Note 565 — Chapter VI

The author mentions three sciences, viz.: فان قلام fán kalám, “the science of scholastic theology;” فن اصول فقہِ fán ás ul fikah, “the science of the fundamentals of religion and law;” and فن فِقہ fan fikah, “jurisprudence.” We have already explained the first (see note 1, p. 327); the four fundamental articles of the faith have been also enumerated (see note 1, p. 324); but the fikah, “jurisprudence,” although stated as distinct, in reality comprehends the two first, and in addition shows only the practical application of them. Al Ghazali, quoted by Pococke (pp. 200-201, etc., 1st edit.), after having said that this world is created for furnishing assistance on the way to future life, in order that men, with a due check on cupidity, may take as much of this world as may be sufficient for a viaticum, and after having declared, that the jurist is to be the director of the king in the mode of retaining the people in due order, subjoins: “This science (the law) belongs to religion, although not by itself, yet by the intervention of the world. For the world is a field which is sown for the future, nor is religion put into practice, if not by the world. But religion and government are twin-brothers; religion is the foundation, and the king the guardian; but what wants a foundation, verges to ruin, and what has no guardian, goes off into nothing, etc., etc.” The same intimate junction of religion and civil law, which is acknowledged to prevail in the legislation of the Hindus, as well as in that of the ancient Hebrews and Persians, has passed into that of the Muhammedans. Just as the Vedas with the first, the five books of Moses with the second, the writings of Zoroaster with the third, so is the Koran with the fourth, the foundation of their code, and contains what we may call their whole civil and canonical law. With respect to the last-mentioned book, as it contains likewise all the articles of faith, it follows, that a doctor in law is also a doctor in theology; or a faki is at the same time a lawyer and a theologian: hence the word al faqui in the language of the Spaniards, who have preserved to our days, in their character and manners, not a little of their former conquerors, the Saracens.