The Early Development of Islamic Jurisprudence

Abstract

Professor Ahmed Hasan has made a great contribution to the understandingof the early history of Islamic jurisprudence up to the time of al Shafi'i (d. 204A.H.). A few works. such as The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence byProfessor Joseph Schacht, have been published on the early development ofIslamic jurisprudence. and Hasan's work is a valuable addition. Islamic jurisprudenceis a dynamic, ongoing, and virtually limitless subject. The communitycannot survive without it as long as new issues arise to be resolved andIslamized. Thi field of study helps the community to move forward, encouragingmembers to solve new problems that arise in their social lives. Hasan discusseshow jurists debate one another over the extraction of God's law and how.ultimately, uch debates have developed Islamic jurisprndence and the differentlegal schools. ljma' (consensus) and qiyas (analogy) did not exist at the time ofthe Prophet; they developed through ijtihtid, based on the principle sources theQur'an and Sunnah. The subject has a kind of progressive flow, tide, and dynamiccharacter. Hasan divide his book into seven chapter, beside an introductionand a concluding discussion. He also includes a bibliography and an index. Theauthor chose a period in the history of jurisprudence for which sources for synthesisare difficult co obcain. He shows the historical development of lslamicjurisprudence in the first two centuries of Hijrah based mainly on the work ofMalik. Abu Yusuf, al Shaybani and al Shafi'i.This book is designed for readers who are particularly interested in Islamiclaw and history. In the introduction the author describes the meaning of fiqh andother allied terms. He analyzes the origins of the early schools of law-such asthe schools of Medina and Iraq-that developed through the work of scholarswho extracted God's law from the revealed sources. Further analysis by theauthor suggests that after the middle of the second century A.H., scholars weregenerally engaged in independent thinking on law. ln the same way. al Shafi'ideveloped his own legal theory and brought consistency into law. After him theregional character of the early schools began to disintegrate and faithfulness toone master and his principles gradually predominated.The author discusses the sources of Islamic law beginning with the developmentof the main five categories of judgment of Muslims' aces, namely, theobligatory. the recommended, the neutral, the disapproved, and the prohibited.These categories are ultimately based on four sources: the Qur'an, the Sunnah,ijma' and qiyas. The author first deal with the Qur'an, briefly pointing out thatit is the primary source of legislation and guidance. The author discusses thedoctrine of the abrogation of individual verses in the Qur'an (naskh) in a separatechapter, pointing out the development of the theory of naskh and its significantrole in Islamic jurisprudence. Although naskh is an established doctrine inthe field of Islamic jurisprudence, the author's long analysis of naskh suggeststhat since the Qur'an is eternal there can be no reasonable ground for the thesis ...