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Divine law

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Divine law is any law or rule that adherents to a religion believe comes directly from the will of their god or gods.

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  • Were the talents and virtues which heaven has bestowed on men given merely to make them more obedient drudges, to be sacrificed to the follies and ambition of a few? Or, were not the noble gifts so equally dispensed with a divine purpose and law, that they should as nearly as possible be equally exerted, and the blessings of Providence be equally enjoyed by all?
  • Throughout the Quran God's signs (Ayats) are referred to as the natural phenomenon, the law and order of the universe, the exactitudes and consequences of the relations between natural phenomenon in cause and effect. Over and over, the stars, sun, moon, earthquakes, fruits of the earth and trees are mentioned as the signs of divine power, divine law and divine order.
    • Aga Khan III, in a letter dated 4th April, 1952 to Dr. Zahid Husain, President of Arabiyyah Jamiyyat, Karachi.
  • Stop, O people, that I may give you ten rules for your guidance in the battlefield. Do not commit treachery or deviate from the right path. You must not mutilate dead bodies. Neither kill a child, nor a woman, nor an aged man. Bring no harm to the trees, nor burn them with fire, especially those which are fruitful. Slay not any of the enemy's flock, save for your food. You are likely to pass by people who have devoted their lives to monastic services; leave them alone.
    • Abu Bakr reported in H. Yousuf Aboul-Enein and Sherifa Zuhur, Islamic Rulings on Warfare, p. 22, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College, Diane Publishing Co., Darby PA, ISBN 1428910395.
  • Alice: Arrest him!
    More: Why, what has he done?
    Margaret: He's bad!
    More: There is no law against that.
    Roper: There is! God's law!
    More: Then God can arrest him.
  • And inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper, and shall be led to a land of promise; yea, even a land which I have prepared for you; yea, a land which is choice above all other lands.
  • And it came to pass that the prophets of the Lord did threaten the people of Nephi, according to the word of God, that if they did not keep the commandments, but should fall into transgression, they should be destroyed from off the face of the land.
    Wherefore, the prophets, and the priests, and the teachers, did labor diligently, exhorting with all long-suffering the people to diligence; teaching the law of Moses, and the intent for which it was given; persuading them to look forward unto the Messiah, and believe in him to come as though he already was. And after this manner did they teach them.
    And it came to pass that by so doing they kept them from being destroyed upon the face of the land; for they did prick their hearts with the word, continually stirring them up unto repentance.
  • But men never violate the laws of God without suffering the consequences, sooner or later.
  • A difficult form of virtue is to try in your own life to obey what you believe to be God's will. It is not easy to do, and if you do it, you make but little noise in the world. But it is easy to turn on some one who differs from you in opinion, and in the guise of zeal for God's honour, to attack a man whose life perhaps may be much more pleasing to God than is your own.
    • John Duke Coleridge, Lord Coleridge, Reg. v. Foote (1883), reported in Ernest Hartley Coleridge, Life & correspondence of John Duke Lord Coleridge: Lord Chief Justice of England‎ (1904), p. 293.
  • The wildest scorner of his Maker's laws
    Finds in a sober moment time to pause,
  • Be just,--not like man's law, which seizes on one isolated fact, but like God's judging angel, whose clear, sad eye saw all the countless cankering days of this man's life, all the countless nights, when, sick with starving, his soul fainted in him, before it judged him for this night, the saddest of all.
  • Our humility is the unconditional submission before the divine laws of existence so far as they are known to us men.
  • A woman cannot be a pastor by the law of God. I say more, it is against the law of the realm.
  • The laws of the realm do admit nothing against the law of God.
  • God's service in this name is the service of God's house, and therefore they are convertible. And who sees not, that whosoever ministers to the poor, ministers to God ? As it appears in that solemn sentence of the last day, inasmuch as you did feed, clothe, lodge the poor, you did it unto me.
    • Sir Henry Hobart, 1st Baronet, Chief Justice of England, Pits v. James (1614), Lord Hobart's Rep. 125, reported in The Reports of that Reverend and Learned Judge, Sir Henry Hobart (1829), p. 273 (holding that a lay minister providing services to the poor under the title of minister did not defraud the public by the use of that title, as he was in fact providing religious services).
  • One sole God;
    One sole ruler,—his Law;
    One sole interpreter of that law—Humanity.
    • Giuseppe Mazzini, Life and Writings: Young Europe: General Principles. No. 1., reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1923), p. 318.
  • It is my interpretation from the Koran that all people have equal rights. That means men and women, Muslims and non-Muslims too, and in a society where all people have equal rights, that means all people should make decisions equally. … This doesn't mean that we're changing God's law, It just means we're reinterpreting laws according to the development of science - and the realities of the times.
    • Grand Ayatollah Yousef Sanei, from interviews with American journalist Robin Wright in Tehran June 2000, from: Wright, Robin, Sacred Rage, Simon and Schuster, (2001), p. 280.
  • As a general truth, communities prosper and flourish, or droop and decline, in just the degree that they practise or neglect to practise the primary duties of justice and humanity. The free-labor system conforms to the divine law of equality, which is written in the hearts and consciences of man, and therefore is always and everywhere beneficent.
  • Prophecy really includes ordinary knowledge; for the knowledge which we acquire by our natural faculties depends on knowledge of God and His eternal laws; but ordinary knowledge is common to all men as men, and rests on foundations which all share, whereas the multitude always strains after rarities and exceptions, and thinks little of the gifts of nature; so that, when prophecy is talked of, ordinary knowledge is not supposed to be included.
    Nevertheless it has as much right as any other to be called Divine, for God's nature, in so far as we share therein, and God's laws, dictate it to us; nor does it suffer from that to which we give the preeminence, except in so far as the latter transcends its limits and cannot be accounted for by natural laws taken in themselves.
  • Just as it is forbidden to permit that which is prohibited, so it is forbidden to prohibit that which is permitted.
    • Talmud, Y. Terumot, 5, end, reported in Lewis Browne, The Wisdom of Israel: An Anthology‎ (1945), p. 232.

The Bible

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The Bible in Wikisource. All quotes are from the King James Version, unless otherwise noted.
  • And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
    • Genesis 26:4-5.
  • One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.
    • Exodus 12:49. Alternately reported as "The same law applies to the native-born and to the alien living among you" (New International Version).
  • When they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the statutes of God, and his laws.
    • Exodus 18:16.
  • And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.
    • Chronicles 31:21.
  • And what cause soever shall come to you of your brethren that dwell in your cities, between blood and blood, between law and commandment, statutes and judgments, ye shall even warn them that they trespass not against the LORD, and so wrath come upon you, and upon your brethren: this do, and ye shall not trespass.
    • 2 Chronicles 19:11.
  • Whoso keepeth the law is a wise son: but he that is a companion of riotous men shameth his father.
    He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor.
    He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.
    • Proverbs 28:7-9.
  • Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
    • Proverbs 29:18. Alternately reported as "Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law" (New International Version).
  • But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
    • Psalms 1:2.
  • But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
    • Galatians 5:22-23.
  • If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
    Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
    • Matthew 7:11-12.
  • Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
    • Matthew 18:18.
  • Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
    This is the first and great commandment.
    And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
    On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
    • Matthew 22:37-40.
  • If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
    But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.
    For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
    • James 2:8-10.
  • Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
    • 1 John 3:4.
  • For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves.
    • Romans 2:14.
  • Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.
    Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
    • Romans 13:7-8.

The Qur'an

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Main article: Sharia
  • Original:
    48وَقَفَّيْنَا عَلَى آثَارِهِم بِعَيسَى ابْنِ مَرْيَمَ مُصَدِّقًا لِّمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ مِنَ التَّوْرَاةِ وَآتَيْنَاهُ الإِنجِيلَ فِيهِ هُدًى وَنُورٌ وَمُصَدِّقًا لِّمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ مِنَ التَّوْرَاةِ وَهُدًى وَمَوْعِظَةً لِّلْمُتَّقِينَ
    • Abdullah Yusuf Ali translation in The Holy Qur'an: Text, Translation and Commentary:
      48To thee We sent the Scripture in truth, confirming the scripture that came before it, and guarding it in safety: so judge between them by what Allah hath revealed, and follow not their vain desires, diverging from the Truth that hath come to thee. To each among you have we prescribed a law and an open way. If Allah had so willed, He would have made you a single people, but (His plan is) to test you in what He hath given you: so strive as in a race in all virtues. The goal of you all is to Allah; it is He that will show you the truth of the matters in which ye dispute; Translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali in The Holy Qur'an: Text, Translation and Commentary.
    • Marmaduke Pickthall translation in The Meaning of the Glorious Koran:
      48And unto thee have We revealed the Scripture with the truth, confirming whatever Scripture was before it, and a watcher over it. So judge between them by that which Allah hath revealed, and follow not their desires away from the truth which hath come unto thee. For each We have appointed a divine law and a traced-out way. Had Allah willed He could have made you one community. But that He may try you by that which He hath given you (He hath made you as ye are). So vie one with another in good works. Unto Allah ye will all return, and He will then inform you of that wherein ye differ.
    • The Qur'an (القرآن), Sura 5:48 (The Dinner Table, سورة المائدة).

Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

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Quotes reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).
  • Of law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world: all tilings in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempt from her power.
  • The law of God is not the conflict of will with will, but of wisdom with folly, knowledge with ignorance, right with wrong — the announcement out of parental love, of the conditions of spiritual life, happiness, immortality. The punishment of sin, therefore, may be contemplated, not as the overflowing of wrath, but the outworkings of natural law, coincident with the judgment of infinite righteousness.
  • Law, meaning obedience to a holy God, passes by a natural transition into the gospel; that is, reverential duty to a person, to the obedience of love at last, which obeys, because the beau- tifulness of obedience is perceived.
  • The law showed what man ought to be. Christ showed what man is, and what God is.
  • The law discovers the disease. The gospel gives the remedy.
  • The law is what we must do; the gospel what God will give.
  • The law sends us to Christ to be justified, and Christ sends us to the law to be regulated.
  • Though the moral law has ceased as a covenant, it remains as a rule of life. It will forever continue as the standard of holiness.
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