THE RECONSTRUCTION OF LEGAL THOUGHT IN ISLAM

I have given a close reading to the scholary work, The Reconstruction of Legal Thought in Islam, written by Sayyid Riaz-ul-Hasan as a text book of Islamic law.My impression after going through the book is that the author’s knowledge of the subject is vast and his thinking sound. Comparing the Islamic legal system with the other systems of law, he has with very solid arguments established that the law given by God and His Prophet (PBUH) is in every respect superior to manmade law. The Orientalists who are reputed in the Western world for their erudition and who strike half-backed Muslim intellectuals with awe, have come in for such a powerfully reasoned criticism at his hands that the mask has been ripped apart from their intellectual dishonesty. But the most creditable thing about the author is that his view of the Islamic ideology is entirely correct. He has conclusively shown that law to be valid must be derived from Divine Revelation. He has proved on the strength not of mere faith but of compelling logic and cogent reasoning that all law devised by man without the sanction and guidance of the Sovereign of the Universe is basically wrong and definitely void. If The Reconstruction of Legal Thought in Islam is included in the syllabi of all the country and if the teachers of the subject, too, are right- minded Muslims like the author of that book, there will come about, I hope, a remarkable revolution in our legal thought.

AUTHOR: DR. RAIZ UL HASSAN GILANI