{The Law (Shariah) [continued (3)]}[11th April 1991]

[Redbook9:68][19910411:0935c]{The Law (Shariah) [continued (3)]}[11th April 1991]

19910411.0935

[continued]

‘The second* major distinction between the Sharī‘ah and Western legal systems is the result of the Islamic concept of law as the expression of the divine will. With the death of the prophet Muhammad in 632,** communication of the divine will to man ceased so that the terms of the divine will were henceforth fixed and immutable. When, therefore, the process of interpretation and expansion of this source material was held to be complete with the crystallisation of the doctrine in the mediaeval legal manuals, Sharī‘ah law became a rigid and static system. Unlike secular legal systems that grow out of society and change with the changing circumstances of society, Sharī‘ah law was imposed upon society from above. In Islāmic jurisprudence it is not society that molds and fashions the law, but the law that precedes and controls society.

‘Such a philosophy of law clearly poses fundamental problems of principle for social advancement in contemporary Islām. How can the traditional Sharī‘ah law be adapted to meet the changing circumstances of modern Muslim society? This is now the central issue in Islāmic law.’

***

*(The 1^st is that it [is] a code of behaviour embracing both private and public activities, not all of which is accompanied by legal sanctions)

**{2048M~U~640[ce]}

***– ibid. [Encyclopaedia Britannica 22:] 31

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