A Level Divinity: Assess the use of Sharia law

Sharia means the divinely mandated path,or the straight path Muslims are to follow.It is the Islam’s legislature.The uses of Sharia law are both positive and negative. The positive use of Sharia law are preservation of religion, property ,oneself and family. On the other hand the Sharia law oppresses women and its punishment are too harsh.Therefore, Sharia law is important to the Islamic religion. First and foremost, the Sharia law is used to preserve the religion.It was legislated to prevent anything that may affect religion. The worshipping of any other gods besides Allah is prohibited.Anyone who contravene this act is punished by Allah.Thus, Sharia law is there to enforce the preservation of the Islamic religion.

Moreover, Sharia was legislated to preserve property. In Islam property is valued that it must be protected jealously. This is shown by amputation to a person who stole the property.It is believed that since a person worked hard and save to have the property, it is then ruthless to steal.Installation of such harsh punishment preserve one’s property. Thus, Sharia law was passed to preserve property.

It is also important to note that Sharia law preserve oneself. It emphasize on activities which are healthy. The life of a person is also important that it is prohibited to engage in activities that threaten one’s life or health. Murder and suicide are also prohibited that the punishment of killing is very bad.According to the Hadith,prophet Muhammad used to engage in health enhancing physical activities like walking to Quba mosque every week .Hence, Sharia law was passed to preserve oneself.

Furthermore, the Sharia law is used to preserve the family.They say that family is the building block of the society. Thus, there are laws that are passed to protect the family.Zina, that is fornication, is not allowed.This is to protect the society from illegitimate children and attributing the children to people who are not their parents.Therefore, this protect the family to remain intact. Sharia law is also important as it preserve the mind of a person. It is through the mind that a person choose to do good or bad.Thus the Sharia law is there to guard the mind so that the people will always do good things.This is achieved by prohibiting all intoxicant.Therefore, Sharia law is so important in Islam.

However, the Sharia law is also a source of oppression especially to women.This shown by requesting four men witnesses in a case of rape.If not so ,that person is accused of adultery and the penalty of adultery is death. It also oppress women in the sense, they gave men the right to have sex with every women who is not wearing a hijab.They are forced to wear the hijab every time despite the weather.According to Sharia law a man can divorce his wife but the wife need a consent of her husband to divorce him.Therefore, although Sharia law is important in Islam it oppresses women.

The terms of the Sharia law are too harsh to the Islamic followers or even non-Muslims although they are for defense.This is because it allows amputation of hands to the thieves. It also important to note that if a Muslim abandon the Islamic religion he/she is subjected to death.If a woman is guilty of adultery her punishment is death.Therefore, this shows that Sharia law is too harsh to its followers. To conclude, the use of Sharia law is very crucial in Islam. This is because it preserve the religion,property, oneself, family and mind.However, it is also unjust as it oppress women and its terms a too harsh.Therefore, the Sharia law is important in the Islamic religion.14:20