Shari'a of the Earlier Nations

As for the Shari'a of the earlier nations, it is neither considered a shar'a for us, nor is it considered to be a source of legislation. Although the Islamic creed (`aqeedah) mandates for us to believe in all the prophets and messengers, and in the Books revealed to them, however the meaning of the belief in them is belief in their prophethood and their messages and in the Books revealed to them, and does not mean to follow them. After the prophethood of Mohammed (SAW) all peoples are ordered to give up their Deen and to embrace Islam, since no Deen other than Islam is acknowledged. Allah (SWT) said "Lo! Deen with Allah is Islam". Allah (SWT) said also; "And whosoever seeks a Deen other than Islam it will not be accepted from him," and this is explicit. From these verses the principle "Shari'a of the people before us is not a Shari'a for us" was derived. This is strengthened by the Ijma'a as-Sahaba(consensus) that the Shari'ah of Mohammed (SAW) abrogates all the previous Shari'ah (divine laws). Also Allah (SWT) says "And unto you have We revealed the Book with the truth, confirming whatever Book was before it and controlling over it", i.e. to say dominating over it. The domination of the Qur'aan over the previous Books is an abrogation of the previous Shar'a, believing in them and abrogating them. It was narrated that when the Prophet (SAW) saw Omar bin Al Khattab reading from a leaf of the Torah, he (SAW) got angry and said "Didn't I bring it pure and clean, and By Allah, had my brother Musa been present now he would have no choice but to follow me." Many of the rituals of Hajj such as Tawaf around the Ka'abah, touching and kissing the black stone, and running between Safa and Marwah were practised at the time of jahiliyyah. However when we perform them as `ibadat, we don't practise them considering them as rituals of a previous Shari'ah. Rather we perform them as Islamic Shari'ah, since Islam brought them as new Ahkam Sharai'ah, and not as part of a previous Shari'ah. Similarly, we do not at all perform nor abide by what previous deens prescribed, rather we only follow what Islam brought us. Therefore, Christians and the Jews are addressed with the Islamic Shari'ah and ordered to leave theirs, because Islam abrogated it. If this is an obligation on the followers of the Jewish Shari'ah, the Jews and the Christians, then how can a Muslim be ordered to take the earlier Shari'ah as his Shar'iah. With regards to the saying of Allah (SWT) "We revealed to you as we revealed to Noah", what is meant is that He revealed to him (Mohammed SAW) the same way as He revealed to the other prophets. And "He has ordained for you that Deen which He commanded unto Noah", means that He ordained the origin of tawheed, which He ordained for Noah. In the Ayah "Then we revealed to you to follow the faith (mellah) of Ibrahim", which means to follow the origin of tawheed, because "mellah" means the origin of tawHeed. The understanding of all these verses and the like is that the Prophet (SAW) is not an innovator among the messengers (of Allah), rather he was sent (as a messenger) like them and that the origin of tawheed is the deen common to all prophets and messengers. Apart from that, every messenger had been sent with a specific deen; Allah (SWT) said: "For each we have appointed a Shar'iah and a traced-out way".

Accordingly the Shar'a of previous nations is neither a Shar'a for us, and nor is it considered one of the legislative sources, from which the rules are derived.