The Need and Importance of Laws from an Islamic Perspective

By Abdullahi Yusuf

Every society needs laws. Humans, who are social creatures, prioritize living together with others rathern than living apart from others. The needs and desires of humans in society can conflict with each other, and this conflict can only be prevented by laws that define the rights, responsibilities, and boundaries of each person. Therefore, every society must have laws, but laws also differ.

There are laws which created by God for better organizing and properly conducting the affairs of human life, and there are laws which humans themselves have created for their own interests and benefits. Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish between Islamic laws and human-created laws.

Difference between Islamic and human-made laws: Islam has its own separate legislative and legal system; therefore, at least educated and knowledgeable people in the Islamic society should be aware of what types of laws should be amended only to remove points that conflict with Islam, religion, and the original tradition, and what types of laws’ content should be taken from their religious sources from the beginning and their forms and terms should not stick to one group of people or others.

Therefore, laws are divided into two parts. A: Laws that are related to administrative matters, such as: laws related to traffic and The need & importance of laws from the perspective of Islam manufacturing companies rules and procedure. B: Laws that are not only related to administrative matters, but are based on fundamental principles and values, such as: law on contracts, the law on selling and purchasing, the law on the transfer of property, the company law, etc. So, in the second type of laws, there are major differences between Islamic and humanmade laws. The latter ones cannot be made Islamic by simply removing articles that are against the Sharia.

The reasons for this are as follows:

1- In some cases, the difference between human-made and Islamic laws is not only partial or limited, but the difference is based on their fundamental values and ideas; terhefore, both types of laws are completely different from each other in terms of their essence and objectives. Pure Islamic laws give great importance to many issues, while in humanmade laws, the issues are either not mentioned at all or are mentioned in very brief terms that are not sufficient. Sometimes, the human-made laws have given great importance to some issues, while from the point of view of Islamic laws, those issues have no importance at all. Due to this intellectual conflict, the addition of Islamic verdicts in some human-made laws is something that cannot be fully and properly defined as any law.

2- Islamic laws, also known as Sharia, is divinely inspired and based on the Quran and Sunnah. Public interests are secondary and subordinate to the values taught by the Quran and Sunnah. Human-made laws, on the other hand, are forulated by humans and not derived from divine revelation. Most of the legal systems are based on public interests, which do not accept any divine constraints or conditions, nor are they related to any metaphysical reality. Therefore, the system of these two types of laws is different from each other, because if all points that are contradiction with the Quran and Sunnah are removed from such legal syste, they still cannot be called Islamic laws.

3- Islamic law is essentially the second name of jurisprudence. The purpose of implementing Islamic law should be to ensure that Islamic jurisprudence, with its unique nature, is capable of development and application in accordance with the circumstances of the time. A necessary condition for this is that this jurisprudence will have a strong connection with the efforts made by the predecessors (earlier scholars). It is possible for changes and additions to be made in many issues under the principles of jurisprudence with the circumstances of the time, but all of this must have a close connection with the efforts of previous jurists, rather than taking the existing laws point by point and then giving them the name of Islamic jurisprudence.

4- There are also differences between the Islamic laws and human-made laws in the methods of reasoning and the principles of interpretation. If Islamic jurisprudence is implemented in the form of a codified law, it will be necessary to refer to jurisprudential principles and previous sources of jurisprudence for further interpretation. However, if only some partial changes are made to human-made laws and the rest are left as they are, again it is needed to refer to those same secular people and nonMuslims or non-religious scholars who have made these laws. So when a human-made law itself is not in conflict with the Quran and Sunnah, but is interpreted in non-Islamic courts in a way that its interpretation is not in accordance with the principles of the Quran and Sunnah.

5- There is also a great difference in terminology between the Islamic and human-made laws, the Islamic law uses one term and the human-made law uses another term, and sometimes there is no difference in terminology, but there is a great difference in meaning from the perspective of both laws, so that when that term is explained and interpreted by both laws, the difference is huge. For example: In Islamic jurisprudence, a big difference has been stated between a corrupt sale and a void sale, and there are detailed discussions about them in jurisprudence. However, in some humanmade law, there is huge difference in both, as in the humanmade law, it is not made clear which one is a void sale and which one is a corrupt sale from their point of view. In this respect, the views of the two laws are one side different. Now, if this is considered only a difference in terminology, it is not considered a real difference and the same human-made laws are left as they are; then the Islamic theory between a corrupt sale and a void sale will be one side removed. When the issue of interpreting corrupt sale and void sale comes up and previous court decisions are referred to them, then in most cases the matter will be reversed, because these decisions will have been made according to non-Islamic principles.

6- The amendment and change of some human-made laws in such a way that only the points that contradict the Quran and Sunnah are removed, and the rest are left as they are. This is like someone leaving the frame of a curved line as it is and trying to straighten it. However, there is a fundamental difference in theories in such laws, because when an article is amended or added to it, all the articles before and after it are changed, and due to their changes, the entire series of that human-made law is disrupted, and the law becomes completely meaningless due to the change in the context. Also, sometimes, in order to make vedicts of the humanmade laws in line with verdicts of Islamic laws, it is necessary not to add one or two articles, but to add an entire chapter, and again the original goal cannot be achieved.

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