not be found
bearing on any given question, analogical deduction was resorted to. Thus:
"He it is who created _for you_ all that is on earth." (Sura ii. 27).
According to the Hanifite jurists, this is a deed of gift which annuls all
other rights of property. The 'you' refers to Muslims. The earth[24] may be
classified under three heads:--(1) land which never had an owner; (2) land
which had an owner and has been abandoned; (3) the person and property of
the Infidels. From the last division the same legists deduce the lawfulness
of slavery, piracy and constant war against the unbelievers. To return to
Abu Hanifa. He admitted very few Traditions as authoritative in his system,
which claims to be a logical development from the Quran. "The merit of
logical fearlessness cannot be denied to it. The wants and wishes of men,
the previous history of a country--all those considerations, in fact, which
are held in the West to be the governing principles of legislation, are set
aside by the legists of Irak as being of no account whatever. Legislation
is not a science inductive and experimental, but logical and
deductive."[25]

Imam Ibn Malik was born at Madina (A.H. 93) and his system of jurisprudence
is founded, as might be expected from his connection with the sacred city,
on the "Customs of Madina." His business was to arrange and systematize the
Traditions current in Madina, and to form out of them and the "Customs" a
system of jurisprudence embracing the whole sphere of life. The treatise
composed by him was called the "Muwatta" or "The Beaten Path." The greater
part of its contents are legal maxims and opinions {21} delivered by the
Companions. His system of jurisprudence, therefore, has been described as
historical and traditional. In an elegy on his death by Abu Muhammad Ja'far
it is said: "His Traditions were of the greatest authority; his gravity was
impressive; and when he delivered them, all his auditors were plunged in
admiration."[26] The Traditions were his great delight. "I delight," said
he, "in testifying my profound respect for the sayings of the Prophet of
God, and I never repeat one unless I feel myself in a state of perfect
purity,"[27] (_i.e._, after performing a legal ablution.) As death
approached, his one fear was lest he should have exercised his private
judgment in delivering any legal opinion. In his last illness a friend went
to visit him, and enquiring why he wept, received the following answer:
"Why