Author: SumbulAli-Karamali

Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 978-0-8070-3800-0

Sumbul Ali-Karamali, author of Demystifying Shariah, is a dual degreed, Stanford educated lawyer, corporate and Islamic law. (2021, inside back cover) She is Muslim-American. Her specialization is the synthetization of academic material for general audiences. She has written several prior books. (The Muslim Next Door, The Quran, The Media, That Veil Thing, Growing Up Muslim, and Understanding the Beliefs and Practices of Islam) It is her dream to cultivate better intercultural relationships. She is an avid Star Trek fan and enjoys opera. To learn more about her please visit her website at www.sumbalalikaramali.com

Chapter one is a crash course in Shariah.  Chapter two is about Mohammed and Islam. 

The Quran is introduced in Chapter three. To which she adds, “For Muslims, the Quran is the literal word of God. It’s also the primary source of shariah. “ (2021, p.21) Sumbal states that the Quran has been “preserved unchanged” (p. 22) and when asked about why the Quran has not kept pace with modernity Sumbal takes a defensive stance and says that line of questioning is offensive and insensitive which she likens to changing our Constitution. The Quran according to Sumbal is filled with protections for women. Her premise here is to clear up what she believes are misnomers about her religion.  

Sumbul writes about Sunna in Chapter four. “Muslims consider the Sunna, defined as the words and deeds of the Profit Mohammed, to be divine –but not because we believe that Mohammed himself was divine. Rather, Muslims believe the Profit was divinely guided. “ (2021, p.27) From there she tells about the Hadith and says the following. “…Hadith is the written record of Sunna. -- …the Hadith is not divine, because fallible human beings relied on their fallible memories to recall the words and deeds of the Profit…” 

Chapter five gives us the distinction between Sunni, Shia, and others. Sumbul says, “All Muslims are Sunni, Shia, or subsets thereof. There is no real theological differences separate them…”. (2021, p.34) Because they are fundamentally the same Sumbul says they interact and intermarry. She declares that the media is responsible for creating and fostering misunderstanding between the two factions. 

Chapters one through five are considered Part I of this reference book. Part II begins with What Shariah is and How it Works. Islamic Law flowed from Maqasid that said the following rights would be afforded to all Muslims: protection of life, religion including morality, property including wealth, family, intellect, and human dignity. From there the figh delineated the methods and tools of ijtihad, which is the ability to reason independently. 

There is far too much to write about this book in a short review. I suggest that if you want to know more and learn about the ways of the Muslims this is a wonderfully detailed reference book that presents a differing perspective than what you may have ever learned before.