shari`a / fiqh

The Shari`a ("way") is the sum total of God's unchanging will for human behavior. The term is therefore used to designate Islamic law as a whole, or as an abstraction.

Fiqh ("understanding") is the human endeavor to determine what God's will is in any concrete situation. The term is therefore applied to the science of law, and to the body of detailed regulations that make up actual statements of Islamic law (its "branches" as opposed to its "roots").

Here is an outline of the topics discussed in one very typical short manual of fiqh (by the Malikite scholar Ibn Abi Zayd):

1. Belief, which receives only brief treatment, but is necessary for obedience to be valid.
2. Ritual law (`ibadat, literally acts of worship):
   • purity: wudu' (ablution) and ghusl (bathing)
   • salah (prayer)
   • sawm (fasting)
   • zakah (alms tax), and the alternative jizya (poll tax) for dhimmis (protected non-Muslims)
   • hajj (pilgrimage)
3. Social law (mu`amalat, literally ways of treating one another):
   • jihad (warfare)
   • oaths
   • marriage and divorce
   • commercial law (e.g. no interest)
   • slaves
   • hudud (prescribed punishments) enforced by a qadi (judge)
   • court procedures
   • inheritance
4. Personal conduct:
   • grooming and dress
   • food laws: halal and haram
   • manners
   • piety
   • popular practices

A few important general concepts that are operative in fiqh are:

• The distinction between full requirements (`azima) and relaxed requirements in mitigating circumstances (rukhsa).
• The distinction between individual duty (fard `ayn) and collective duty (fard kifaya).
• Intention (niyya.)