Comprehensive Law. Muslim law, based on the divinely revealed and guided sources of the Qur'an and hadiths, forms the centerpiece and backbone of the religion of Islam. Unlike western systems of law, Muslim law covers and prescribes behavior in all areas of life, including both individual actions that are private to the self and relationships involving two or more parties. Thus, Muslim law is more comprehensive than most other legal systems. Indeed, the Qur'an makes clear that there can be no legitimate legal rulings that are not according to what God has revealed (5: 44-45, 47). Muslim law is also different from Western law in its source. It traces the origin of its principles and prescriptions back to texts of divine origin interpreted by scholars not usually in the employ of the state, thus establishing for a whole society a general legal...