Keywords

sharia law, Islam, Qur'an, religion

Abstract

Sharia is the Islamic legal code that serves as an ethical, practical, and religious guide for practicing Muslims. Sharia has been variously translated from Arabic as "the way," "the correcting path," or literally "the path leading to the watering place." Sharia has Sunni and Shia variations as well as different schools of jurisprudence within those traditions, but all sharia is rooter in the Qur'an (or Koran, the primary sacred text of Islam) and the lived example of the Prophet Muhammad, as discussed in the hadith (a body of traditions concerning the Prophet Muhammad's life and revelations). these two sources are held to be mutually supportive.

Original Publication Citation

Alghafli, Z., Hatch, T., & Marks, L. (2014). Sharia Law. In L. Ganong, M. Coleman, J. G. Golson (Eds.), The Social History of the American Family (pp. 1175–1177). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. (1,000 words; my contribution was about 30 percent).