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The different religions around the world, all have their own laws and regulations as to how their followers and devotees should conduct themselves. Thus religious law is based on certain concepts, principles and values which are inherent within that particular religion. There are many religious laws and some of the most important examples would be the Sharia which is the Islamic Law. Then there is also the Halakha which is the Jewish religious code of law. These codes of law are usually very strictly followed by the devout worshippers of their religions. Both the aforementioned laws mean “path to follow”, in their respective languages.

While these forms of religious law exist, there are certain church communities all over the world where the ancient Christian canon law still survives very strongly indeed.

One of the main aspects of religious law is the fact that religious law implies that it is the codified word of God and hence, nothing in that code can be altered or modified, since it is the sacred word of God and to do anything with it, is basically defiling the holy or sacred nature of the matter and thus rendering it blasphemous. However, at times, the legal system needs to complement the religious legal system. Thus at times a certain human intervention is always required.

For example, certain aspects of the Islamic Law are very interesting and deserve a mention here.

There is Qiyas which means reasoning through analogy or example and then there is also Ijma or consensus and also precedent. These are some of the aspects of Islamic Law in the Qur’an. All these aspects are collated into a body of legal discipline and these are called Sharia and Fiqh. In the Jewish Law there is the Torah or Old Testament. There is the Five Books of Moses or what is known as the Pentateuch. This is the book that contains all the basic principles of Jewish Law and this is used by most of the Jewish communities.

There is also the Jewish Halakha which has some of the basic religious precepts from the Talmud and has some of the interpretations from the Talmud as well. As for the Christian Canon Law, only a few church communities use it and these include the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church as well as the Anglican Communion. These are the only clergy who use it. Even till the 18th century, the Sharia was followed by all Muslims in a very loosely knit and non codified manner. This continued until the 19th century, when the Ottomans developed the Mecelle Code and this was the first effort to codify the Sharia. After that, there have been many more efforts to officially codify the Sharia over and over again. There are certain countries like Egypt and Afghanistan which recognize Islam as the state religion and therefore follow the Sharia as a legal system as well. Saudi Arabia has the Qur’an as its constitution as well.

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