The sources of law ( usūl al-fiqh )

1. The sources of law (usūl al-fiqh) • Koran (qur’ān, “proclamation”, “repetition aloud”, “recitation”). Eternal and uncreated. Exact word of God (kalām Allah). • Sunna al-nabī, sunna (deeds and words) of the Prophet (and his fellows); (for the Shi‘ites also the imām’s Sunna). The work of systematisation, which resulted in 6 great collections, was concluded in the 9th century. • Ijmā‘, consensus of the community, unanimous agreement of the umma. • Qiyās, analogical deduction ‘aql (raison, raisoning)

2. Muʿtazilah(9th-11thcenturies) The Mu‘tazilis, “those ones who distance themselves” • Belief in a created Koran • Prominence given to the raison (‘aql) in the interpretation of the Holy Text al-Ma’mūn (813-848) 1017: definitive banning of the Mu‘tazilah school by the caliph al-Qadir

3. Shar‘īa, “the way thatleadsto the sources”, “straight and narrow” •  «We have revealed the Book to you explaining clearly everything» (Koran, 16, 89) •  out of 6.237 Koran verses, only 190 (around 3%) contain specific legal prescriptions •  the great part affects the family and succession laws

4.  «Discrepancies of opinions among the wise men of my community are a sign of God’s grace» (hadīth). Hanafism (Iraq, Iranian upland, Transoxiana, Central Asia, Ottoman Empire) Malikism (Maghreb, Sub-Saharan Africa, Egypt (in the past also in Andalusia and Sicily) Shafi‘ism (Bahrayn, Yemen, Indian subcontinent, Indonesia, East Africa, Kurds) Hanbalism (Persian Gulf, Saudi Arabia) The madhhab by Ibn Hanbal do not recognise the qiyās Sunni legal schools (madhāhib)

5. Ijtihād (jhd, interpretative effort) • In the early centuries of Islam the faqīh, freely, without an official recognition, made a complex work of juridical creation through the ijtihād. • In the 11th century it was decided to close the “door of interpretation” (bāb al-ijtihād). • As a consequence, jurists’ task has been limited to follow the way drawn by the mujtahid through the taqlīd (imitation).

6. Daniele Comboni (1831-1881) ‘The real progress, the real civilisation and the Koran cannot stay together. One destroys the other’. The Apostolic Vicariate of Central Africa

7. Islamic Reformism (islāh) Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1838-1897) Pan-Islamism He was a stirring orator, but he wrote little: leading articles on al-‘Urwa al-wuthqa(‘the indissoluble link’); al-Raddala’l-dhahriyyin, ‘The Refutation of the Materialists’; a reply to Renan’s lecture on L’Islamisme et la science).

8. Muhammad ‘Abduh (1849-1905) Al-Azhar  ‘alim Teacher Mufti of Egypt  fatwā Risālat al-tawhīd (Letter of Unity) In the 1st edition of Risālat al-tawhīd, ‘Abduh upheld that the Koran is created. Eternal is the message, while the tangible expression is created (the book). Then, due to criticisms, he revised his position.

9. Ijtihād taqlīd ‘Abduh made a distinctions between acts directed towards the worship of God (‘ibādāt) and those directed towards other men and life in the world (mu‘āmalāt).Quran and hadīth laid down specific rules about worship that are unchangeable; instead mu‘āmalāt, that are ruled by general principles, are the legitimate sphere of ijtihād. A guiding rule to follow for a right interpretation of religious sources is the principle of “interest” (maslāha), that is to say the general welfare of humankind at a certain time.

10. The term Salafiyya comes from al-salaf al-sālih, the elders or venerable ancestors. Two different strands can be identified: • conservative, anti-Western, defensive attitude towards Europe (Wahabism)  adaptation to modernity, selective adoption of Western science and European political ideas.

11. Has a ‘liberal age’ ever existed in the Muslim world? • Was the reform process in the Muslim world brought about by external or internal factors?