I. The formation of the religious institution

It has often been observed that the political development of the Islamic world differs completely from that of Europe because of the absence of a Church. The obvious truth of this remark, however, conceals the fact that there is in Islam an institution, or perhaps one should say a series of institutions, through which many of the political functions of the Church are performed.Thus one of the points of interest in a study such as the present is the contrast between the working of the religious institutions in the two cultures. It is therefore desirable to attempt to give an account of the growth and nature of the religious institution, as it has been called, in the Islamic world.

During the lifetime of Muḥammad there was probably little that could be called religious study or discussion. Many Muslims, of course, memorized large parts of the Qur'ān; a few wrote it down. The more responsible men perhaps discussed the application of the Qur'ānic rules. The Traditions suggest, however, that if Muslims were in doubt about any point, they went and asked Muḥammad. The first serious discussions of religious questions took place in the course of the civil war which followed the murder of 'Uthmān in 656. Like all the early discussions among Muslims these had both a religious and a political aspect. It was indeed impossible for Muslim Arabs at this period to discuss anything except in religious terms, since the system of ideas found in the Qur'ān had come to dominate their whole thought world.