The sharia, the religious law of Islam, is viewed as God’s command for Muslims, offering a path of conduct for religious conviction and divine favor. However, the application of the sharia varies across countries.
Saudi Arabia represents one extreme. There, the sharia is the basis of justice, with judgments leaning towards the conservative Hanbali tradition, including severe punishments. At the opposite extreme, countries like Turkey (Türkiye) have fully abandoned the sharia, adopting secularist codes. Other Muslim countries have adapted traditional the sharia to meet modern needs. For example, Egypt, which typically relies on Hanafi tradition, has incorporated aspects of Maliki law to address the needs of abandoned wives or ill-treated women. The scope and administration of the sharia also differ, with some countries applying it in its entirety. Starting in the 19th century, most Muslim countries adopted Western criminal codes patterned after French, Swiss, or British systems of justice and retained the sharia primarily for matters of personal status, including family law.