Understanding Islam — Page 183
181 WHAT IS SHARIAH? THE ISSUE OF Shariah law has been widely used as a bogy with which to terrify those who may have little knowledge of Islam. To them Shariah law is what makes Islam a violent religion; and that Shariah law is a tool to compel people to adopt a very restrained way of life and endanger other existing lifestyles and value systems. Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad rh , the fourth Khal ī fa of the A ḥ madiyya Muslim Jam ā ‘at, addressed this issue at length in a speech delivered at the Inter-religious Consults, Suriname, on 3 rd June, 1991, published under the title, Shariah Relationship Between Religion and Politics in Islam. 1 In this chapter, we present some of the points taken from this speech in response to what critics allege regarding this much misunderstood topic. In this speech, he argued that imposing Shariah has practical issues that would need resolution. For