governance, in keeping with your terminology, though in reality it is true revealed law. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ detained people on suspicion and imposed punishment on that basis when signs giving rise to suspicion became apparent in the accused. Thus, if someone releases every accused person and lets him go—despite knowing that he is notorious for spreading corruption in the land, breaking into houses, and committing numerous thefts—saying, “I will not apprehend him without two upright witnesses,” his position is contrary to governance under the Sharia.

The same applies to the Prophet’s ﷺ denying a person who misappropriated spoils his share of the war booty; the rightly guided caliphs’ burning all of such a person’s property; his taking half the wealth of one who withheld zakat; his doubling the financial liability of one who stole something for which amputation was not prescribed and punishing him by flogging; and his doubling the financial liability of one who concealed lost property. It also includes Umar’s burning the wine merchant’s shop, his burning a village associated with wine, and his burning the palace of Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqās when Saʿd secluded himself there from the people; his shaving the head of Nasr ibn Hajjāj and banishing him; his beating Sabīgh; his confiscation of his officials’ wealth; and his requiring the Companions to narrate fewer hadiths from the Messenger of Allah so that people would devote themselves to the Quran and not neglect it. These and other measures of governance by which he administered the community became an established sunnah until the Day of Resurrection, regardless of who might oppose them.

Another example is Abū Bakr al-Siddīq’s burning of a man who committed sodomy, and another is Uthman’s burning of manuscript copies that differed from the dialect of Quraysh. Another is Umar’s choosing for people to perform Hajj on its own, so that they would perform Umrah outside the Hajj months and the Sacred House would thus remain a continual destination. There were many times more such policies by which they administered the community, all grounded in their understanding of the Quran and Sunnah.

People’s division of governance into “Sharia” and “policy” is like the division made by those who divide the religious path into “Sharia” and “spiritual reality.” This division is false. Spiritual reality is of two kinds: one is true and sound, and it is the very core of the Sharia, not a counterpart set over against it; the other is false and stands opposed to the Sharia just as misguidance stands opposed to guidance.