UStadh Sirnucy Lafiagi: Sharia and its role in Societal reformation

There is no gainsaying the fact that the Nigerian society as it is, is bedeviled by  menace of socio-economic and political problem and one of our roles as the ummah is to reform the society in line with the teaching of Allah (SWT) and the sunnah of Muhammad (SAW). There is therefore, a need to know how the sharia, which is the norm of Islam aim to reform the society via its regulation.

Literally, Sharia is a path to watering hole. Considering the essentials of water to life, the relevance of Sharia to our life cannot be over-emphasized. Just like water, Sharia is essential to our survival and well being as Muslims.

Technically, Sharia can simply be defined as the totality of the laws and ordinances revealed by Allāh in the noble Qur'ān as well as in the statements and actions of Prophet Muhammad in his capacity as the recipient of the wahyu (Divine revelation) and its interpreter par excellence.

By Maqosid, we mean objectives or aims of something. There are six maqosid (objectives) of Sharia which are:

• Protection and promotion of the religion  through the prohibition of shirk, kufr and bidia, obligation of Ṣolāh, Ṣiyām, Zakāh and Ḥajj, et cetera and jihad(in defence).
• Enhancement and safeguarding of life through prohibition of abortion, female infanticide, suicide, euthanasia(mercy killing) and legislation of retributive justice and retaliation of injury.
• Protection and enhancement of the intellect through the promotion of education, encouragement to seek for knowledge, prohibition and punishment of consumption of intoxicants and gambling.
• Protection of lineage through promotion of marriage, prohibition of Zina, provision of punishment for pre and extra marital affairs, discouragement of divorce, disheriting the illegitimate children, promotion and regulation of polygyny.
•  preservation of wealth through legislation of trade, prohibition of interest, hoarding, bribery, corruption, encouragement of hard work, prohibition of extravagance and waste, severe punishment for stealing, bribery and brigandage. 
• Protection of honour through condemnation of defamation, punishment for false accusation of Zinā, prohibition of unnecessary suspicion and incursion into other’s privacy.

From the aforementioned, it is clear that the objectives of the Sharīah are to promote and protect our interest and it is only if we apply the laws of Sharīah in our private and public affairs, will our society be better reformed, sane and safe. The Sharīah seeks not to punish but to deter and reform. 

There’s thus, an urgent need to educate and enlighten the Ummah to inculcate the injunctions of the Sharīah and promote its beauty among people of other faiths.

The lecture was delivered by Ustaz Sirnurcy Lafiagi on Dec. 17th, 2017.

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