ABSTRACT
The Quranic legislation, is predominantly ethical in quality, the quantity is not great by any standards. It amounts in all to some six hundred verses, and the vast majority of these are concerned with the religious duties and ritual practices of prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage. Perhaps the best illustration of the various aspects of the Quranic laws to which historians have referred is provided by the regulations concerning inheritance. In pre-Islamic times the rules of inheritance were designed to consolidate the strength of the individual tribe as an effective participant in the popular sport of tribal warfare. Following the death of many Muslims in the battles fought against the unbelievers, a series of Quranic revelations allotted specific fractions of the deceased's estate to individual relatives. Later events, indeed, were to show that the Quranic precepts form little more than the preamble to an Islamic code of behaviour for which succeeding generations supplied the operative parts.
