Development of Jurisprudence ••• 113ers, they do so now. You can go into a bazaar (covered market) in Morocco
and feel that it is, in ways you can sense even if you cannot express them,
like the bazaars in Turkey, Pakistan, or forty other Muslim countries. A Su¬
danese student greets us with the same salam alaykum ("peace to you") that
we have heard from Algerians and Iranians. The common performance of
worship, observance of the Ramadan fast, and of course the pilgrimage to
Mecca are all factors unifying Muslims from all parts of the world.Applicability of the Law
But is the Shari'a relevant today? Its laws are fixed forever, and critics claim
that they cannot set the norms for human behavior in a rapidly changing
world. Even in the times we have studied so far, strong rulers tried to bypass
some aspects of the Shari'a, perhaps using a clever dodge but more often by
issuing secular laws, or qanuns. The ulama, as guardians of the Shari'a, had
no police force with which to punish such a ruler. But they could stir up
public opinion, sometimes even to the point of rebellion. No ruler ever
dared to change the five pillars of Islam. Until recently, none interfered with
laws governing marriage, inheritance, and other aspects of personal status.
Islam today must deal with the same issue facing Orthodox Judaism: How
can a religion based on adherence to a divinely sanctioned code of conduct
survive in a world in which many of its nation-states and leading minds no
longer believe in God—or at any rate act as if they do not? Someday, per¬
haps, practicing Muslims, Christians, and Jews will settle their differences
in order to wage war on their common enemies: secularism, hedonism,
positivism, and the various ideologies that have arisen in modern times.
What parts of the Shari'a are irrelevant? Are the marriages contracted by
young people for themselves more stable than those that would have been
arranged for them by their parents? Has the growing frequency of fornica¬
tion and adultery in the West strengthened or weakened the family? If the
family is not to be maintained, in what environment will boys and girls be
nurtured and taught how to act like men and women? Has the blurring
of sex roles in modern society made men and women happier and more
secure? Should drinking intoxicating beverages be allowed, let alone encour¬
aged, when alcoholism has become a public health problem in most indus¬
trialized countries? Does lending money at interest (without shared risk
between the borrower and the lender) promote or inhibit capital formation?
Do games of chance enrich or impoverish the people who engage in them?
If the appeal to jihad in defense of Islam sounds aggressive, on behalf of
what beliefs were the most destructive wars of the twentieth century fought?
Would Muslims lead better lives if they ceased to pray, fast in Ramadan, pay