The permanence and stability of these basic principles and the flexibility allowed in their application give Islamic Law a distinction not shared by any other modern legal system, because most of these other systems, while they attempt to respond to the needs of the day through continuous revision and reform, are sorely in need of a measure of substance and of sound principles, so that change and reform do not lead to the demise of their basic principles and fundamentals. The foundations and principles of most of these legal systems are exposed to change and substitution so much that they become the targets of sport and corruption for those who are in a position to set down such legislation.
6. The absence of difficulty and the limitation of imposition. Islamic Law does not impose any obligations of great severity or difficulty. Nothing in Islamic Law is overly burdensome.
Whoever scrutinizes the injunctions of Islamic Law will find within them a clear tendency towards alleviating difficulties. He or she will also find that all obligations that have been imposed, from the onset, have had leniency and ease taken into consideration for the ones who must carry them out.
Allah has commanded that every legally accountable person must perform prayer five times a day, no individual prayer requiring more than a few minutes. The one who is unable to stand is permitted to sit.
There is an equal degree of leniency in fasting. Fasting is obligatory for one month out of the year. The difficulty in carrying it out does not reach the level of any real hardship. In spite of this, breaking the fast is permitted for the one who is traveling or is ill.
Consumption of meat that has not been properly slaughtered is forbidden, but may be eaten in cases of dire necessity.
Expiations have been provided to compensate for certain sins. There are many other things that point to the fact that Islamic Law aims at achieving ease and removing difficulties in its legislation, so that people will not find themselves incapable of fulfilling their obligations and so that their resolve will not become weak in fulfilling that which has been enjoined upon them for their own benefit.
The obligations imposed by Islamic Law are few. They can all be learned in a short period of time. They do not have many particulars and secondary factors to consider, making it easy to know them. This is attested to by Allah’s words:
O you who believe, do not ask about things that if they were made clear to you would cause you harm. If you ask about them when the Qur’ân is being revealed, they will be made clear to you. Allah has forgiven them, and Allah is Forgiving, Forbearing. Those before you asked about them then became disbelievers.
Allah Almighty had forbidden the people from delving into issues and becoming severe with them so that this would not cause certain injunctions to become obligatory that otherwise would not have been made compulsory. This would have led to a greater number of obligations that the people would be incapable of carrying out. This would have caused them to fall into ruin. This verse alludes to the fact that Allah intended to make the number of obligations small in order to make carrying them out easy for us and so that we would not fall into undue hardship.
7. The richness and fullness of Islamic Law. Anyone who studies Islamic Law will find that it contains an abundance of material and a wealth of ideas. This is evident in the various opinions of the jurists and the number of schools of thought. In spite of their large number, their differences, and diversity, none of them go outside the general scope of the Sharî`ah.
You will find in Islamic Law that, for example, there are four major orthodox schools of thought, and you will find that in each school of thought there are a number of opinions attributed to the school’s founder and his students. Moreover, there are the numerous other schools of thought from the earliest generations of Islamic scholars. All of this should make the reader realize that Islamic Law is not limited to the opinions of one scholar or those of a specific group of people. Quite the contrary, it is a collection of opinions that ultimately all stem from the Qur’ân and Sunnah.
This richness is one of the factors that give Islamic Law the ability to develop, grow, and respond to the growth of human civilization. It prevents Islamic Law from becoming rigid and stagnant. This diversity, in reality, stems from disagreement in understanding the same body of textual evidence, so it is a form of disagreement that offers diversity, not antagonism and contradiction.
The richness of Islamic Law manifests itself in the encyclopedic books where its injunctions are recorded in great precision and detail, treating even the most rare cases and sometimes even posing hypothetical situations that have not yet occurred, so that the injunctions will be readily available when they do.
Added to this, the jurists have explored the general tendencies in Islamic Law by studying the injunctions, then deriving general axioms from their patterns, so that these patterns could be used as guidelines for legal decisions. This has become a field of study on its own. In turn, the numerous injunctions that were studied were themselves derived on the basis of other rules outlined in the separate discipline of Islamic Jurisprudence, which deals with the methods by which legal injunctions can be derived from their original sources.
Stages in the Development of Islamic Law
The Prophet (peace be upon him) did not leave this world until after the edifice of the Sharî`ah was completed and its basis and general principles fully outlined. This has been established by a clear text from the Qur’ân:
Today, I have perfected for you your religion and completed my favor upon you and have chosen for you Islam as your religion.
At the same time, the Prophet (peace be upon him) did not leave for his Companions a fully codified Law. He left them with only a collection of principles and general rules and a number of specific injunctions and judicial verdicts that are found in the Qur’ân and Sunnah. This would almost have been sufficient for them if the authority of Islam had not spread beyond the confines of the Arabian Peninsula and met with circumstances and customs that the Muslims had never before encountered.When this happened, they disagreed on how these new factors fit in with the general principles of Islamic Law, its injunctions, and its objectives. That which is contained in the Qur’ân was a set of principles, the understanding of which was capable of being broadened and advanced with the broadening of the scope of human thought and the appearance of the new circumstances that Islam had to deal with when it came in contact with other cultures and customs. At this point in time, the Muslim scholars began to investigate issues and, in a religious light, derive laws for the circumstances of a more informed life.
This advancement in the organization of Islamic Law was the result of the work of the Caliphs and those that followed them in accordance with what was suitable for the circumstances. In the newly opened territories where foreign peoples began entering the fold of Islam in droves, there was a pressing need to instruct them in the things that they were ignorant of and to clearly define the injunctions of the Sharî`ah. It was also necessary to apply these injunctions in a way that would properly regulate human interaction and clearly define the peoples’ rights.
In this way, Islamic Law advanced over the ages, each successive generation contributing to its growth, until it became a great and awesome edifice, regulating in detail every type of human interaction and relationship. One who follows the historical development of Islamic Law will observe that it passed through different stages with respect to its formation, growth, and development over the past fourteen centuries. The writings in Law for every school of thought have seen development since the era of their founders, passing through different styles, from commentaries on original texts, to summaries and abridged works, and then to the great legal encyclopedias. Thereafter, writings began in the field of defining general axioms of Islamic Law that included comparing and grouping injunctions according to patterns evident in the legislations. The field of Comparative Law also developed, as well as Legal Theory, the codification of definitions, and the formulation of formal legal codes.
It is possible to outline the stages of development that Islamic law passed through by dividing it into the following seven stages:
1. The prophetic era, comprising the life of the Prophet (peace be upon him). This era saw the completion of the edifice of the Sharî`ah and the completion of the religion.
2. The era of the rightly guided Caliphs and the period that followed it up to the middle of the first century A.H. This period and the one that preceded it are considered the preliminary stage for the codification of Islamic Law.
