Hanbal has almost ceased to exist. There is now no Mufti of this
sect at Mecca, though the other three are represented there. Still his
influence is felt to this day in the importance he attached to Tradition.

The distinction between the four Imams has been put in this way. Abu Hanifa
exercised his own judgment. Malik and Hanbal preferred authority and
precedent. As-Shafi'i entirely repudiated reason. They differ, too, as
regards the value of certain Traditions, but to each of them an authentic
Tradition is an incontestable authority. Their {23} opinion on points of
doctrine and practice forms the third basis of the Faith.

The Ijma' of the four Imams is a binding law upon all Sunnis. It might be
supposed that as the growing needs of the Empire led to the formation of
these schools of interpretation; so now the requirements of modern, social
and political life might be met by fresh Imams making new analogical
deductions. This is not the case. The orthodox belief is, that since the
time of the four Imams there has been no Mujtahid who could do as they did.
If circumstances should arise which absolutely require some decision to be
arrived at, it must be given in full accordance with the 'mazhab,' or
school of interpretation, to which the person framing the decision
belongs.[29] This effectually prevents all change, and by excluding
innovation, whether good or bad, keeps Islam stationary. Legislation is now
purely deductive. Nothing must be done contrary to the principles contained
in the jurisprudence of the four Imams. "Thus, in any Muhammadan State
legislative reforms are simply impossible. There exists no initiative. The
Sultan, or Khalif can claim the allegiance of his people only so long as he
remains the exact executor of the prescriptions of the Law."

The question then as regards the politics of the "Eastern {24} Question" is
not whether Muhammad was a deceiver or self-deceived, an apostle or an
impostor; whether the Quran is on the whole good or bad; whether Arabia was
the better or the worse for the change Muhammad wrought; but what Islam as
a religious and political system has become and is, how it now works, what
Orthodox Muslims believe and how they act in that belief. The essence of
that belief is, that the system as taught by Prophet, Khalifs and Imams is
absolutely perfect.[30] Innovation is worse than a mistake. It is a crime,
a sin. This completeness, this finality of his system of religion and
polity,