their justifications, often accompanied by a proliferation of cases and conceptual distinctions. The terminology of juristic literature was conservative and tended to preserve notions which had lost their practical relevance. At
484-478: A collection of parallel systems within Islam. Much of the early Islamic history available today is also based on the hadith, although it has been challenged for its lack of basis in primary source material and the internal contradictions of available secondary material. The hadith have been called by American- Sunni scholar Jonathan A. C. Brown as "the backbone" of Islamic civilization. Hadith may be hadith qudsi (sacred hadith)—which some Muslims regard as
605-762: A companion say, 'I heard the Prophet. ' " The one after him would then say, "I heard someone say, 'I heard a Companion say, 'I heard the Prophet ;...''" and so on. Different branches of Islam refer to different collections of hadith, although the same incident may be found in hadith from different collections. In general, the difference between Shi'a and Sunni collections is that Shia give preference to hadiths attributed to Muhammad's family and close companions ( Ahl al-Bayt ), while Sunnis do not consider family lineage in evaluating hadith and sunnah narrated by any of twelve thousand companions of Muhammad. Traditions of
726-499: A consensus by religious authorities ), and analogical reasoning . Four legal schools of Sunni Islam — Hanafi , Maliki , Shafiʽi and Hanbali — developed methodologies for deriving rulings from scriptural sources using a process known as ijtihad (lit. mental effort). Traditional jurisprudence distinguishes two principal branches of law, rituals and social dealings ; subsections family law , relationships (commercial, political / administrative ) and criminal law , in
847-425: A hadith differently. Historically, some hadiths deemed to be unreliable were still used by Sunni jurists for non-core areas of law. Western scholars are generally skeptical of the value of hadith for understanding the true historical Muhammad, even those considered sahih by Muslim scholars, due to their first recording centuries after Muhammad's life, the unverifiability of the claimed chains of transmission, and
968-404: A jurist's mentality in finding a solution to a legal question in contrast with taqlid ( conformity to precedent ijtihad). According to theory, ijtihad requires expertise in the Arabic language, theology, religious texts, and principles of jurisprudence ( usul al-fiqh ), and is not employed where authentic and trusted texts ( Qur'an and hadith ) are considered unambiguous with regard to
1089-509: A line or two) recording what an early figure, such as a companion of the prophet or Muhammad himself, said or did on a particular occasion, preceded by a chain of transmitters". However, she adds that "nowadays, hadith almost always means hadith from Muhammad himself." In contrast, according to the Shia Islam Ahlul Bayt Digital Library Project, "... when there is no clear Qur'anic statement, nor
1210-402: A local master and discuss religious topics. At first, these circles were fluid in their membership, but with time distinct regional legal schools crystallized around shared sets of methodological principles. As the boundaries of the schools became clearly delineated, the authority of their doctrinal tenets came to be vested in a master jurist from earlier times, who was henceforth identified as
1331-498: A long-held part of Islamic practice and belief are not mentioned in the Quran, but are reported in hadiths. Therefore, Muslims usually maintain that hadiths are a necessary requirement for the true and proper practice of Islam, as it gives Muslims the nuanced details of Islamic practice and belief in areas where the Quran is silent. An example is the obligatory prayers, which are commanded in the Quran, but explained in hadith. Details of
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#17327649091971452-641: A manuscript dated 844. A collection of hadiths dedicated to invocations to God, attributed to a certain Khālid ibn Yazīd, is dated 880–881. A consistent fragment of the Jāmiʿ of the Egyptian Maliki jurist 'Abd Allāh ibn Wahb (d. 813) is finally dated to 889. Sunni and Shia hadith collections differ because scholars from the two traditions differ as to the reliability of the narrators and transmitters. Narrators who sided with Abu Bakr and Umar rather than Ali , in
1573-411: A middle way between the two attitudes such as Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari in theology (syncretists). In the classical age of Islam, there were violent conflicts between rationalists (aqliyyun; al-muʿtazila , kalamiyya ) and traditionalist (naqliyyun, literalists, Ahl al-Hadith ) groups and sects regarding the Quran and hadith or the place of reason in understanding the Quran and hadith, as can be seen in
1694-598: A model ( sunnah ) and transmitted this information to the succeeding generations in the form of hadith . These reports led first to informal discussion and then systematic legal thought, articulated with greatest success in the eighth and ninth centuries by the master jurists Abu Hanifa , Malik ibn Anas , al-Shafi'i , and Ahmad ibn Hanbal , who are viewed as the founders of the Hanafi , Maliki , Shafiʿi , and Hanbali legal schools ( madhāhib ) of Sunni jurisprudence. Modern historians have presented alternative theories of
1815-539: A particular community or people. ... A 'Sunna' is a practice which has been passed on by a community from generation to generation en masse, whereas the hadith are reports collected by later compilers often centuries removed from the source. ... A practice which is contained within the Hadith may well be regarded as Sunna, but it is not necessary that a Sunna would have a supporting hadith sanctioning it. Some sources ( Khaled Abou El Fadl ) limit hadith to verbal reports, with
1936-416: A place and He is everywhere." Judgment that concerns individuals is personal and, for example, in an Islamic Qisas or compensation decisions, jurist must take into account "personal labels" such as the gender , freedom , religious and social status such as mu'min , kafir , musta'min , dhimmi , apostate , etc. Similar distinctions also apply to witnessing practices, which have a fundamental value in
2057-544: A profound and controversial influence on tafsir (commentaries of the Quran). The earliest commentary of the Quran known as Tafsir Ibn Abbas is sometimes attributed to the companion Ibn Abbas. The hadith were used the form the basis of sharia (the religious law system forming part of the Islamic tradition), and fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). The hadith are at the root of why there is no single fiqh system, but rather
2178-399: A rule , there was a hierarchy and power ranking among the sources of Sharia; for example, a subcategory or an auxiliary source will not be able to eliminate a provision clearly stated in the main source or prohibit a practice that was not prohibited though it was known and practiced during the prophetic period. If we look at an example such as the abolition of the validity of Mut'a marriage ,
2299-543: A sequence of such smaller topics, each called a "book" ( kitab ). The special significance of ritual was marked by always placing its discussion at the start of the work. Some historians distinguish a field of Islamic criminal law , which combines several traditional categories. Several crimes with scripturally prescribed punishments are known as hudud . Jurists developed various restrictions which in many cases made them virtually impossible to apply. Other crimes involving intentional bodily harm are judged according to
2420-430: A sequentially corroborated chain of narrators (multiple linkages of attested individuals who heard and repeated the hadith, from which the source of the hadith can be traced). Compilations of hadith were aggregated into distinct collections by Islamic scholars (known as Muhaddiths ) in the centuries after Muhammad's death. Hadith are widely respected in mainstream Muslim thought and are central to Islamic law . Ḥadīth
2541-605: A source of law in place of qiyas and extension of the notion of sunnah to include traditions of the imams . Islamic scholar Rashid Rida (1865–1935 CE) lists the four basic sources of Islamic law, agreed upon by all Sunni Muslims : "the [well-known] sources of legislation in Islam are four: the Qur'an , the Sunnah , the consensus of the ummah and ijtihad undertaken by competent jurists" While traditional understanding strongly denies that Quran may have changed ( Al Hejr :9),
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#17327649091972662-405: A version of lex talionis that prescribes a punishment analogous to the crime ( qisas ), but the victims or their heirs may accept a monetary compensation ( diya ) or pardon the perpetrator instead; only diya is imposed for non-intentional harm. Other criminal cases belong to the category of taʿzīr , where the goal of punishment is correction or rehabilitation of the culprit and its form
2783-560: A wide range of topics. Its rulings are concerned with ethical standards as much as legal norms, assigning actions to one of five categories : mandatory , recommended , neutral , abhorred , and prohibited . Over time with the necessities brought by sociological changes, on the basis of mentioned interpretative 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. Although sharia
2904-509: Is "specific to" a person, group, institution, event, situation, belief and practice in different areas of life, and usually includes the approval/disapproval of a judgment, is called fatwa . Tazir penalties , which are outside the Qisas and Hudud laws, have not been codified, and their discretion and implementation are under the initiative and authority of the judge or political authority. Mustafa Öztürk points out some another developments in
3025-410: Is a sin or a crime to perform a forbidden action or not to perform a mandatory action. Reprehensible acts should be avoided, but they are not considered to be sinful or punishable in court. Avoiding reprehensible acts and performing recommended acts is held to be subject of reward in the afterlife, while neutral actions entail no judgment from God. Jurists disagree on whether the term ḥalāl covers
3146-545: Is based on spoken reports in circulation after the death of Muhammad. Hadith were not promptly written down during Muhammad's lifetime or immediately after his death. Hadith were evaluated orally to written and gathered into large collections during the 8th and 9th centuries, generations after Muhammad's death, after the end of the era of the Rashidun Caliphate , over 1,000 km (600 mi) from where Muhammad lived. "Many thousands of times" more numerous than
3267-411: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Hadith Hadith ( Arabic : حديث , romanized : ḥadīṯ ) or athar ( Arabic : أثر , ʾaṯar , lit. ' remnant ' or ' effect ' ) is a form of Islamic oral tradition containing the sayings, actions, and approvals of the prophet Muhammad as relayed through
3388-401: Is insufficient to distinguish right from wrong , and rational argumentation must draw its content from the body of transcendental knowledge revealed in the Quran and through the sunnah of Muhammad. In addition to the Quran and sunnah, the classical theory of Sunni fiqh recognizes two other sources of law: juristic consensus ( ijmaʿ ) and analogical reasoning ( qiyas ). It therefore studies
3509-459: Is largely left to the judge's discretion. In practice, since early on in Islamic history, criminal cases were usually handled by ruler-administered courts or local police using procedures which were only loosely related to Sharia. The two major genres of furūʿ literature are the mukhtasar (concise summary of law) and the mabsut (extensive commentary). Mukhtasars were short specialized treatises or general overviews that could be used in
3630-419: Is often stated today that Sharia provides many rights to slaves and aims to eradicate slavery over time. However, the widespread use of slavery in the Islamic world continued until the last century, and jurists had no serious objections to the castration of slaves and the unrestricted sexual use of female slaves, with a few exceptions in traditional islamic jurisprudence. A special religious decision, which
3751-433: Is ordained for you regarding the people who were killed. Free versus free, slave versus slave, woman versus woman. Whoever is forgiven by the brother of the slain for a price, let him abide by the custom and pay the price well." Modern historians generally adopt intermediate positions regarding origins, suggesting that early Islamic jurisprudence developed out of a combination of administrative and popular practices shaped by
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3872-426: Is presented as a form of governance in addition to its other aspects (especially by the contemporary Islamist understanding ), some researchers see the early history of Islam , which has been modelled and exalted by most Muslims, not as a period when sharia was dominant, but a kind of " secular Arabic expansion ". Approaches to sharia in the 21st century vary widely, and the role and mutability of sharia in
3993-597: Is the Arabic word for things like a report or an account (of an event). For many, the authority of hadith is a source for religious and moral guidance known as Sunnah , which ranks second only to that of the Quran (which Muslims hold to be the word of God revealed to Muhammad). While the number of verses pertaining to law in the Quran is relatively small, hadith are considered by many to give direction on everything from details of religious obligations (such as Ghusl or Wudu , ablutions for salat prayer), to
4114-523: Is the first of Four Doors and the lowest level on the path to God in Sufism and in branches of Islam that are influenced by Sufism, such as Ismailism and Alawites . It is necessary to reach from Sharia to Tariqa , from there to Ma'rifa and finally to haqiqa . In each of these gates, there are 10 levels that the dervish must pass through. Jan Michiel Otto summarizes the evolutionary stages of understanding by distinguishing four meanings conveyed by
4235-638: Is the hadith of Abu Hurairah who said that Muhammad said: When God decreed the Creation He pledged Himself by writing in His book which is laid down with Him: My mercy prevails over My wrath. In the Shia school of thought, there are two fundamental viewpoints of hadith: The Usuli view and the Akhbari view. The Usuli scholars emphasize the importance of scientific examination of hadiths through ijtihad while
4356-621: Is there a Hadith upon which Muslim schools have agreed. ... Shi'a ... refer to Ahlul-Bayt [the family of Muhammad] to derive the Sunnah of the Prophet"—implying that while hadith is limited to the "Traditions" of Muhammad, the Shi'a Sunna draws on the sayings, etc. of the Ahlul-Bayt i.e. the Imams of Shi'a Islam. The word sunnah is also used in reference to a normative custom of Muhammad or
4477-456: Is touched upon in the Quran 4:24 , and not prohibited (Sunnis translate the words used in the relevant verse with terms used to describe the ordinary marriage event) according to Sunnis is banned by Muhammad towards the end of his lifetime, and according to Shiites , by Omar , "according to his own opinion" and reliying on power. The Shiite sect did not accept the jurisprudence of Omar, whose political and religious authority they rejected from
4598-461: Is traditionally divided into ʿibādāt (rituals or acts of worship) and muʿāmalāt (social relations). Many jurists further divided the body of substantive jurisprudence into "the four quarters", called rituals, sales, marriage and injuries. Each of these terms figuratively stood for a variety of subjects. For example, the quarter of sales would encompass partnerships, guaranty, gifts, and bequests, among other topics. Juristic works were arranged as
4719-566: Is used by Arabic-speaking peoples of the Middle East to designate a prophetic religion in its totality. For example, sharīʿat Mūsā means law or religion of Moses and sharīʿatu-nā can mean "our religion" in reference to any monotheistic faith. Within Islamic discourse, šarīʿah refers to religious regulations governing the lives of Muslims. For many Muslims, the word means simply "justice," and they will consider any law that promotes justice and social welfare to conform to Sharia. Sharia
4840-520: The Hanafi , Maliki , Shafi'i and Hanbali madhhabs. They emerged in the ninth and tenth centuries and by the twelfth century almost all jurists aligned themselves with a particular madhhab. These four schools recognize each other's validity and they have interacted in legal debate over the centuries. Rulings of these schools are followed across the Muslim world without exclusive regional restrictions, but they each came to dominate in different parts of
4961-458: The Hebrew term Halakhah ["The Way to Go"]), or "path to the water hole" and argue that its adoption as a metaphor for a divinely ordained way of life arises from the importance of water in an arid desert environment. In the Quran, šarīʿah and its cognate širʿah occur once each, with the meaning "way" or "path". The word šarīʿah was widely used by Arabic-speaking Jews during
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5082-480: The Islamic creed , leading changes in ahkam such as determining the conditions of takfir according to theologians ; First Muslims believed that God lived in the sky as Ahmad Ibn Hanbal says: "Whoever says that Allah is everywhere is a heretic , an infidel, should be invited to repent, but if he does not, be killed." This understanding changes later and gives way to the understanding that "God cannot be assigned
5203-578: The Mihna example. Although the rationalists initially seemed to gain the upper hand in this conflict, with the rise of literalism, the Mutazila sank into history and literalism continued to live by gaining supporters. In this context, the formulation of the Sunni view can be summarized as follows; Human reason is a gift from God which should be exercised to its fullest capacity. However, use of reason alone
5324-543: The Ottoman Empire , and is from the Turkish şer'(i) . According to the traditionalist ( Atharī ) Muslim view, the major precepts of Sharia were passed down directly from the Islamic prophet Muhammad without "historical development" and the emergence of Islamic jurisprudence ( fiqh ) also goes back to the lifetime of Muhammad. In this view, his companions and followers took what he did and approved of as
5445-593: The Abbasid period sought to authenticate hadith. Scholars had to decide which hadith were to be trusted as authentic and which had been fabricated for political or theological purposes. To do this, they used a number of techniques which Muslims now call the science of hadith . The earliest surviving hadith manuscripts were copied on papyrus. A long scroll collects traditions transmitted by the scholar and qadi 'Abd Allāh ibn Lahīʻa (d. 790). A Ḥadīth Dāwūd ( History of David ), attributed to Wahb ibn Munabbih , survives in
5566-467: The Akhbari scholars consider all hadiths from the four Shia books as authentic . The two major aspects of a hadith are the text of the report (the matn ), which contains the actual narrative, and the chain of narrators (the isnad ), which documents the route by which the report has been transmitted. The isnad was an effort to document that a hadith actually came from Muhammad, and Muslim scholars from
5687-685: The Middle Ages, being the most common translation for the word Torah in the 10th-century Arabic translation of the Torah by Saʿadya Gaon . A similar use of the term can be found in Christian writers. The Arabic expression Sharīʿat Allāh ( شريعة الله ' God's Law ' ) is a common translation for תורת אלוהים ( ' God's Law ' in Hebrew) and νόμος τοῦ θεοῦ ( ' God's Law ' in Greek in
5808-417: The Muslim public that the so-called "gate of ijtihad " was closed at the start of the classical era. Starting from the 18th century, Islamic reformers began calling for abandonment of taqlid and emphasis on ijtihad , which they saw as a return to Islamic origins. The advocacy of ijtihad has been particularly associated with Islamic Modernism and Salafiyya movements. Among contemporary Muslims in
5929-517: The New Testament [Rom. 7: 22]). In Muslim literature, šarīʿah designates the laws or message of a prophet or God, in contrast to fiqh , which refers to a scholar's interpretation thereof. In older English-language law-related works in the late 19th/early 20th centuries, the word used for Sharia was sheri . It, along with the French variant chéri , was used during the time of
6050-562: The Prophet is the command of God.” In 851 the rationalist Mu`tazila school of thought fell out of favor in the Abbasid Caliphate . The Mu`tazila, for whom the "judge of truth ... was human reason," had clashed with traditionists who looked to the literal meaning of the Quran and hadith for truth. While the Quran had been officially compiled and approved, hadiths had not. One result was the number of hadiths began "multiplying in suspiciously direct correlation to their utility" to
6171-408: The Quran existing today is a religious source, infer from the same verses that it is clearly ordered to pray 2 or 3 times, not 5 times. In addition, in religious literature, wajib is widely used for all kinds of religious requirements, without expressing any fiqh definition. As seen above and in many other examples, classifications and labels have a relative character shaped by the understanding of
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#17327649091976292-495: The Quran, proving that some hadith are a source of corruption and not a complement to the Quran. Joseph Schacht quotes a hadith of Muhammad that is used "to justify reference" in Islamic law to the companions of Muhammad as religious authorities—"My companions are like lodestars." According to Schacht, (and other scholars) in the very first generations after the death of Muhammad, use of hadith from Sahabah ("companions" of Muhammad) and Tabi'un ("successors" of
6413-540: The West there have emerged new visions of ijtihad which emphasize substantive moral values over traditional juridical undertandings. Shia jurists did not use the term ijtihad until the 12th century. With the exception of Zaydis , the early Imami Shia were unanimous in censuring Ijtihad in the field of law ( Ahkam ) until the Shiite embrace of various doctrines of Mu'tazila and classical Sunnite Fiqh . After
6534-511: The application and limits of analogy, as well as the value and limits of consensus, along with other methodological principles, some of which are accepted by only certain legal schools. This interpretive apparatus is brought together under the rubric of ijtihad , which refers to a jurist's exertion in an attempt to arrive at a ruling on a particular question. The theory of Twelver Shia jurisprudence parallels that of Sunni schools with some differences, such as recognition of reason ( ʿaql ) as
6655-469: The authenticity of hadiths could only be questioned through the chain of narration, though some western researchers suggests that primary sources may have also been evolved. Only several verses of the Quran have direct legal relevance, and they are concentrated in a few specific areas such as inheritance , though other passages have been used as a source for general principles whose legal ramifications were elaborated by other means. Islamic literature calls
6776-445: The beginning. Fiqh is concerned with ethical standards as much as with legal norms, seeking to establish not only what is and is not legal, but also what is morally right and wrong. Sharia rulings fall into one of five categories known as "the five decisions" ( al-aḥkām al-khamsa ): mandatory ( farḍ or wājib ), recommended ( mandūb or mustaḥabb ), neutral ( mubāḥ ), reprehensible ( makrūh ), and forbidden ( ḥarām ). It
6897-677: The branches of fiqh ), which is devoted to elaboration of rulings on the basis of these principles. Classical Islamic jurisprudence refers how to elaborate and interpret religious sources that are considered reliable within the framework of "procedural principles" within its context such as linguistic and " rhetorical tools " to derive judgments for new situations by taking into account certain purposes and mesalih. Textual phrases usually dealt with under simple antithetical headings: general and particular, command and prohibition, obscure and clear, truth and metaphor. It also comprises methods for establishing authenticity of hadith and for determining when
7018-459: The companions) "was the rule", while use of hadith of Muhammad himself by Muslims was "the exception". Schacht credits Al-Shafi'i —founder of the Shafi'i school of fiqh (or madh'hab )—with establishing the principle of the using the hadith of Muhammad for Islamic law, and emphasizing the inferiority of hadith of anyone else, saying hadiths: "... from other persons are of no account in
7139-444: 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 . The word sharīʿah
7260-399: The correct forms of salutations and the importance of benevolence to slaves. Thus for many, the "great bulk" of the rules of Sharia are derived from hadith, rather than the Quran. Among scholars of Sunni Islam the term hadith may include not only the words, advice, practices, etc. of Muhammad, but also those of his companions . In Shia Islam , hadith are the embodiment of the sunnah,
7381-465: The courts until recent times, when secularism was widely adopted in Islamic societies. Traditional theory of Islamic jurisprudence recognizes four sources for Ahkam al-sharia : the Qur'an , sunnah (or authentic ahadith ), ijma (lit. consensus) (may be understood as ijma al-ummah ( Arabic : إجماع الأمة ) – a whole Islamic community consensus, or ijma al-aimmah ( Arabic : إجماع الائـمـة ) –
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#17327649091977502-413: The deeds of Muhammad and reports about his companions being part of the sunnah , but not hadith. Islamic literary classifications similar to hadith (but not sunnah ) are maghazi and sira . They differ from hadith in that they are organized "relatively chronologically" rather than by subject. Other "traditions" of Islam related to hadith include: The hadith literature in use today
7623-496: The different branches of the Islamic faith. A minority of Muslims believe that Islamic guidance should be based on the Quran only , thus rejecting the authority of hadith; some further claim that many hadiths are fabrications ( pseudepigrapha ) created in the 8th and 9th centuries AD, and which are falsely attributed to Muhammad. Historically, some sects of the Kharijites also rejected the hadiths, while Mu'tazilites rejected
7744-423: The disputes over leadership that followed the death of Muhammad, are considered unreliable by the Shia; narrations attributed to Ali and the family of Muhammad, and to their supporters, are preferred. Sunni scholars put trust in narrators such as Aisha , whom Shia reject. Differences in hadith collections have contributed to differences in worship practices and shari'a law and have hardened the dividing line between
7865-572: The divine law, and that its specific aim was preservation of five essentials of human well-being: religion, life, intellect, offspring, and property. Although most classical-era jurists recognized maslaha and maqasid as important legal principles, they held different views regarding the role they should play in Islamic law. Some jurists viewed them as auxiliary rationales constrained by scriptural sources and analogical reasoning. Others regarded them as an "independent" source of law, whose general principles could override specific inferences based on
7986-405: The early Muslim community . Joseph Schacht describes hadith as providing "the documentation" of the sunnah . Another source (Joseph A. Islam) distinguishes between the two saying: Whereas the 'Hadith' is an oral communication that is allegedly derived from the Prophet or his teachings, the 'Sunna' (quite literally: mode of life, behaviour or example) signifies the prevailing customs of
8107-546: The efforts of hadith scholars to weed out fabrications. After it became accepted that legal norms must be formally grounded in scriptural sources, proponents of rules of jurisprudence supported by the hadith would extend the chains of transmission of the hadith back to Muhammad's companions. In his view, the real architect of Islamic jurisprudence was al-Shafi'i , who formulated this idea (that legal norms must be formally grounded in scriptural sources) and other elements of classical legal theory in his work al-risala , but who
8228-411: The eighth century to the present have never ceased to repeat the mantra "The isnad is part of the religion—if not for the isnad, whoever wanted could say whatever they wanted." The isnad literally means "support", and it is so named because hadith specialists rely on it to determine the authenticity or weakness of a hadith . The isnad consists of a chronological list of the narrators, each mentioning
8349-412: The establishment of judicial provisions, such as the identification of the criminals. According to the traditional understanding, four male fair witnesses were required for the accusation of adultery in court, and two male witnesses were required for any other verdict. In addition, the accusers would be punished with slander for accusations that do not meet the specified conditions as a note. For example,
8470-547: The face of a tradition from the Prophet, whether they confirm or contradict it; if the other persons had been aware of the tradition from the Prophet, they would have followed it". This led to "the almost complete neglect" of traditions from the Companions and others. Collections of hadith sometimes mix those of Muhammad with the reports of others. Muwatta Imam Malik is usually described as "the earliest written collection of hadith" but sayings of Muhammad are "blended with
8591-460: The face of the development of the understanding of law and the increasing reactions to corporal punishment - claim that the verse determines the punishment of "concrete sequential criminal acts" - such as massacre, robbery and rape - in addition to rebellion against the legitimate government, and that the punishment to be given depends on the existence of these preconditions. The body of hadith provides more detailed and practical legal guidance, but it
8712-582: The fard rule. 1. Nass , (only verses of the Qur'an can be accepted as evidence here, not hadiths ) 2.The expression of the text referring to the subject must be clear and precise enough not to allow other interpretations. The term wajib is used for situations that do not meet the second of these conditions. However, this understanding may not be sufficient to explain every situation. For example, Hanafis accept 5 daily prayers as fard. However, some religious groups such as Quranists and Shiites , who do not doubt that
8833-424: The final authority of a hadith of Muhammad , so that even the Quran was "to be interpreted in the light of traditions (i.e. hadith), and not vice versa." While traditionally the Qur'an has traditionally been considered superior in authority to the sunna, Al-Shafi'i "forcefully argued" that the sunna was "on equal footing with the Quran", (according to scholar Daniel Brown) for (as Al-Shafi'i put it) “the command of
8954-448: The first five Islamic centuries , ijtihad continued to practise amongst Sunni Muslims. The controversy surrounding ijtihad started with the beginning of the twelfth century. By the 14th century, Islamic Fiqh prompted leading Sunni jurists to state that the main legal questions had been addressed and then ijtihad was gradually restricted. In the modern era, this gave rise to a perception amongst Orientalist scholars and sections of
9075-439: The first three or the first four categories. The legal and moral verdict depends on whether the action is committed out of necessity ( ḍarūra ) and on the underlying intention ( niyya ), as expressed in the legal maxim "acts are [evaluated according] to intention." Hanafi fiqh does not consider both terms as synonymous and makes a distinction between " fard " and " wajib "; In Hanafi fiqh, two conditions are required to impose
9196-399: The five salat (obligatory Islamic prayers) that are not found in the Quran, as well as everyday behavior such as table manners, dress, and posture. Hadith are also regarded by Muslims as important tools for understanding things mentioned in the Quran but not explained, a source for tafsir (commentaries written on the Quran). Some important elements, which are today taken to be
9317-424: The formation of fiqh while they have accepted the general outlines of the traditionalist account at first. In the late 19th century, an influential revisionist hypothesis was advanced by Ignác Goldziher and elaborated by Joseph Schacht in the mid-20th century. Schacht and other scholars argued that having conquered much more populous agricultural and urban societies with already existing laws and legal needs,
9438-639: The hadiths as the basis for Islamic law, while at the same time accepting the Sunnah and Ijma . Because some hadith contain questionable and ambiguous statements, the authentication of hadith became a major field of study in Islam. In its classic form a hadith consists of two parts—the chain of narrators who have transmitted the report (the isnad ), and the main text of the report (the matn ). Individual hadith are classified by Muslim clerics and jurists into categories such as sahih ("authentic"), hasan ("good"), or da'if ("weak"). However, different groups and different scholars may classify
9559-643: The hands of aggrieved soldiers, in 656. No direct sources survive directly from this period so we are dependent on what later writers tell us about this period. According to British historian of Arab world Alfred Guillaume, it is "certain" that "several small collections" of hadith were "assembled in Umayyad times." In Islamic law, the use of hadith as it is understood today (hadith of Muhammad with documentation, isnads, etc.) came gradually. According to scholars such as Joseph Schacht , Ignaz Goldziher , and Daniel W. Brown, early schools of Islamic jurisprudence used
9680-399: The initial Muslim efforts to formulate legal norms regarded the Quran and Muhammad's hadiths as just one source of law, with jurist personal opinions, the legal practice of conquered peoples, and the decrees and decisions of the caliphs also being valid sources. According to this theory, most canonical hadiths did not originate with Muhammad but were actually created at a later date, despite
9801-556: The laws that can be associated with the Quran in Sharia " hudud " (meaning the limits set by Allah). How the verse Al-Ma'idah 33, which describes the crime of hirabah , should be understood is a matter of debate even today. The verse talks about the punishment of criminals by killing, hanging, having their hands and feet cut off on opposite sides , and being exiled from the earth, in response to an -abstract- crime such as " fighting against Allah and His Messenger ". Today, commentators - in
9922-665: The legal force of a scriptural passage is abrogated by a passage revealed at a later date. The sources of judgment in classical fiqh are roughly divided into two: Manqūlāt (Quran and hadith) and Aqliyyāt (ijma, qiyas, ijtihad and others). Some of them (Aqliyyāt) are considered to be the product of scholastic theology and Aristotelian logic . It was an important area of debate among traditional fiqh scholars how much space should be given to rational methods in creating provisions such as extracting provisions from religious texts, as well as expanding, restricting, abolishing or postponing these provisions according to new situations, considering
10043-572: The letter of scripture . Taking maqasid and maslaha as an "independent" source of sharia - rather than an auxiliary one - will pave the way for the re-critique and reorganization of ahkam in the context of maqasid and maslaha, thus (including hudud ), which is often criticized in terms of today's values and seen as problematic, in terms of the purposes of sharia and social benefits will be replaced by new ones. Abdallah bin Bayyah goes further with an approach that prioritizes purpose and benefit among
10164-604: The life of Muhammad and the early history of Islam were passed down mostly orally for more than a hundred years after Muhammad's death in AD 632. Muslim historians say that Caliph Uthman ibn Affan (the third khalifa (caliph) of the Rashidun Caliphate , or third successor of Muhammad, who had formerly been Muhammad's secretary), is generally credited with urging Muslims to record the hadith just as Muhammad had suggested that some of his followers to write down his words and actions. Uthman's labours were cut short by his assassination, at
10285-527: The lines of theological differences and resulted in formation of the Twelver , Zaidi and Ismaili madhhabs, whose differences from Sunni legal schools are roughly of the same order as the differences among Sunni schools. The Ibadi legal school, distinct from Sunni and Shia madhhabs, is predominant in Oman. The transformations of Islamic legal institutions in the modern era have had profound implications for
10406-459: The madhhab system. Legal practice in most of the Muslim world has come to be controlled by government policy and state law, so that the influence of the madhhabs beyond personal ritual practice depends on the status accorded to them within the national legal system. State law codification commonly utilized the methods of takhayyur (selection of rulings without restriction to a particular madhhab) and talfiq (combining parts of different rulings on
10527-466: The number of hadith grew enormously. While Malik ibn Anas had attributed just 1720 statements or deeds to the Muhammad, it was no longer unusual to find people who had collected a hundred times that number of hadith. Faced with a huge corpus of miscellaneous traditions supporting different views on a wide variety of controversial matters—some of them flatly contradicting each other—Islamic scholars of
10648-431: The one from whom they heard the hadith, until mentioning the originator of the matn along with the matn itself. The first people to hear hadith were the companions who preserved it and then conveyed it to those after them. Then the generation following them received it, thus conveying it to those after them and so on. So a companion would say, "I heard the Prophet say such and such." The Follower would then say, "I heard
10769-540: The people and groups who make them. For example, believing in the existence and miracles of Awliya is presented as a "condition" for orthodox Islam by many prominent Sunni creed writers such as Al-Tahawi and Nasafi and is accepted in traditional Sunnis and Shi'ism. However, this understanding, along with expressions of respect and visits to the graves of saints, are seen as unacceptable heresy by puritanical and revivalist Islamic movements such as Salafism , Wahhabism and Islamic Modernism . About six verses address
10890-444: The people of the desert. According to the scholars Harald Motzki and Daniel W. Brown the earliest Islamic legal reasonings that have come down to us were "virtually hadith-free", but gradually, over the course of second century A.H. "the infiltration and incorporation of Prophetic hadiths into Islamic jurisprudence" took place. It was Abū ʿAbdullāh Muhammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī (150-204 AH), known as al-Shafi'i , who emphasized
11011-449: The prescribed movements and words of the prayer (known as rak'a ) and how many times they are to be performed, are found in hadith. However, hadiths differ on these details and consequently salat is performed differently by different hadithist Islamic sects. Quranists, on the other hand, believe that if the Quran is silent on some matter, it is because God did not hold its detail to be of consequence; and that some hadith contradict
11132-490: The purpose and benefit, together with new sociologies, in the face of changing conditions. In this context, in the Classical period, the ulema were divided into groups (among other divisions such as political divisions) regarding the place of " 'Aql " vis-à-vis naql: those who rely on narration ( Atharists , Ahl al-Hadith ), those who rely on reason ( Ahl al-Kalām , Mu'tazila and Ahl al-Ra'y ) and those who tried to find
11253-561: The question, or where there is an existing scholarly consensus ( ijma ). An Islamic scholar who perform ijtihad is called " mujtahid ". In the general understanding, beyond the limitation of ijtihad to those situations that do not have a clear ruling in the Quran and hadiths, scholars who have the ability to give general judgments are also ranked with definitions such as "mujtahid mutlaq", "mujtahid in sect", "mujtahid in issue". Rulings based on ijtihad are not decisions that require obligatory implementation for other Muslims. Throughout
11374-509: The quoter of the hadith ( Traditionists quoted hadith warning against listening to human opinion instead of Sharia; Hanafites quoted a hadith stating that "In my community there will rise a man called Abu Hanifa [the Hanafite founder] who will be its guiding light". In fact one agreed upon hadith warned that, "There will be forgers, liars who will bring you hadiths which neither you nor your forefathers have heard, Beware of them." In addition
11495-438: The religious and ethical precepts of Islam. It continued some aspects of pre-Islamic laws and customs of the lands that fell under Muslim rule in the aftermath of the early conquests and modified others, aiming to meet the practical need of establishing Islamic norms of behavior and adjudicating disputes arising in the community. Juristic thought gradually developed in study circles, where independent scholars met to learn from
11616-561: The rulings of the Prophet's Companions , the rulings of the Caliphs , and practices that “had gained general acceptance among the jurists of that school”. On his deathbed, Caliph Umar instructed Muslims to seek guidance from the Quran, the early Muslims ( muhajirun ) who emigrated to Medina with Muhammad, the Medina residents who welcomed and supported the muhajirun (the ansar ) and
11737-481: The same question). Legal professionals trained in modern law schools have largely replaced traditional ulema as interpreters of the resulting laws. Global Islamic movements have at times drawn on different madhhabs and at other times placed greater focus on the scriptural sources rather than classical jurisprudence. The Hanbali school, with its particularly strict adherence to the Quran and hadith, has inspired conservative currents of direct scriptural interpretation by
11858-461: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Athar . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Athar&oldid=1169992828 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Disambiguation pages with surname-holder lists Hidden categories: Short description
11979-632: The same time, the cycle of abridgement and commentary allowed jurists of each generation to articulate a modified body of law to meet changing social conditions. Other juristic genres include the qawāʿid (succinct formulas meant to aid the student remember general principles) and collections of fatwas by a particular scholar. Classical jurisprudence has been described as "one of the major intellectual achievements of Islam" and its importance in Islam has been compared to that of theology in Christianity . The main Sunni schools of law ( madhhabs ) are
12100-622: The sayings of the companions", (822 hadith from Muhammad and 898 from others, according to the count of one edition). In Introduction to Hadith by Abd al-Hadi al-Fadli, Kitab Ali is referred to as "the first hadith book of the Ahl al-Bayt (family of Muhammad) to be written on the authority of the Prophet". However, the acts, statements or approvals of Muhammad are called "Marfu hadith" , while those of companions are called "mawquf (موقوف) hadith" , and those of Tabi'un are called "maqtu' (مقطوع) hadith" . The hadith had
12221-422: The school's founder. In the course of the first three centuries of Islam, all legal schools came to accept the broad outlines of classical legal theory, according to which Islamic law had to be firmly rooted in the Quran and hadith. Fiqh is traditionally divided into the fields of uṣūl al-fiqh (lit. the roots of fiqh ), which studies the theoretical principles of jurisprudence, and furūʿ al-fiqh (lit.
12342-749: The sources of sharia and declares it to be the heart of "usul-al fiqh". While the latter view was held by a minority of classical jurists, in modern times it came to be championed in different forms by prominent scholars who sought to adapt Islamic law to changing social conditions by drawing on the intellectual heritage of traditional jurisprudence. These scholars expanded the inventory of maqasid to include such aims of Sharia as reform and women's rights ( Rashid Rida ); justice and freedom ( Mohammed al-Ghazali ); and human rights and dignity ( Yusuf al-Qaradawi ). Ijtihad lit. ' physical ' or ' mental effort ' refers to independent reasoning by an expert in Islamic law , or exertion of
12463-476: The term hadith refers to reports of statements or actions of Muhammad, or of his tacit approval or criticism of something said or done in his presence. Classical hadith specialist Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani says that the intended meaning of hadith in religious tradition is something attributed to Muhammad but that is not found in the Quran. Scholar Patricia Crone includes reports by others than Muhammad in her definition of hadith: "short reports (sometimes just
12584-431: The term maqāṣid aš-šarīʿa are the expressions maqāṣid aš-šāriʿ ("intentions of the legislature"), maqāṣid at-tašrīʿ ("intentions of the legislature "), ruḥ aš -šarīʿa ("Spirit of Sharia"), ḥikmat at-tašrīʿ ("Wisdom of Legislation") and falsafat at-tašrīʿ ("Philosophy of Legislation"). They were first clearly articulated by al-Ghazali (d. 1111), who argued that Maqāṣid and maslaha was God's general purpose in revealing
12705-462: The term sharia in discourses. A related term al-qānūn al-islāmī ( القانون الإسلامي , Islamic law), which was borrowed from European usage in the late 19th century, is used in the Muslim world to refer to a legal system in the context of a modern state. The primary meanings of the Arabic word šarīʿah , derived from the root š-r-ʕ . The lexicographical studies records two major areas of
12826-540: The testimony of two women can be equal to the testimony of a man, and a non-Muslim or a sinner cannot serve as an eyewitness against a Muslim. Men's share of the inheritance will be twice that of women. Islamic preachers constantly emphasize the importance of adalah , and in trials, the judge is not expected to observe equality among those on trial, but is expected to act fairly or balanced. Traditional fiqh states that legal and religious responsibility begins with rushd . The domain of furūʿ al-fiqh (lit. branches of fiqh)
12947-471: The two traditions. Sharia Sharia, or fiqh as traditionally known, has always been used alongside customary law from the very beginning in Islamic history ; has been elaborated and developed over the centuries by legal opinions issued by qualified jurists -reflecting the tendencies of different schools - and integrated and with various economic, penal and administrative laws issued by Muslim rulers; and implemented for centuries by judges in
13068-473: The vast majority of hadiths were handed down by only one or a few transmitters and were therefore seen to yield only probable knowledge. The uncertainty was further compounded by ambiguity of the language contained in some hadiths and Quranic passages. Disagreements on the relative merits and interpretation of the textual sources allowed legal scholars considerable leeway in formulating alternative rulings. In Imam Malik 's usage, hadith did not consist only of
13189-434: The verses of the Quran, hadith have been described as resembling layers surrounding the "core" of Islamic beliefs (the Quran). Well-known, widely accepted hadith make up the narrow inner layer, with a hadith becoming less reliable and accepted with each layer stretching outward. The reports of Muhammad's (and sometimes his companions') behavior collected by hadith compilers include details of ritual religious practice such as
13310-647: The victory of the Usulis who based law on principles ( usul ) over the Akhbaris ("traditionalists") who emphasized on reports or traditions ( khabar ) by the 19th century, Ijtihad would become a mainstream Shia practice. The classical process of ijtihad combined these generally recognized principles with other methods, which were not adopted by all legal schools, such as istihsan (juristic preference), istislah (consideration of public interest) and istishab (presumption of continuity). Considering that, as
13431-432: The way a woman should dress when in public; Muslim scholars have differed as how to understand these verses, with some stating that a Hijab is a command (fard) to be fulfilled and others say simply not. The statement in the Qur'an that determines the status of slaves and concubines in the understanding of Sharia is as follows; ma malakat aymanuhum or milk al-yamin meaning " those whom your right hands possess ". It
13552-452: The widespread creation of fraudulent hadiths. Western scholars instead see hadith as more valuable for recording later developments in Islamic theology. In Arabic, the noun ḥadīth ( حديث IPA: [ħæˈdiːθ] ) means "report", "account", or "narrative". Its Arabic plural is aḥādīth ( أحاديث [ʔæħæːˈdiːθ] ). Hadith also refers to the speech of a person. In Islamic terminology, according to Juan Campo,
13673-544: The word can appear without religious connotation. In texts evoking a pastoral or nomadic environment, šarīʿah and its derivatives refers to watering animals at a permanent water-hole or to the seashore. One another area of use relates to notions of stretched or lengthy. The word is cognate with the Hebrew saraʿ שָׂרַע and is likely to be the origin of the meaning "way" or "path". Some scholars describe it as an archaic Arabic word denoting "pathway to be followed" (analogous to
13794-505: The words and actions of Muhammad and his family, the Ahl al-Bayt ( The Twelve Imams and Muhammad's daughter, Fatimah ). Unlike the Quran, not all Muslims believe that all hadith accounts are divine revelation; in fact, scholars have thoroughly examined hadith to sort them into accuracy categories ever since the early period following the Prophet Muhammad's death. Different collections of hadīth would come to differentiate
13915-769: The words claimed to belong to Muhammad as is the case with Shiite Muslims . While hadith does not appear to be an important source of decision for early fiqh scholars such as Abu Hanifa , for later scholars, hadith is perceived as the words of Muhammad merely and is considered as a strong and separate source of decision alongside the Quran. Today, Quranists do not consider hadiths as a valid source of religious rulings. Maqāṣid (aims or purposes) of Sharia and maṣlaḥa (welfare or public interest) are two related classical doctrines which have come to play an increasingly prominent role in modern times. Abū Hāmid al-Ghazālī , Izz al-Din ibn 'Abd al-Salam and Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi used maslaha and madasıd as equivalent terms. Synonyms for
14036-412: The words of God —or hadith sharif (noble hadith), which are Muhammad's own utterances. According to as-Sayyid ash-Sharif al-Jurjani, the hadith qudsi differ from the Quran in that the former are "expressed in Muhammad's words", whereas the latter are the " direct words of God ". A hadith qudsi need not be a sahih (sound hadith), but may be da'if or even mawdu' . An example of a hadith qudsi
14157-882: The world. For example, the Maliki school is predominant in North and West Africa; the Hanafi school in South and Central Asia; the Shafi'i school in Lower Egypt, East Africa, and Southeast Asia; and the Hanbali school in North and Central Arabia. The first centuries of Islam also witnessed a number of short-lived Sunni madhhabs. The Zahiri school, which is commonly identified as extinct, continues to exert influence over legal thought. The development of Shia legal schools occurred along
14278-399: Was a practice used as a resolution tool in inter-tribal conflicts in pre-Islamic Arab society . The basis of this resolution was that a member from the tribe to which the murderer belonged was handed over to the victim's family for execution, equivalent to the social status of the murdered person. The "condition of social equivalence" meant the execution of a member of the murderer's tribe who
14399-437: Was equivalent to the murdered person. For example, only a slave could be killed for a slave, and a woman for a woman. In other cases, compensatory payment ( Diya ) could be paid to the family of the murdered. On top of this pre-Islamic understanding added a debate about whether a Muslim can be executed for a non-Muslim during the Islamic period. The main verse for implementation in Islam is Al Baqara 178: "Believers! Retaliation
14520-568: Was preceded by a body of Islamic law not based on primacy of Muhammad's hadiths. Some articles that may be considered precursors of sharia law and rituals can be found in the pre-Islamic Arabic Religions ; Hajj , salāt and zakāt could be seen in pre-Islamic Safaitic-Arabic inscriptions, and continuity can be observed in many details, especially in todays hajj and umrah rituals. The veiling order , which distinguishes between slaves and free women in Islam , also coincides with similar distinctions seen in pre-Islamic civilizations. Qisas
14641-503: Was recognized early on that not all of them were authentic. Early Islamic scholars developed personal criteria for evaluating their authenticity by assessing trustworthiness of the individuals listed in their transmission chains. These studies narrowed down the vast corpus of prophetic traditions to several thousand "sound (seeming to collectors)" hadiths, which were collected in several canonical compilations. The hadiths which enjoyed concurrent transmission were deemed mutawatir ; however,
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