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Is Islamic Law Only for Muslims

Article · January 2023

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 Is Islamic Law Only for Muslims
(Updated)

Mohammad M Rahman

According to the Koran, Allah's law will have power over all the lands of the jurisdiction. We must protect the
integrity of Islam and not make liberal concessions. In the same jurisdiction, when you say Islamic law is only
for Muslims, you are effectively equating Islamic law with secular law. This context will gradually give priority
to secular law. The dominance of secular law or partial activity can even negatively affect Muslim followers of
Islam. Secular law will also hinder Islamic legal activity, Islamic legal research, and Islamic legal maturity as it
will be limited to proposing Islamic legal solutions in that secular domain.

Every country has an influential legal system that applies to all nationalities under its jurisdiction. Why do
Muslims have to be meek, inferiority-complexed, and defeatist? Sūra Kafirūn does not allow secularism with
Islam. It offers two jurisdictions: Islamic and non-Islamic. This surah proposes political, cultural, social,
religious, and demographic separation between Muslims and non-Muslims. This means that politically, Muslims
must have their own jurisdiction, and all people in this jurisdiction must be governed by Islamic law, including
non-Muslims. In Muslim countries, if the Muslim minority can appeal to secular law due to colonialism and
neo-colonialism, then they must be able to follow Islamic law: their majority population is Muslim. In a non-
jurisdictional sense, this sura tells Muslims not to participate in or practice un-Islamic activities, such as those
living as minorities in non-Muslim countries.

What does it mean that Islamic law is only for Muslims under the jurisdiction of Islam? It has serious
consequences. Under Islamic jurisdiction, can Muslims engage in the business activities of brothels, liquor
stores, casinos, and nightclubs, exhibit homosexuality, bestiality, and homosexuality as families and couples, or
engage in overt sexual activity as may occur in some European countries, or can non-Muslim women wear
naked clothes? In other words, if Islamic law is only for Muslims, then for non-Muslims everything is
permissible according to their standards and the tolerance of others.

What is the evidence that Islamic law must also be enforced on non-Muslims under Islamic jurisdiction? There
are several pieces of evidence of varied themes: a) Legislation is only for God 1 b) Non-Muslims are under
divine address2 c) When God says in the Quran “O ye who believes..” or when the Quran commands or
prohibits something then in the jurisdictional sense it means the believers must implement such laws or
supervise the implementation, i.e. the believers must be the highest authority in their jurisdiction without the
restriction of the application of the law d) Quran commands the Prophets to judge between the people whether
believers or disbelievers, with justice3 4 5 but secular law, cannot be just, only God’s law Islamic law can be just
e) The legal policy of “Blocking the Means” is meant to avert and/or minimize harmful consequences and this is
not only limited to Muslims e) Must remember divine law is for the benefit of humanity and creation. or else the
consequence is Quran 30:41 f) Many laws of Islam are addressed based on genus and not faith. For example,
when the Quran commands to cut thieves' hands, lash the adulterer and adulteress, or punish those who wage
hiraba, etc, all these address specific categories of people that include both believers and disbelievers.

Some Islamic laws are only for Muslims. Some Islamic laws are only for non-Muslims such as Islamic Jizya,
and most are for both Muslims and non-Muslims. What laws are there for non-Muslims? So there are faith-
based laws and non-faith-based laws. Faith-based law means that its effectiveness and implementation must be
on Muslims themselves or on other Muslims or non-Muslims, such as the ban on mosques being run by non-
Muslims. Non-faith-based law means that its implementation and implementation can be done by both Muslims
and non-Muslims on Muslims and non-Muslims such as Islamic tax collection: there can be Muslim and non-
Muslim Islamic tax collectors, and there can be Muslim and non-Muslim recipients. Another example is a

1
The command (or the judgment) is for none but Allah (Quran 12:40)
2
O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and
women. (Quran 4:1)
3
˹We instructed him:˺ “O David! We have surely made you an authority in the land, so judge between people with the truth. And do not
follow ˹your˺ desires or they will lead you astray from Allah’s Way
4
And judge, [O Muhammad], between them by what Allah has revealed and do not follow their inclinations and beware of them, lest they
tempt you away from some of what Allah has revealed to you (Quran 5:49)
5
So if they come to you ˹O Prophet˺, either judge between them or turn away from them. (Quran 5:42)
 Muslim or a non-Muslim person who can cut a thief's hand, or a hijab law for all adult women, etc. You will see
on the site www.lawsofquran.com that beside every verse, there is either one of the acronyms FBL and NFBL or
both. Sometimes, both because a legal text may contain both aspects of FBL and NFBL. FBL means faith-based
law, and its performance and implementation must be by Muslims themselves or by other Muslims or non-
Muslims. This is because such a law requires Islamic faith and religious intention. FBL is primarily spiritual in
nature, such as rituals, and its rewards are mainly in the hereafter. NFBL means non-faith-based law. That is, its
performance and Implementation may be done by both Muslims and non-Muslims on Muslims and non-
Muslims. This is because such a law does not require Islamic faith and religious intention. NFBL is primarily
for the structure and dynamics of worldly life and its benefits in our individual and social psychology, society,
economy, morality, politics, governance, war, peace, some parts of family and marriage, etc. It is meant to
support our worldly life.

Some examples of NFBL (non-faith-based law) that both Muslims and non-Muslims must follow are:

• Quran 4:34, the patriarch's social construct

• Laws of Islamic inheritance
• Laws of divorce include a waiting period or compensation, etc.
• Islamic tax recipients
• Law of Hijab
• Islamic criminal law and law of evidence
• Islamic economic and financial laws except Zakat and Khumus but Jizya is from non-Muslims
• Islamic laws of diet have a health, ecological, and economic basis. The only exception is non-Muslims
are not required to slaughter in the name of Allah in the jurisdictional sense because that would require
forced conversion to the Islamic faith
• Equity, proportionality, Islamic means, and Islamic ends.

Some examples of FBL, or "faith-based law," which requires its followers to have faith and a religious intention
such as pleasing God or for the sake of God etc, are:

• Islamic rituals such as Islamic faith, fasting, Hajj

• Islamic tax such as Zakat, Khumus
• Islamic theocratic meritocracy and governance
• Islamic marriage ceremony in the mosque
Further Reading

Rahman, Mohammad. “Islam: The Complete, Functional and Practical Guide to Life.” International Journal of Education
Culture and Society, vol. 9, no. 3, 3 June 2024, pp. 87–108, https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20240903.11.

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