Six Misconceptions About Sharia

Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.

In these minutes, I would like, dear guests, to speak to you about misconceptions related to Sharia. The first goal is to ensure the purity of our hearts so that we may meet Allah without any discomfort towards His Sharia, which He has approved for us, may He be glorified. The second goal is to instill a sense of reverence and love for Sharia, which is the fundamental plan for its re-establishment in our reality.

The topic is vast and the misconceptions are numerous, which is no surprise, for the alternative to Sharia is ignorance in all its forms. This ignorance has been and is still deliberately used to mislead people about the Sharia of their Lord, to turn them away from His path, and to control them. And because many of those who raised the banner of Sharia have betrayed and defamed it, not raising it sincerely, but rather seeking to gain false legitimacy through these slogans, except for those whom my Lord has mercy upon.

So, let us address some common mistakes in understanding the Sharia of our Lord, may He be glorified.

Misconceptions about Sharia

Mistake One: Treating Sharia as an Option Among Options

Some people think that they can choose not to adopt Sharia and still remain Muslims. However, the truth is that accepting it is a creed that a Muslim cannot be a Muslim without believing in the necessity of its establishment and that anything other than it is null and void.

Allah, the Most High, said: {So by your Lord, they will not believe until they make you a judge in what they dispute among themselves, then they will not find in themselves any discomfort from what you have judged, and they will submit completely.} And He, the Most High, said: {The only statement of the believers when they are called to Allah and His Messenger to judge between them is that they say, "We hear and obey."} And He, the Most High, said: {And who is better in judgment than Allah for a people who have certainty.} And He, the Most High, said: {Then We have put you on a Sharia from the command, so follow it and do not follow the desires of those who do not know.}

This is the rule that every Muslim should start from, that there is no choice but to establish Sharia. After that, we may differ in our interpretations or agree, but our common umbrella is that we are seeking what Allah wants from His Sharia to comply with and act upon it.

The tragedy, my brothers, is that there is a gross confusion between rejecting those who raised the banner of Sharia with lies or exploitation and rejecting Sharia itself, as we mentioned in the episode about Sudan, the lamp, and the jailer. There is a confusion between rejecting incorrect interpretations attributed to Sharia and rejecting the authority of Sharia itself. The first is correct, while the second - rejecting the authority of Sharia - is utterly invalid.

Mistake Two: The Belief in the Insufficiency of Sharia

The second mistake, my brothers, is the belief in the insufficiency of Sharia and the need to borrow from external systems such as democracy to fill its gaps. One of the reasons for this grave mistake is that contemporary Islamic discourse has focused on what is prohibited and forbidden as a result of dealing with the existing un-Islamic conditions, and has limited it to aspects such as inheritance, marriage, divorce, and the like.

While Sharia, in reality, is a comprehensive system that astonishes one if they delve into its details from the Quran, the authentic hadiths, the actions of the righteous caliphs, and the deductions of the scholars. It is a comprehensive system that includes real mechanisms for the emergence of the people of consensus and the Muslim ruler who is accepted by the Muslims and is bound by Islamic judgment in his contracts with the people.

Sharia has prohibited riba (usury) and allowed fair forms of partnership. It has prohibited taxes and provided resources from the earth's treasures, endowments, and the like. Sharia has encompassed the public ownership of energy sources and the earth's treasures. It has owned the lands by reviving them, thus providing noble housing for the people. It has legislated what prevents monopolies and the encroachment of capitalist companies. Sharia has regulated international relations in peace and war. It has legislated the support of the weak and the relief of the afflicted, even non-Muslims.

All this is while linking to the Hereafter within the concept of comprehensive worship that does not exist in any earthly system. Details that, if one delves into them, will understand the depth of the meaning of Allah's saying, may He be glorified: {This day I have perfected your religion for you, completed My favor upon you, and approved Islam as your religion.}

We have, dear guests, a vast legal reserve that achieves legislative self-sufficiency, which, of course, is not highlighted and is not taught to our children in schools of ignorance, while some of its topics are presented in courses at Western universities, and they benefit from them. And how can one imagine, my brothers, that Allah, the Most High, says: {And We have sent down to you the Book as an explanation of everything} - everything - then He does not explain to the people the political system, for example, which is the basis of their lives?

And you can delve into some of these details in the book "The Objectives of Islamic Sharia" by Muhammad al-Tahir ibn Ashur, who spoke about the characteristics and properties of Sharia, and the book "The Objectives and Virtues of Sharia" by Allal al-Fasi, as well as the works of Dr. Hakeem al-Mutairi, which revealed the enormity of the political heritage in Sharia, such as the book "The Landmarks of the Righteous State." I have recently come across a series of lectures by a university professor specialized in the title "The Legislation of Financial Transactions in Islam: Features and Virtues," which I advise you to refer to. There are also buried researches and theses that do not find anyone to adopt and publish them among the Muslims.

And from the mercy of Allah, my brothers, is that He has not burdened us with believing in the perfection of Sharia based on faith in it and belief in the perfection of His attributes alone, but Sharia has been established on the ground as a living reality, as in the era of prophethood and the righteous caliphs and those who followed them with excellence, and we are in need of more research and ijtihad in this field.

However, we warn, my brothers, that when we say that Sharia has addressed various fields, this does not mean that it has bound them with rigid molds, but it has bound where it is appropriate to bind as guidance to the people and prevention of injustice, and it has generalized where it is appropriate to generalize, leaving room for ijtihad that suits the reality.

The Third Mistake: Confusing Historical Deviations with the Sharia Itself

The third mistake in dealing with the Sharia is confusing historical deviations in the Muslim state with the belief that the Sharia itself contains the causes of this deviation or lacks what prevents this deviation, such as the belief that the Sharia enables the ruler to commit injustice.

In Islamic history, we find examples of Muslim rulers who ruled by the law of Allah in general, subject to the sovereignty of the Sharia, preserving the honor of Muslims, suppressing their enemies, and spreading conquests. However, they still had injustices. The injustice of these people towards others is not a result of ruling by the Sharia but rather a result of deviating from it, leaning away from it.

The Sharia came with rulings that achieve a balance between preserving the unity and strength of Muslims against their enemy, and at the same time, not allowing these rulers to continue their injustice but rather denying them and working to stop their aggression and injustice.

The tyrants of these days, who have nothing to do with establishing the Sharia but rather destroying and fighting it, have brought their followers, who falsely claim to be scholars, to raise in the faces of people texts whose meanings they have distorted and cut off from their context to subjugate people to their masters. Thus, some people mix right and wrong, blaming the Sharia for the tyranny and injustice of contemporary rulers and historical Islamic rulers, and calling for the solution to prevent this tyranny by borrowing from the democratic system.

We say, dear brothers: The tyranny and injustice of the ruler is not a legal matter that the Sharia leads to, but rather a predestined matter that Allah has commanded us to defend against and work to remove through the Sharia. The injustice of the ruler is not a matter that can only occur in the Muslim system, but it can occur in any system, including democracy. And what is more injustice than the control of capitalist companies, the monopoly of a few on wealth, their control of the media, their brainwashing of people, and directing public opinion to lead people into wars that benefit arms and oil companies, reconstruction, and the consolidation of sexual beastliness and moral decadence, which wastes the worldly and hereafter lives of their peoples.

The Fourth Mistake: Misunderstanding the Role of Sharia in Worldly Life

The fourth mistake in understanding and dealing with the Sharia is evident in the repetition of phrases such as, "The condition of people will not improve as long as they desire the world and fall prey to their enemies who promise them the comforts of worldly life." And is the Sharia, dear people, anything but liberating people from slavery to the jailers of the earth, satisfying their needs, preventing the plundering of their wealth to free them for the worship of their Lord, and transferring them from the narrowness of the world to the spaciousness of the world and the hereafter, as said by Rabi'ah ibn Amer, may Allah be pleased with him?

The Fifth Mistake: Treating the Establishment of Sharia as a Gradual Matter

The fifth mistake is treating the establishment of Sharia at the state level as if it is a gradual matter that requires some non-root procedures. The truth is that the Sharia changes this corrupt life we live from its roots and rebuilds it on the basis of Islam, so that capitalism has no existence in our lives, neither in terms of treatments nor in terms of effects and results. The Sharia is a complete independent system like a building; it is not appropriate to take parts from it to patch and repair what was built on a false foundation.

The Sixth Mistake: Avoiding Sharia Due to the International System

This leads us to the sixth mistake in dealing with the Sharia, which is avoiding it under the pretext that the international system will not allow its establishment, and therefore we seek to liberate Muslim peoples without the way of the Sharia to avoid confrontation.

We say, dear people: The establishment of the Sharia means, first and foremost, liberation from slavery to the international system and escaping its orbit. This is a great process akin to the process of millions of prisoners breaking out of a collective prison, so it cannot pass smoothly, especially since the liberation of any people in a real sense will be an example for the peoples of the earth, and the peoples who did not know they were enslaved will realize how enslaved they are to the capitalist system.

The price is high, no doubt, but it does not benefit you to seek alternatives to the Sharia. All alternatives are nothing but a turn of the prisoner in the dungeons, where he may see the sun for a moment and may drink a sip of cold water, but he will soon be returned to prison. But when you break the bars with the axe of the Sharia, then comes the dignity, honor, and true freedom from prison.

And do not imagine that a nation that has been suffering in prison for decades will pass through a collective exit from prison without suffering and without wounds from the broken bars. There is a price, but it is suffering, wounds, and a price paid in the right direction for dignity in this world and paradise in the hereafter.

Conclusion

I fully understand, dear brothers, that my words have not outlined the features of this liberation, but the purpose of them is twofold: not to lose our Islam and hereafter with false doctrines that diminish the Sharia of our Lord in whom we believe, and not to waste efforts in the dungeons but rather to direct our efforts towards seeking the path that pleases our Lord for us. "And whoever believes in Allah, He will guide his heart." (Surah At-Taghabun 64:11)

Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.