⚖ Reliance of the Traveller: Islam’s Hidden Legal Blueprint for Suppression, Violence, and Control

What they won’t quote in public is still binding in law.

---

📘 Introduction

Western audiences are told:

“Sharia is just prayer, charity, and fasting.”
“Only extremists believe in harsh punishments.”
“Islamic law isn’t even practiced anymore.”

But there’s a book that proves otherwise — a book Muslims rarely mention, and even fewer critics know in detail:

Umdat al-Salik (Arabic: عمدة السالك), known in English as Reliance of the Traveller.

This 14th-century Shafi’i manual of Islamic law is not fringe.
It is:

• Approved by Al-Azhar University (the highest Sunni authority),

• Used in Sharia courts across Muslim countries,

• Still studied in Islamic seminaries and universities, including in the West.

And it openly legalizes:

• Wife-beating

• Apostate execution

• Female genital mutilation

• Lying in defense of Islam (taqiyya)

• Killing critics of Muhammad

• Second-class status for non-Muslims

This post exposes the real Sharia law — not the sanitized version sold to Western audiences.

---

📜 What Is Reliance of the Traveller?

• Written by Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri (d. 1368), a medieval Shafi’i jurist from Cairo.

• Based entirely on early Islamic sources — Quran, Hadith, and rulings of the four Sunni imams.

• The most widely used manual of Shafi’i jurisprudence (fiqh).

• The 1991 English translation by Nuh Ha Mim Keller was officially certified by Al-Azhar University — granting it global Sunni legitimacy.

Certification Statement by Al-Azhar (from the publisher):

“We certify that this translation corresponds to the Arabic original and conforms to the practice and faith of the orthodox Sunni community.”

📌 It is not a "radical" document. It is standardized Sunni Islamic law, complete with legally binding rulings for personal, social, economic, political, and criminal life.

---

🧱 Key Sections That Expose the Brutal Core of Sharia

---

☠️ Apostasy = Death (Section o8)

o8.1 – “When a person who has reached puberty and is sane voluntarily apostatizes from Islam, he deserves to be killed.”

This ruling is not optional. It is considered a hadd punishment, meaning it is fixed by Allah and cannot be overturned by human will.

o8.4 – “There is no indemnity for killing an apostate (or any expiation), since it is killing someone who deserves to die.”

Expanded Detail:

• o8.7 lists over 20 acts that automatically constitute apostasy, including:

  • Saying Islam is false.

  • Denying even one verse of the Quran.

  • Calling Muhammad immoral.

  • Rejecting the consensus of scholars.

📌 Reformers, critics, liberal Muslims, ex-Muslims, and secular thinkers all fall under this legal category.

---

🗡 Blasphemy = Death (Section o8.7 & o9.14)

o8.7(4) – “To revile Allah or His messenger... is apostasy.”
o9.14 – “It is obligatory to kill anyone who reviles the Prophet.”

This ruling is drawn from:

• Bukhari 4:52:261 – “A man was brought who had reviled the Prophet, and Muhammad said: Who will kill this man for me?”

📌 Modern blasphemy killings — from Salman Rushdie to Asia Bibi — are fully sanctioned by this section.

---

⚔️ Jihad: Offensive Warfare Is Obligatory (Section o9)

o9.0 – “Jihad means to war against non-Muslims to establish the religion.”

o9.1 – Based on Quran 9:29:
“Fight those who do not believe in Allah… until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.”

o9.8 – “The caliph makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians… until they become Muslim or pay the non-Muslim poll tax (jizya).”

Expanded Detail:

• These are not defensive wars. They are offensive campaigns to spread Islam.

• The goal is to bring all under Islamic rule — or subject them as dhimmis.

📌 The “inner struggle” myth is exposed as PR fiction. This section confirms jihad is primarily about warfare.

---

🧕 Women: Inferior Legal Status (Sections m3, m10, m12, n4)

• m3.7 – “Two women’s testimony equals that of one man” (from Quran 2:282).

• m10.11 – A woman must seek permission to leave the house.

• m12.4 – A wife cannot refuse sex unless menstruating, sick, or fasting.

Expanded Detail:

• Women cannot lead prayer over men.

• In marriage, women are seen as contracted sexual partners, with obligations of obedience.

📌 Islamic law recognizes no legal gender equality.

---

👊 Wife Beating Legalized (Section m10.12)

“If she does not obey him, he may hit her — but not in the face.”

This directly cites Quran 4:34, which permits beating as the third disciplinary step if admonishment and sexual refusal fail.

📌 Legal sanction for domestic abuse — embedded in Sharia.

---

🩸 Female Genital Mutilation (Section e4.3)

“Circumcision is obligatory (for both men and women).”

Expanded Detail:

• The term used for women in Arabic is khitan al-untha, referring to removal of part of the clitoris.

• This ruling is drawn from Hadiths and upheld in many Shafi’i countries (e.g., Egypt, Malaysia, Indonesia).

📌 FGM is not cultural — it is codified in law.

---

🪙 Non-Muslims: Permanent Second-Class Status (Section o11)

o11.1–o11.11 – Dhimmis must:

• Pay the jizya “while feeling themselves subdued.”

• Not build new places of worship.

• Not display religious symbols.

• Not ride horses or bear arms.

• Not publicly practice their religion.

• Accept being ruled by Muslims in law and blood money.

📌 Religious freedom is outlawed. Non-Muslims are inferior by design.

---

🤥 Lying for Islam (Taqiyya) Permitted (Section r8)

r8.2 – “It is permissible to lie if the goal is permissible… and no harm is caused.”

Examples of permissible goals:

• Protecting Islam

• Gaining trust of enemies

• Preventing harm to Muslims

• Advancing the faith diplomatically

📌 This ruling justifies deception in interfaith dialogue, politics, or war — where truth is secondary to Islamic interests.

---

🧠 What This Means Today

• This manual is still in print, still cited, and still taught.

• It is not extremist — it is mainstream in Shafi’i jurisprudence, which is followed in:

  • East Africa

  • Egypt

  • Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia)

  • Parts of Syria and Yemen

📌 Even in “moderate” Muslim nations, many of these rulings remain in civil or family courts.

---

🧨 The Real Danger

When a Muslim says:

“Sharia isn’t what you think,”

Ask them:

“Do you reject the rulings in Reliance of the Traveller?”

They can’t say yes without:

• Rejecting consensus (ijma)

• Accusing Al-Azhar of error

• Violating Quran 33:36 (no choice in matters Allah and His Messenger have decided)

📌 In Islamic law, denying a known ruling is apostasy.

---

✅ Final Word

Reliance of the Traveller is not a relic.
It is not extremist.
It is orthodox Islamic law — authorized by the highest Sunni institution on Earth.

Its rulings are:

• Violent,

• Regressive,

• Unjust,

• And still upheld.

This book is the legal blueprint of Sharia’s true face —
A system of control, conquest, and cruelty.