How is the shari'ah different from the Five Pillars of Islam?

Answer 1

The "five pillars" are the main obligatory practices (the testimony that there is no god but the One God, the five daily prayers, paying 2 1/2 percent every year for the poor, fasting in ramadan, and the pilgrimmage to Mecca) The Shariah is the entire Law of God - which gives guidance in all matters.

Answer 2

The Five Pillars of Islam are both the most important part of Shariah and the only part of Shariah about which all extant groups of Muslims, from most liberal to most extremely conservative and across all sects (Sunni, Shiite, Ibadi, Ahmadi, Mu'tazilite, etc.) agree without comment or reservation.

Since the Five Pillars refer to a particularly narrow amount of Islamic Law, it is probably easiest to narrow them down. Most Muslims would argue that failure to comply with these requisites would make the person "not a Muslim", in much the same way that most Christians would argue that failure to uphold the Nicene Creed would make the person "not a Christian". These requirements of the Five Pillars are to:

1. Shahaada -- Declaring your testimony that there is only One God and Muhammad is His Prophet.
2. Salaat -- Praying to God daily.
3. Zakaat -- Giving alms to the poor.
4. Sawm -- Fasting during the month of Ramadan from sunrise to sunset (or under other conditions in polar regions).
5. Hajj -- Making the pilgrimage to Mecca to the Masjid al-Haraam (if financially possible).
   

Shariah refers to the corpus of all Islamic Law and the method of jurisprudential discussion requisite to develop it. Shariah, like the Jewish Halakha, is incredibly expansive, regulating everything from banking, to interpersonal relations, to professional choices, to the proper implementation of religious duties, to government principles, to the proper ways to perform scientific discovery and inquiry. However, there is a lot of debate and contention between the different sects and schools of Islam on the method implementation of the Shariah (what degree is personal, what degree is societal, and what degree is governmental) and even what the Law is on a particular question. A perfect example is that in interpretation of Salaat, Sunnis argue that there must be five distinct prayers occurring at specific times of the day (sunrise, noon, afternoon, sunset, early night) whereas Shiites argue that there should be three prayer times with the latter two being double prayers (sunrise, afternoon (noon+afternoon), and evening (sunset+early night)).

Shariah gets a "bad rap" in the West because of the Islamic penal code. Unfortunately, most of the Muslims who wish to enforce their understanding of Shariah are quick to propose (and follow through on enacting) this more rigid penal code. However, Shariah is about much more than just the penal code.

Answer 3

Five pillars of Islam are the most important beliefs and practices of Islam. Sharia means practising the teachings of Islam. Five pillars and sharia are not different.