Muhammadan Law (Set of 2 Volumes)

Sayed Ameer Ali, who not only occupied an eminent position in the field of Islamic Law, but his word in the last word on the subject, brought out this treatise, on Muhammadan Law after consulting nearly thirty recognised authorities and embodied their statements in this compilation.
It deals with the laws of Gifts, wakfs, wills, Pre-Emption and Bailment in the first Volume and Succession and Status in the Second.
He offers this collection of jewels, pearls and emeralds of Islamic Law for the benefit of the Bench, the Bar and the Students of Law.

This is the seventh edition of the monumental work of the late Syed Amir Ali on Muhammadan Law. The last edition was published in 1965 which was received by the legal circles with great approbation. Since the publication of the last edition quite a number of cases have been decided by our courts on the subject in hand and these are being given as an addenda in this edition.
It is hoped that the profession will welcome this edition also.

Position of Mahommedan Jurisprudence.
THE Jurisprudence of the Moslems occupies a pre-eminent position among the various systems which have, at different times, been in force among different communities. Considering the circumstances under which it originated, the difficulties it had to contend with, and the backward condition of the people among whom it attained its development, it may be regarded as one of the grandest monuments of the human intellect. The legislation of Mohammed has, accordingly, a special significance for philosophic observers whom the study of the progress of mankind, as evidenced in the laws of society, attracts and interests. The resemblance, which the Islamic regulations bear to pre-Mahommedan institutions in some of their essential features, deserves careful consideration, as it serves to show the points of contact between the old conditions of society, stigmatised by the Musulmans as the Ayyam-i-Jahilyet ("the days of ignorance") and the reformed system. This resemblance has induced some critics to charge Mohammed with plagiarism. It seems to me, however, that the charge is founded upon an erroneous conception of Arab society as it existed in those days. At the time when Mohammed promulgated his laws, the Jews were, probably, the only people inhabiting the Arabian peninsula who possessed organic institutions, they formed in the midst of the pagan Arabs, strong communities governed by their own special code. The intimate connection which from time immemorial existed between the Arabs and the Jews, joined to the belief that they were both descended from a common stock, had tended to engraft many Jewish ideas upon Arab manners and customs. In the relations of domestic life especially the influence of the Jews was most strongly marked. The Prophet, in his efforts to introduce a purer Faith and a healthier organisation among his people, did not so entirely overlook the exigencies of society and the requirements of human growth as to denounce all existing institutions, the inevitable result of which would have been to reduce everything to chaos. His constructive mind perceived in them the germs of development, and accordingly he allowed them a place in his system, with such modifications and alterations as would bring those institutions into harmony with a progressive condition of society. But there can be little doubt that he regarded them as temporary in their character, for he unquestionably looked forward to a time when customs and usages consistent with a limited culture, and rules framed for primitive circumstances would disappear with the widening of the social horizon, or would become modified to suit the needs of national and individual progress.