The word · Law & life
الشَّريعة
Shari'ah
The whole of what God revealed as guidance: belief, worship, character and law together.
Also written · Sharia · Shariah · Sheria · Sharee'ah · Syariah · Seriat · Shariat · Shariyah · Islamic law · divine law · sacred law · sharia law
The meaning
What Shari'ah means in Islam
The word literally means the path to water, and the Qur'an uses it for the way God set out for the Prophet to follow. It is far wider than law in the modern sense; most of it concerns prayer, fasting, honesty and family, and only a small portion concerns courts and punishment. Shari'ah is the revelation itself, while fiqh is the scholarly understanding of it, and collapsing the two makes human opinion sound divine.
Evidence · Qur’an · Stated directly in the Qur’an
Read beside it
Words that sit beside it
- FiqhThe human effort to work out Islamic law from its sources, and the rulings that result.الفِقْه
- Maqasid al-Shari'ahThe higher aims of Islamic law: what its rulings exist in order to protect.مَقاصِدُ الشَّريعة
- HalalPermitted. Anything revelation has not forbidden, which is the great majority of things.حَلال
- HaramForbidden. Leaving it is rewarded, and doing it deliberately is a sin.حَرام
More from Law & life
- 'AqdA contract: a binding agreement formed by an offer and its acceptance.عَقْد
- DiyahBlood money: compensation paid to a victim's family for a killing or an injury.دِيَة
- IjarahHire or lease: paying for the use of something, or for another person's labour.إِجارة
- MahramA relative you may never marry, and before whom the rules of covering are relaxed.مَحْرَم
- Mut'ahTemporary marriage for a fixed term, permitted in Twelver Shia law and prohibited in Sunni law.زَواجُ المُتْعة
- RukhsahA concession: permission to do the easier thing when a recognised excuse applies.رُخْصة