The Shariah prescribes both religious and secular duties and sometimes retributive penalties for lawbreaking. By sources of any law means the original materials where the contents of that law are to be found and are made available to us. Study of these sources is necessary because without having any knowledge of the origin of a particular law, its proper explanation and interpretation are not possible. Sources of Muslim law may be classified into two categories: the primary sources: consisting of the Quran, the Sunnah, Ijma, and Qiyas. and secondary sources: Customs, Fatwas, Legislation, and Justice. In this art5icle, we shall study the Quran as the first source of the Muslim Law.
The Quran:
The word Quran is derived from the Arabic word “Qurra” and properly signifies, “the reading” or “that which ought to be read”. It is believed that the Quran is of divine origin and was revealed by God to the Prophet Mohammad for the benefit of mankind by through the Angel Gabriel. Quran is the first source of Muslim law in point of time as well as in importance. It is the basis of Muhammadan law. The Prophet recited (hence the name, Quran) the words as divinely inspired.
The Muslims believe that the Quran is Al-furquan, i.e., one showing the truth as distinguished from falsehood, and right from wrong. The first revelation (Wahi) came to the Prophet in 609 A.D. Since then the revelations continued to come to the Prophet in fragments during a period of 23 years, till 632 A.D. when the Prophet expired (peace be upon him). It is believed that the verses of the Quran pertaining to religion and morality were revealed at Mecca and those pertaining to ‘law’ were revealed at Medina.
These communications or messages from God were conveyed to the society and his followers by the Prophet through his preaching. The communications were in the form of verses and were remembered by the followers of the Prophet. The communications were in scattered form and were not systematically revealed. After the Prophet’s death, the revealed verses were collected, consolidated and systematically written under the authority of Osman who was the third Caliph.
The verses in the Quran were not collected or written down by the Prophet himself, but by his companions immediately after his death. Authentic and well-accepted translations of the Quran have been made by Sole in English, by Suruf Ali in Urdu, and by Du Ryer and Savory in French.
When interpreting the various verses of the Quran. Some of the verses are deemed to be the abrogating (nasikh) verses, whilst others are the abrogated (mansukh) ones. As a general rule, the earlier verses are deemed to be repealed by the later ones. Leading textbooks on Islamic law deal exclusively with the question of how a rule of law is to be deduced when several Quranic verses deal with the same or similar topic, or when one verse affects another, either directly or indirectly.
Features of Quran as Source of Law:
Divine Origin and Unchangeable:
It is believed that the Quran is of divine origin and was revealed by God to the Prophet Mohammad for the benefit of mankind by through the Angel Gabriel. It is believed in Islam that the words and the verses of this holy book are made by Almighty God and not by any human being. The Prophet simply uttered these words on behalf of God. Thus the Quran is a compilation of the very words of God, which are unchangeable and its authority cannot be challenged.
It is the most authoritative source of Muslim law. If any specific meaning has been attributed to a particular verse of the Quran, either by Shia or by Sunni authorities then, the courts have no power to give any other meaning to that verse. The Courts, while administering the law, are not to put their own construction, as against the interpretation of the ancient commentators of established authority.
In Aga Mahomed Jaffar v. Koolsom Beebee, 1897 25 Cal. 9 case the court held that where a particular passage of the Quran was interpreted in a particular manner both in the Hedaya (a work on the Sunni law) and in the Imamia (a work on the Shia law), the Privy Council held that it was not open to a Judge to construe it in a different manner.
First Source:
Quran is the first and fundamental source of Muslim law in point of time as well as in importance because, before the Quran, there was no Islamic society as it exists today. It is the basis of Muhammadan law. Any study of Islamic principles or the Muslim law must, therefore, begin with it.
Structure:
Quran is in the form of verses. Each verse is called ‘Ayat’. There are 6237 verses in the Quran which are contained in 114 Chapters. Each chapter of the Quran is called ‘Sura’. The various chapters are arranged subject-wise and have their specific titles.
The first ‘Sura’ of Quran is Surat-ul-Fatiha which is an introduction to the holy book and consists of verses in the praise of Almighty God. Other chapters contain generally the verses on the subject as per their titles.
Some of the important chapters of Quran are, Surat-un-Nisa (rules relating to women), Surat-ul-Talaq (rules relating to divorce), Surat-ul-Baqr (rules relating to religion and morality), Surat-ul- Ikhlas (principle of absolute surrender to God) and, Surat-ul-Noor (rules relating to home-life).
Incompleteness:
Quran is not a complete code of Muslim personal law and only basic principles of Muslim personal law are given in the Quran. It generally contains verses relating to the philosophy of life and religion.
About 200 verses deal with legal matters and out of these, only about 80 verses deal with personal law. On many legal issues, the Quran is found to be silent. For new problems of society, no legal solutions were available in the apparent words of the Quran.
Different Forms of Legal rules:
Some of the verses of the Quran have removed objectionable and evil customs like child infanticide, unlimited polygamy, gambling, usuary i.e. charging very high interest in loans, etc.
Mixture of Religion, Law, and Morality:
Similar to holy books of other religions, the Quran is a mixture of religion, law and morality. They are mixed in such a manner that it is difficult to separate them.
Conclusion:
The Quran is a source of Muslim law which has come directly from God. It was revealed to the Prophet for the socio-religious reform of the Arabian society of that time and therefore we may find solutions to almost all the problems of that society. It is the most authoritative source of Muslim law. If any specific meaning has been attributed to a particular verse of the Quran, either by Shia or by Sunni authorities then, the courts have no power to give any other meaning to that verse. The Courts, while administering the law, are not to put their own construction, as against the interpretation of the ancient commentators of established authority.
The religion of Islam spread so rapidly that within a short period the Islamic society became a big Islamic Commonwealth. It was obvious that in such a progressive society, new problems arose day by day. Hence it was necessary to explain and supplement the verses of the Quran so that the solution to new problems could be found. Accordingly, as a source of law, the Quran was supplemented by another source called Sunna.