ABSTRACT
As Abu Hanífa’s statement quoted above eloquently emphasizes, the study of these subjects in mosques and later also in mádrasas had quite concrete practical goals: to instill in students the knowledge of their rights and obligations vis-à-vis God and the Muslim community and, in so doing, to guide them on the path to salvation in the hereafter. As such, a minimum amount of this salvific knowledge (namely, the times and methods of prayers, Qur’anic verses to be used in them, the days and times of fasting, the percentage of income or property to be given away as alms, the rites of pilgrimage, dietary prohibitions, and so on) was required of every believer.9 To learn such basic religious precepts he or she could either attend a class at a mosque or learn them from his or her parents at home. In this way, this sum total of basic religious precepts was reproduced and transmitted within Muslim societies.
