Sunday, August 10, 2008

Shariah of syara’ means wide road. Islamic shariah is the infrastructure in form of a road built by Allah (thariqah Ilahiyyah) and provided for mankind so that they will not go astray in their journey and will always in accordance with the living scenario made by Him. With shariah, (a) living signals will be clearly seen, (b) requirements to interact with various parties will be clear. With shariah, then man is given freedom by God to choose his ways, each with their own consequences; halal (allowed) way, haram (forbidden) way, makruh way, wajib (obligatory) way. With shariah, patterns of interactions among parties are regulated; the strong rules the weak, the weak must follow the strong but all in order to achieve common goals. People have to obey their leaders, but leaders essentially are servants of people (sayyid al qaumi khadimuhum). Poor people need income while rich people need manpower; interactions between them are regulated by shariah.

Meanwhile, goals of shariah (Maqashid as Syari’ah) is to protect five aspects (al kulliyat al khams): (1) to protect man’s soul, khifdz an nadfs, (2) to protect mind, khifdz al `aql, (3) to protect religion, khifdz addin, (4) to protect properties, khifdz al `aql, and (5) to protect offspring, khifdz annals. All regulations in Islam shariah are meant to protect those rights: right to live, intellectual right, faith right, property rights, and right of having pure/good offspring, those are called human rights in this present modern time.