FROM THE EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

in the Prophet’s time for the essentials of Islam, that is, the sum total of Islamic laws that were revealed to the Prophet of Islam in the form of the Quran. The Prophet, besides conveying the revelation, gave commandments as well. These orders and exhortations of the Prophet were firmly based on revelation, but did not form part of the Quran. They are called the Sunnah, which is the second source of Islamic law, the first being the Quran. Fiqh is thus the name given to jurisprudence in Islam. In other words, fiqh or the science of Islamic law, is the study of one’s rights and obligations, derived from the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet, the consensus of opinion among the learned and analogical inference. THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF FIQH Fiqh, in its widest sense, covers all aspects of religious, political, and civil life. In addition to the laws regulating ritual and religious observances (stipulated prayers), it includes also the whole field of family law, the law of inheritance of property and of contract. In other words, it makes provisions for all the legal questions that arise in social life as well as for religious practices. It also includes criminal law and its procedure as well as constitutional law and laws regulating the administration of the state and matters pertaining to security issues. During the time of the Prophet, there was no such-well defined science as that which later came to be known as fiqh. The only ideal for the early Muslims was the conduct of the Prophet. They learnt ablutions, saying prayers, performing Hajj, etc., under the instructions of the Prophet and by observing his actions. On certain occasions, cases were brought to the Prophet for arbitration. The Prophet’s decisions were taken as models for other similar cases. The Companions occasionally asked him questions relating to certain serious problems and the Prophet gave them suitable replies. People in his lifetime were not interested in unnecessary philosophical discussions or in hair-splitting details. The Companions generally asked the Prophet very few questions. On one occasion, when someone put unnecessary questions to him, the Quran asked the Companions to Fiqh refers to the science of deducing Islamic laws from evidence found in the sources of Islamic jurisprudence.