is the very pride and glory of a true Muslim. To look for an
increase of light in the knowledge of his relation to God and the unseen
world, in the laws which regulate Islam on earth is to admit that
Muhammad's revelation was incomplete, and that admission no Muslim will
make.

It has been stated on high authority that all that is required for the
reform of Turkey is that the Qanuns or orders of the Sultan should take the
place of the Shari'at or law of Islam. Precisely so; if this could be done,
Turkey might be reformed; but Islam would cease to be the religion of the
State. That the law as formulated by the Imam Abu Hanifa ill suits the
conditions of modern life is more than probable; but it is the very
function of the Khalif of Islam, {25} which the Sultan claims to be, to
maintain it. He is no Mujtahid, for such there are not now amongst the
Sunnis, to which sect the Turks belong. If through stress of circumstances
some new law must be made, orthodoxy demands that it should be strictly in
accordance with the opinions of the Imams. The Shia'hs, in opposition to
the Sunnis, hold that there are still Mujtahidin, but this opinion arises
from their peculiar doctrine of the Imamat, a subject we shall discuss a
little later on. At first sight it would seem that if there can be
Mujtahidin who are now able to give authoritative opinions, there may be
some hope of enlightened progress amongst Shia'h people--the Persians for
example. There is doubtless amongst them more religious unrest, more
mysticism, more heresy, but they are no further on the road of progress
than their neighbours; and the apparent advantage of the presence of a
Mujtahid is quite nullified by the fact that all his decisions must be
strictly in accordance with the Quran and the Sunnat, or rather with what
to the Shia'h stands in the place of the Sunnat. The Shia'h, as well as the
Sunni, must base all legislation on the fossilized system of the past, not
on the living needs of the present. Precedent rules both with an iron sway.
The Wahhabis reject all Ijma' except that of the Companions, but that they
accept; so when they are called the Puritans of Islam, it must be
remembered that they accept as a rule of faith not only the Quran, but the
Sunnat, and some Ijma'.

In order to make Ijma' binding, it is necessary that the Mujtahidin should
have been unanimous in their opinion or in their practice.

The whole subject of Ijtihad is one of the most important in