What does shariah mean?
Shariah is the term for the body of law associated with Islam. It includes rules and principles concerning worship, conduct, family life, property, finance, and public affairs, drawing on the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and the interpretive discipline known as fiqh. In practice, no single universally applied code determines all matters: interpretations differ among legal schools, communities, and states, and historical applications vary considerably. The word is also used more narrowly to mean a rule or ruling regarded as grounded in Islamic law. In contemporary public discussion, shariah commonly appears in debates about religious courts, banking, constitutional rights, and the accommodation of religious norms. Although sometimes presented as a direct synonym for all religious law, shariah is more precisely associated with Islam. The alternative spelling sharia is widely accepted, so differences in form need not indicate differences in meaning.
nounShariah is the body of Islamic law, encompassing religious, ethical, legal, and social principles derived from the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and Islamic jurisprudence. Its application varies according to legal schools, countries, and communities.
- The body of Islamic law and the moral, religious, legal, and social principles that it establishes.
- The legal rulings and requirements derived from the Qur’an, prophetic tradition, and Islamic jurisprudence.
"The committee examined the proposed regulation to ensure that it complied with shariah."
"The family sought guidance from scholars experienced in applying shariah to contemporary disputes."
"The book examines how shariah has been interpreted in different historical and legal contexts."
The plural is rare in ordinary use; plural agreement is often avoided by discussing different interpretations or bodies of Islamic law.
"The conference addressed several shariahs and their differing approaches to disputed questions."
The word behind “shariah” literally means “the path,” reflecting the ideal of divine guidance embodied in Islamic law.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does shariah come from?
Shariah comes from the Arabic sharīʿah, meaning “the path” or “the way.” The term was already used in classical Arabic for the divinely ordained path of truth and, by extension, the legal norms governing human conduct. English acquired it through scholarly and legal discussion of Islamic religion and law, with varying transliterations including shariah and sharia.
Related word forms
How shariah is actually used
The term is used chiefly in discussions of Islam, law, finance, and public policy. It is often transliterated as sharia; spelling conventions vary, and some writers also use shari‘ah with a distinct character for the Arabic consonant.
Easily confused with shariah
Shariah and sharia are variant English spellings of the same Arabic term, although shariah is the form most often used in contemporary English-language discussion.
Shariah refers broadly to the divinely grounded system of Islamic law, whereas fiqh more specifically denotes the human scholarly process of deriving legal rulings from its sources.