1st Issue Brief: Shari‘ah, fiqh and Islamic law (English)

Author(s)/editor(s)

Musawah - a global movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family

Shari‘ah, fiqh and Islamic law is part of a series of knowledge briefs for women’s rights activists to provide advocacy arguments and convey key ideas and concepts related to Muslim legal traditions in a simple and appealing way.

The boundaries between some key terms such as Shari‘ah, fiqh and Islamic law are often blurred and confused in everyday language. This confusion contributes to gender inequality in modern family laws in ways that are detrimental to women. Attempts to reform state laws in the direction of justice and equality for women have been opposed by those who perceive them as going against Shari‘ah. It is essential to distinguish between these terms in order to set the divine and eternal apart from the human and temporal.

This knowledge brief was produced under the UN Women Men and Women for Gender Equality Programme, Arab States Regional Office, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).