In any case...

In any case, even in the Middle Ages there were differences between the Islamic and certain of the predominantly Catholic schools of theology concerning the philosophy of law. From the Renaissance onward laws became more and more secularized in the West, and they came to be seen as ever-changing regulations devised and defined by society to be made and discarded as circumstances dictate.

And with the rise of parliamentary democracy, these laws came to be made and abrogated by the representatives of the people. Within the context of such a background, it is easy to see why the understanding of the Islamic, and more generally the Semitic, concept of law, which is associated with the Will of God and is meant to determine society rather than be determined by it, poses such a problem for modern Westerners.

Yet such a view should not be so difficult to understand in the West if one only turns to Jewish Law and the Old Testament, which is of course also a part of Christian sacred scripture. In the Old Testament is stated a clear theology that determines the meaning of law for human society. According to it, God is the Transcendent Reality Who is all powerful and sovereign over human beings. He is the only ultimate sanction of law, and the laws of human society are the embodiments of His Will.

In the Bible, law is designated as God’s commandments (mitsvah; as in Deut.11:13), teaching or instruction (torah; Gen. 26:5), utterance (davar; Deut. 4:13), and norm (mishpot; Exod. 21:1), along with other expressions. Violation of law is seen not only as an offense against society, but also as a moral sin and a violation of God’s order to humanity, for which human beings are accountable to God (Gen. 20:6; Lev. 19- 20, 22).

The Bible makes no distinction between religious and secular offense against the law, and the law is seen as a norm by which not only men and women, but all beings must abide (Gen. 2:11-17; 9:1-7). For the rabbis, there was no distinction between fas, God-given laws, and lex, human laws, as claimed by the Romans; all laws were seen as expressions of God’s Will. Now, this whole understanding of the meaning of law in the Bible corresponds very much to that of the Quran.

If modern Westerners were only to grasp what the Old Testament says about law or how contemporary traditional Jews comprehend and practice Talmudic Law, it would be much easier to understand the “philosophy of law” in Islam.