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countries to arise at a very early age, and in Acheh one sees children whom we should deem of an age to be taken on the knee, making purchases in the market in the capacity of matrons!
Now as many of these girls have, whilst still unmarried, lost their fathers and grandfathers who are their proper walis, the Shafiʾite ritual conflicts with the Achehnese adat on this point. Means have however been found to reconcile this difficulty.
Changing of maḍhab.It is difficult to give a clear explanation of this expedient without once more digressing from our subject. As a matter of fact the Shafiʾite school permits its disciples to follow some other ritual in certain isolated cases. Such partial following of another school is called taqlīd[1] i.e., clothing with authority. In Java, for instance, taqlīd is commonly resorted to in order to fix the qiblah (the direction in which the devout must turn when praying) since the rules of the Shafiʾite school are too strict to be carried out in actual practice. It is also customarily employed in the fulfilment of neglected religious duties on behalf of deceased persons. We should have looked to find in Van den Berg's Beginselen a discussion of this subject to which we might here refer, but we seek in vain for even the bare mention of the question.
Taqlīd.We shall only mention here so much of the law as to this sort of taqlīd as is indispensable to our subject, for a full description would detain us too long[2]; we therefore merely quote such opinions of the teachers as are followed in actual practice at the present time.
- ↑ This word is also used by the disciples of any given school with reference to that school and its founder; for example, the recognition of the imām as-Shafiʾi by the Shafiʾites is eminently taqlīd, But in its technical use the word is more especially applied to the adoption in exceptional cases of the ritual of another imām. So it is said in answer to the question why such and such a Shafiʾite does a certain thing which is at variance with the teaching of his school, such as drinking fermented liquors (other than wine); "he resorts to the taqlīd" (that of Abu Ḥanīfah in the case in point).
- ↑ The doctrine of the taqlīd is somewhat complicated and the authorities differ considerably from one another in details. The best exposition of the subject is to be found in the above-mentioned edition of the Tuḥfah vol. VIII pp. 315 et seq. The question is akin to that as to whether the layman (i. e. he who is not endowed with authority as a teacher) has a maḍhab or not; on this latter point also the Shafiʾite authorities are divided. In regard to this we must recollect that as measured by theoretical law, all or almost all Mohammedans of the present time, even the so-called doctors, are only laymen ((
Arabic characters)).
"And the married state may not be entered into with her who cannot yet endure it; for this there is required the testimony of four women." In Java also the "handing over" of a girl to a husband before she is of mature age is common enough, for in the opinion of the Mohammedan teachers the usual signs of puberty are not necessary to constitute a capacity to endure the married state.
