Presumed Innocent & Punishment for adultery

Presumed Innocent (1990). In the end of the movie, the adulterer blames in absolute terms her wife for murdering someone he slept with. The women committed fornication; the man, adultery. The wife made the plan of killing the women her husband had slept with like a water-tight mathematical equation with best results for her, being a doctoral mathematics student. The plan is irrelevant here.

In Islam, with 4 witnesses the adulterer(s) are stoned to death; fornicators are treated differently. In the presence of circumstantial evidence - around which the fate of accused in the movie rested - the guilty goes to jail for whole lot of years, as per religious scholars of Pakistan (at least).

One can ponder over the wisdom behind this divine injunction in many ways. One logic the movie provided is the rage, disintegration and destruction adultery brings to family which makes its punishment - in the presence of such strict condition - much more severe and applicable. Surely as Deterrence to say the least. Deterrence is something Islam so much professes in theory and practice from national defense to self-matters.

Image source.

Detailed Definition of Shari'ah Needed

I am looking for an authentic definition of Shari'ah (based on books by traditional scholars, ancient and contemporary). I've searched half a dozen books, but no author deems it fit to explain it in more than few sentences. Authors assume that this is a self-explanatory term = Islamic Law; however, i believe a clear understanding of scope and original meaning of this term, technically, is very important in this age of confusion.

Islam 'and' Terrorism

A college friend - not secular or modernized at mental level - in perplex-ion (discernible from his looks) asked, "Why does Islam promote terrorism? OR, does it?" Fairly shocked by his first statement perhaps that made him to question his question. He was pointing to the atrocities of terrorist Muslims. I couldn't give a satisfactory answer to myself then. Its been few months when he asked. Now i wonder on the utter lack of luminosity and falsehood of the very question. Is there any doubt that Islam is the religion that's most civil when it comes to protecting and preserving life and environment even in Wars? When people talk about terrorism, i hope they only mean indiscriminate violence. Then by that standard if you compare European/US codes of violence ethics to Islamic, Islam would stand out as most chivalrous and just and peaceful and harmonious to life and environment. Couple of facts for the confused:

- Prophet Muhammad forbade the killing of women, children, elderly, farmers, monks, destruction of environment in war
- Homicide and suicide are two greatest sins in Islam
- Taking a life without Right (clearly defined rules which i will compile soon) is equal to killing whole of humanity - that's in Qur'an as well
- Prophet of Islam forbade use of fire to punish a human - Allah has the right to do that
- Prophet said that never desire to encounter your enemy; but you do so be steadfast and patient (or something to that effect)
- Everyone knows the level of benevolence and protection that has been shown to all kinds of minorities including Jews, who're the greatest enemies of Prophet of Islam, through centuries - would journalists ever mention that? When Pakistan came into being there were only few thousands Christians, now they're in millions (whether its good or bad that's another matter)

Now let's glance over the war ethics of great, humanistic Western world police and war mongers:

- Who invent word collateral damage and accepted it as a natural outcome of war between good (West) and evil (Non-West, these days Muslims)?
- Who use fire bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq?
- Who kill millions of Iraqis only by food sanctions?
- Who kill around 5 lac innocent civilians recently in Iraq - that's from Wikileaks?
- Who kill women and children in AFG and then in a press conference apologize over the 'loss of precious lives' and not even punish their soldiers?
- Who want to impose a mono-culture of secular fundamentalism on whole world - destroying not only natural habitat but local and primitive cultures?

The list will go on and on. Suffice to say if you really wanna know who is causing mischief on Earth and claiming that they're only doing good (Quran) read Confessions of an Economic Hitman. Its factual authenticity is far beyond doubt. IN fact on its official website, they've given parallel documented proofs confirming the statements of the author who had spent his life exploiting developing nations.

A quote on the endeavor of Ijtihad in Islamic Law

Hamza Yusuf writes in his historical-juristic essay on the rulings of Islamic law on chess:

Contrary to the Orientalists’ claims that the gates of ijtihad were closed in the ninth century CE, ijtihad has always been an active endeavor of the community of jurists throughout the Muslim world.[4]

In the foot-note # 4, he writes:

The only closure—if there was one—was on what is known as “absolute ijtihad” that historically was achieved by a handful of scholars in the early part of Islam and later considered impossible to achieve. However, although many consider this door closed and locked, it has always been viewed as a door that is possible for one to enter, if one has the key. [Emphasis added.]