The Qur'an and Legislation

One verse of Al-Maida (Table spread) is at the centre of the debate on the imposition of Shari’a Laws ( Islamic legislation) raging the Islamic world.

The kernel of Al-Maida was revealed while Muhammad’s estrangement with other monotheists was in progress. * An accusation is made against the Jews that they failed to follow the legislation in their scriptures and twisted the meaning of their books to agree with their own purposes.**

V:47 “ It was We who revealed
The law (to Moses): therein
Was guidance and light.
By its standard have been judged
The Jews, by the Prophets
Who bowed (as in Islam)
To God’s Will, by the Rabbis
And the Doctors of Law:
For to them was entrusted
The protection of God’s Book,
And they were witnesses thereto:
Therefore fear not men,
But fear Me, and sell not
My Signs for a miserable price,
If any do fail to judge
By (the light of) what God
Hath revealed, they are
(no better than) Unbelievers. ”

The above verse, which was revealed when the Jews turned to the Prophet to judge a case of adultery, is used by those advocating the sovereignty of God as the sole legislator in any given Islamic state. ***

An argument is, however, made against the viability of applying Islamic legislation to procedural matters. With the exception of inheritance laws and debt registration procedures, the Qur’an does not address procedural matters in criminal and civil matters, according to Egyptian national Chief Justice Said Al-Ashmawy. ****

Those advocating an Islamic state, based on the Prophet’s city-state prototype in Medina, are oblivious to the fact that such a state is one that would fail to address any of the complexities of 21st century modern life.

* Richard Bell, The Qur’an translated.
** The Holy Qur’an translated by Abdulla Yusuf Ali.
*** M. Said Al-Ashmawy. Al-Khilafa Al-Islamiyya (The Islamic Caliphate)
**** M. Said Al-Ashmawy. Al-Shari’a Al-Islamiyya wal Qanun Al-Masri.