Halacha, Sharia and the Religious Acceptance of Constitutional Governance by Rabbi Jon Hausman (October 2009)

Halacha, Sharia and the Religious Acceptance of Constitutional Governance

by Rabbi Jon Hausman (October 2009)
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".....Sharia would seem to have much in common with Halacha. Sharia means “the path” (as does the Hebrew word halacha at its etymological root) and, on its face might be described as the religious code for living the moral system according to Islamic tradition…perhaps, in the same way the Bible would serve for Christians. The question with Sharia (as with Halacha) is the same. At this point in time, is it the same kind of didactic and theoretical exercise in its application as is the application of the entire corpus of Jewish law? In the end, does the Rabbinic principle of ‘the law of the land is paramount’ apply in Islam?  

 

You peal back the layers and understand that Sharia refers both to the Islamic system of law and the totality of the Islamic way of life. It is based on the Qur’an and the Sunna (Islamic Custom or practice; particularly that associated with the exemplary life of the Prophet Muhammad, comprising his deeds and utterances as recorded in the hadith, hadith literally defined as "report" or "narrative" in Arabic). Whereas Judaism took the Torah and its commands as rubrics within which to live, and generations of interpretation explain a number of mitzvoth (Torah commandments) out of existence according to the principle of Torah Lo Bashamayim Hi (Torah exists here for us, not in Heaven), Sharia holds a different view. 

 

Muslims believe that the Qur’an is the direct word of Allah delivered to the last and greatest prophet Muhammad. Therefore, it is immutable, perfect, unchangeable, static, and unchanging. What can’t be derived from the Qur’an may be gleaned from the Sunna, which relates how Muhammad conducted his life in practice, and is considered by Muslims to be immutable for all time. 

 

So, if Muhammad used the pretext of a hudna or tahadiya (two Qur’anic terms meaning an impermanent cessation of military hostilities) to regroup and strengthen his forces for a future battle against the Banu Quraysh, killing and enslaving the Jews in Arabia, legitimizing the rape of women as a tactic in war, it applies today as a tactic. (Parenthetically, the treatment of Jews as described and prescribed in the Qur’an is particular graphic and loathsome…kill the Jew where one finds a Jew and do so for glory and honor.) If the punishment for rudd/apostasy, to a murtadd was death, then apostasy continues to be a capital offense. Homosexuality, adultery, freedom of speech issues when it comes to criticizing Islam or Muhammad or drawing satire cartoons such as the Jylland Posten satires by Kurt Westergaard are capital offenses under Islam (Does anyone remember the painting of the cross smear with feces, declared protected speech under the First Amendment? America’s Mayor Rudy Guilani had many issues with this piece of art. He expressed his displeasure verbally and did not show his patronage to the exhibit)…How does this impact our Bill of Rights as Islam is as it has always been, expansionary, supercessionist? Or, in the words of a number of its defenders in the US, Islam is not meant to be one amongst equals but to be the supreme law of the land?...."