structural:scholar_edition
Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, Shariah or Syariah (Arabic: شريعة, lit. ' path (to water) ') is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Qur'an and hadith. In Arabic, the term sharīʿah refers to Allah 's immutable divine law and this is contrasted with fiqh (Arabic: فقه, lit. ' jurisprudence '), which refers to its interpretations by Islamic scholars. Fiqh, in a sense the practical application side of sharia, was manipulated over the centuries by illegal opinions issued by qualified jurists and sharia has never been the sole valid legal system in Islam historically; it has always been used alongside customary law from the beginning, and applied in courts by ruler-appointed judges, integrated with various economic, criminal and administrative laws issued by Muslim rulers.

Traditional theory of Islamic jurisprudence recognizes four sources of Sharia: the Qur'an, sunnah (or authentic ahadith), ijma (lit. consensus) (may be understood as ijma al-ummah (Arabic: إجماع الأمة) – a whole Islamic community consensus, or ijma al-aimmah (Arabic: إجماع الائـمـة) – a consensus by religious authorities), and analogical reasoning. Four legal schools of Sunni Islam — Hanafi, Maliki, Shafiʽi and Hanbali — developed methodologies for deriving rulings from scriptural sources using a process known as ijtihad (Arabic: اجتهاد, lit. ' physical or mental effort '). Traditional jurisprudence distinguishes two principal branches of law, rituals and social dealings; subsections family law, relationships (commercial, political / administrative) and criminal law, in a wide range of topics. Its rulings are concerned with ethical standards as much as legal norms, assigning actions to one of five categories: mandatory, recommended, neutral, abhorred, and prohibited. Some have argued that the definition of good and evil, which is frequently repeated in the Quran regarding the attributes of believers as " those who command ma’ruf and forbid munkar " (Al Imran:104) and is also used in Islamist indoctrination is hidden in this classification.

Over time with the necessities brought by sociological changes, on the basis of mentioned interpretative studies legal schools have emerged, reflecting the preferences of particular societies and governments, as well as Islamic scholars or imams on theoretical and practical applications of laws and regulations. Although sharia is presented as a form of governance in addition to its other aspects (especially by the contemporary Islamist understanding), some researchers see the early history of Islam, which has been modelled and exalted by most Muslims, not as a period when sharia was dominant, but a kind of " secular Arabic expansion ".

Approaches to sharia in the 21st century vary widely, and the role and mutability of sharia in a changing world has become an increasingly debated topic in Islam. Beyond sectarian differences, fundamentalists advocate the complete and uncompromising implementation of "exact/pure sharia" without modifications, while modernists argue that it can/should be brought into line with human rights and other contemporary issues such as democracy, minority rights, freedom of thought, women's rights and banking by new jurisprudences. In Muslim majority countries, traditional laws have been widely used with or changed by European models. Judicial procedures and legal education have been brought in line with European practice likewise. While the constitutions of most Muslim-majority states contain references to sharia, its rules are largely retained only in family law. The Islamic revival of the late 20th century brought calls by Islamic movements for full implementation of sharia, including hudud corporal punishments, such as stoning.