An Introduction to Islamic Law (46 page)

Imamate:
the institution embodying the Imam in Shi
ism.

istihsan:
literally, preference; technically, a method of inference
preferred
over
qiyas
(q.v.) and taking as its basis alternative textual evidence on
the grounds that this preferred evidence leads to a more reasonable result that does not involve an undue hardship.

istislah:
literally, to find something good or serving a certain lawful interest; technically, a method of inference that does not resort directly to a revealed text as the foundation of reasoning, but rather draws on rational arguments grounded in the five universals of the law, i.e., protection of life, mind, religion, private property and family.

jihad:
literally, striving to do, or be, good; acting morally in deed and in thought; technically in law, rules regulating conduct of war and peace treaties.

judge:
see
jurist
and
qadi
.

jurist:
a legist (q.v.) who achieved a remarkably high level of legal knowledge, usually as a
mufti
(q.v.) and/or an author-jurist (q.v.); every jurist was a legist, but not every legist or even judge was a jurist.

khul
:
see
divorce
.

legal norm:
one of five legal values that a
mujtahid
(q.v.) applies to a case or a particular set of facts; the five norms/values are: forbidden, permissible, obligatory, disapproved and recommended.

legal school:
a non-formal association of jurists who share loyalty to a particular set of legal precepts, a particular methodology of interpretation and of deriving law; in Sunni Islam, the legal schools that have survived after the eleventh century are four, the Hanafi (q.v.), Maliki (q.v.), Shafi
i (q.v.) and Hanbali (q.v.), each named after a master-jurist (q.v.) to whom a particular methodology of doing law is attributed.

legist:
someone learned in the law, be it a
mufti
(q.v.), an author-jurist (q.v.), a judge or a law student.

madhhab:
a legal opinion or juristic principle adopted by a legist; a legal school (q.v.).

madrasa:
college of law that is usually part of an endowment (q.v.
waqf
);
madrasa
s regularly taught language,
hadith
(q.v.) and Quranic studies, and often offered study circles (q.v.) in mathematics, astronomy, logic and medicine.

majlis (al-hukm):
the Islamic court of law in session.

Maliki:
a legal school (q.v.); a legist (q.v.) loyal to the principles and substantive law of Malikism.
See
legal school
.

Marja
-Taqlid:
a relatively recent Twelver-Shi
i concept to the effect that a
mujtahid
(q.v.) acts as the legal and political leader of the community whilst the Imam (q.v.) is in hiding.

maslaha:
see
istislah
.

master-jurist:
a
mujtahid
(q.v.) of the highest caliber who is capable of performing the entire range of
ijtihad
(q.v.), and usually one who is credited with having established a legal school (q.v.). The four doctrinal
schools that survived in Sunni Islam are said to have been founded by Abu Hanifa (d. 767), Malik b. Anas (d. 795), Ibn Idris al-Shafi
i (d. 820) and Ahmad b. Hanbal (d. 855).

mazalim:
the ruler’s courts of grievances that prosecute public officials, including
qadi
s (q.v.), usually on charges of abuse of power.
See also
siyasa shar
iyya
.

mediation:
see
peacemakers
.

mufti:
jurisconsult; usually a learned jurist who issues
fatwa
s (q.v.); a jurist capable of one degree of
ijtihad
(q.v.) or another.

muhtasib:
market inspector whose functions ranged from auditing weights and measures in the marketplace to bringing government officials to the Shari
a court for abuse of their powers.

mujtahid:
a highly learned jurist who is capable of
ijtihad
, i.e., reasoning about the law through applying complex methods and principles of interpretation.
Mujtahid
s are of various ranks, the highest of which is reserved for the one who is said to have fashioned the very methods and principles that he and others in his school apply, while those who are loyal to, and capable of applying, these principles belong to lower ranks.
See also
consensus
,
ijtihad
and
master-jurist
.