In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
All thanks and praise are due to Allah, from Whom we seek help and forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allah from the evils of ourselves and the evil consequences of our deeds. Whoever Allah guides will never be misled and whoever strays from Him will never find a guide. I bear witness that there is no god except Allah. Likewise, I bear witness that Muhammad is the servant and the Messenger of Allah.
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Dear brothers and sisters! Let our brothers who misunderstood Shari’ah know that Shari’ah is the way of peace, unity, mercy and happiness, and the word Shari’ah refers to the entire religion of Islam, which Allah chose for mankind, to lead them forth from the depths of darkness to the light. It is what He has prescribed for them and explained to them of commands and prohibitions, halal and haram.
The one who follows the Shari’ah of Allah, regarding as permissible what He has permitted and regarding as prohibited what He has prohibited, will attain triumph and success.
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The one who goes against the Shari’ah of Allah is exposing himself to Allah’s wrath, anger and punishment.
Allah the Almighty says:
“Then We put you, [O Muhammad], on an ordained way concerning the matter [of religion]; so follow it and do not follow the inclinations of those who do not know.” [Qur’an, 45:18]
Imam Al-Khalil Ibn Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
“The word Shari’ah refers to what Allah has prescribed for people regarding matters of religion, and what He has commanded them to adhere to of prayer, fasting, Hajj and so on. It is the shir‘ah (the place in the river where one may drink).” [See Al-Ayn, volume 1, page 253, see also as-Sihah by al-Jawhari, volume 3, page 1236]
Imam Ibn Hazm (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
“Shari’ah is what Allah, may He be exalted, prescribed on the lips of His Prophet (Peace be upon him) with regard to religion, and on the lips of the Prophets (Peace be upon them) who came before him. The ruling of the abrogating text is to be regarded as the final ruling.”
The linguistic origin of the term Shari’ah refers to the place in which a rider is able to come and drink water, and the place in the river where one may drink. Allah the Most High says:
“He has ordained for you of religion what He enjoined upon Nuh (Noah) and that which We have revealed to you, [O Muhammad], and what We enjoined upon Ibrahim (Abraham) and Musa (Moses) and Isa (Jesus) – to establish the religion and not be divided therein. Difficult for those who associate others with Allah is that to which you invite them. Allah chooses for Himself whom He wills and guides to Himself whoever turns back [to Him].” [Qur’an, 42:13]
Shaikhul Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
“Man has no right to go against Shari’ah in any of his affairs; rather everything that is good for him and his well being is referred to in Shari’ah, whether it has to do with his major issues or minor issues, in all his situations and actions, in his interactions and dealings with other people, and so on. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. The reason for that is that Shari’ah means obedience to Allah and His Messenger, and those in authority (leaders) among us. Allah the Almighty says: “O you who have believed, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you.” [Qur’an, 4:58] He has enjoined obedience to Him and obedience to His Messenger in many verses of the Qur’an, and He has forbidden disobedience to Him and disobedience to His Messenger. He has promised His good pleasure, forgiveness, mercy and Paradise in return for obedience to Him and obedience to His Messenger, and He has warned of the opposite of that in return for disobedience to Him and disobedience to His Messenger. Therefore everyone, whether he is a scholar, leader, devoted worshipper, or individual involved in dealings and transactions with others, must obey Allah and His Messenger in whatever he is doing, whether it is teaching and learning, judging, enjoining what is good or forbidding what is evil, doing any deed, doing an act of worship, or anything else. The true meaning of Shari’ah is following the messengers and obeying them, but going against Shari’ah means going against obedience to the messengers, and obedience to the messengers is the religion of Allah.” [See Majmu‘u Fatawa, volume 19, page 309]
The scholars of the Permanent Committee said:
“Shari’ah is that with which Allah sent down His Books and sent His messengers to people, so that they would put it into practice by way of worshipping Allah and seeking to draw close to Him, in accordance with what the messengers (Peace be upon all of them) enjoined. The right way to be followed is what is in accordance with this; in other words, what is in accordance with the instructions of Allah Who sent it down to the last of His messengers, Muhammad (Peace be upon him) as He said: “And, [moreover], this is My path, which is straight, so follow it; and do not follow [other] ways, for you will be separated from His way.” [Qur’an, 6:153] And it is what is in accordance with the words of the Prophet (Peace be upon him): “My Ummah will split into seventy-three sects, all of whom will be in the Fire except one.” It was said: Who are they, O Messenger of Allah? He said: “Those who follow the path that I and my Companions follow.” [See Fatawa Lajnah ad-Daimah, volume 2, page 219]
Respected brothers and sisters! Also let our brothers understand that the Islamic law, known as the Shari’ah, is the framework of ultimate reality and the ethical guidance that Muslim scholars have derived from the direct Revelation of Allah to man. Although Allah reveals the pattern of ultimate truth indirectly through the workings of the physical universe and in the observable nature of man, the ultimate source of knowledge about both physical and metaphysical reality – and therefore the ultimate source of the Shari’ah – is the Qur’an. This divine text was revealed directly in human language to the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), and is exemplified in the Sunnah, which reports the Prophet’s understanding of this Final Revelation as shown through his words and deeds.
All Revelation to the Jewish Prophets and to Jesus is binding on Muslims unless specifically abrogated in the Qur’an. The Shari’ah is a specific form of the shar’ or path to Allah which the Qur’an states was revealed to all the Prophets of the Abrahamic succession.
Since the major purpose of Islamic law is to guide man’s search for truth, Shari’ah touches on both transcendent and material experience. All aspects of every person’s spiritual understandings and undertakings, which come under the rubric of purification, or tazkiyyah, should be consciously subject to the reality-check of Islamic law. This deeply spiritual nature of the Shari’ah provides the perspective for understanding and acting in accordance with the ethical or moral standards that the creator (Allah) has provided to guide every person’s and community’s relations with other humans and with the rest of Creation. The Shari’ah therefore provides the ultimate criteria for judgment on every aspect of one’s individual and social life.
The process of gaining knowledge of Islam through jurisprudence, and the body of legal advisements so derived, is known as fiqh. The Shari’ah consists both of specific rules and regulations, known as ahkam, which are the subject of istifta, or fiqh analysis, and of general principles induced by scholars over many centuries from study of the Qur’an, Sunnah, and their application in everyday life.
The specific directives in the Qur’an focus primarily on the elements of formal worship known as the five pillars of Islam, because man cannot reason to this knowledge alone. These elements consist of the profession of faith, including the aqidah or articles of faith common to all Abrahamic religions; and the rules for the five daily prayers, charity, fasting, and pilgrimage.
The general principles of Islamic law, also known as universals (kulliyat), essentials (daruriyat), and goals (maqasid), are derived by a system of reasoning known as istislah, which focuses on the common good of mankind. This system of thought, in turn, is part of the broader field of study known as usulul fiqh, or study of the sources of fiqh Analysis of the general principles of Islarnic law through the use of intellectual effort, known as ijtihad, gives meaning to the specific directives and also provides guidance on all aspects of Muslim life in the variable contexts of time and place. Islamic law thereby gives living expression to an elaborate science and art of interpreting and applying the injunctions of the Qur’an and the guidance of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). The development of an integrated and adaptable legal system which focuses on what is best for mankind as a whole is one of the most outstanding achievements of Muslim jurists (Fuqaha). The methodology of Islamic jurisprudence asserts that any ruling in the fiqh has meaning only to the extent that we can understand its rationale or higher purpose.
The dignity of man derives from his acceptance, before the Creator of the Universe, of the responsibility to know right from wrong and to be a steward of the universe charged with caring for it and guiding it in accordance with the Divine Will. No beings in either the physical or metaphysical worlds have such a sublime responsibility.
The rights of the human person and community derive from this responsibility, because every person and community must be free to carry out this stewardship. Every man and every woman, every Arab and every Jew, and every rich person and every poor person are equal in their responsibility to Allah and therefore in their dignity and in their human rights.
Islamic law focuses on human responsibility, because a focus on human rights can devolve into the selfishness of seeking to maximise one’s own freedom to do whatever one wants at the expense of others. If everyone would fulfill all of his or her responsibilities, individually and collectively, then everyone would be accorded the full range of human rights.
The scholars of Islam, have identified a half dozen overarching responsibilities, though some scholars will condense these to five or expand the number by elevating a secondary responsibility to the level of the universal or essential. The first three concern the essentials of life itself, whereas the next three concern the quality of life.
The first three essential areas of responsibility or duty in Islamic law are:
1. Respect for life, or “the right to life” known as haqqul hayat, This requires not merely respect for the unborn after the spirit or ruh has been breathed into the fetus, but also such social duties as respect for non-belligerents in war and the use of dispute settling mechanisms whenever possible to avoid violence that might threaten the lives of oneself or others. Respect for life requires most basically an understanding that lasting peace can result only from justice, and that therefore stability should be sought as the by-product of sound foreign policy rather than as its direct aim. Similarly, crime should be combated primarily by addressing the causes rather than the results of the criminal mentality.
2. Respect for community, or right to one’s identity as a member of a family, community, or nation, known as haqqul nasl. This focus on the family, and more broadly on expanding circles of community to include mankind and even all sentient beings in the universe, is unique to Islamic law, because it implies that sovereignty lies not in the extent of a country’s or a government’s power, as it does in Euro-American international law, but in the inherent dignity of the human person in community. This acknowledgment of the inherent right of the person to live in a series of legally recognised communities permits several levels of sovereignty, all subject to the highest sovereignty of Allah, and contrasts with the concept of exclusive sovereignty found in the so-called “nation-state” of the mid-twentieth century.
3. Respect for free, private enterprise, with broad capital ownership, known as haqqul mal. The principle of freedom for individual persons to own the means of production has been basic in all Islamic scholarship until the twentieth century. Unfortunately, the principle of equal opportunities to own capital or the tools of production has been largely ignored for over a thousand years because various “leaders” understood that concentrated political power requires concentrated property ownership. Denial of access to capital ownership in a capital-intensive economy can amount to the denial of the right to life itself. Therefore all institutions that work in practice to concentrate ownership, including the financing of economic growth through the use of interest rather than by risk-sharing in joint-ownership, are “illegal,” that is, morally illegitimate, in Islamic law.
The next three of the universals, essentials, or purposes of Islamic law, which concern the quality of life, are:
4. Political self-determination, or haqqul hurriyah. This is usually known as “the right to political freedom.” Islamically, however, this term emphasises the responsibility of both the ruled and the rulers to establish permanent institutions designed to facilitate broad-based political participation by every member of a polity in its governance so that they can help determine their own immediate well-being and long-run destiny.
This universal, like each of the other five, contains a second-order level of responsibilities that serve to elucidate and carry out the primary responsibility. In the context of political self- determination, this next lower level of responsibility, known as hadyiyat, consists of ijma, which is the duty of the governed to reach consensus on critical issues, and shurah, which is the duty of the leader to be responsive to this consensus. In a complex society, this might be accomplished best by using a concept of a hierarchy of assemblies that culminate in a national parliament.
The third necessary element in the system of government prescribed in Islamic law, in addition to the executive and legislative, is an independent judiciary charged with applying the principles of Islamic law, especially as they are spelled out in a formal constitution covering the organs, methods, and principles of governance chosen by the legislature. The judicial area of government is designed to limit both the ruled and the ruler so that the ultimate sovereign, both in theory and in fact, will be Allah.
5. Dignity, known as haqqul karama. The duty to respect human dignity is at the core of all Islamic law, because the essential purpose of the Shari’ah is to help persons acknowledge and deepen their relationship to Allah and express this higher level of being especially in their relationships with each other. There are two major parts of this fifth universal principle of Islamic law.
The most important aspect of the principle of dignity is the duty to respect each person’s need to seek and worship Allah in his or her own way. This is known in Western thought as “freedom of religion.” In both traditional Islamic and traditional American thought, this most essential element of the dignity of man requires that the government avoid any sectarian bias in carrying out its duty to facilitate freedom of religion in public affairs.
Another aspect of this principle of dignity, which is second in importance only because it is so often ignored, is “gender equality.” Whereas the Prophet Muharnmad (Peace be upon him) and the Islamic teachings of the Prophetic period were breathtakingly revolutionary in recognising the divinely ordained rights and responsibilities of women in society, the practice of later Muslims degenerated to the level of their neighbours and has largely remained at this level while the rest of the world has begun to understand and share the sophistication of the original Islamic heritage.
Islamic law recognises a greater responsibility of wife and mother to care for the home and children, and a greater responsibility of the husband and father to support the family. The family, however, is a mutual support group, whereby all responsibilities are held in common through the principle of collective responsibility, or fard kifayah. It follows from this that if any duty is not being adequately met, each member has a personal responsibility, or fard ain, to do whatever is required to fulfill that duty, whether it be the husband washing dishes or the wife working outside the home.
Similarly, to the extent that home duties and the work of financial support for the family have been satisfactorily accomplished, both husband and wife have equal responsibility to participate in social and political leadership when needed for the good of the community and even to accept the highest judicial, legislative, executive, or entrepreneurial position in the land if it is offered. There the criterion for judgment is not women’s rights or men’s rights, but individual responsibility. Gender is irrelevant when the issue is personal responsibility to meet the needs of society in accordance with the requirements of Islamic law.
6. Knowledge, or haqqul ilm. A key to success in every aspect of private and public life is the duty to pursue knowledge. Since the highest purpose of every person is spiritual understanding, freedom to pursue the path of spiritual knowledge is paramount. We were created, however, as humans not as angels, so we have a duty to pursue whatever knowledge is useful to us individually and collectively in carrying out our responsibilities: to help the marginalised in society, to promote justice among people and nations, to multiply the material bounties of Allah, to work constructively in the political process, to participate with people of other faiths in addressing all the problems of society, and otherwise fulfilling all the requirements placed upon us by Islamic law.
The duty to respect knowledge goes beyond the negative task of protecting freedom of thought and expression, limited only by the duties to respect human dignity, and extends to the positive obligation of every person to learn as much as one can throughout one’s life in order to fulfill the purpose for which one was created.
The nature and specific obligations inherent in Islamic law make it not only unique among mankind’s legal systems but the best suited as the paradigm of thought within which all religions and all peoples can cooperate in building a better world.
Lastly, I ask Allah the Almighty to reform all our affairs, to provide us with strong will to change our situation for the better and to provide the entire Ummah with glory, strength and unity. I ask Him also to accept our deeds, prayers, and supplications.
I also pray, may the Almighty Allah remove all our tears, all our worries, all our sorrows and all our pains and replace them with complete happiness, complete smiles and complete good health, ameen Ya Mujib!
All perfect praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. May the peace, blessings and salutations of Allah be upon our noble Messenger, Muhammad (Peace be upon him), and upon his family, his Companions and his true followers.
Murtadha Muhammad Gusau is the Chief Imam of: Nagazi-Uvete Jumu’ah Mosque; and Late Alhaji Abdur-Rahman Okene Mosque, Okene, Kogi State, Nigeria. He can be reached via: [email protected]; or +2348038289761.
This Friday sermon (Jumu’ah Khutbah) was prepared for delivery today Friday, Sha’aban 08, 1446 AH (7 February, 2025).
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