According to jurists, the legal correctness of any
activity was to be judged according to a scale of
values. On the positive side were acts deemed
to be required or recommended by God and the
Prophet; on the negative side were forbidden and
reprehensible ones. Between these two groups
were acts and relations that were simply permit-
ted, without special merit or fault. Adherence
to Islamic law was a matter of personal respon-
sibility, endorsed by the quranic commandment
of “commanding the right and forbidding the
wrong” (Q 3:104). Ultimately, divine reward and
punishment awaited Muslims in the hereafter
according to their righteousness or sinfulness.
In society, however, the law was enforced by the
state and its designated officials, such as the judge
(qadi) and public censor (muhtasib). People also
obtained advisory opinions (sing. FatWa) from a
fiqh specialist known as a mUFti. Basic knowledge
about the law and its “roots” was gained by liv-
ing in a Muslim society, but those who were to
become experts had to become literate in Arabic
and study with legal scholars at Islamic colleges
(sing. madrasa). There, fiqh was the core subject
of the curriculum.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, fiqh and the
authority of jurists were seriously weakened with
the introduction of Western legal systems as a
result of colonization and the creation of modern
nation-states. In most Muslim countries, fiqh was
confined to matters of personal law, and efforts
were made to reduce a legal tradition in which
differences of opinion were accepted to one
concretized in formal legal codes. Jurists have
since responded by engaging in their own legal
reform efforts and creating schools for preserv-
ing and propagating their religious traditions
within increasingly secular societies. In some
countries, moreover, Islamic jurisprudence and
Muslim jurists have assumed positions of sig-
nificant influence, such as Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Indeed, in the 1970s, the Iranian revolutionary
leader Ayatollah rUhollah khomeini (d. 1989)
promoted a theory of Islamic government ruled
by jurists called wilayat al-faqih, “the jurist’s
government,” which served as the basis for the
drafting of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s constitu-
tion in 1979.
See also colonialism; edUcation; hisba; secU-
larism; Wahhabism.Further reading: Ignaz Golziher, Introduction to Islamic
Theology and Law. Translated by A. and R. Hamori
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1981);
Wael Hallaq, The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004); Fazlur
Rahman, Islam. 2d ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2002); Joseph Schacht, An Introduction to Islamic
Law (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964).Fire (Arabic: al-nar)
Fire is not just an element of nature in Islam, it
is also the equivalent of hell. Belief in a place of
punishment for wrongdoers in the aFterliFe is
widespread among the world’s religions. In Islam,
belief in a fiery hell, together with belief in a
heavenly paradise for the righteous, is regarded as
an important component of Faith. Muslims base
their afterlife beliefs on the qUran and the hadith,
where there are numerous statements about both
the Fire and paradise. Historically, however, these
beliefs were developed from afterlife ideas that
had originated earlier among the ancient civiliza-
tions of the Middle East, Zoroastrianism and early
Judaism and Christianity.
According to the Quran, the Fire was a hor-
rific “home” or “dwelling” where the sinful
and unbelievers were forced to wear clothing
of fire, drink scalding water, and eat poisonous
fruit (Q 37:62–68; 22:19–21). Another Quranic
name for the Fire was Gehenna (jahannam), a
term for hell used in Judaism and Christianity.
The Quranic depiction of the Fire was greatly
enhanced in later medieval accounts about the
afterlife that occur in the hadith, theological
works, and visionary literature. According to
some imaginative traditions, the realm of theK 240 Fire