QURAN THE FOUNDATION OF MOHAMMEDAN LAW

 Mohammedan Law is founded upon " Al-QURAN"  which is believed by the orthodox Musalmans to have existed form eternity, subsisting in the very essence of God. The Prophet Mohammad himself declared that it was revealed to him by the angel "Gabriel" in various portions and at different times. Its texts are held by Mohammedans to be decisive as being the words of God ( Kalam-Ullah) transmitted to man through the Prophet. Besides inculcating religion and theology, the ' Quran' contains passages which are applicable to jurisprudence, which from the principal basis of the 'Sharaa'

The Quran is Al-furqan, i.e., one showing truth from falsehood and right from wrong. It is in the form of a series of communications addressed by God to the Prophet. The communications were declared to the people on a great number of different occasion in the last twenty-three years of the Prophet's life, and dealt with a great variety of problems, one after another, as they arose. But whenever the Quran was silent on any particular matter, guidance was taken form the Sunnat i.e., to whatever the Prophet had done, said or tacitly allowed; and also to Hadis i.e., to the Prophet's sayings or the narration of what was said or done by him or was in silence upheld by him. All these are considered by the Mohammedans to be supplement to the Quran and are of the same rank.

Ayaamn-il-Jahilyya - This law had no existence before Mohammad became a Prophet and there was no general law of the races inhibiting the Arabian Peninsula, each tribe was governed by its own laws, and matters in dispute were either referred to the chief, or society in which reforms were introduced by Islam to bring about a complete transformation of the society. The Arabs themselves were so much conscious of this change that they began to refer to the period before Mohammed as the Ayyam-il-Jahilyya, i.e., the period of ignorance or rather wildness or savagery in contrast to the moral reasonableness of a civilized man. It was the days of superstition and idolatry; the position of women was not much better than that of animals; they had no legal rites; in youth they were the goods and chattels of the father; after marriage the husband became their lord and master. Polygamy was universal, divorce was easy and female infanticide was common. 

After the Death of Prophet Mohammad, various competitors came forward claiming to succeed to the Caliphate and divided the people into rival and discordant fractions. But notwithstanding this, the Sunnat as well as Hadis was preserved from hand to hand by authorised persons, and applied to many questions relating to things, both temporal and spiritual touched upon in Quran. After Mohammad's death the Sunnat and Hadis though not recorded were cited by his surviving companions in order to decide occasional disputes and to restrain actions which the Prophet prohibited and thus in the process of time they became the standard of judicial determination.