ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to analyse the relation between Islam and the sources of Islamic law, namely Sharia. This will give us the opportunity to appreciate the fact that, from a practical point of view, it is almost never about Islam, but about Muslims who, within given socio-political and cultural contexts, use religious sources (particularly the Qur’an, the sacred Book of Islam and the primary source of the Islamic law) as agents of continuity through change. A way to understand Sharia is to visualize it as a flowing stream composed of various currents, nurtured and supported by other streams entering its pathway. So different cultures can interact with Sharia over time and space, including traditions related to secularized western constitutional democracies. The analysis will involve the reverse perspective, that is, the way public authorities and non-Muslim people perceive Sharia in western legal contexts, namely Italy. This will offer an opportunity to better assess how the Italian legal system has reacted throughout its history to Muslims and Islamic groups.
