A Simple Guide to ISLAM
Fiqh – Jurisprudence
~ 107 ~
played the leading role in this gigantic task of compilation and
systematization of the Islamic Law.
When after the conquests, and with a large number of converts,
Muslims came into contact with different cultures and civilization,
they were faced with new situation. To deal with these new
situations it became necessary to devise specific rules and detailed
directions from the broad principles practised so far. For example,
if a person inadvertently omitted some part of the ritual of prayer,
the question arose as to whether his prayer was valid or not. It was
not practicable to declare everyone of the actions in the prayer as
imperative. Therefore the actions were divided into different grades
such as
fard, wajib, masnun
and
mustahab
. Differences of opinion
arose as regards the criteria to be adopted for this grading. In
deciding such questions the scholars took recourse to deduction,
analogy and conjecture, in which they followed different method.
The first compilation of
Fiqh
ruling, a short collection in Abraham
Nakhai’s time consists of
Fatwas
of Ali and Abdullah ibn Masu’d.
This was not a systematic compilation. It was in the possession of
Hammad who died in 120 AH and was succeeded by Abu Hanifah.
Although by Abu Hanifah’s time the accepted rules of
fiqh
had not
been collected, they existed in the form of oral traditions. These
had not been systematized into a regular discipline. There were no
methods of reasoning, no rules for the derivation of orders, no
grading of Traditions, and no principles of analogical deduction.
Fiqh
had a long way to go before becoming a system.
