. Whatever in feeling or
conviction goes beyond the limits of an out-worn set of laws is swept away.
There is a wonderful family likeness in the decay of all Musalman States,
which seems to point to a common cause. All first principles are contained
in the Quran and the Sunnat; all that does not coincide with them must be
wrong. They are above all criticism.

Qias, then, affords no hope of enlightened progress, removes no fetter of
the past, for in it there must be no divergence in principle from a
legislation imperfect in its relation to modern life and stationary in its
essence.[32] In the Nihayat-ul-Murad it is written:--"We are shut up to
following the four Imams." In the Tafsir-i-Ahmadi we read:--"To follow any
other than the four Imams is unlawful." An objector may say that such
respect is like the reverence the heathen pay to their ancestors. To this
an answer is given in the preface to the Tarjuma-i-Sharh-i-Waqayah. The
writer there says that it is nothing of the kind. "The Mujtahidin are not
the source of the orders of the Law, but they are the medium by which we
obtain the Law. Thus Imam Abu Hanifa said: 'We select first from the Quran,
then from the Traditions, then from the decrees of the Companions; we act
on what the Companions agreed upon; where they doubt, we doubt.' The
Commentator Jelal-ud-din Mahli says, 'The common people and others who have
{29} not reached the rank of a Mujtahid, must follow one of the four
Imams.' Then when he enters one Mazhab (sect) he must not change. Again, it
may be objected that God gave no order about the appointment of four Imams.
Now, it is recorded in a Tradition that the Prophet said, 'Follow the way
of the great company; whosoever departs from it will enter hell.' The
Followers of the Imams are a great company." It is moreover the unanimous
opinion, the "Ijma'-i-Ummat," that the Imams rightly occupy the position
accorded to them. It is a great blessing, as we read in the
Tafsir-i-Ahmadi: "It is of the grace of God, that we are shut up to these
four Imams. God approves of this, and into this matter proofs and
explanations do not enter." Should any one further object that, in the days
of the Prophet, there were no Mujtahidin, that each man acted on a "saying"
as he heard it, that he did not confine his belief or conduct to the
deductions made by some "appointed Companion," he may be answered
thus:--"For a long time after the death of the Prophet many Companions were
alive