Sublime

CALLED “THE CORE and kernel of Islam” by Joseph Schacht, the Shariah was developed by the Ulama as the basis for the judgment of all actions in Islam as good or bad, to be rewarded or punished. More specifically, the Shariah recognizes five categories of behavior: 1) actions that are obligatory, in that their performance is rewarded and their omiss

The beneficiary is entitled to tzedaka according to his or her need; the donor is only obligated to give what he or she can afford.”

Although it was a common belief that the qualities of leadership and nobility were inherent in certain families, the Shaykh was not a hereditary position; the Arabs had great disdain for the inherited reigns of the Byzantine and Sasanian kings. The only requirement for becoming a Shaykh, besides maturity, was to embody the ideals of muruwah: the co

articulated principles of halakha serve us when we don’t have clear intuitions on the matter at hand.

If, however, one promises to give a poor person25 a present — whether a large one or a small one — he cannot retract, [even] according to the letter of the law, because it is considered as a vow.26 Even if he [merely] undertook a resolution in his heart, he must carry out that resolve,27 as will be explained in Hilchos Tzedakah. 28

The moral provisions of the Shariah are made concrete through the discipline of fiqh, or Islamic jurisprudence, of which the Quran is its first and most important source. The problem, however, is that the Quran is not a book of laws. While there are some eighty or so verses that deal directly with legal issues—matters like inheritance and the statu