Newsnight

last night on British TV on a news programme called Newsnight on BBC2, there was a debate over the law in this country.
It  doesn't really matter what it was precisely or who about, however what caught my attention was some of the guests were Members of Parliament and a retired judge and they were explaining that in Britain the people, ie the elected government make the laws of the country and its down to the judges to interpret them.

 I'm looking at this from a different angle, coming from a Islamic perspective.
There is as I'm sure all you are aware a hot debate, although I do not know why? over Shariah law and I think it is as a result that the majority of people just do not understand what it actually is . The majority of courses I organise like "What is Islam", " Understanding Islam"  the course participants only have a understanding from what people said, or they read or saw on TV. But with respect  that could be wrong?
However after I heard the comments last night I begun to think and ask myself " So is Shariah law the same or different and if different how"?

Islamic law we believe is direct from God, which was revealed to the final Messenger of God , his name Muhammed ( Peace be Upon Him). There were in history many Prophets that God chose, sent to all parts of the world. In the last divine book , called the Quran God gave mankind all the guidelines on how to live while on earth. God revealed this over 23years to Muhammed SAW. All of this as I said is in the Quran, which Muslims believe to be the exact words from God.
The majority of the Quran deals with subjects in general, but a few deal with strict rules on certain issues, ie murder, etc. With regards to these certain rules that has been laid down by God there is no movement that man can make from changing this. Other areas there may not be exact rules or maybe just guidelines, so here like the judges in western courts, the Islamic judges make the interpretations and agree on them .
So the main differences between man made law and Gods law is first man made law is what it says, man made law and changes all the time, more so every few years when a new government get elected. The judges then have to perhaps scrap the old laws and regulations and adapt to the new ones in exploring their interpretations of the new laws set . Islamic law is not set by man, but God although some issues  which are not clear are then dealt by Islamic judges, and they like the western judge make the interpretation.
So often I hear people say the Quran is old and not relevent for todays times. However as explained when a contemporary event or ruling has to be applied and it is not covered either in the Quran or Hadith then and only then do the Islamic judges, scholars interprete a new ruling to help deal with a issue of current times, be it blood tranfusion, abortion, transplant etc.