By reading this book, the readers should be able: •To understand the basic concepts of Shariah; •To understand the importance of Shariah; and •To analyse and examine the Shariah issues nowadays. Hopefully, the readers will gain benefits from this book and able to understand the Shariah principles clearly.

With the end of the early Islamic period, Muslim scholars came to sense that a rift had begun to emerge between the teachings and principles of Islam and Muslims’ daily reality and practices. The most important means by which scholars sought to restore the intimate contact between Muslims and the Qur’an was to study the objectives of Islam, the causes behind Islamic legal rulings and the intentions and goals underlying the Shari'ah, or Islamic Law. They made it clear that every legal ruling in Islam has a function which it performs, an aim which it realizes, a cause, be it explicit or implicit, and an intention which it seeks to fulfill, and all of this in order to realize benefit to human beings or to ward off harm or corruption. They showed how these intentions, and higher objectives might at times be contained explicitly in the texts of the Qur’an and the Sunnah, while at other times, scholars might bring them to light by means of independent reasoning based on their understanding of the Qur’an and the Sunnah within a framework of time and space. This book represents a pioneering contribution presenting a comprehensive theory of the objectives of Islamic law in its various aspects, as well as a painstaking study of objectives-based thought as pioneered by the father of objectives-based jurisprudence, Imam Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi; in addition, the author presents us with an important study of al-Shatibi himself which offers a wealth of new, beneficial information about the life, thought and method of this venerable man.

In the West, "sharia" often calls to mind antiquated laws founded upon gender discrimination and barbaric punishments. In the East, for some it means the ideal standards by which Muslims strive to live; for others, it is the greatest obstacle to modernization of their societies. These clashing views sometimes lead to violence. Clarification of the term has therefore become an urgent necessity. Sharia is all of these things and much more. It is the legal system of Islam, a series of guidelines and prohibitions. But it is also a concept invested with a whole range of meanings, from the virtuous attributes of an "'ideal"' society, to the confinement of particular elements to otherness and adversity. Moving through history, society and Islamic thought to explore the sources of sharia law, Baudouin Dupret gets to the heart of its uses and abuses in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This short, accessible book provides an invaluable guide for those seeking to understand a matter more complex and pressing today than ever before.

Islam is not just 5 Pillars. It is comprehensive guidance for all mankind for all generations for all time. Covering every aspect of life, it ranges far beyond the outward rituals, informing your attitude to this life and the next. This book aims to make abstract Islamic concepts practical and easy to understand. In addition, it answers the wide-ranging questions that many young people and adults ask. Exploring controversial topics such as sharia law, hijab and jihad, it also explains, clearly and simply, deeper questions, such as the existence of God and how we know Islam is the right religion. How do we know there is a God? Who created the Creator? How do we know that Islam is the right religion? How do we turn our daily lives into worship? Why do we pray? Are women oppressed in Islam? Why do women need to wear the hijab (headscarf)? What is sharia law? And what is jihad? Ideal for parents, teachers, teenagers and anyone wanting to understand what it means to live Islam. This is a must have for every home. Abu Mustafa Zakariya is a health sector professional and a youth worker in the Islamic community. His background is one of science, including research, and he holds multiple degrees and diplomas including a higher research doctorate degree. He is settled in the UK with his wife and children. Abu Mustafa is a student of Islamic knowledge. He has studied with authentic, erudite, classical scholars with whom he continues his learning. This book is a summary of his journey so far, explaining essential knowledge to the reader in a way that's easy to grasp.

The application of Shariah compliance in business transactions continues to increase. The Asian financial crisis of 1997, global financial crisis of 2007-2008, Enron scandal and other reported ills besieging conventional business transactions have led to advocates of Shariah-compliant business transactions promoting the latter as a credible alternative. However, unlike the banking, commerce and financial sectors, the uptake by the construction sector was sluggish due to limited understanding of Shariah among the practitioners and policymakers compounded by the lack of research and publications on its application for the construction sector.This book is intended for students, researchers, practitioners and policymakers of the construction industry as well as the related upstream and downstream activities. It offers basic theories, challenges current practices, and proposes innovative ideas on Shariah compliance and its application for the construction industry.Related Link(s)

A bold new conceptualization of Islam that reflects its contradictions and rich diversity What is Islam? How do we grasp a human and historical phenomenon characterized by such variety and contradiction? What is "Islamic" about Islamic philosophy or Islamic art? Should we speak of Islam or of islams? Should we distinguish the Islamic (the religious) from the Islamicate (the cultural)? Or should we abandon "Islamic" altogether as an analytical term? In What Is Islam?, Shahab Ahmed presents a bold new conceptualization of Islam that challenges dominant understandings grounded in the categories of "religion" and "culture" or those that privilege law and scripture. He argues that these modes of thinking obstruct us from understanding Islam, distorting it, diminishing it, and rendering it incoherent. What Is Islam? formulates a new conceptual language for analyzing Islam. It presents a new paradigm of how Muslims have historically understood divine revelation—one that enables us to understand how and why Muslims through history have embraced values such as exploration, ambiguity, aestheticization, polyvalence, and relativism, as well as practices such as figural art, music, and even wine drinking as Islamic. It also puts forward a new understanding of the historical constitution of Islamic law and its relationship to philosophical ethics and political theory. A book that is certain to provoke debate and significantly alter our understanding of Islam, What Is Islam? reveals how Muslims have historically conceived of and lived with Islam as norms and truths that are at once contradictory yet coherent.

Assisted reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization have provoked global controversy and ethical debate. This book provides a groundbreaking investigation into those debates in the Islamic Middle East, simultaneously documenting changing ideas of kinship and the evolving role of religious authority in the region through a combination of in-depth field research in Lebanon and an exhaustive survey of the Islamic legal literature. Lebanon, home to both Sunni and Shiite Muslim communities, provides a valuable site through which to explore the overall dynamism and diversity of global Islamic debate. As this book shows, Muslim perspectives focus on the moral propriety of such controversial procedures as the use of donor sperm and eggs as well as surrogacy arrangements, which are allowed by some authorities using surprising and innovative legal arguments. These arguments challenge common stereotypes of the rigidity and conservatism of Islamic law and compel us to question conventional contrasts between ‘liberal’ and Islamic notions of moral freedom, as well as the epistemological assumptions of anthropology’s own ‘new kinship studies’. This book will be essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary Islam and the impact of reproductive technology on the global social imaginary.

Sharia has been a source of misunderstanding and misconception in both the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds. Understanding Sharia: Islamic Law in a Globalised World sets out to explore the reality of sharia, contextualising its development in the early centuries of Islam and showing how it evolved in line with historical and social circumstances. The authors, Raficq S. Abdulla and Mohamed M. Keshavjee, both British-trained lawyers, argue that sharia and the positive law flowing from it, known as fiqh, have never been an exclusive legal system or a fixed set of beliefs.

This volume presents ten leading scholars' writings on contemporary Islamic law and Muslim thought. The essays examine a range of issues, from modern Muslim discourses on justice, natural law, and the common good, to democracy, the social contract, and "the authority of the preeminent jurist." Changes in how Shari'a has been understood over the centuries are explored, as well as how it has been applied in both Sunni and Shi'i Islam. Debates on the nature, interpretation, reform, and application of Shari'a lie at the core of all Islamist revivalist ideologies and movements of the past two centuries. The demand for the implementation of Shari'a is one of the hallmarks of Islamic fundamentalism, and Shari'a has become one of the most controversial and politicized concepts in Muslim-majority countries today. This is one of the first books to examine how Muslims understand and apply Shari'a in contemporary societies.

Compilation Series: Legal Study: Texts and Materials is a solid, application- oriented text for students taking law subjects. Many new features make this edition a richer and stronger learning resource for students. Several factors motivated the authors to write this book. After having the experience in legal field and teaching for more than 10 years, it became clear that there was a definite need for more detail materials in this area. In addition, there was need for a book which would give full recognition to an easier method and the authors felt it was time for a text which would develop the ideas and methods with this in mind. This book covers a thorough discussion on ow to study the law in a very effective and easy method. A major audience for the book will be students studying the law subjects. The order of topics, however, provides a degree of flexibility, so that the book can be of interest to different readers through basic concepts until the advanced concepts (i.e. the discussion of the cases). The purpose of this book is to take the readers on an introduction to study the law by which the meaning of such subject at basic level is better understood. Hopefully, this book can be benefited by the readers in their journey to success.