Schools
of
Law

You know

once we accept that our lives are created,

and that we and all that we can know,

see, hear and understand,

are the result of an act of Creation,

an act of Will,

we have to ask how do we fit into the purpose of that Will,

how do we discover our purpose in life.

In one way or another,

all humans ask themselves

what the creation is all about.

How they fit in, as individuals,

families and communities.

It is part of their nature to ask what they are here for,

and to search for an answer in their lives.

And for those who are believers,

the only answer must be that they are here to live God's Will,

the order required from human behaviour

when they understand and embrace

the laws of God's Creation.

Unfortunately understanding what "God's Will" is exactly doesn't come without its problems.

You see, there are an awful lot of unscrupulous people in the world

who would say anything was "God's Will" if they thought it was that easy

to get you to do what they tell you.

Now when the Messenger was born in the time of Jahiliyya,

the time of Ignorance,

the world was a cacophony of different understandings

of what human life was for,

reflected in the faces of

hundreds of different home made gods.

But then, with the coming of the Revelation,

believers could see and experience

the Creator's direct connection with the creation,

and receive clear guidance.

But that guidance had to be understood

as it applied to all the various comings and goings

and happenings of the believers,

and for that they had the Messenger

to clarify the Message

and to be a living example amongst the people.

But the Qur'an didn't prescribe any kind of legal system,

and the old tribal ways of settling disputes still held sway,

apart from the fact that now the believers were forbidden to kill fellow believers,

so blood feuds and tribal warfare had to be replaced by negotiation.

And for occasions when people needed clarity

they brought their problems to the Messenger to solve.

Then came the death of the Messenger,

and Revelation came to an end.

And the Companions now had to deal with all their problems by themselves.

And things were to get even more complicated

as lands and cities further and further afield opened up to acceptance of the Message,

as different places have different needs and traditions,

and throw up new problems.

Now during the Messenger's lifetime,

he sometimes needed to send people to distant communities of new believers

to teach them how to live the Deen,

and advise them about the administration of justice.

And as they could be expected to deal with unfamiliar problems,

he approved their use of their rational intelligence

to draw on

first the Qur'an itself,

then instances of his words or example,

to come to their decisions.

So, when the Companions were left alone

to administer this rapidly growing community of believers,

they followed the same practice,

and a number of the Companions were well known

for giving legal opinions on new problems in this way,

including at least two women,

Aisha and Umm Salamah.

But these opinions were never focused on one person or one place,

never centralised,

and as the community of believers grew to become an empire,

different schools of law emerged beyond Madinah

in cities such as Kufah, Damascus, Fustat and Baghdad.

And these different schools

argued their points of view with each other,

but were also prepared to learn from each other,

trying to follow God's instructions

to debate in the fairest of manners.

But because the law is to do with power,

it was largely a province dominated by men,

and over the centuries powerful men

and powerful minds

had opinions that persuaded many people

to follow their understandings of the law.

And some of these systems became so widely accepted

that they were known as the major schools of Islamic Law.

So now we can still find lawyers

tracing precedents back to the founders of

the Ja'fari, Maliki, Hanafi, Shafi'i, and Hanbali schools of thought,

as well as others,

all based on the same fountainhead of revelation.

For centuries this gave an extraordinary legal cohesion over the vast areas of the Muslim world,

with a subtle, thoughtful and considerate justice system

recognisable to the traveller, and available to all citizens.

And this could be seen at a time when Europeans were still judging cases using trial by ordeal,

But systems so set in historical precedent

are open to ossification.

This is why it is so important to study the history of such legal precedents,

to see how they deal with current questions.

How are we to understand what we mean by the Qur'an being a revealed message for all people in all times and places?

How are we to integrate the Messenger's example into our present lives?

Can the Qur'an be understood in new ways

as humankind develops new ways of understanding the world?

Or is it a fixed understanding

specific to one time and place,

yet applicable to all times and places after its revelation,

and now only open to interpretation

by a select group of self-referential scholars?

And if understandings of the Qur'an are to be re-examined,

how much more room for discussion exists

with regard to the collections of memories of the Messenger's words and deeds.

Is it really possible to isolate what he said and did

from its immediate cultural context,

and just apply it word for word in another place and time?

As loud voices claim to speak "God's Will",

don't you think it is important to consider

whether they are right?