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Fiqh - Jurisprudence
The goal is to realize the benefits of people.
Islamic Jurisprudence is a human product. It is changeable according to circumstances.
Shariah is divided into fiqh and morality.
Fiqh is further divided into ibadaat (worship) and moamalat (interaction).
Interaction is then divided into God’s right and individual’s right.
We are going to discuss on individual’s rights.
Linguistically, fiqh means “understanding” but the term is used in Islamic literature to mean “to craft and codify laws in response to the needs of people, it is a mandate on adults who are free to choose.” Laws are either divine or human i.e. entirely made by human or a mixture of both. So the laws of shariah went through a process of evolution.
Evolution of Fiqh
After the Prophet (Pbuh) passed away, a meeting took place called Saqifa to decide who will rule Madinah. Saqifa is a place/chamber of the Ansars. They were about to arrive at a decision. Abu Bakr and Umar rushed to that meeting. If I can read their mind, probably they felt that if a new leader was elected from the group of Ansar, then it would be problematic because Quraish will not abide by the other tribe. There was a kind of hierarchy among the tribes at that time.
• There were very heated debates. Ali ibn Abu Talib did not attend as he was taking care of the Prophet’s (Pbuh) burial.
• There were many proposals like:
• Take one year each so that each group can alternate
• Have two leaders elected, one from each group
• The one who fought the battles
• The one who is close to Prophet (Pbuh) and must be Quraish
• President will be one of us, Vice-President will be one of you
• Abu Bakr said either Umar or Uthman should be elected, but Umar declined stating he cannot accept while Abu Bakr is there.
• At the end, the head of Ansar, Saad ibn Muaz named Abu Bakr as the Caliph and thereafter everyone except Sa’d ibn Ubayda advanced turn by turn to offer allegiance to Abu Bakr
• Abu Bakr became the first Caliph
After Abu Bakr’s death, Umar became the Caliph followed by Uthman.
Each one got position in different way.
Abu Bakr got the position of being the Amir of the faithful.
During Umar’s rule Islam spread extensively east and west conquering the Persian empire, Syria and Egypt. It was Umar who marched on foot at the head of the Muslim army into Jerusalem and ordered the protection of Christian sites.
Uthman is also known as the caliph who had the definitive text of the Qur’an copied and sent to the four corners of the Islamic world. Ali is known to this day for his eloquent sermons and letters, and also for his bravery.
This shows that the process of electing Caliphs is not sacred.
Rightly guided Caliphs
• Umar was assassinated.
• Uthman was assassinated in a revolt.
• Ali came to power when the Muslims were really divided.
• Muawiya refused to give allegiance to Ali.
• Ali felt that he should fight against Muawiya and thus resulted in the first civil war.
• Ayesha revolted against Ali.
• Ali accepted arbitration; Khawarij refused and revolted. Then Khawarij decided to kill both Ali and Muawiya; succeeded in killing Ali, but failed to kill Muawiya.
• Hussein revolted against Yazid, the son and successor of Muawiya and was killed in Karbala , Iraq .
• Authoritarianism based on who is powerful was established.
• Romantic era of values changed into a Kingdom model.
Umayyad Dynasty (661-747 A.H.)
• During this era several important things began.
• Foundation of Islamic Jurisprudence was laid.
• Umayyads were successful in military campaign.
• It became an empire.
• It paved way for many people especially non-Arabs coming to Islam.
• Arabism started for the first time with racist overtone. Umayyads maintained superiority of Arabs ignoring the hadith of Prophet (Pbuh) that prohibits racial discrimination and that the Arab is simply the person who speaks Arabic.
• Completely suppressed Ali’s supporters.
• Party of Ali (Shiite Ali) went underground and developed its own jurisprudence, a jurisprudence affected by the environment of oppression.
• Umayyad came up with their jurisprudence to protect themselves, a jurisprudence that emphasizes obedience to the ruler and maintaining the status quo.
Abbasid Dynasty
• Abbasids who are from Prophet’s uncle lineage defeated Umayyads and took over the dynasty.
Abbasids ruled for 400 years.
• The state was strong, became super power, rich but the society was very corrupt in many ways.
• They became familiar with Greek mythology and philology.
• After the first Abbasid period, the second Abbasid period became very weak.
• While the Abbasids ruled in Baghdad, a number of powerful dynasties such as the Fatimids, Ayyubids and Mamluks held power in Egypt.
• After that, there was no more expansion of dynasty and just maintained what they had.
• West was awakened to regain power.
• An era of problems, both internally and externally; tyranny established.
• Imam Zaid, a descendant of Imam Hussein led a revolution, but was defeated, crucified, his body burnt, ashes sprayed so that no tomb can be visited.
• The umma started to isolate from the palace and most of the people were led by the ulema to
stay alive.
• Jurisprudence was developed at this time under authoritarianism and some of them were complacent
• In the 13th century, Abbasid completely collapsed when the Tatar wave came and took over Baghdad in a very brutal conquest.
Spain
With the collapse of Umayyad dynasty, a refugee named Abdur Rahman went to Spain and established a Muslim presence that ruled for eight centuries.
India and China
Islam flourished in India and China.
Ottoman Empire
• The Ottoman dynasty is the longest surviving Islamic dynasty that lasted for 500 years.
• They conquered good parts of Europe, ruled countries like Bosnia, south of France etc. Hence the Bosnian genocide that we witnessed recently is a sort of vengeance.
• The Ottomans were strong in military power.
• But they nevertheless remained a force to be reckoned with until the First World War when they were defeated by the Western nations.
Political Divisions
After the death of Prophet (Pbuh) through the 1st century.
Madinah - Saqifah
Abu Bakr’s period - The Apostate movement
Rebels against Uthman
Zubair who was attacked in Makkah
Ayesha and her school was politically active
Khawarij
Zaidies
Shias
Philosophical Divisions
Al Murjiites (The Postponers)
They said there is nothing called good or bad, leave it to God. There is no one better than the other one. Umayyad supported that.
Mutazilities (isolated)
They went through extensive intellectual analysis and rational approach.
Studied Socrates method, imbibed Greek philology and debate. They were free thinkers, critical thinkers and as rational as they are. In addition to that there were so many other odd movements as well.
Conceptual level division:
People of rationality and text
People of jurisprudence
People of hadith
People of Kalam (philosophy and logic)
Sufism
This marathon through Islamic history represents the context within which Islamic Jurisprudence developed.
(The writer is, Sr. Advisor, Muslim Public Affairs Council [MPAC])
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