Water As Shari'a.

Abu Fauzi

Junior Member
As-Salaam alaykum,
In the context of taking word back to their original root(s) meaning, 'Water' and 'Shari'a' habe a very close relationship. For the Arabs of Muhammad's time, just as for the Jews in bibilical times, and for all people for whom water is precious and scarce, society revolves around places where water could be found: Wells, watering holes, Oases. One's very life depended on finding and following the paths to water.
Hence some of Islamic's primary technical terms are water-based. Shari'a commonly translated as Law, originally meant the way to the watering hole... and the in Sufi parlance, they say, the Shari'a is also the path to the Water of Divine Life. The path of water, the Shari'a, is a path of action-- practice based on a revealed knowledge that descends like rain from a pure source and is received in purified receptacles: the Messengers, Prophets and Awliyaa...Friends of Allah.

The Sufi is ever-thirsty for this knowledge, ever seeking to be quenched with the Waters of Divine Life. It is a thirst to be cultivated rather than satisfied. As Imam Jalaluddin Rumi says in the Mathnawi:--

"Where there are questions,
answers will be given; where there are ships,
water will flow. Spend less time seeking water and acquire thirst!
Then water will gush from above and below".
 
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