Shia Islam

Islamic faith is the belief which is based on logic and reasoning which ensures welfare and prosperity of mankind.

In the view of the Shia, Islamic law or shar:!ah consists of:

1. Acts of Worship. These are the acts by which nearness is sought to Allah and include daily prayers (Salah) fasting (s}awm), tithe (khums), almsgiving (zakah), pilgrimage (hajj), struggle (jihad), purification (t}aharah), spiritual retreat to the Mosque (i‘tikaf), and enjoining the good and forbidding the bad etc.

2. Contracts (mu‘amila t) such as selling, renting, endowments and mortgages etc.

3. Ethics (akhlaq) which consist of: virtues which Islam has made either obligatory or recommended such as truthfulness, honesty, bravery, chivalry, activity and the like; and vices which Islam discourages either by forbidding or by considering them reprehensible such as betrayal, lying, cowardice, inactivity, causing corruption etc.

4. Etiquettes (adab) which are the actions Islam considers to be courtesies such as the courtesies of sleep and wakefulness, of marriage, or of gatherings, travel and the like.

5. Laws (ahkam) which comprise obligatory (wajib), forbidden (haram), recommended (mustahab), reprehensible (makruh), and neutral (mubah). They are also divided into

taklifiyah (duty bound) and wadiyyah (statuary) such as the laws of marriage and divorce and inheritance, and justice, penal codes and compensations.