| experience is Allah (God)…This God, the creator and the sustainer of the universe, is the overwhelming concern of the believer.”[1] Portrays as if Present Islamic Shariah is Man-Made and Non-Devine There are many examples in the book when Esposito misguides the reader in very clever indirect way as if the present Islamic Shariah is not remained in its divine condition but is the result of a number of external influences, for example he wrote that after the death of the holy Prophet PBUH in the reign of the pious caliphs and Umayyad dynasty the judges (qadis) shouldered the responsibility of rendering legal decisions.” [2] Although he described the historical background of the beginning of Juristic school of thoughts but the mode of his description gave a sense as if these schools had not any connection with the basic sources of Islam but established on independent reasoning of the pious Muslim: “…early school of law emerged in major cities of the empire. These schools originally consisted of pious Muslims in Meccs, Medina, Kufa, and Baghdad. In time, they attracted followers who associated themselves with one of the early leaders (imams).”[3] On page 16 and 17 he regarded Islamic laws as affected by pre-Islamic Arabian culture and traditions: The woman who spent most of her life engaged in domestic duties, completely segregated from the world of legal and business agreements, came to be viewed as less competent to deal with such matters. Thus, one can see the influence of custom and traditional attitudes upon the law.” [4] Same aspect can be noted in the following lines: “The awarding of custody to the father is a consistent social reflection of the workings of a traditional, patriarchal, patrilocal family.” [5] In the following lines he portrays as if sources of Islamic Ijtih’d are not authentic and were not verified by Prophet (P.B.U.H.); about ijma al-ummah he wrote: “…however, authority for this ijma is not found in early legal text.” [6] |