Catch 22 For the Global Muslim Community: To Choose Between the Sharia Law of Islam and The Sharia of Islam
By Mohammad Yunus, New Age Islam
23 May 2026
If Muslims the world over are asked whether they would like the Shariah Law of Islam incorporated into the constitutions of their respective countries, a sizeable majority may answer in the positive. Paradoxically, if the same respondents are then asked whether they would like their social, political, educational, religious and gender-related affairs governed by the Shariah law of Islam, many would hesitate, and the answers would differ greatly. Any perceptive person who understands the implications of adapting modern life to the paradigms of the pre-modern Islamic Caliphate governed by Islamic Shariah law will find the question highly polemical.
In effect, the respondent faces a Catch-22 situation like that of an air-force pilot threatened by an enemy plane. If he shoots it down without permission from the base, he saves his life but loses his job. But if he seeks permission first, he may lose his life, as seconds matter in aerial combat.
The irony is that the opening question itself contains a Catch-22 obscured by the rubric “Islamic” attached to its title. Most Muslim respondents, unaware of the dichotomy between the Shariah of Islam and the Shariah Law of Islam, find themselves trapped: endorsing Islamic Shariah law may prove civilizationally disastrous, while rejecting it may appear to them as a denial of faith.
The truth many Muslims are not clear about is that the Qur’an does not present itself as a timeless law book. Rather, it presents itself as a book of wisdom and a criterion of right and wrong, embracing a complete code of life beneficial for humanity for all time. In holistic reading, it promotes mercy and compassion, social and gender justice, the moral rights of the poor and disenfranchised, pluralism, fairness in business transactions, use of intellect, and the advancement of civilization. The Qur’an captures the essence of this code in the statement: “For each of you We have made a (different) code (shir‘ah) and an open way (minhaj)…” (5:48).
In essence, the Shariah of Islam is a divine code of life that accommodates positive changes in diverse spheres of human existence.
By contrast, the Shariah Law of Islam is largely confined to the juristic field (fiqh) and evolved gradually with the unfolding of Islamic history. As Islam spread across new lands and cultures, it was not possible to replace entrenched legal traditions with a uniform Islamic order. Muslim jurists therefore appropriated local customs and traditions into the broader domain of fiqh, which came to be labeled “Shariah law of Islam.” The title lent the evolving juristic domain religious legitimacy by linking it to Islam.
Over the centuries, jurists continued to adapt native legal notions, producing a vast body of rulings and opinions. Islamic Shariah law thus emerged as a cumulative juristic tradition reflecting the customs, political conditions, penal notions and intellectual climate of different historical periods. It therefore accommodates rulings ranging from noble ideals to highly problematic prescriptions marked by anachronism and porous reasoning.
There is thus a deep dichotomy between the Shariah of Islam — rooted in the Qur’an — and the Shariah Law of Islam rooted in historically conditioned juristic opinions and doctrines.
It is time Muslim scholarship takes cognizance of this dichotomy between the Qur’an — Islam’s eternal code of guidance — and Islamic Shariah law, which evolved from the second century of Islam onward as the ripples of the initial surge of faith. The former is constant and independent of history; the latter is inevitably shaped by historical factors: pre-Islamic traditions of converts, state of civilization, theological orientation and scholastic methods of different eras.
If Islam is equated with the worldview espoused by the Qur’an, it is universal, tolerant, balanced, inclusive, pluralistic, flexible and emblematic of justice, liberty and equality.
But if Islam is defined through the prism of historically evolved Shariah law, it can become region-era specific, intolerant, exclusive, politically oriented and wanting in justice, liberty and equality.
If the notion of Shariah law as the core of Islam continues to dominate the Muslim mind, the present theology-oriented politicized model of Islam will persist, and its orthodox champions will remain committed to keeping the community in its medieval Middle-Eastern mould. Islam will thus remain alien to, and often despised in, Europe and the West.
But if Muslim theological leadership objectively reassesses the fundamentals of the faith and focuses on the universal values of the Qur’an — treating later theological discourses in their historical perspective — Islam has a far better chance of broader global acceptance and rapport with Western society.
In sum, the suggestion is not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. The rich heritage of Islamic law can continue to be taught at higher levels of academia.
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Muhammad Yunus, a Chemical Engineering graduate from Indian Institute of Technology, and a retired corporate executive has been engaged in an in-depth study of the Qur’an since early 90’s, focusing on its core message. He has co-authored the referred exegetic work, which received the approval of al-Azhar al-Sharif, Cairo in 2002, and following restructuring and refinement was endorsed and authenticated by Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl of UCLA, and published by Amana Publications, Maryland, USA, 2009.
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