Sha'aria (or Sharia, Sha'ria)

Sharia (Arabic: شريعة ) is Islamic religious law as interpreted by various sectors of Islam and currently practived. The term means "way" or "path to the water source"; it is the legal framework within which the public and some private aspects of life are regulated for those living in a legal system based on Muslim principles of jurisprudence. Sharia is not, strictly speaking, Muslim law. It includes Muslim law, pre-Muslim Arab cultures and the cumulative cultural and social accretion of centuries.

Sharia deals with personal life, governance, war, business, sexuality and regulates just about every aspect of life. Strictly interpreted, like all religious codes, it is not compatible with democratic government, since it would use theological dictates rather than the will of the people to decide religious questions.

There is no strictly codified set of laws of sharia and there is no central authority for making decisions based on Sharia. Sharia is a system of devising laws, based on the Quran (the religious text of Islam), Hadith (sayings of Muhammad), Sunnah, ijma, qiyas and centuries of debate, interpretation and precedent. In most Middle Eastern countries, the constitution declares that Sharia is the basis of all law. In some countries, this is carried out in practice, according to a strict interpretation, including such as stoning of adultresses, hanging of homosexuals and maiming of thieves.

Synonyms and alternate spellings: Sha'ria, Shariah, Sha'ariah etc.  

Further Information: See History of Islam and the Arabs

Encyclopedia of the Middle East

Note - This encyclopedia is a work in progress. It is far from complete and is being constructed and improved all the time. If you would like to contribute articles or expansions of existing articles, please contact news (at) mideastweb.org.  Suggestions and corrections are welcome. The concise version of this dictionary is at our Middle East Glossary.

Spelling - Spelling of words in Middle-Eastern languages is often arbitrary. There may be many variants of the same name or word such as Hezbollah, Hizbolla, Hisbolla or Husayn and Hussein. There are some conventions for converting words from Semitic languages such as Arabic and Hebrew.  There are numerous variant renderings of the same Arabic or Hebrew words, such as "Hizbollah," "Hisbulla" etc. It is not possible to find exact equivalents for several letters. 

Pronunciation - Arabic and Hebrew vowels are pronounced differently than in English. "o" is very short. The "a" is usually pronounced like the "a" in market, sometimes as the "a" in "Arafat."  The " 'A " is guttural.  " 'H "- the 'het ('Hirbeh, 'Hebron, 'Hisbollah') designates a sound somewhat similar to the ch in "loch" in Scots pronunciation, but made by touching the back of your tongue to the roof of your mouth. The CH should be pronounced like Loch, a more assertive consonant than 'het.

The "Gh" combination, and sometimes the "G," designate a deep guttural sound that Westerners may hear approximately as "r." The "r" sound is always formed with the back of the tongue, and is not like the English "r."

More information: Hebrew, Arabic