Sharia

Abstract The term “Sharī‘a” literally means “path” or “way” in Arabic, but conventionally means revealed law in contrast to man‐made law, such asqānūn(from the Greekkanon). When used unqualifiedly, it refers to the law revealed to the Prophet Muḥammad (and thus is often translated as “Islamic law”), although the term can also be used to refer to the other revealed laws, for example, the Sharia of Jesus (Christian law) or the Sharia of Moses (Jewish law). The Sharia also includes matters of morality, theology, mysticism, and various normative but nonlegal Islamic practices (ādāb) as well as law in the conventional sense of rules enforceable, or potentially enforceable, via state coercion. Islamic law in this narrow sense was the hegemonic legal order in the Islamic world from the rise of Islam in the seventh century to the nineteenth century, when much of its content was displaced by European law. It continues to be influential, however, in the legal systems of many Muslim nation‐states as well as states with substantial Muslim minorities, such as India. This entry is concerned exclusively with Sharia in its narrow sense as Islamic law.