ABSTRACT
Weber's argument concerning Islamic law is of considerable complexity and refinement. To formulate it briefly, one may say the following: Islamic law ignores formal rational law, or the law of specialised jurists. This chapter explains how does Islamic law orientate itself toward secular and formal rationalisation? It discusses the question and focuses upon certain special Arab legal institutions. In the historical perspective, Weber speaks about stages in the evolution of law, constituting ideal types that never totally correspond to reality. Material justice according to Weber has its inevitable economic consequences, because it hinders capitalist exploitation of land in a free and rational manner, as well as preventing commercial law from being founded upon only a purely formal validity. Islamic law contains an essential component of sacred law, but it is far more than mere Sharia law. It consists in addition of a large component of jurisprudence, resulting from the four major schools of law in Sunni Islam – fiqh.
