Encyclopedia of Islam

fiqh

  

239  J

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According to jurists, the legal correctness of any 

activity was to be judged according to a scale of 

values. On the positive side were acts deemed 

to be required or recommended by God and the 

Prophet; on the negative side were forbidden and 

reprehensible ones. Between these two groups 

were acts and relations that were simply permit-

ted, without special merit or fault. Adherence 

to Islamic law was a matter of personal respon-

sibility, endorsed by the quranic commandment 

of “commanding the right and forbidding the 

wrong” (Q 3:104). Ultimately, divine reward and 

punishment awaited Muslims in the hereafter 

according to their righteousness or sinfulness. 

In society, however, the law was enforced by the 

state and its designated officials, such as the judge 

(qadi) and public censor (muhtasib). People also 

obtained advisory opinions (sing. 

FatWa

) from a 

fiqh specialist known as a 

mUFti

. Basic knowledge 

about the law and its “roots” was gained by liv-

ing in a Muslim society, but those who were to 

become experts had to become literate in Arabic 

and study with legal scholars at Islamic colleges 

(sing. 

madrasa

). There, fiqh was the core subject 

of the curriculum.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, fiqh and the 

authority of jurists were seriously weakened with 

the introduction of Western legal systems as a 

result of colonization and the creation of modern 

nation-states. In most Muslim countries, fiqh was 

confined to matters of personal law, and efforts 

were made to reduce a legal tradition in which 

differences of opinion were accepted to one 

concretized in formal legal codes. Jurists have 

since responded by engaging in their own legal 

reform efforts and creating schools for preserv-

ing and propagating their religious traditions 

within increasingly secular societies. In some 

countries, moreover, Islamic jurisprudence and 

Muslim jurists have assumed positions of sig-

nificant influence, such as Saudi Arabia and Iran. 

Indeed, in the 1970s, the Iranian revolutionary 

leader Ayatollah r

Uhollah

  k

homeini

 (d. 1989) 

promoted a theory of Islamic government ruled 

by jurists called wilayat al-faqih, “the jurist’s 

government,” which served as the basis for the 

drafting of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s constitu-

tion in 1979.

See also 

colonialism

; 

edUcation

; 

hisba

; 

secU

-

larism

; W

ahhabism

.