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Way of Life

You know, after the deaths of the early caliphs,

the Umayyad clan that took power ruled the growing empire for the next hundred years.

But they showed little interest in making laws based on an Islamic way of life,

and many considered their behaviour to be far from Islamic,

especially those who remembered how they came to power in the first place,

and the murder of the Messenger's grandson Husayn.

So when the followers of the family of Abbas,

the Messenger's uncle,

overthrew the Umayyads and took power themselves,

although their behaviour turned out to be not much better,

they thought it would be a good idea for the people to see

a system of judges who were also scholars of Islam.

But that proved difficult at first.

From the earliest days after the death of the Messenger,

the Companions did their best to avoid making judgements about muslim law,

afraid to judge believers, when only God could really be their judge,

and afraid that by mistake they might rule something God actually permitted to be forbidden, haram.

So at first muslim scholars refused to act as judges for the Abbasids,

until some were threatened with death if they refused.

Which quickly caused many to change their minds.

But the fact that scholars didn't want to make legal rulings,

didn't mean that they weren't interested in studying the law,

which became known as the Shari'ah,

and would still give their opinions, known as Fatwas.

And some religious scholars were famous for their knowledge at that time.

Jafar al-Sadiq in Madina,

who later became known as a Shi'a Imam,

was one who had a school with thousands of students,

including some who became equally famous,

such as Abu Hanifa and Imam Malik,

who were followed by Al-Shafi'i and Ibn Hanbal.

All these men had their own ideas about how shari'ah law should be decided,

and each ended up with their own followers.

At about the same time that these men were shaping their ideas,

a great change happened in the way things were recorded,

as a war in the far east of the empire brought back some Chinese captives

who knew how to make paper.

Before that, all writing was on papyrus,

made of palm leaves and which was very fragile,

or on vellum, made of animal skin,

which was hard to make and expensive.

Suddenly there was a cheap way to record ideas on something that could last a long time,

and it was as revolutionary as the printing press or computers.

Now that ideas could easily be carried from one end of the empire to the other,

and religious scholars accepted the task of being judges,

very quickly a common system of law was set up.

And following the guidance of the Qur'an,

trials required witnesses to testify,

and judgements to be approved by a jury of honourable people.

So from that time on, despite differences of legal opinion,

muslims could travel from one end of the empire to the other

and still recognise the legal system they were living under,

based on the Qur'an and the example of the Messenger,

the system known as Shari'ah.