What is sharia, and how do Muslims understand it?

Sharia — the body of religious guidance derived from the Quran, the sayings and practices of the Prophet Muhammad, and centuries of Islamic scholarly interpretation — is often discussed in public debate primarily in terms of criminal penalties. Research on how Muslims themselves understand Islamic law suggests a much broader and more complex framework.

Pew Research Center describes sharia as offering guidance for “nearly all aspects of life,” including matters ranging from marriage and inheritance to contracts and criminal justice.

For many Muslims, sharia functions both as a moral framework for personal life and, in some contexts, a source of law for society. Religious obligations such as daily prayer, fasting during Ramadan and charitable giving are commonly understood as part of living according to Islamic principles.

At the same time, the meaning and application of sharia vary widely across the Muslim world. According to Pew Research Center’s 2013 survey of more than 38,000 Muslims in 39 countries, substantial majorities in several Muslim-majority nations favor making sharia the official law of the land — including 86 percent in Malaysia, 84 percent in Pakistan and 74 percent in Egypt.

Even where support for sharia is high, Pew’s research shows significant differences in how Muslims believe it should be implemented. Among those who favor making sharia official law, many say it should apply only to Muslims rather than to all citizens.

The survey also found that attitudes toward specific criminal punishments associated with traditional Islamic jurisprudence vary widely by region and are often lower than support for sharia more broadly.

Taken together, these findings suggest that Muslims who support sharia do not necessarily envision a single uniform legal code. Instead, views differ about which areas of life Islamic law should govern and how it should operate within national legal systems.

In practice, the area where Islamic law most commonly shapes formal legal systems is family law. Rules governing marriage, divorce, inheritance and child custody derived from Islamic jurisprudence remain part of national legal frameworks in many Muslim-majority countries, including some with otherwise secular constitutions.

Beyond the courtroom, sharia also informs a global industry in Islamic finance. Because many interpretations of Islamic law prohibit charging interest, financial institutions have developed alternative models based on profit-sharing and asset-backed transactions.