ABSTRACT
Sharia law had come into being as a doctrinal system independent of and essentially opposed to current legal practice. But the scholars, at least in the early period, had in no way opposed the existing constitution or its legal and administrative machinery as such. Islamic legal practice was based on a dual system of courts and all functions in the Islamic state were theoretically religious in nature. The distinction between the Mazalim and Sharia jurisdictions came very close to the notion of a division between secular and religious courts. Legal scholarship from the eleventh century onwards evolved a doctrine of public law which rationalised the place which the Sharia had in fact come to occupy in the organisation of the Islamic state. Enough has been said to indicate that Sharia law, however strong its religious force as providing an ideal and comprehensive code of conduct for the individual, can form only a part of the Islamic legal system.
