islamic law

The Formation of Islamic Law
In pre-Islamic time law lacked a formal structure as there was no set of laws that united the Arabic world. Towns, cities and rural areas all held different laws that were based on tribal tradition. With the revelations of the Prophet, a new religion was born: Islam. The Prophet began to introduce the word of Allah to the people and with that came basic laws that provided an introduction to law. The formation of Islamic law was based on three things, the Qur’an, the Hadith and the Sunnah however legal content was left incomplete. The four schools of Islam were created to define law and create a legal system because the Qur’an, the Sunnah and the Hadith did not define a cohesive legal system. Arabian law was not all that simple in the time of Muhammad. There was not a set of common law and customary law was different in major cities and across Arabia. Customary law was primitive in cities and settlements in comparison to Mecca . Commercial law in Mecca was overseen by traders as it was done by law merchants in Western Europe. It is presumed agricultural contracts and land law in Medina and other settlements were resolved in the same way since they had similar importance to the settlements as trade warranted in Mecca. However, civil law and penal law were dominated by the ancient Arabian tribal system among the entire population. This system exhibited the legal absence of an individual outside a tribe. Legal absence was also shown in the lack of the idea of criminal justice and crimes under torts. The responsibility of the tribe for the actions of its members, and consequently unrestrained vengeance for homicide, was moderated by the institution of wergild . This shows how chaotic and unorganized law was in pre-Islamic times. The lack of an organized political system ensued an organized judicial system. Cities and tribes had different laws and there was not a system of laws that would have induced uniformity in Arabia. The only