The Logic of Law Making in Islam

Women and Prayer in the Legal Tradition

This pioneering study examines the process of reasoning in Islamic law. By analyzing rulings from the Hanafi school, the author interrogates whether sacred law operated differently from secular law, why laws changed, and how different cultural and historical settings impacted on the development of legal rulings. The result is a fascinating overview of the evolution of Islamic law and the role of its jurists.

Introduction One sometimes encounters the idea that Islamic law captures the
spirit of Muslim civilization.1 It is thus not entirely unexpected to find a scholar
extracting sentences from the Qur'an, Hadith, or legal handbooks and thence ...