ABSTRACT
The Islamic tradition places great emphasis upon the centrality of the Holy Law, or shari'a, in the good life. At the same time, it affirms with equal emphasis that the Holy Law is not given to man ready-made, to be passively received and applied; rather, it is to be actively constructed on the basis of those sacred texts which are its acknowledged sources. The Holy La w is the totality of rules which God has laid down for the governing of Man's behavior; i t is the aggregate of aiJ.käm shari'ya. Though ordained by God, few of these rules have been precisely spelled out for man's convenience; rather, man has the duty to derive them from their sources. In the standard Islamic metaphor, the rules thernselves are "branches" (jurii ') or "fruit" (thamara), which grow out of "roots" (U$ul), that is, from the sources. Only the roots are given; the branches, or fruit, are not-they must be made to appear; and for this to happen human involvement-we may call i t, in keeping with the above metaphor, human husbandry-is required.
