Sharia
Sharia (شريعة, "the way") denotes the divinely ordained path of conduct in Islam, derived from four sources: the Qur'an, the Sunnah of the Prophet, analogical reasoning (qiyas), and scholarly consensus (ijma).
Clarifications
- Sharia is not a single codified "law code" but a jurisprudential tradition (fiqh) with multiple schools (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali, Ja'fari).
- Its scope spans worship, family law, commerce, criminal law, and ethics — including strong protections for contracts, inheritance rights, and prohibitions on usury (riba).
- The modern notion of "sharia law" as a monolithic theocratic penal system is largely a colonial-era and media construction; historically, sharia coexisted with customary and administrative law across vast Islamic polities (see Ottoman Empire).
Marxist engagement
Infrared's line treats sharia's economic provisions — especially the riba prohibition and zakat redistribution — as an authentic social-revolutionary content suppressed by both orientalist caricature and comprador elites (see Communism is Islam).