Haqiqa (Arabic حقيقة ḥaqīqa " truth ") is one of "the four stages" in Sufism , shari’a (exoteric path), tariqa (esoteric path), haqiqa (mystical truth) and marifa (final mystical knowledge, unio mystica ).
125-638: Shari’a is Islamic law or Islamic jurisprudence as revealed in the Qur'an and Sunna . The first step in Sufism is following every aspect of the law perfectly. The purpose of this is to prove their love for God, by rigorous self-discipline and constant attention to their conduct. When the Sufi fully lives his or her life according to the Shari’a he or she is ready to progress to the second stage. This conformity to earthly rules
250-415: 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
375-457: 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
500-478: A legal hierarchy on the basis of religious belief or lack of religious belief. It is also associated with a separation of church and state, considering these to be two distinct entities that should be treated separately. State supremacy is a secular principle that supports obedience to the rule of law over religious diktat or canon law, while internal constraint is a secular principle that opposes governmental control over one's personal life. Under political secularism,
625-402: 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
750-475: A major role in public life, while in Europe the impact of the church on public life is declining. Most societies become increasingly secular as the result of social, economic development and progress , rather than through the actions of a dedicated secular movement. Modern sociology has, since Max Weber , often been preoccupied with the problem of authority in secularised societies and with secularisation as
875-893: A means of defending their rights against the majority. State secularism is most often associated with the Age of Enlightenment in Europe and it plays a major role in Western society . Some of the most well known examples for states considered "constitutionally secular" are the United States, France, Turkey, India, Mexico, and South Korea, though none of these nations have identical forms of governance with respect to religion. For example, in India, secularism does not completely separate state and religion, while in France, secularism precludes such mutual involvement. Separationist secularism enforces
1000-417: A means to curb tensions in the religiously diverse nation. The Indian model of secularism stressed equality of citizens regardless of faith before the law, along with some separation. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed in 1948, protecting freedom of religion in international law. In political terms, secularism is a movement towards the separation of religion and government, often termed
1125-463: 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
1250-598: 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
1375-465: A periodic fluctuation or a larger trend toward long-term adoption of secularism. The principle of Laïcité , the French notion of strict separation, was enshrined into law in 1905. After the rise to power of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1923, Turkish secularism, or laiklik , became a state ideology under Kemalism , aiming to modernise the country. Turkey 's secular tradition prior to Atatürk's reforms
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#17327901182011500-416: 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
1625-503: 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 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
1750-399: 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 ,
1875-543: 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
2000-457: A sociological or historical process. Contemporary ethical debate in the West is often described as "secular", as it is detached from religious considerations. Twentieth-century scholars, whose work has contributed to the understanding of these matters, include Carl L. Becker , Karl Löwith , Hans Blumenberg , M. H. Abrams , Peter L. Berger , Paul Bénichou and D. L. Munby , among others. There
2125-657: 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),
2250-405: 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
2375-455: A virtue. Secularists also support freedom from religion as an extension to freedom of religion. Secularism in practice has existed since ancient times. In societies such as Ancient Greece , a limited secularism was practised in which religion was not involved in governance, though it was still prevalent in public life. In Europe, secularism emerged in the early modern period . Due to functional differentiation , religion changed from being
2500-509: 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
2625-402: Is a difficult concept to translate. The book Islamic Philosophical Theology defines it as "what is real, genuine, authentic, what is true in and of itself by dint of metaphysical or cosmic status", which is a valid definition but one that does not explain haqiqa's role in Sufism. Haqiqa may be best defined as the knowledge that comes from communion with God, knowledge gained only after the tariqa
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#17327901182012750-410: 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
2875-469: Is a total ban on religion. Under this system, the state enforces laws that do not allow religious practice or the expression of religious beliefs in society. Unlike other secularist frameworks, state atheism does not permit freedom of thought or the separation of government from personal belief. Because of this distinction, state atheism may or may not be considered a form of secularism. It is typically associated with Marxism and Communist states , in which it
3000-476: Is described as " scientific atheism ". In studies of religion, modern democracies are generally recognized as secular. This is due to the near-complete freedom of religion (religious beliefs generally are not subject to legal or social sanctions), and the lack of authority of religious leaders over political decisions. Nevertheless, it has been claimed that surveys done by Pew Research Center show Americans as generally being more comfortable with religion playing
3125-426: Is important because it recognizes that the spirit of a man or woman is affected by the actions of the body. In this way, bringing the body under the will of God also purifies the spirit and a pure spirit is essential for the second step. Tariqa in Arabic means path and it denotes a Sufi brotherhood or chain or order. The orders are governed by shaykhs , spiritual leaders that mentor Sufis. Shaykhs are identified by
3250-401: 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
3375-514: 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
3500-467: Is more common, such as in Western Europe, demographics of secularists are closer to even. How a society considers what is secular may also change, where nominally spiritual beliefs become part of public or private life without being recognized as religious. As secularists are a minority in most communities, secularism is often stigmatized. Proponents of religious society challenge secular society on
3625-452: Is most commonly thought of as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state and may be broadened to a similar position seeking to remove or to minimize the role of religion in any public sphere. Secularism may encapsulate anti-clericalism , atheism , naturalism , non-sectarianism , neutrality on topics of religion, or antireligion . As a philosophy, secularism seeks to interpret life based on principles derived solely from
3750-411: Is not one singular secular culture, as different people identify as secularists for different reasons and under different belief systems. Secularism is typically associated with progressivism and social liberalism . In democratic countries, middle and upper class white urban males with high education are more likely to identify as secularist than any other demographic group. In societies where secularism
3875-419: 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
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4000-433: 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
4125-418: Is reflective and critical, publicly intelligible and rational, as a secular argument; [...], Nevertheless, a central feature of political liberalism is that it views all such arguments the same way it views religious ones, and therefore these secular philosophical doctrines do not provide public reasons. Secular concepts and reasoning of this kind belong to first philosophy and moral doctrine , and fall outside
4250-523: 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
4375-480: Is the nature of morality in a material universe. Secular ethics and secular morality describe systems of right and wrong that do not depend on religious or supernatural concepts. Much of the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche is developed in response to this issue. Under secular ethics, good is typically defined as that which contributes to "human flourishing and justice" rather than an abstract or idealized conception of good. Secular ethics are often considered within
4500-507: 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
4625-461: 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
4750-424: Is undertaken. For instance, a shaykh that has advanced through tariqa has haqiqa and can see into the lives of his disciples in a spiritual sense. He has knowledge of pregnancies and sicknesses before his disciples tell him. He can see beyond the physical world because of his proximity to God and possession of haqiqa. Haqiqa is less a stage in itself and more the marker of a higher level of consciousness, which precedes
4875-566: 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
5000-523: The American Revolution , Thomas Jefferson and James Madison incorporated the ideas of John Locke into the government of the United States, including his secularism, though a true secular state was not achieved until the 20th century. French secularism in the Age of Enlightenment was based on Gallicanism , which emphasised state supremacy, as well as anti-clericalism and materialism . Revolutionary France opposed Catholic influence in
5125-473: The Center for Inquiry . Religious fundamentalists often oppose a secular form of government, arguing that it contradicts the character of historically religious nations, or infringes on their rights to express themselves in the public sphere. In the United States, for example, the word "secularism" became equivalent to "anti-religion" due to such efforts. Religious minorities, however, often support secularism as
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5250-520: 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
5375-458: 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
5500-480: 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
5625-578: 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
5750-543: 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
5875-463: 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 ) – 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
6000-540: The Salafi and Wahhabi movements. Other currents, such as networks of Indonesian ulema and Islamic scholars residing in Muslim-minority countries, have advanced liberal interpretations of Islamic law without focusing on traditions of a particular madhhab. Secularism Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion . It
6125-484: The United States Constitution as supporting this system during the 20th century, based on the ideas of John Locke and Thomas Jefferson. Laïcité is a secularist framework developed and used in France. Under this system, the state has legal supremacy over religion and enforces the restriction of religion in the public sphere. It was established by a 1905 law , and subsequent laws have restricted
6250-433: The awrad , a series of prayers particular to that order. These prayers must be studied before they are recited, because mistakes made in the prayer are sins. When the disciple has studied and recited the awrad for an indeterminate amount of time, he is expected to experience visions and revelation from God. Sufis believe that at this point the disciple is able to see spiritual things that are veiled from most people. Haqiqa
6375-1221: The French laique model, advocates a state that is both firmly and officially distanced from all religions and non-religious philosophical convictions in all of its manifestations and official dealings, without exception. A more " humanistic " form is indifferent towards religions per se but also advocates for the states to operate on purely a rational basis of evidence-based policy and a focus on human needs and welfare, entailing non-discrimination between peoples of differing religions and non-religious philosophical convictions throughout society. A third "liberal" or " pillarized " form of secularism holds that governments may in some instances express sympathy to, provide funding to, licence state services to, or otherwise allow unique special treatment of religions (common in German-speaking and Benelux secular states), so long as states nevertheless treat these convictions equally, and are neither hostile nor preferential towards any particular set of religious or non-religious philosophical convictions such as humanists . In these countries, secular humanist organizations typically receive state funding according to
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#17327901182016500-547: The Humanist Heritage website notes, Holyoake provides a definition of secularism "much akin to modern definitions of humanism ... broader than just atheism." More modern definitions of secularism are likely to pertain to separation of church and state rather than personal beliefs. Many Christian countries began to undergo societal secularisation during the 20th century, with levels of belief and practice declining. Sociologists disagree as to whether this represents
6625-459: The Indian tradition of religious and ethnic pluralism. One source of disagreement regarding accommodationism in India is the right of Muslims to live under both the civil code and Sharia simultaneously and the complications that result from this. Accommodationism also has a history in the United States , and the U.S. has increasingly moved toward accommodationism in the 21st century. State atheism
6750-685: 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
6875-417: 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
7000-464: 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
7125-408: 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
7250-489: 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
7375-511: 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
7500-469: 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
7625-449: The basis of morality, saying that secularism lacks a meaningful way to incentivize moral behaviour among its members. Secularism is considered in political philosophy and philosophy of religion . As a philosophy, secularism is closely associated with naturalism and materialism, rejecting consideration of immaterial or supernatural substances, such as a soul, in favour of a material universe. This secular materialism and rationalism forms
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#17327901182017750-592: The basis of most modern empirical science. During the Age of Enlightenment, liberal European philosophers such as Baruch Spinoza , John Locke , Montesquieu , Voltaire , David Hume , Adam Smith , and Jean-Jacques Rousseau all proposed various forms of separation of church and state. The work of well known moral philosophers such as Derek Parfit and Peter Singer , and even the whole field of contemporary bioethics, have been described as explicitly secular or non-religious. A major issue considered by secular philosophy
7875-445: 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
8000-677: 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
8125-485: The case of India, is termed as interventionist secularism, wherein the state intervenes to abolish practices of religion which it considers against constitutional principles, although this equidistance has been constitutionally understood to not exclude the concept of a God. The purposes and arguments in support of secularism vary widely, ranging from assertions that it is a crucial element of modernization , or that religion and traditional values are backward and divisive, to
8250-439: The claim that it is the only guarantor of free religious exercise. Secularism takes different forms with varying stances on where and how religion should be separate from other aspects of society. People of any religious denomination can support a secular society, or adopt the principles of secularism, although secularist identity is often associated with non-religious individuals such as atheists. Political secularism encompasses
8375-539: 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
8500-709: The concept of sharia ("law" or "dogmatic legalism"), the latter which is frowned upon in Yazidi tradition. Sharia 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 . Sharia, or fiqh as traditionally known, has always been used alongside customary law from
8625-444: 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
8750-466: 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 a changing world has become an increasingly debated topic in Islam. Beyond sectarian differences , fundamentalists advocate
8875-607: The country, and it briefly replaced Christianity with the deistic Cult of Reason . The first to use the already-extant word "secularism" in a modern sense, was the British agnostic writer George Holyoake , in 1851. Finding " atheism " too aggravating, he sought a term that would describe a stance advocating to conduct life based on naturalistic (secular) considerations only, but without necessarily rejecting religion, thus enabling cooperation with believers. Holyoake's definition of secularism differs from its usage by later writers. As
9000-713: The democratic to the authoritarian, such governments share a concern to limit the religious side in the relationship. Each state may find its own unique policy prescriptions. These may include separation, careful monitoring and regulation of organized religion such as in France, Turkey, India and others. In accord with the belief in the separation of church and state, secularists tend to prefer that politicians make decisions for secular rather than religious reasons. In this respect, policy decisions pertaining to topics like abortion , contraception , embryonic stem cell research, same-sex marriage , and sex education are prominently focused upon by American secularist organizations such as
9125-572: 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
9250-696: The domain of the political. Still, Rawl's theory is akin to Holyoake's vision of a tolerant democracy that treats all life stance groups alike. Rawl's idea it that it is in everybody's own interest to endorse "a reasonable constitutional democracy" with "principles of toleration". His work has been highly influential on scholars in political philosophy and his term, overlapping consensus , seems to have for many parts replaced secularism among them. In textbooks on modern political philosophy, like Colin Farrelly's, An Introduction to Contemporary Political Theory , and Will Kymlicka's, Contemporary Political Philosophy ,
9375-546: 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
9500-412: 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,
9625-460: 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
9750-582: 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
9875-448: 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
10000-439: 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
10125-424: 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,
10250-565: The frame of humanism. It can be seen by many of the organizations (NGOs) for secularism that they prefer to define secularism as the common ground for all life stance groups, religious or atheistic, to thrive in a society that honours freedom of speech and conscience. An example of that is the National Secular Society in the UK. This is a common understanding of what secularism stands for among many of its activists throughout
10375-436: The government can enforce how people act but not what they believe. Similarly, freedom of thought is supported by secularism. Order is supported by secularists, specifically in that one's beliefs should not be permitted to disturb the civil peace. Religious tolerance is supported both for people of other religions and for a lack of piety demonstrated by members of one's own religion. Political secularism also supports reason as
10500-399: 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
10625-447: The landmark work of John Rawls ' A Theory of Justice in 1971 and its following book, Political Liberalism (1993), would rather use the conjoined concept overlapping consensus rather than secularism. In the latter Rawls holds the idea of an overlapping consensus as one of three main ideas of political liberalism . He argues that the term secularism cannot apply; But what is a secular argument? Some think of any argument that
10750-556: 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
10875-665: 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
11000-572: 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
11125-527: 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
11250-459: 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
11375-440: The material world, without recourse to religion. It shifts the focus from religion towards "temporal" and material concerns. There are distinct traditions of secularism in the West, like the French, Benelux-German, Turkish, and American models, and beyond, as in India , where the emphasis is more on equality before law and state neutrality and equidistance from all religions rather than a complete blanket separation. The latter in
11500-411: 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 is presented as a form of governance in addition to its other aspects (especially by
11625-414: The next and final stage, marifa . Marifat ( Arabic : المعرفة ), is knowledge acquired through experience. It is a term used by Sufi Muslims to describe knowledge of spiritual truth (Haqiqah) having lived through experiences. Like Sufism, Yazidism also makes use of the concepts of sharia , tariqa , haqiqa, and ma'rifa . In Yazidism, the concept of haqiqa ("[esoteric] truth") stands in contrast to
11750-540: 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
11875-540: The predominant lens through which reality was interpreted to providing only an alternative explanatory approach. In 1636, Roger Williams founded the Providence Plantations as a settlement with total freedom of religion, in present-day Rhode Island . Secular ideas were strongly challenged by religious leaders and the Catholic Church in particular, causing a religious culture war . During
12000-490: 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
12125-561: 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
12250-438: 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
12375-536: The same funding formulas used to provide state funding to religious groups. In Indian political discourse, the pejorative term pseudo-secularism is also used to highlight instances where it is believed that while the state purports to be secular, indifferent, or impartial towards religions, its policies in reality favour a particular religion over others. There are many principles that are associated with all forms of political secularism. It typically promotes legal equality between people of different religions, opposing
12500-481: 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
12625-632: 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
12750-422: 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.
12875-461: The schools of thought in secularism that consider the regulation of religion by a secular state . Religious minorities and non-religious citizens in a country tend to support political secularism while members of the majority religion tend to oppose it. Secular nationalists are people that support political secularism within their own state . Scholars identify several variations of political secularism in society. The strictest form, associated with
13000-464: The separation of church and state. This can refer to reducing ties between a government and a state religion , replacing laws based on scripture (such as Halakha , Dharmaśāstra , and Sharia ) with civil laws , and eliminating discrimination on the basis of religion . This is said to add to democracy by protecting the rights of religious minorities. Separation of church and state is one possible strategy to be deployed by secular governments. From
13125-425: The separation of church and state. Under this system, the state does not support any religious group and does not enforce religious laws. Challenges facing separationist secularism include how the government should regulate secular activities of religious groups and how to govern separately from religion when citizens, including government employees, are religious. The federal judiciary of the United States interpreted
13250-400: The signs of God's grace that are evident, such as the ability to perform miracles. They take on people, usually male, that are committed to the Sufi lifestyle and want to progress further in their spiritual education. It is common for the shaykh to test a new disciple by ignoring them, assigning humiliating tasks or being rude to them. When the disciple has passed these tests, he is introduced to
13375-749: 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
13500-431: 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
13625-431: The term secularism is not even indexed and in the former it can be seen only in one footnote. However, there is no shortage of discussion and coverage of the topic it involves. It is just called overlapping consensus, pluralism , multiculturalism or expressed in some other way. In The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory , there is one chapter called "Political secularism", by Rajeev Bhargava . It covers secularism in
13750-462: 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
13875-540: 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)
14000-591: The use of religious iconography in public or by children. Kemalist secularism, or laiklik , is an adaptation of laïcité that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk established in Turkey in the 1920s and 1930s. Accommodationism is a system of actively supporting religion in general without favouring a specific religious sect. Under this system, the state applies few restrictions to religion and often provides religious organizations with financial support. India uses this system, incorporating Western ideas of secularism in combination with
14125-473: 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
14250-528: 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 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 :
14375-647: 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
14500-432: 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
14625-544: 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
14750-769: 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
14875-882: 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
15000-446: The world. However, many scholars of Christianity and conservative politicians seem to interpret secularism more often than not, as an antithesis of religion and an attempt to push religion out of society and replace it with atheism or a void of values, nihilism . This dual aspect (as noted above in "Secular ethics") has created difficulties in political discourse on the subject. It seems that most political theorists in philosophy following
15125-399: 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
15250-437: 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
15375-454: Was limited, and 20th century Turkish secularism was initially modelled after French laïcité . Turkey remains virtually the only Muslim-majority nation with an effective secular government, though secularism remains a controversial ideology in Turkey, and the country's ruling party AKP is more anti-Kemalist than anti-secularist. India became a secular state after it achieved independence in 1947; Mahatma Gandhi supported pluralist secularism as
15500-568: 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
15625-503: 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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