��162 No god but God
because the eternal, uncreated Quran could not possibly be consid-
ered a product of Muhammad’s society, historical context could not
play any role in its interpretation. What was appropriate for Muham-
mad’s community in the seventh century C.E. must be appropriate for
all Muslim communities to come, regardless of the circumstances.
This view of the Quran as static and unchanging became increasingly
problematic as the Revelation gradually transformed from merely the
principle of moral guidance in the Muslim community to the primary
source of Islam’s Sacred Law: the Shariah.
CALLED “THE CORE and kernel of Islam” by Joseph Schacht, the
Shariah was developed by the Ulama as the basis for the judgment of
all actions in Islam as good or bad, to be rewarded or punished. More
specifically, the Shariah recognizes five categories of behavior:
1) actions that are obligatory, in that their performance is
rewarded and their omission punished;
2) actions that are meritorious, in that their performance
may be rewarded, but their neglect is not punished;
3) actions that are neutral and indifferent;
4) actions that are considered reprehensible, though not
necessarily punished; and
5) actions that are forbidden and punished.These five categories are designed to demonstrate Islam’s over-
arching concern with not only forbidding vice, but also actively pro-
moting virtue.
As a comprehensive body of rules guiding the life of all Muslims,
the Shariah is divided into two categories: regulations regarding reli-
gious duties, including the proper method of worship; and regulations
of a purely juridical nature (though the two often overlap). In either
case, the Shariah is meant to regulate only one’s external actions; it has
little to do with inner spirituality. As a result, those believers who sub-
scribe to Islam’s mystical traditions tend to regard the Shariah as
merely the starting point of righteousness; true faith, they say,
requires moving beyond the law.