Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on Oct. 1, 2014

THE Bangsamoro Basic Law defines the Bangsamoro Justice System under Article X. Under Section 1, "The justice system in the Bangsamoro shall consist of Shari'ah law which shall have supremacy and application over Muslims only; the traditional or tribal justice system, for the indigenous peoples (IPs) in the Bangsamoro; the local courts; and alternative dispute resolution systems".

The proposed law enumerates the justice that will apply for Muslims, which is the Shari'ah law; for the IPs the traditional or tribal justice system; and the local court systems. It is clear that Shari'ah shall only apply to Muslims. But what is Shari'ah? What does this word mean?

According to an expert on Shari'ah law, Sumbul Ali-Karamali, "Sharia (also spelled shari'ah or sharia or shari'a) is the Arabic word for "the road to the watering place." In a religious context, it means "the righteous path." Furthermore, there are six principles of shariah. They are derived from the Qur'an, which Muslims believe is the word of Allah (SWT). All Islamic religious rules must be in line with these six principles of shariah.

The six principles of shariah are as follows: 1. The right to the protection of life. 2. The right to the protection of family. 3. The right to the protection of education. 4. The right to the protection of religion. 5. The right to the protection of property (access to resources). 6. The right to the protection of human dignity. These principles are the core of shariah. Ali Karamali also added that the "term "shariah law" is a misnomer, because shariah is not law, but a set of principles. To us, Muslims, it's the general term for "the way of God."

The words "the way of God" are highly contested. Every religion in the world would say and proclaim that their holy book are from God and their way is the way of God. Thus, in Islam, the sources of Shari'ah may be classified into two main points: the Qur'an and the Hadith.

Early Muslim scholars compiled all their views and interpretations about Shari'ah. Ali Karamali also says that the early Muslim scholars, starting from the Companions of the Prophet (SAW) and the Imams, "filled books of interpretive writings (called fiqh) about how to act in accordance with the way of God. They rarely agreed -- the fiqh is not just one rule, but many differing opinions and contradictory rules and scholarly debates".

Fiqh is an important aspect of Shari'ah. Muslims and non-Muslims must be able to understand its relation to the whole aspect of Islam. Since Shari'ah also refers to the whole body of Islamic texts, which includes the Qur'an, the sayings of the Prophet, and the books of interpretive literature (fiqh) written by medieval Muslim scholars, Muslims sometimes tend to interpret all of them as one and the same. However, only two are considered divine: Qur'an and the Hadith of the Prophet. Fiqh is not. It is based on a particular context and culture of the people.

Ali Karamali further said that "the fiqh was meant to develop and change according to the time and place -- it has internal methodologies for that to happen. It is not static, but flexible. No religion gets to be 1400 years old and the second largest in the world unless it's flexible and adaptable. He also added, "the Qur'an is old. The fiqh books of jurisprudence are old. To modern eyes, they can look just as outdated as other ancient texts, including the Bible and Torah. That's why, just like the Bible and the Torah, the Islamic texts must be read in their historical context".

In our local context, if you go to the grassroots communities, when they hear the word Shari'ah, the first thing that comes into their head is that the government will now cut hands whoever is caught stealing or stoning to death an adulterous person. These practices do not appear in the Qur'an.

"In Islam, therefore, stoning was a result of cultural norms imposed on the religious texts. Moreover, in the fiqh, though the punishment for adultery was stoning, adultery was made such a fantastically difficult crime to prove that the punishment was impossible to apply. Historically, stoning was very rarely implemented in the Islamic world, which is ironic, since today the Saudi and Iranian governments apply it as though they'd never heard of the strict Islamic constraints on it". (Sumbul Ali-Karamali, 2011)

The majority of Muslims today do not believe in these old practices. In fact, Muslim intellectuals are doing their best that our communities understand the real principle of Shari'ah.

Furthermore, some of us may have heard about scary stories attributed to sharia, like honor killings, veiling of women, and female genital cutting, these are cultural practices and not Islamic. They are practiced by non-Muslims of certain cultures as well as Muslims.

Under the BBL, Section V Article X, provides that the sources of Sharia law are the Al Quran, Al Sunnah (traditions of the Prophet (SAW), Al Qiyas (by analogy), and Al Ijma (by consensus). The last two sources refers to the practical and contextual application of Sharia. Thus, we need more Muslim intellectuals, experts in the study of Sharia to help the future Bangsamoro parliament to enact better laws. We need to understand our present context in order to apply the proper principles of Islam within the Bangsamoro.

Mussolini Sinsuat Lidasan is the director of Al Qalam Institute for Islamic Identities and Dialogue in Southeast Asia based in Ateneo de Davao University.