
By T.O. Shanavas, New Age Islam
17 November 2016
Sharia is central to Islamic faith. It is
the Divine Law of Guidance for personal and public behaviour of Muslims, and
justice to humanity. Justice is one word in Islam that wraps balance, harmony,
fairness, mercy and equity together for the society to function cohesively,
where none has live in fear of the other but God. In its absence, humanity will
degenerate into a dysfunctional society. Most Muslims believe that the complete
code of Sharia or Divine Law is primarily in the Qur'an and secondarily in the
authentic reports of Prophet teachings as well as the practices (Hadiths).
However, there are many Hadiths in the Sahih Bukhari, Muslim, etc., that defame
Prophet (s), is irrational, unjust, contrary to common good, and contradict the
Qur’an, and “Any rules that depart from justice to injustice, from kindness to
harshness, from common good to harm, or rationality to absurdity cannot be part
of Sharia.’ (13th century jurist Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya)
Unfortunately, it is a common Muslims
misconception that Divine Law equals Fiqh (understanding by jurists) or Muslim
jurisprudence. Various forms of Muslim Jurisprudence are built on the idea that
every human effort to articulate Sharia (Divine Law) in specific legal rules is
human, and therefore unavoidably fallible process. This process is called
Ijitihad, and rules it produces are called Fiqh (understanding) or Muslim
jurisprudence. Thus, for Muslims there has always been one Law of God (Sharia),
but many schools of Fiqh articulating Divine Law here on earth. Sunni schools
are: Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi, Hambali, Zahari, etc., and the schools of Shia are
Jaf’ari, Zaydi, and Ibadi. Each of the schools of Islam are named by students
of the classical jurist who taught them.
Fiqh rules can be criticized or rejected or reframed without questioning
God's infallibility, because Fiqh rules are merely the result of fallible human
efforts to understand and elaborate Sharia.
The logic of the Sharia is its minimal
number of clear interdictions, and maximal scope for the interpretative
extension of key precepts to particular situations. It means that any freezing
of the Ulema’s (scholars’) ‘arbitrary’ decisions arises not so much from the
essential characteristics of the Sharia, but merely from a fallible human
decree of a particular legal tradition or method of exegesis. Only God knows
who is right and no Muslim religious-legal scholar (Fuqaha) can insist that his
or her conclusions are the correct articulation of Sharia (Divine Law) as
against all others. In short, whereas Sharia is perfect, incontestable and is
not in need of reform, Fiqh rules are always fallible, therefore can be wrong.
I define: Contemporary Muslim
fundamentalists are those who believe Fiqh (understandings by Fuqaha) or Muslim
jurisprudence are divine, perfect, infallible, incontestable and Ijtihad
(unfettered reasoning) is a closed for Muslims. Such a Muslim belief is called
fundamentalism.
T.O. Shanavas is a native of Kerala, but is now based in the USA.He is
the author of “Islamic Theory of evolution of Evolution the Missing Link
between Darwin and The Origin of Species.” Co-author of the book, And God Said,
"Let There Be Evolution!” Reconciling The Book Of Genesis, The Qur'an, And
The Theory Of Evolution. Edited by Prof. Charles M. Wynn and Prof. Arthur W.
Wiggins.
URL: http://www.newageislam.com/islamic-sharia-laws/to-shanavas,-new-age-islam/a-definition-of-muslim-fundamentalists-and-fundamentalism/d/109124
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