Quran:

The Quran is composed of such express revelations as were made in the very words of Allah to prophet Muhammad through Angle Jibrail, when he was bestowed with the office of the prophet and messenger of Allah. Since Quran represents the voice of Allah, its authority is paramount.

The standard authoritative version of the Quran was prepared after the death of the prophet, during the time of third Caliph and all the other versions were destroyed. The script who had been employed by prophet himself during the prophet’s lifetime assisted the third Caliph in preparing the standard text. The Quran is like a constitution for the Muslims and it contains all principles to be used in personal laws including marriage, divorce, succession, etc. In a strict sense, the Quran cannot be called a legalcode and Muslims jurists agree that it contains verses explaining the way of living and the morals of life and it is not a legal code backed by sanctions.


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It is divided into 114 chapters and composed about 6236 verses. It is in the form of a series of communications addressed by Allah to the prophet. The communications were declared to the people on a large number of different occasions during the life of prophet. There are near about 600 verses in Quran which are law making, which embody rules of law.

All tenets, teachings, principles and practices of Islam originate from the Quran. Due to its stature as Islam’s holy book, it is the final authority on Muslim law.

For Allah’s commandments, the technical name is “Sharia”. There are five categories of rules described in Sharia as follows:

a) Fard means “shall be done” e.g. daily prayers

b) Haram means “prohibited” e.g. wine

c)  Makruh means “advised not to do” e.g. not to eat meat of certain animals

d) Mandub means “advised to do” e.g. additional prayers

e) Jaiz means  left to the individual to decide to do or not to do.

When the Quran itself does not speak directly or in detail about a certain subject Muslims only then turn to alternative sources ofIslamic law.

It is criticised that Quran is not a code of law because of two main reasons:

a) It is argued that Quran is rather a moral code determining ones way of life.

b) It contains not more than 600 verses dealing with specifically legal matters out of 6236 verses.

But it is the Quran  that identifies six specific crimes against religion i.e. had punishments. There is an authentic Hadis of the prophet that “he who knows the law of inheritance is possessed of half the knowledge of the world.”

Some of the verses seek to repeal objectionable customs such as infanticide, gambling, usury, unlimited polygamy, etc., some seek to make reforms in the cases of women, succession and inheritance while some lay down punishment. It also contains general injunctions. But still the Quran is the foundation and framework of Islamic law.

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