SHARIASOURCE

STYLE GUIDE UPDATED 07/19/15 [IR]

Contents
GENERAL STYLE GUIDELINES (ANALYSIS) ................................................................................................................................. 2

1.1 Citation & Footnotes .................................................................................................................................... 2

1.2 Punctuation ................................................................................................................................................. 3

1.3 Formatting ................................................................................................................................................... 4

1.4 Style: Writing ............................................................................................................................................... 4

1.5 Style: Common Terms and Usage ................................................................................................................ 5

SHARIASOURCE.COM STYLE GUIDELINES (ONLINE POSTS) ........................................................................................................ 6

1.6 Citation & Footnotes .................................................................................................................................... 6

1.7 Summaries ................................................................................................................................................... 6

1.8 Formatting ................................................................................................................................................... 6

1.9 Style ............................................................................................................................................................. 6

SAVING FILES ..................................................................................................................................................................... 6

1.10 Collecting files .............................................................................................................................................. 6

1.11 Saving files ................................................................................................................................................... 7

SPECIAL NOTES ON ACADEMIC ARTICLES AND TRANSLITERATION ................................................................................................. 7

1.12 Transliteration ............................................................................................................................................. 8

1.13 ALA-LC Romanization Table ......................................................................................................................... 9

GENERAL STYLE GUIDELINES (ANALYSIS)

1.1 Citation & Footnotes

§ Bluebook! All citations should generally adhere to The Bluebook or to the
Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS), 15th edition. The rule is: be consistent
internally. If you are consistent and use common sense, that is typically fine; it is
most important that you adhere to the same style throughout. There are, of
course, exceptions:
Bluebook Exceptions:
- All Latin, Arabic, or other foreign language words and phrases, except for i.e.
and e.g. [which are always followed by commas], and even those in regular
legal use, such as prima facie, should be italicized when used (contra
Bluebook Rule 7). This is true for dicta, en banc, ḥadīth, sharīʿ a, etc.
- Emphasis—always indicate whether emphasis is added or in original source,
through adding parentheticals: “(emphasis added)”or “(emphasis in
original)” [Contra Bluebook Rule 5.2(d)(iii)]

CMOS Citation and Transliteration
- For references not adequately covered by The Bluebook, please adhere to the
Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition. The following website offers a brief
citation guide for notes and bibliographies:
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
- Transliteration for Arabic or other foreign language terminology should
adhere to a modified Library of Congress citation style (i.e., without
diacritics)—as provided below.

SHARIAsource-Specific Case Citations:
- Immediately following any full case citation, insert a parenthetical listing the
judge(s) who decided the case. Place the authoring judge’s name in italics,
and note concurrences, dissents, and visiting judges. For example,
EEOC v. The Geo Group, 616 F.3d 265 (3d Cir.2010) [Sloviter, Roth, Tashima (9th Cir.,
dissenting)]

OR
O’Lone v. Shabazz, 482 U.S. 342 (1987) [5-4] [Rehnquist, C.J., White, Powell, O’Connor, Scalia;
Dissenting: Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun, Stevens]
 Tally the vote in a separate parenthetical for Supreme Court opinions; no
need to tally the votes otherwise. Examples of vote-tallying: for Supreme
Court opinions: [5-4] for 5 in the majority 4 dissenting; [4-3-2] for four in the
majority, three concurring, two dissenting – in that order; [9-0] or [8-0], as
the case may be where there is a less than a full court, for unanimous
opinions.
§ Pin cites. It is almost never appropriate to cite generally to a case. Use pincites
and use parentheticals. This applies similarly to academic citations (articles,
books, briefs) unless you mean to cite to the fact that an author has written the
book or article cited.
§ Footnotes. Please use footnotes rather than endnotes, and please include an
alphabetized bibliography of sources cited at the end of any paper (even if you
cite them in full in the footnotes).

1.2 Punctuation
§ Spacing. Use one space (not two!) between sentences, and after a colon or
semicolon. No spaces before or after hyphens and dashes.
§ Hyphens, dashes. There is a difference between a hyphen (-), an en-dash (–), and
an em-dash (—) [two hypens]. MS Word automatically creates an em-dash from two
consecutive hyphens (and it creates an en-dash from a hyphen preceded and
followed by a space).
o Use a hyphen for transliteration and compound words or phrases (e.g., pro-
choice).
o Use an en-dash preferably, or a hyphen if unable, to separate a span of
numbers, as in a pinpoint cite (e.g., 711–12).
o Use an em-dash for interspersed phrases, i.e., to offset a phrase—as a
substitute for a comma.
Note, there are no spaces before or after the use of any of these dashes or
hyphens within a compound word or sentence.
§ Ellipsis. No spaces between the three periods of an ellipsis, to avoid breaking it up.
(Word automatically combines a series of three dots into a single, unbroken series
of characters). Treat an ellipsis as a word (it is in fact a stand in for a word or a
series of words). Accordingly, at the end of a sentence, put a period after the ellipsis
(resulting in four dots), but in the middle of sentence, do not.
1.3 Formatting
§ General formatting. Any submission should be single-spaced, with 12 pt. font (of
some standard Unicode type: TNR, Cambria, Arial, Gentium, or the equivalent) in the
text, 10 pt. font in the footnotes, and 1-inch margins.
§ Pagination. All submissions, memos, research notes, etc. (except the first page),
should be paginated.
§ Sections. Articles, commentary, policy briefs, etc. may be divided into subsections
that should be titled accordingly.
§ Dates. Often, readings in Islamic law will present both the AH (After Hijri) and CE
(Common Era) dates, in an AH/CE forma: (for example, 941/1534 or 941/1534-5
and 2nd/8th century). Please use this “double-dating.” SHARIAsource converts CE
dates to Hijri for you.

1.4 Style: Writing

§ Writing style:
- Active voice. Use an active, direct voice whenever possible, i.e., note who is
doing what to whom or what, following a noun-verb-object format. (Avoid
the passive!)
EX: “The Court held or decided …”
NOT: “It was held that ….”

- Sentences should be short and direct. A sentence with more than three
clauses can almost always be broken apart and thereby improved.
§ Capitalization.
- Capitalize “District Court” and “Court” when referring to a specific court. Do
not capitalize either when referring generally to district courts or courts.
- Capitalize “Government” when referring to the federal government.
- Capitalize “Board of Directors.”
§ Party names. For Plaintiff, Appellants, etc: generally use names unless there are
several and it becomes unwieldy, and typically, keep in lowercase with “the” for
singular, e.g., “The plaintiff asserted that,” but without preceding it with “the,”
when plural, e.g., “The Court noted appellants’ argument that . . . .”
§ Full names on first mention / in intro. Give full names in the introduction /
short answer.
1.5 Style: Common Terms and Usage
NB: If in doubt, use Garner’s Modern American Usage.
§ “without merit” — to be “without merit” a case must be very, very weak.
“Unpersuasive” is the preferred term.
§ “whether” not “whether or not” — “whether” contains its own uncertainty, thus
the “or not” is superfluous.
§ “feel” — only use when associated with some emotion.
§ “that” and “which” — use “that” to introduce a restrictive clause, i.e., one that is
necessary to identify the person, things, or idea to which the clause refers. Use
“which” to introduce a non-restrictive clause, i.e., one that is not necessary to
identify that which is being modified. Separate “which” clauses with a comma.
(Think of it this way: you can lose the ‘which’ clause and still have a complete
sentence.)
EX: Here is the report that caused so much furor!
The report, which caused so much furor, is lost.
§ Never end one sentence with a name/noun and begin the next sentence with
that same name/noun.
EX: “Smith sued Cooper & Sully, Inc. The firm removed the offending obstruction
in an attempt to encourage Smith to settle instead.”
NOT: “Smith sued Cooper & Scully, Inc. Cooper & Scully removed the offending
obstruction in an attempt to encourage Smith to settle instead.”
§ Use “clear/clearly”, “obvious/obviously”, or “rationally” only when it really is
clear, obvious, or rational.
§ Focus on the correct verb or descriptor. Trial courts “find,” “hold,” “grant,” and
“deny.” Appellate courts “decide,” “determine,” “conclude,” “affirm,” “reverse,”
“vacate,” “uphold,” “remand,” and “hold;” they do not generally “find,” “grant,”
“convict,” or “deny.”
§ It is fine to use “as” in place of “because,” and in some cases is preferred. But do
not use “since” to mean “because.” Since refers to time.
§ Do not use “of” after “regardless.” Thus, “regardless whether” is correct.
SHARIASOURCE.COM STYLE GUIDELINES (ONLINE POSTS)

1.6 Citation & Footnotes

§ Rather than id or supra, use a long citation upon first mention, and short citation
(Author, Short Title, Page number(s)) on subsequent mention.
§ Links to SHARIAsource materials should give the link in the relevant text, and
provide a footnote with a full citation, e.g., Paul Lee, Cost Benefit Analysis of Islamic
Finance Models, SHARIAsource (June 11, 2015).

1.7 Summaries
§ Summaries. Every post should have a summary, consisting of no more than 3-5
lines. A summary for a primary source document should identify the issuing
institution or person, and provide brief information about the purpose or effect of
the document. A summary for a secondary source article, commentary, or other type
of analysis should briefly state the argument or issues discussed.

1.8 Formatting
§ General formatting. Post should generally follow the above parameters for written
analysis: single-spaced, 12 pt. font. On the SHARIAsource interface, the font type and
style is automatic. For more on formatting and style, see above.
§ Footnotes. Post footnotes must be entered and designated manually. See Training
Video.

1.9 Style
§ Style. Should follow that of substantive posts. See above, Sections 1.4 & 1.5.

SAVING FILES
We use Dropbox to save and share files. You will be invited to join the folder relevant to
the work you are doing; if you have not already, you should set up a Dropbox account (free)
at dropbox.com, and test to ensure that you can view and save files to the shared folder
from your computer.

1.10 Collecting files

§ Often, you will be collecting primary sources (legal documents, court records,
contracts, fatwās, etc.) and secondary sources (articles, commentary) in connection
 with your research and work for the portal. Whenever possible, you should obtain
and save electronic, PDF versions. If you have to obtain a hard copy (as in book
collections or cases copied from reporters that are not online), the case or article
should then be scanned in and converted to PDF.
For article or case collections (and other legal documents, such as briefs, etc.),
always obtain PDFs of the original source as it appeared in the published/printed
edition. For that purpose, for U.S. cases, the preference is the “West Reporter Image”
on Westlaw, and if not, PDFs of slip opinions. The same is true for analogs on Islamic
law databases.
For English-language articles, good go-to places include the databases HeinOnline or
J-STOR. If articles do not appear on either of these databases, you may have to look
for a specialized database (e.g., IngentaConnect, which has Islamic Law and Society
articles), and sometimes SSRN also has articles as they appear in the printed edition.
When copying or creating PDFs from books, always copy both the copyright page
and the title page, and append (in that order) to the front of the chapter or excerpt.

1.11 Saving files

§ Primary Sources. Save cases and other legal documents (e.g., petitions, amicus
briefs, case briefs, etc.) in the following format
YEAR Court - PartyX v. PartyY (Type of File)
EX:
2011 10th Cir - Awad v. Ziriax et al. (Plaintiff-Appellee Response Brief)
2011 S.D. Tex. - Memon v. Deloitte Consulting (NPO)
1987 S. Ct. - O’Lone v. Shabazz (opinion)
1978 S. Ct. India – Mohd. Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum
§ Articles. Save articles files in the following format:
AuthorLastName DATE – Title (Publication)
EX:
Jackson 2011 – On Jihad in Islamic Law (J. Islamic Law and Society)

SPECIAL NOTES ON ACADEMIC ARTICLES AND TRANSLITERATION

In addition to the conventions that apply to analysis and primary sources, there are a few
stylistic conventions to follow for work involving articles and other academic work
referring to Islamic law or special terminology. Arabic and other foreign language
terminology should adhere to a LOC or modified Library of Congress (LOC) citation style
(i.e., without diacritics if you don’t know them; but if you do know them, follow the LOC
style)—as provided below.

1.12 Transliteration
For transliteration, all articles should adhere to the following modified form of the
International Journal for Middle Eastern Studies:
• Transliterate all technical terms from languages using non-Roman alphabets
(Arabic, Hebrew, etc.) following the diacritical conventions, if possible. This includes
names of persons, places as well as titles of books. The only exceptions to this rule
are commonplace names such as “Mecca” (NOT Makka) or “Iraq” (NOT ʿIrāq) or
persons, such as Mohammad Fadel (NOT Muḥammad Fāḍil). You should try to
ensure, above all, the consistency and accuracy of your transliteration. (If you have
questions on key terms, a good go-to guide is the index of Roy Mottahedeh’s
translation of Muḥammad Bāqir aṣ-Ṣadr’s work, entitled Lessons in Islamic
Jurisprudence. Please follow his spellings.)
• For Arabic and Persian, IJMES uses the modified Encyclopedia of Islam system as
follows:
o qaf = q, not k with underdot
o jim = j not dj
o Roman double-letter equivalents are not underlined
o The l of al- is not assimilated to the following consonant
• Tāʾ marbūṭa (typically represented as an “h” or “ah” at the end of a word, to
symbolize the feminine marker) is rendered “a” not “ah” or “eh” in Arabic, but “ah”
in Persian.
• The adjectival yāʾ followed by tāʾ marbūṭa (or the “nisba”) is rendered –iyya in
Arabic, but iyyah in Persian.
• Transliterate Persian using IJMES system, not that of the Encyclopedia Iranica, so
use i and u, not e and o.
• The Persian iẓāfat is rendered as –i or –yi (after words ending in vowels).
• For Ottoman Turkish, use modern Turkish orthography.

For further details about transliteration according to the Library of Congress style, see
Library of Congress transliteration sheet (“ALA-LC Romanization Table”). This is purely for
informational purposes only – to show you what this style sheet is a modified version of.


1.13 ALA-LC Romanization Table