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Evolution of Islamic Law
Islamic law (Sharia) refers to the regulations followed by Muslims and is obtained from the Koran. The Koran includes the holy teachings of the religion, which Muslims believe that it was revealed to Prophet Muhammad by Allah. In the past, the Islamic law did not exist under the authority of the government body that was non-existent within the given period. However, when Islam was established in the nineteenth century, Muslims adapted to new social formations, including the government. Pre-modern Islamic law was restricted because it did not hold any powers as noted within the current state (Hallaq, & Hallaq, 2009). Government administration was very small and was only established in urban areas. In such instances, the government was responsible for issues such as tax and land possession.
As a result, people had no identification of their citizenships since they were unregistered at birth. They would travel from one place to another liberally since there lacked establishment of borders, nationalities and passports. As people lived far from land rulers, they were not influenced by the given authorities (Hallaq, & Hallaq, 2009). Leaders would use the taxation strategy equitably on the people so that they could instill complete control over them. With time, most individuals decided to manage themselves by being in charge of their own matters. They did not require rulers since they believed that the mechanisms used were influenced by the internal systems that were established over the centuries by local communities. They preferred customary law since it allowed self-regulation similar to the Sharia was considered to be of the same significance. However, it did not contribute to the formation of the Islamic government.
The Muslim community started forming its own regulations by appointing people who were skilled in dealing with legal matters to carry out functions that contribute to the development of the Islamic legal system. They appointed four kinds of people to be involved with the construction, development and running of the Sharia. Sharia is the principle law utilized in the Islamic religion. The four recruited persons included the Mufti, Author-Jurist, adjudicator and the regulation professor. Other members involved included court witnesses, notaries and governors. However, responsibility offered to governors did not have much impact in the formation of the system. The Muftis played many different roles including enabling uninterrupted and flowing adaptability of the Islamic law. They acted as private legal experts in charge of the moral and the legal aspects of the Islamic community. The Muftis were spread in terms of sections and each ensured the institution of the given roles without involving the ruler’s interests. The Mufti was also responsible for giving a fatwa, which was a lawful solution used to address a question. The laws did not allow him to charge anyone for consultation and so it was affordable to any class of people, whether poor or rich (Hallaq & Hallaq, 2009).
Questions brought to the Mufti by people who were part of the Islamic community and were only those that proved to be complex to judges. The first Muslim legal expansions were a product of the problem-solution movement. After some time, these solutions were brought together, improved, structured and later used in writing the regulation books. Mufti also addressed that the law based on a situation backed up by facts. Because of the supreme legal power given to the Mufti, his statements were also allowed to contribute in solving problems in law courts. Such decisions were recognized as respected statement rules known as the fatwa. A person who did not succeed in getting a fatwa in his favor was not allowed to go appeal the case but it instead resulted to dismissing the initial claims in order to go for unofficial mediation (Hallaq & Hallaq, 2009). The Muftis were regularly consulted on complex cases even if they were located far away, from where the case took place. For example, a mufti who stayed in a far Western country such as Spain would be communicated to by a judge from Egypt through a letter containing questions on court disputes.
The fatwa authority was decisive; however, one fatwa could be ignored if another fatwa belonging to a judging opponent had a more reasonable ruling. The Mufti could not dismiss a fatwa in his favor, unless he had an authority of a higher rule than that of another Mufti. From this information, it is evident that a fatwa is an outcome of legal skill, superior knowledge because the more educated the Mufti is, the more reliable, and acceptable his fatwa is to the court and the community. A Mufti’s knowledge capability was determined through his actions but such were not limited to academic qualifications. The role played by fatwa differentiates how judges in the Muslim Court of Law in the past failed to publish their decisions in a way that the modern system practices. As a result, law in the past was established from juristic writings derived from answers given by Muftis instead of models from established law courts (Hallaq & Hallaq, 2009).
In legal practice, fatwas, especially those that represent new legal expansions on older problems were published instead of court decisions. They were edited in a way that inappropriate details such as names of places and date details were removed. They ensured that the information contained precise legal methods. After the editing process was done, the finalized fatwa was incorporated in solid legal literatures. However, a major part of Islamic legalities was not written by the Mufti, but by the author-jurists who depended on fatwas written by dignified Muftis for advanced legal knowledge. The work of author-jurists expanded from writing short specialized agreements to bigger works, which were expanded modified continuations of the previous short works. For example, a small legal document that contains the law would be expanded to a large dimension of two hundred pages.
With time, there was a raised concern that the author-jurists were having trouble with integrating the appropriate points they were going to use in forming the law. Cases that were outdated and irrelevant to the community were disqualified. The remaining issues were categorized as belonging to the latter jurisprudents who had detailed them as a response to the emerging problems within the community. The fatwas that were used to form content of the latter policies answered the same needs. Most of the works completed by the author-jurists were used as a standard reference by students studying Islamic law as well as for consultation purposes when an individual was being appointed to the judiciary system. In addition, since the influence of the law depended on Mufti’s opinions and the author-jurists’ writings, the judge was not given the right to hold the same level of knowledge, not unless he was a Mufti or an author-jurist (Hallaq & Hallaq, 2009).
One of the significant duties of a Muslim judge, also known as the Qadi was to give a ruling on several disputes, which is a similar task carried out by a modern judge. The Qadi provided services to the community that he belonged. This is because the qualifications of being a Qadi required one to familiarize himself with his community and the local customs that were definitive in the decision process. The Qadi was also responsible for supervising several activities in his community such as the construction of mosques, hospitals and streets. He was also in charge of ensuring that support was given to orphans and the needy. Additionally, he was required to present himself in marriages for women who did not have male relatives. The Qadi also acted as an intermediary in issues that were legally unfocused; he mediated and enabled reconciliations between married couples and listened to family related issues involving the division of property.
Muslim jurists and theologians believed that being reasonable was a gift from God and that one should take the opportunity of using such gifts as assigned. Islamic legal bodies depended on the aspect that while their purpose was to utilize such abilities to the fullest, the amount of reasoning had to go beyond what they acquired from their mental facilities. From this concept, they believed that human beings do not know everything about the world and so trying to be controlling was an evidence of arrogance (Hallaq & Hallaq, 2009). Jurists believed that Allah was the creator of the Universe and therefore, without him, it was impossible for the legal system to understand the world completely. In addition, they believed that healthy thinking should be dependent on Allah as the source of wisdom, through the interpretations of the Quran.
This blend between reasoning and revelation became the ultimate foundation of the Islamic law. From this blend, Muslim jurists continued with their reform work and came up with the theory of law that included the purpose of its combination. They depended on the statement that the Quran was the most holy source of law evidencing topics of how Allah revealed himself to human beings and about how the believer of the Quran should handle himself in this world. This human conduct was significantly used to influence the law. The jurists also believed that Allah used a human being who had an excellent personal conduct, known as Prophet Muhammad, to establish his desired rule within the world (Kung, 2002).
Muhammad was a chosen messenger of Allah and he understood his purpose more than any other Muslim did. Muhammad lived everyday of his life serving God’s purpose. His biography was used to develop the second main source of the law after the Quran and was known as the Sunna (Kung, 2002). The Sunna contained details of an account of what Prophet Muhammad had accomplished. Through this, the Prophet’s decision process acted as the base for the present Islamic law. Muslims use methods of narrating the document Sunna document in approaches known as the Hadith. The Sunna contributed many legal factors including promoting the right to own private property. However, this right was not completely established until the significance of Hadiths became completely known.
Quotes from the Hadith where Prophet Muhammad was constantly in conversation with regard to certain matters were used. For example, in the instance where Prophet Muhammad stated that one who planted without seeking permission in another person’s land did not have the right to own the crops but only the salary obtained from the amount of labor put in. In addition, he also stated that one who attempts to steal one foot of land would be punished by Allah on the ultimate judgment period (Kung, 2002). These two statements had a very significant influence in the implementation of property ownership. Therefore, Sunna and Hadith excerpts as opposed to the former law systems are presently utilized as the basis for Islamic law.
References
Hallaq, W. B., & Hallaq, W. B. (2009). An introduction to Islamic law. Cambridge, UK: CambridgeUniversity Press.
Kung, H. (2002). Tracing the way: Spiritual dimensions of the world religions. London, UK:
Continuum.
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