PROGRESS OF ISLAMIC SCIENCE 507 



(Pflichtenlehre) of quite an ideal and theological character, traced 

 out by generations of religious scholars, who wished to rule life by the 

 scale of an age which in their idea was the golden period, and whose 

 traditions they wished to maintain, propagate, and develop. Even 

 the penalties for offenses against religious laws are often nothing 

 else but ideal claims of the pious, dead letters conceived in studies 

 and fostered in the hearts of God-fearing scholars, but neglected and 

 suppressed in life where other rules became prevailing. We find 

 even in the oldest literature of Islam many complaints about the 

 negligence of the religious law by 'Ulema in their struggle against the 

 practical judges, that is to say against the executors of actual law. 1 



By this correct definition of Fikh as a doctrine of mere duties, the 

 notion of its character appears in a new light. The scientific historical 

 judgment of this discipline entered herewith into a new phase of 

 which Snouck Hurgronje must be called the author. 2 



By another fundamental doctrine Dr. Snouck has also established 

 a new point of view for the understanding of the legal life of Islam. 

 It had indeed been known before that orthodox Islam has four 

 "roots" in its law: first, the Koran; secondly, tradition; thirdly, 

 deductive reasoning; and fourthly, the consensus of the orthodox 

 community. It was understood also, in a way, that the validity of 

 these sources of law followed each other in descending rank; that 

 is to say, the consideration of the ecclesiastic consensus only occu- 

 pied the place of a root of law, in case scripture, tradition, and 

 reasoning forsook us. Now we know and this knowledge of ours 

 is one of the most important advances in the science of Islam that 

 the principle of consensus (in Arabic Idjmd') is in verity the key to 

 comprehending the phenomena of historical Islam. Not so much the 

 Koran and tradition I have said elsewhere is the standard for 

 the management of religious matters, as the manner in which the 

 words and sense of these two are interpreted by the common feeling 

 and sense of the competent community. 



This principle is the foundation and the legitimizing basis for 

 the admission, even for the obligatory character of all innovations 

 adopted by Islam in the course of its history. The admission of 

 a certain dogmatic method in explaining Koranic words, the author- 

 ity awarded to the acknowledged collections of authentic traditions, 

 the statement of what has to pass for orthodox in law, the ad- 

 mission of newly arisen opinions and doctrines, in one word, the 



1 Cf . the present writer's paper, Muhammadanisches Recht in Theorie und Wirk- 

 lichkeit, in Kohler's Zcitschrift fur verghichende Rechtswissenschaft, vol. 8. 



2 The principal theories of this scholar, explained in his manifold publications, 

 are summed up in his essays, De Islam (published in the Dutch review De Gids, 

 1886), Le Droit Musulman in Revue de I'Histoire des Religions, vol. 37 (1897). 



Basing on these methodical and historical principles, the Dutch scholar Th. 

 W. Juynboll has given the most valuable scientific system of Muhammadan law in 

 his work Handlciding tot de Kennis van de Mohammedaansche- Wet (Leiden, 1903). 



