ABSTRACT
It should be said at the outset that the term “Islamic law,” with which this volume is concerned, is not unequivocal. It denotes at least two different concepts. On the one hand it can stand for Islamic normativity in the fields of ritual, morality, and law-in other words, Sharia in its totality. As such Islamic law is then used in the same way one speaks of, for example, Jewish law. On the other hand Islamic law can refer only to the legal normativity of Sharia-Sharia in a narrow sense. In this Research Companion the latter use is paramount but not exclusively so (see, for instance, Part IV). In general the context will make clear in what sense the term is used.
