Nature and Sources of Islamic Law
![handle is hein.journals/gwlr22 and id is 13 raw text is: NATURE AND SOURCES OF ISLAMIC LAW
MAJID KHADDURI *
CUSTOMARY LAW AND ISLAMIC LAW
Muslim jurists took it for granted that since Islamic
law was a divinely ordained system, its origin had noth-
ing to do with pre-Islamic law. Some went so far as to
assert that Islam cancelled all the legal systems that pre-
ceded it since the Koran provided a detailed account of
everything.' Others, especially the Hanafi jurists, rec-
ognized as valid only those pre-Islamic rules and practices
which were not expressly abrogated by divine legislation.
While the latter school of thought saw no harm in ac-
cepting certain pre-Islamic legal principles,' the former
repudiated the validity of all pre-Islamic doctrines, unless
for the purpose of showing that no inconsistency exists
between the two schools the term substitution is con-
sidered to mean cancellation, as Ibn Khaldun stated,
without giving any value judgment on the validity of pre-
Islamic legal systems.3 Neither school, however, gives an
adequate interpretation of the origin and development of
Islamic law, much less of the relation of law to Arab
society. There is ample evidence to show, however, that
Islamic law evolved from Arab customary law and that,
after the expansion of the Islamic state, Islam absorbed
* School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University.
'Koran, XIII, 3. See also Koran, XVI, 92: We have revealed to you a
Book explaining everything, and Koran, VI, 39: ... We have-neglected
nothing in the Book.
2 The Hanafi and Maliki jurists recognized customary .law, if not abrogated
by the Koran, as valid as Islamic law. The Hanafis maintain that . . . the
law preceding us is a law for us. See 15 AL-SARAKHSI, AL-MABSUT 171-172
(Cairo 1913).
3 The Shar, said Ibn-Khaldun, prohibited the consideration of other
Heavenly Books than the Qur'an [Koran]. The Prophet said: 'do not accept
nor refute the views of the People of the Book; say to them: We believe in
what is revealed to us and to you; our Lord and yours is one.' IBN-KAImm,
AL-MIUQADDIMA 306 (Cairo).
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Nature and Sources of Islamic Law
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