Divine Law

For most religious traditions, even indigenous, divine law consists of mandates believed to be given to human beings by a deity or deities. These mandates pertain to communal regulations, civil laws, liturgical practices, morality, ethical behavior, dietary practices, and personal hygiene habits. The mandates can be passed down through poetry, sacred stories, songs, place names, and sacred writings. Divine law is arguably the most important law of any society. It is central to most, if not all, religious traditions. Since it is derived from the divine, it is considered sacred. To break, ignore, distort, or reject the law is to reject the creator of the law, and it is believed that the divine will exact punishment for any such actions. Even more, every society and religious tradition has created a hermeneutic, or a science of interpretation, to comprehend, categorize, and apply divine law to a given situation. In Hinduism, the transcendent law is related to the concept of dharma; in Buddhism, it is dhamma; and the Confucian tradition in China has the notion of righteous behavior associated with the concept of li. Westerners are most familiar with three different conceptions of divine law: Jewish, Islamic, and Christian.

Jewish conceptions of divine law are based on the Tanakh. The Tanakh, or Hebrew scriptures, is divided into three major portions: Torah (Teaching), Nevi'im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings). Although all the books contained within the Tanakh are considered to be divinely inspired, the first five books, or the Torah—that is, the books of Moses—hold primacy in Jewish theology. Contained within the Torah are the 613 obligations or mitzvahs incumbent on all Jews. These [Page 306]obligations are mandated by God. They cover morality, communal governance, ethics, dietary regulations, and ceremonies. In addition to the Hebrew Scriptures is the Oral Torah, which essentially consists of the Talmud. The Talmud itself is made up of the Mishnah and Gemara. In essence, the Talmud contains rabbinical interpretations and commentaries about the Tanakh and proper liturgical practices. It is believed that God's words as recorded in the Tanakh cannot be properly understood without familiarity with the Oral Torah or Talmud. In this way, the Talmud is part and parcel of divine law.

Islamic conceptions of divine law are based on the Qur'an (recitation) and the Hadith (trodden path), which consists of the Shari'a (the way). The Qur'an is the sacred scripture of Islam. Unlike the Tanakh, it is divided into suras (chapters), not books. These suras are arranged from the longest to the shortest, not chronologically or thematically. The Hadith consists of the most reliable accounts of the actions and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad on practical matters. In this way, the Hadith complements and supplements the Qur'an. It is believed that the Qur'an cannot be properly understood without reference to the Hadith. One must accept both books as being divinely inspired, though the Qur'an holds primacy. Both the Qur'an and the Hadith taken together make up the Shari'a. The Shari'a is commonly broken up into five categories of mandates: (1) belief, (2) morality, (3) devotion, (4) interactions, and (5) consequences. As with the Tanakh and the Talmud, most aspects, if not every aspect, of a believer's existence are covered by these divinely established laws.

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