their bitter reproaches. He remarked that the judge, whose duty it was to maintain the divine law, verily held a noble office. They refuted this by saying that this defence was admissible only for earlier and better times, but not for “the qâdhîs of our time.” To which he cuttingly replied: “And ye, are ye canonists of the better, the ancient time?” In truth, the students of sacred science are just as much “of our time” as the qâdhîs. Even in the eleventh century the great theologian Ghazâlî counted them all equal.[1] Not a few of them give their authoritative advice according to the wishes of the highest bidder or of him who has the greatest influence, hustle for income from pious institutions, and vie with each other in a revel of casuistic subtleties. But among those scholars there are and always have been some who, in poverty and simplicity, devote their life to the study of Allah's law with the sole object of pleasing him; among the qâdhîs such are not easily to be found. Amongst the other state officials the title of qâdhîs may count as a spiritual one, and the public may to a certain extent share this reverence; but in the eyes of the pious and of the canonists such glory is only reflected from the clerical robe, in which the worldling disguises himself.
- ↑ Ghazâlî, Iḥya, book i., ch. 6, quotes the words of a pious scholar of the olden time: “The ʿulamâʾ will [on the Day of Judgment] be gathered amongst the prophets, but the qâdhîs amongst the temporal rulers.” Ghazâlî adds: “alike with these qâdhîs are all those canonists who make use of their learning for worldly purposes.”
