The closest translation I can think of concerning Sharia is project. Arabic is a very complicated language and translation of its terms into English or any other language is as equaly complicated. The basic laws of sharia as a relegious law (project to build upon) are contained in the Qur'an, from these laws people can build up on it to complete the project.

People who understand Arabic will often see these phrases in news papers, magazines, or TV:

" Al Mashroo Al Sahee " -- The health project.

" Al Mashroo Al Elmi " -- The education project.

Sharia is made up from the 3 letter Arabic root verb, Sh'Ra'Ein. We can manipulate these three letter root verb by adding differnt accent marks, or additonal letters to make it past, present, future, ownership, masculine, feminine, but it basicly means the same thing, project.