ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Fixed and Variable Aspects of Islamic Legislation Legislation Between Subjective and Objective The issue of law is of fundamental importance in human existence. A few questions arise in this regard. Who is entitled to enact and enforce this law and mete out punishment for its violation? What is the basis on which legislation is founded? To answer these questions, let us have a look at the Islamic method of legislation.

A perusal of this system, and of legislative thought, will establish the fact that Islam holds the view that the process of legislation should be based on scientific objectivity in specifying the issues involved in this process.

Thus, the prohibition of alcohol, adultery or hoarding, the imposition of duty, keeping promises, abiding by terms of contracts and declaring, as invalid, contracts concluded under duress, the obligation to respect the human personality and to preserve the family, are all issues that must be scientifically and conscientiously defined, just the way questions in physics and medicine are defined.

In addition to this scientific identification, the process of legislation requires absolute justice and that the legislator be elevated above personal urges in their entirety, for they invariably render man unable to comply with scientific findings. This weakness and the interference of sick, spiritual conditions, natural urges, selfish desires and interests have a serious influence on the human lawmaker.

As a result of this complex situation, the law takes the form of an expression of the legislator's will and a portrait of his personality. Instead of having scientific objectivity as its foundation, the law becomes a reflection of the whims, caprices and selfish interests of the lawmaker.

In this regard, Allah, the Glorious, addresses His Beloved Prophet, Muhammad (s.a.w.) saying: "Then have We set you (O Our Apostle Muham-mad!) on a (definite) course of Law, so follow it, and follow not the vain desires of those who know not." Holy Qur'an (Jathiyah 45: 18) A true knowledge of the issues pertaining to human behaviour, his economic, social, political, spiritual, health and other conditions, can only be attained after a complete grasp of all branches of knowledge and science; be they social, natural or biological, through experimentation, discovery and a careful study of all the relevant issues.