Tradition

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

Religious Law gathers forty doctrines describing how traditions have written down what must, may or must not be done, and the methods by which each tradition decides.

Islamic legal theory supplies the largest cluster. Sharia names the whole body of law, and usul al-fiqh names the discipline of deriving it; qiyas, ijma, istihsan, al-masalih al-mursala and amal ahl al-Madina name five tools that discipline uses, analogy, consensus, juristic preference, unstated benefit and the precedent of Medina's early community, while ijtihad and taqlid name independent reasoning against following a school. The five rulings sort every act into obligation, recommendation, neutrality, dislike and prohibition, jihad and jizya name struggle and the tax once levied on non-Muslim subjects, and haram and haya name what is forbidden and the modesty Islamic ethics requires.

Jewish law answers with its own vocabulary. Halakha is the whole system and mitzvah its unit, and bikkurim, cities of refuge, levirate marriage, shemita and yovel name specific commandments, first fruits, asylum for the unintentional killer, a brother's duty to a widow, and the sabbatical and jubilee years. Lashon hara, pikuach nefesh, tzniut and brain death in Jewish law name speech ethics, the primacy of saving life, modesty and a live bioethical dispute.

Canon law and the right of sanctuary state Christian parallels, and Sabbatarianism and abstinence from blood name two communities' scriptural literalism. Monogamy, polygyny, plural marriage and miri and piri regulate marriage or dual authority by a different tradition's own rule, and Kapu, the Wiccan Rede, the Threefold Law, aparigraha and the five mahavratas close the group as Hawaiian, Wiccan and Jain law in their own right.