The guide's heading, in full: Authority of the Qur'an, Hadith, Sunnah and interpretation of the Ulema.
Four items, and they are in order.
How a ruling is reached
Text
Derived from the Qur'an.
Practice
Checked against the Prophet's practice (Hadith and Sunnah).
Scholars
Worked out by the Ulema.
A procedure, not a set of opinions.
Islamic ethical authority. The Qur'an, the Prophet's practice, the scholars — and then two kinds of law.
Interactive diagram
Explore the labelled diagram, charts and maps for this topic in full study mode.
Akhlaq: Akhlaq is one of the guide's key concepts and it means ethics — the guide's Theme 5 entry calls it moral conduct and moral principles.
So Islam has a word for the subject itself. Using it, and glossing it once, is a small signal that an answer is working in the tradition's own vocabulary.
Free preview
This is the free notes preview
You're reading the free notes. Aimnova Pro unlocks the full study experience — and you can try it with your first topic free to keep:
- FlashcardsLock in vocabulary and key terms with spaced repetition.
- Practice questionsAnswer exam-style questions and get instant AI marking.
- Mock exams & past-paper vaultSit full mocks and see exactly how examiners award marks.
- Personalised study planA daily plan built around your exam date and weak areas.
Sharia
- Divine law — the guide's own gloss
- Derived from the Qur'an, the Sunnah and scholarly reasoning
- Worked out through the schools of law
- Covers worship, family law, food, commerce and much else
Qanun
- Secular law — the guide's own gloss
- The guide's examples: votes for women, education, commercial law
- Enacted by states, which Muslim-majority countries are
- Operates alongside sharia, and the relationship differs country by country
Why the pair is examinable: The guide gives family law — marriage, divorce, custody, inheritance — as the example of sharia in practice, and votes for women, education and commercial law as examples of qanun.
One state, two kinds of law: So the same state may run religious law for family matters and secular law for everything else. That arrangement is the answer to the Theme 5 question about religion and legal systems, and it varies enormously between countries.
Say which country, or say none: "Islamic law says…" is rarely accurate. Five schools interpret differently, and every Muslim-majority state has made its own arrangement between sharia and qanun.
Either name a school or a country, or describe the range. An unattributed claim about what Islam requires is the commonest error in this part of the course.
Memorize terms 3x faster
Smart flashcards show you cards right before you forget them. Perfect for definitions and key concepts.
The guide's list of themes: The first three are the principles; the rest are where they are applied and where Muslims differ.
The principles
- Love for human beings
- Protection of the weak
- Respect for elders
The harder ones
- Killing, suicide
- Marriage, polygamy, divorce
- Abortion, sexual conduct, dress
- Jihad as moral struggle
The principles
- Love for human beings
- Protection of the weak
- Respect for elders
- These are the guide's own first three, and they are uncontested
Applied in the family
- Marriage, polygamy, divorce
- Family law: marriage, divorce, custody, inheritance
- Governed by sharia in many states
- And interpreted differently by the five schools
Contested
- Abortion, sexual conduct, suicide
- Dress — modesty, and the different types of veiling such as the hijab
- Blasphemy, which the guide lists separately
- Muslims differ; so do the schools and the states
On dress, and the rest of the contested list: The guide's wording is dress (modesty and the issue of different types of veiling, such as the hijab). It asks about a religious principle — modesty — and the range of practices that express it.
Report the range, don't lecture: Muslim women give a range of reasons for what they wear, and Muslims disagree about what is required. Report the principle, the range and who holds what. Students in the room have a personal stake in this one, and an answer that lectures them is both inaccurate and unkind.
How this is tested. Theme 5 asks what the sources of ethical guidance are, who interprets them, and how core teachings are applied to contemporary issues.
Explain how Muslims decide what is right.
Model answer plan
See the answer broken into clear points, with guidance on how each point earns marks.