This chapter explores questions of obligatory charity (zakāt) in the legal miscellany-work, Jāmiʿ al-Shatāt, of the female Iranian jurist Nuṣrat Amīn (d. 1403/1983). The author’s remarkable career and the esteem she enjoyed among fellow (male) jurists are discussed, along with the nature of her legal authority. The passage excerpted in this chapter is representative of the character of the book in question: it examines the proofs of the rules of law (fiqh), typically first presenting previous opinions on a given question or topic, then evaluating the reasons, explanations, rules or rationales (dalīl or aṣl) for each of these opinions in respect to the primary sources.

This chapter explores Salafī arguments against adherence to the Sunnī legal schools in the polemical writings of Muḥammad ʿĪd al-ʿAbbāsī, with an excerpt from his Bidʿat al-Taʿaṣṣub al-Madhhabī. Salafism (Salafiyya) is among other things critical of the edifice of the Islamic school system and its theoretical underpinnings. It emerged out of an interest in reforming Islamic thought generally, combined with a dissatisfaction and perceived decline in the spiritual health of the global Muslim community. Salafīs generally have refused to accept that the Islamic tradition - in law, theology and other disciplines - deserves the reverence and authority it appears to enjoy within the Muslim community.