Abstract

Islamic law has been classified during the International Congress on Comparative Law held in Paris in 1900 as a great original legal system. The basic foundation of Islamic law rests on a moral concept of right and wrong as found in the Koran, the Holy Book of Islam and the traditions of the Prophet Mohammed. Muslim scholars formulated the legal rules and organized into a number of schools of Islamic legal thought. The plurality of opinion among and within these schools attest to the flexibility built into the structure of Islamic law. Later generations of Muslim scholars and intellectual leaders often failed to reach the spirit of the law and to build upon its accomplishments.