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Implementing the sharia — totality versus stages

تطبيق الشريعة — بين الكلية والمرحلة

The 'Al-Wasatiyya' episode on implementing the sharia — wholesale or in stages. The audience voted the concept clear in both general and detail to only 28% of its advocates, clear in general but not in detail to 69%, and unclear to 3%. 1 Ahmad Nawfal compressed the rule: 'the foundation is divine, the detailing human' — the generalities are revealed, the details are ijtihad tested in the field. 2

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Contemporary Era
Region
Arab world · Global / Diaspora
Review
Completeness 2/5 · Help complete it

Law and courts

The episode and the vote

The fourth 'Al-Wasatiyya' episode examined the slogan 'implementing the sharia' carried on electoral platforms: is it defined for its own advocates, and is it applied wholesale or gradually? 3 4 The audience voted: clear in general and detail to 28%, clear in general without details to 69%, unclear to 3% — a result the scholars called faithful to reality 1 5.

Divine foundation, human detailing

Ahmad Nawfal compressed the rule in a phrase the host dubbed 'the poet of the episode': 'the foundation is divine, the detailing human' — the generalities are revealed and clear (shura is a pillar of Islam), but who represents whom, the term of service, the shape of constituencies are human details within the text's framework, tested in the field where what works endures like an architect's building between conception and execution 6 2 7 8. Rulings detailed by text or consensus bind; the rest stays open to ijtihad — like the inheritance of grandchildren predeceased by their father, settled in Jordan by the 'obligatory bequest' 9 10.

The laws are absent — not Islam

Muhammad al-Khatib pressed the distinction: the details in question are 'how the laws are implemented', and they are absent inside the Islamic movements — nobody wrote them except Mawdudi's attempt at an Islamic constitution — while the educational, social, economic programmes await formulation in the sharia's spirit in a modern mould 11 12 13. Consensus rulings therefore bind while jumhur rulings do not always — his example the triple talaq, on which many codes took Ibn Taymiyya's view 14 15 16. On non-Muslims, rulings specific to Muslims do not apply — a Christian may drink wine at home and the state may permit its supply to them — but general state law binds all 17 18.

Gradualism as divine sunna

Hamza Mansur, Hayil Abd al-Hafiz and Fakhri Abu Sufiya converged on gradualism: ''Islam is the solution' is not in doubt, but laws are not a party's making — they follow a long constitutional mechanism' — so the priority is education, media, economy to build the human base 19 20 21. And 'gradualism is a divine sunna' by which the Qur'an came down in stages; the story of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz's son: 'do not hurry me — God censured wine twice and forbade it the third; had we burdened people with the whole truth at once they would abandon it whole' 22 23 24. The sincerity test: temporary coexistence with usurious banks is acceptable on condition of earnestly seeking the Islamic alternative, not stalling 21 25.

The sharia is a whole — the path is upbringing

Fakhri Abu Sufiya insisted the sharia is a whole — take some and leave some and the verse rebukes you — and the Islamic constitution exists, applied for 1200 years; the lack is in modern legal drafting only 26 27 28. But his path to it is upbringing, not coercion: 'the audience is in one valley and I am in another' — we want it to arrive in the Prophetic image: tarbiyya that produces a state that rules 29 30. And a Jordanian survey (1500 questionnaires) found 98.4% want the hudud applied as revealed — the eager faction's index of popular thirst 31.

Where to begin

The panel converged on a combination: build the base through tarbiyya and institutions (Islamic executive, legislative, judicial), achieve the self-sufficiency that resists external pressure — then accomplishment follows; the first step, the awakening's spread, is achieved; the second not yet 32 33 34 35 36. The host closed: 'a weak nation cannot philosophise — we need re-upbringing, legal sovereignty and training in applying rulings, not imposing them on people' 37 38.

Opinions on the question

First opinion · Sunni tradition (the museum's frame)Main reference

Basis: Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) al-wassitiya ep04, 00:18:30-00:26:30

More opinions (2)

Sunni tradition (the museum's frame)Main reference

Basis: Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) al-wassitiya ep04, 01:03:30-01:09:30

People and things also explored

Ahliyya (legal capacity: to have rights and duties, and to act; its stages from the womb to full maturity, and what impairs it)· Democracy and the Sharia — compatibility and conflict· Fatwa on the satellite channels — its benefit and harm· Secularism and Islam — conflict or concord· Stoning (rajm) as a penalty for zina· Allusion to a proposal during the waiting period· Aman (safe-conduct granted to enemies in war)· Amana (trust, deposit and what is entrusted)

Sources

  1. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:06:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  2. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:09:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  3. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:01:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  4. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:02:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  5. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:07:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  6. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:08:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  7. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:09:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  8. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:10:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  9. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:11:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  10. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:12:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  11. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:13:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  12. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:14:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  13. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:14:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  14. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:15:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  15. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:16:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  16. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:16:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  17. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:17:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  18. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:17:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  19. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:20:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  20. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:21:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  21. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:21:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  22. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:24:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  23. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:26:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  24. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:26:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  25. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:22:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  26. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 01:05:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  27. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 01:07:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  28. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 01:07:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  29. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 01:04:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  30. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 01:04:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  31. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 00:44:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  32. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 01:11:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  33. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 01:12:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  34. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 01:12:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  35. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 01:10:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  36. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 01:10:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  37. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 01:14:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  38. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Al Wassitiya, episode 4, at 01:15:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Implementing the sharia — totality versus stages”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/tatbiq-al-sharia/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-26.

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Ideas

Beliefs, concepts, sciences and schools, explained in plain words. Related

Ahliyya (legal capacity: to have rights and duties, and to act; its stages from the womb to full maturity, and what impairs it)

Ahliyya is lexically suitability, and it is of two kinds: capacity to have rights and duties, the capacity of liability; and capacity to act, that is to perform acts recognised by the law. Its bearer passes through the stages of the foetus, childhood, discernment, puberty and maturity. Liability is complete from birth and incomplete for the foetus; the capacity to act is partial at discernment and full with puberty and reason. It is affected by heavenly impediments such as madness, imbecility, sleep, fainting, illness, slavery, menstruation, childbirth and death, and by acquired ones such as ignorance, drunkenness, jest, folly, travel, error and coercion.