Because of the religious origin of the word, some prefer to capitalize it and others not. The word sharia means  the path  or  the path to wate r. Sharia as a source of law, is, by definition, arbitrary and discretionary-some would prefer to describe it as flexible.
COUNTRY OVERVIEW. LOCATION AND SIZE. Qatar is a tiny peninsula jutting into the Persian Gulf and bordering only Saudi Arabia. With an area of 11,437 square kilometers (4,416 square miles) and a short coastline of 563 kilometers (345 miles), Qatar is slightly smaller than the state of Connecticut.
State Borders. Saudi Arabia occupies most of the Arabian Peninsula, with the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba to the west, the Persian Gulf to the east, and Yemen to the south. The total length of its land boundaries is 4,431 kilometres: Jordan 744, Iraq 814, Kuwait 222, Qatar 60, the United Arab Emirates 457, Oman 676, and Yemen 1,458.