DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SHARIAH AND DEEN

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SHARIAH AND DEEN Circumstantial or Eternal The Quran (5: 48) says: To every one of you We have ordained a law and a way, and had God so willed, He would have made you all a single community, but He did not so will, in order that He might try you by what He has given you. Vie, then, with one another in doing good works; to God you shall all return; then He will make clear to you about what you have been disputing. T HE Quran (42: 13) says that the deen or religion that God has sent humankind is one and the same and that it has been sent to every messenger in the same form. Yet, from the above cited Quranic verse (5: 48), one learns that God had given different messengers different shariahs and different minhaj (methodologies of religious practice). Here the Quran employs the terms shirah and minhaj. Shira or shariah refers to rules of worship, while minhaj is religious methodology. This Quranic verse (5: 48) is not to be understood in the absolute sense. It is not that each prophet’s shariah was totally different from that of the other prophets. The differences were in matters of minor details. Worship has a spirit or an essence. For instance, according to the Quran, the essence of namaz (five times daily prayer) is humility and that of roza (fasting in the month of Ramazan), is gratitude. While the inner reality of worship never changes, it has certain external forms, where there can be variations. Worship is given to one prophet in one form and to another prophet in another form. One example of difference in the external form of worship is that of the qibla or direction in which prayer is offered. As is known, the Bait ulMuqaddas (Jerusalem) was made the qibla for the Jews. But the Kaaba, which is in Makkah, was made the qibla for the ummah (followers) of Prophet Muhammad. As far as minhaj or method is concerned, God gave different methods to His prophets to accommodate the different circumstances. Only