There’s a huge difference between what you know about Sharia and what Sharia ‘ah really is.
First: What is Sharia?
‘Al-Shari’ah means the Islamic rulings that Allah has legislated for His slaves. And it is called so “i.e. Shari’ah” because the legislator legislated them as Shari’ah in Arabic means: legislation. It is also called ‘Millah’, ‘dictation’ because it is dictated to be written. It is also referred to as ‘religion’ because people worship and perform religious acts based on it …’
True Story #1: A Murderer
The other day I came across a video about murderers. The video talked about some horrific stories of brutal crimes. The video included a story about a boy who killed his grandparents and after years of psychiatric help, he was released.
What happened next?
He murdered 8 women including his own mother!!
But the thing that caught my attention is people’s comments; they were saying things like: “Why do they get released after a while? They come back to murder!” Or “Their punishment should be death penalty not a few years in prison.”. This got me back to Islam. To what people on social media call “Sharia Law”. People’s comments above are actually pretty close to the ruling of attempted murder in Islam.
True Story #2: A Rapist
Recently, The Independent published an article about a rapist who got executed in Yemen for raping a 3-year-old girl. The comments were pretty much the same:
That’s one part I like in Sharia law”
“Sharia law isn’t all bad after all”
And
“Sharia is the best way to fight pedophilia”.
True Story #3: Let’s talk about a mass shooter
A story about a man who spent years preparing for a mass shooting in Norway that killed lots of people and left others to suffer from pain or trauma. But what does he get?
21 years in prison!! Talk about the heartache of the victims’ families! Talk about justice. This reminds me of a verse in the Quran; Allah (The Creator) says:
And there is for you in legal retribution [saving of] life, O you [people] of understanding, that you may become righteous.” [Quran.com/2/179]
There are 2 types of people in the world
The ones who follow the rules whether there’s a punishment or not, and the ones who follow the rules when there are strong punishments that are seriously implemented. If we’re living in a perfect world, all people would be type number 1. But sorry to inform you, this is planet earth where nothing is perfect! So, to stop type number 2 from doing bad things, there must be a heavy punishment.
I’ll give you an example: Traffic in Egypt and in Dubai. It’s like we’re living in two different galaxies! Dubai is very organized, everybody is following the rules; but Egypt, it’s like going to the amusement park, every day you get the adrenalin rush just like you’re on a roller coaster!
Why?
Even though these two places have rules, one of them implement them, and the other doesn’t. So, if someone gets executed when he murders someone on purpose (not by mistake or anything) the murder rate will drop. And so on with every punishment.
And eventually, came to a conclusion
There’s a huge difference between “Mercy” and “Sympathy”,
A mother punishing her child for doing something harmful, that’s mercy. But if she lets him do whatever he wants till he grows up spoiled, that’s not mercy. Allah (our Creator) is the most merciful. He’s the one who set these rulings in our world. So, basically, when any of these rulings are implemented, the world gets better.
We (humans/creation) feel sympathetic, but does this mean our sympathy is in its correct place?
Let’s just agree that we don’t know half of the truth. Every story has two sides: the obvious seen side, and the hidden in the heart and mind side. If we sometimes mess up in understanding the obvious seen side, let alone the heart and mind side.
So, let’s leave this part to the one who’s capable of it.
References:
[1] Shari’ah’s definition, islamweb.net
[2] Photo Credit: @Freepik
