Customer Reviews

This Law of Ours And Other Essays

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The author Muhammad Asad explains why the Shari'ah is no longer a dominating factor in the lives of Millions of Muslims, as it once was in the very early history of Islam. The book is realy a collection of thoughts, essays and broadcasts made by the author over a 40 year period. At once we realise how Shari'ah has come to be manipulated in the hands of a few specialists who call themselves fuquha, who themselves have forgotten that the opinions of the four Imams are only time bound and could have no bearing on todays problems. Yet this absurd notion of piety for the dead scholars is continued to this day by many scholars, with endless rhetoric about nobody now is cable of understanding the Shari'ah. The author argues strongly that the Shari'ah, by its very nature a divine law cannot be subject to scholary opinion, but must be laid down in plain terms, technically called a nass. By their very nature most of these nass injuctions are always given in general terms, to allow for human social development.

This is one of the most incredible books you'll ever find to explain the modern day divisions within the Islamic world. It serves as an explanation of the historical decline in Muslim free thought and debate in favor of the current strict reliance on codified traditions and interpretations.

Being a lawyer myself and interested in the challenges Islamic law is facing nowadays, I greatly enjoyed the first chapter of the book. The first chapter is entitled "This Law of Ours" and is mainly a critique of overwhelming reliance on deductions of previous scholars of four main madhahib. M. Asad's critique is based on the main argument that modern social issues require new deductions and thus reliance on the previous ijtihadi decisions of scholars makes Islamic law incompetent in addressing contemporary social problems.

I also liked "The Answers of Islam" chapter of the book. M. Asad answers the questions posed by well-know German publisher Gerhard Szczeshy about Islam's stance on universe in general, other religions, humanitarianism, religion and society, etc.