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.
In 2013, Qatar's total population was 1.8 million: 278,000 Qatari citizens and 1.5 million expatriates. Qatar is a high income economy and is a developed country, backed by the world's third largest natural gas reserves and oil reserves. The country has the highest per capita income in the world.