Islam and the Quran

What is Islamic Shariah and who decides it? Shir‘a or Shariah literally means ‘method’. It is not equivalent to law or political injunction. Even when there is only one believer, he needs to follow the Shariah in his private life, way of worship, ethical behaviour and personal dealings with other fellowmen. This is Shariah and in this sense, the word ‘Shariah’ has no political connotation at all. The Shariah in its present form was an innovation of the laterday Muslims; it was not revealed in the Quran. Let me share an example. The Constituent Assembly of Pakistan adopted the Objectives Resolution soon after Pakistan became an independent nation. The resolution proclaimed that the future constitution of Pakistan would not be modelled entirely on a European pattern, but on the ideology of Islam. The resolution, in its entirety, has been made part of the Constitution of Pakistan under Article 2(A), which meant that the legislation of Pakistan would be in the light of the Quran and Sunnah. The added injunction introduced in the Constitution of Pakistan was that anyone who goes astray from Islam should be killed. This was a clear innovation in religion and was not mentioned in the Quran. The Quran states about those who would turn away from the revealed religion: Whoever of you turns back from his faith and dies as a denier of the truth will have his deeds come to nothing in this world and in the Hereafter, and he will be an inhabitant of the Fire, to abide therein forever. (Quran 22:27) Here, it is clear that the act of going astray from Islam is a matter that lies between man and God, and God alone shall deal with such a person. A person who commits a sin has his entire life to repent for his actions. So, anyone who takes such a person’s life on account