" (45:18) And, whatever the circumstances in which this...

" (45:18) And, whatever the circumstances in which this verse was revealed, the meaning of the word Shari'ah here is the same as is understood today, i.e. the divine legislation of Islam. In another place the Prophet is told to. tell his followers: " If you love God, follow me; God will love you.

" (3:30) From these two verses the Muslim realizes that it is incumbent on those who desire to obey God and to be loved by God to follow the Shari'ah of Islam as introduced and practiced by the Holy Prophet and his true followers. The only problem is the determining of the Shari'ah, for the Shari'ah was not revealed for mankind as the Qur’an was revealed, and unless the Shari'ah is properly identified it can never be properly followed.

This identifying of the Shari'ah, then, in the light of the Qur’anic command to follow it, is the purpose of the two Islamic sciences of Jurisprudence ( fiqh ) and the Principles of Jurisprudence ( usul ul-fiqh ) which are outlined in the present translation. The aim of this work is to acquaint the reader with the Shari'ah and how it is realized. The original book was in Persian, and in translation it has been slightly abridged to suit a different readership.

The translator owes his thanks to his wife, most of all for her encouragement, and to Syed Mohammad Rizvi for his ready and valuable assistance in editing the first part of the draft. This translation is dedicated to those who will make good use of it.

This definition should be kept in mind by the reader for jurisprudence in the Islamic perspective is based on the divine principles of the Holy Qur’an and are not man-made laws in the sense of western jurisprudence. In the same way, a jurisprudent ( faqih ) in Islamic terminology is a person trained in the traditional Islamic sciences, meaning that a jurisprudent, in this sense, is a master of the Qur’an and the divine commands regulating actions. —Laleh Bakhtiar Shawwal, 1401…