Oh My God: Sharia Law Is Coming

Those of us who follow the news, have heard that some political leaders of Texas are scrambling to keep “Sharia Law” out of their State. “We will not allow Texans to be held under the heel of Sharia Law” proclaimed Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Members of the Texas delegation in Congress has reportedly created a “Sharia Free America Caucus” that has 60 sponsors. Congressman Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives, is also a member of this caucus.

In July 2016, Newt Gingrich, then the Speaker of the House, addressed the chamber and said that “those Muslims who believe in Sharia should be deported”. In response to that pronouncement, Noah Feldman, a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, wrote an op-ed in the NY Times titled: A lesson for Newt Gingrich. What Shari’ah is and isn’t.

He wrote that, put simply, for believing Muslims, Shari’a is the ideal realization of divine justice and to ask a faithful Muslim if he or she “believes in” Shari’a is essentially to ask if he or she accepts God’s word.

The detractors are spreading the narrative that Sharia is dangerous, will threaten American way of life, and is a threat to individual freedom. They are invoking images of cutting off hands for theft, beheading for murder, and stoning of women.

This is not new. It usually happens around the election time. The number of Muslim Americans running for office, is gradually increasing every year. As a result, the calls to “Keep America free of Sharia” get louder as a tool of creating fear in the minds of voters.

I would like them to know that Sharia is already part of American jurisprudence and has been here since the constitution was signed in 1787. Many of the articles of our Constitution such as protecting life, human dignity and family, human rights, rights to education, protection of property, and religious freedom, are the same objectives (maqasid in Arabic language) of Sharia. I also want Texans (and others) to know that according to Islamic Jurisprudence, local laws (the laws of the United States of America) supersede the Islamic laws for Muslim Americans.

The Arabic word “Sharia” literally means “a path”. Sharia is a sum of Divine guidelines ordained in the Quran so that we may follow the “right path”, a path that will lead to personal salvation as well as create just, equitable, cohesive and thriving communities. I would dare say that every faith has a Shariah, like the 10 commandments in the Bible.

The equivalent of Shari’ah in Judaism is the Halacha. When Maimonides wrote Halacha in Spain in the Arabic language, he titled the document as “Shariah”. The Hebrew word Halacha means “the way to walk.” It refers to the overarching body of religious commandments, oral traditions, and rabbinic rulings that guide a Jewish person’s daily life, ethics, and ritual practices.

The Divine commands in The Quran relate to the personal Shariah and the societal Shariah. The commands regarding personal sharia are about prayer, fasting and other acts of worship. The acts of worship are not the concerns of the authorities or the State. The commands regarding societal shariah encompass the six objectives stated earlier and place responsibility on governing authorities to promulgate laws that achieve these objectives.

Shariah is not law. The phrase “Sharia Law” is a misnomer. The Islamic Law is based on Shariah. Over the last 1400 years, jurists have devised Islamic laws (Jurisprudence) to achieve the objectives of Sharia. Whereas Sharia is Divine and cannot be changed, the Islamic laws, based on the Shariah, are man-made and continue to change with the needs of time. Just like the U.S. laws must comply with the constitution, the Islamic laws must comply with Sharia.

For example, our constitution demands protection of life. To achieve that objective, we have laws regarding speed limits. So, the secular American laws regarding speed limits are Sharia compliant since protecting life is one of the objectives of Sharia.

Sharia, like our constitution, also deals with crimes and punishments. As punishment for murder, Sharia offers three options: capital punishment (life for life), blood money (fine or restitution) or forgiveness. This is no different from death penalty or life imprisonment practiced in the US.

Capital punishment by the way of beheading of those proven guilty of murder, was common in the early days of Islam when the tribes were nomadic and there was no concept of prisons. Today, life imprisonment is preferred for such crimes in most Muslim-majority countries. The detractors of Islam, however, quote such examples to portray sharia as violent and barbaric. For those who are interested in learning more, I recommend that they read “Demystifying Shariah” by Sumbul Ali-Karamali.

Khalid Rehman, a physician, was born and raised in Pakistan. He has served as the Chief, Division of Hematology and Oncology at St. Vincents Medical Center on Staten Island, the President of the Richmond County Medical Society, and President of the Academy of Medicine of Richmond County. He was the founder and the first medical director of Richmond Hospice. He is currently on the faculty of the New York Medical College. He helped establish a mosque on Staten Island and served as a de facto chaplain at his Catholic hospital. For ten years, he wrote a monthly column on Islam in the local Staten Island newspaper. As a public speaker, Dr. Rehman has spent several decades engaging in interfaith dialogue. He has given over 250 talks in nearly 100 cities at houses of worship, academic institutions, libraries, and community organizations, and enjoys visiting Chautauqua County each summer. Now retired, he spends most of his time in interfaith activities and giving lectures on Islam. He lives with his wife Sabeeha in New York City. They have two sons and four grandchildren.