Quote:
Originally Posted by Willravel
what's important is what the words of their religious texts actually say.
I'll give you an example: Surah 24:2 states very clearly the punishment for adultery is 100 lashes. It's not as bad as stoning, I suppose, but it's not exactly something we'd consider just in the western, industrialized countries. The young woman in Somalia that was raped and then charged with adultery by an Islamic court found herself in a very sticky situation despite being a victim. Regardless of how modern you might be, or how westernized your particular sense of justice, those words aren't going to change. The penalty for adultery, according to the Muslim holy book, is 100 lashes. |
ill give you one example of what i meant about the interpretation on it, and i think this will give you an indication that the quran is open for interpretation provided that you have a sound base to make your judgement
a) you use other supporting verses from the quran.
b) or you use hadith as a source,
c) other jurists opinions on the matter that are based on those two sources.
d) qiyas - arriving at an injunction through analogy
jurists have pondered the 100 lashes theory to the point that there are two popular opinions at the moment..one is that the person recieves 100 lashes seperately. the other is that its 100 lashes on one whip. barbaric to some maybe, but its just an example of the line of thought on islamic rulings. my point is really that shariah isnt as rigid and some may think, and could be implemented as a 'living body of law' as such.
another example is the law forbidding alcohol. on one hand islam forbids alcohol but not other forms of intoxicants. there isnt an explicit prohibition regarding this. this doesnt mean that other forms of intoxicants are ok to use. so jurists have used the principles of the verse on alcohol to deduce the line of thinking that in the same way that alcohol intoxicantes, so does cocaine or hashish etc etc. this is what qiyas is.
Qiyas: Definition from Answers.com