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ISNA Pres & Rabbi on Sharia & Halacha

(Nov 23, 2011) On Monday, November 21, approximately 75 Jews and Muslims gathered together in Northern Virginia for a session on sharia and halacha (Jewish law). The event was led by ISNA President Imam Mohamed Magid and Rabbi Michael Holzman of Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation and took place at the All-Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center, where Imam Magid is the executive director and imam. Rabbi Holzman and his congregation made headlines when they invited members of the ADAMS community to hold Friday prayers, taraweeh, and Eid prayers in their synagogue.

The discussion between Imam Magid and Rabbi Holzman was one of more than 130 events involving thousands of Jews and Muslims in 13 countries that took place as part of theWeekend of Twinning, an annual global event bringing together Muslims and Jews to build ties of communication and cooperation. The Weekend of Twinning is spearheaded by the New York-based Foundation for Ethnic Understanding with the support and involvement of ISNA and the World Jewish Congress.

Imam Magid defined sharia for the group as, "Islamic law that is based on the Holy Qur'an and the teaching of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, that governs the practice of Muslims in Islam. This includes how to pray, when to fast, how to conduct a marriage, death and burial rituals and other aspects of Muslim life." He outlined the 5 objectives, or maqasid, of sharia, which are:

1) Protection of human life
2) Freedom of religion
3) Protection of intellect
4) Protection of children
5) Protection of property

He described how, linguistically, "sharia" means "source of water," and encompasses not only the practice of Islam, but belief in God and the Scriptures, etc. "To believe in the Torah is sharia," he said. "To believe in the Gospel revealed to Jesus is sharia." He emphasized that "text without context is pretext" - that is, laws and their application can change depending on their environment. For example, American Muslim scholars agreed early on that a civil divorce would be accepted as a religious divorce as well, and the terms of the divorce can be implemented through a prenuptial agreement. Similarly, there are new issues within our current environment that scholars have yet to exhaustively debate, such as surrogate pregnancy or life support.

Rabbi Holzman then spoke about halacha, which means "the way." Halacha describes Jewish law and is in contrast to "aggadah," which is the philosophy behind the law. Halacha is the application of aggadah, and Jews constantly experience the tension between halacha and aggadah in each new context, finding a new balancing point on each issue. The Torah is the main source of guidance for Jews, but, the rabbi said, it contains "the chapter headings" and "God whispered additional guidance to Moses," which was passed on from generation to generation until it was written down. Dissent and disagreement is tolerated and respected within Judaism, and so all opinions are recorded and so what was once a minority opinion could become a majority opinion in a new context.

All that being said, the rabbi pointed out that the "practice of the place" does not always line up with the law, and that the people will sometimes push back against a rabbi's ruling using the philosophy, or aggadah, of the law. However, Jews differ greatly on who has authority over changes in the law - whether only Moses could do that, or only entire communities, or only rabbis, or any individual who studies enough.

In the question and answer session, it was asked whether people were afraid of sharia in the United States because they were afraid that courts will be asked to permit illegal acts in the name of religious freedom. Imam Magid responded, "To say that is to suggest that the American legal system is weak, when it rather allows for certain aspects of religion that do not break American law." When asked if the fear was that sharia as it is practiced overseas will come to the United States, he said, "Those practices are irrelevant to America. This is a different country with a different context."

MORE INFO: The Weekend of Twinning includes events focused on discussions of the commonalities in the two faith traditions, as well as joint social service events, such as Muslims and Jews feeding the hungry together. Most of the Weekend of Twinning events took place between November 18-21, 2011, but Twinning events will continue through the first half of December, culminating in a virtual (On-line) Twinning event involving participants in many other countries, including several in the countries with predominantly Muslim populations.

COMING SOON: Video footage of the full event

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