of Madina.'

It is not difficult to see that a system, which sought to regulate all
departments of life, all developments of men's ideas and energies by the
Sunnat and analogical deductions {19} therefrom, was one which not only
gave every temptation a system could give to the manufacture of Tradition,
but one which would soon become too cumbersome to be of practical use.
Hence, it was absolutely necessary to systematize all this incoherent mass
of Tradition, of judgments given by Khalifs and Mujtahidin. This gave rise
to the systems of jurisprudence, founded by the four orthodox Imams, to one
or other of which all Muslims, except the Shia'hs, belong. These Imams, Abu
Hanifa, Ibn Malik, As-Shafi'i and Ibn Hanbal were all Mujtahidin of the
highest rank. After them it is the orthodox belief that there has been no
Mujtahid. Thus in a standard theological book much used in India it is
written: "Ijma' is this, that it is not lawful to follow any other than the
four Imams." "In these days the Qazi must make no order, the Mufti give no
fatva (_i.e._ a legal decision), contrary to the opinion of the four
Imams." "To follow any other is not lawful." So far then as orthodoxy is
concerned, change and progress are impossible.

Imam Abu Hanifa was born at Basra (A.H. 80), but he spent the greater part
of his life at Kufa. He was the founder and teacher of the body of legists
known as 'the jurists of Irak.' His system differs considerably from that
of the Imam Malik who, living at Madina, confined himself chiefly to
Tradition as the basis of his judgments. Madina was full of the memories of
the sayings and acts of the Prophet; Kufa, the home of Hanifa, on the
contrary, was not founded till after the Prophet's death and so possessed
none of his memories. Islam there came into contact with other races of
men, but from them it had nothing to learn. If these men became Muslims,
well and good: if not, the one law for them as for the Faithful was the
teaching of Muhammad. Various texts of the Quran are adduced to prove the
correctness of this position. "For to thee have we sent down the book which
cleareth up every thing." (Sura xvi. 91) "Nothing have we passed over in
the book." (Sura vi. {20} 38.) "Neither is there a grain in the darkness of
the earth nor a thing green or sere, but it is noted in a distinct
writing." (Sura vi. 59). These texts were held to prove that all law was
provided for by anticipation in the Quran. If a verse could