An Analytical Study of Natural Law in Early Pratestanism

Given that there is no historical record of the studies relating natural law in the works of Muslim thinkers and for the sake of developing a theory and making scientific advances about exploring the basic principles of natural law in Islam, it is necessary to make a thorough study of the doctrine of natural law in the West in general and in the Protestant era in particular. The reason is because in that period of the history of the West, the Protestant thinkers, who were devoted to religious criteria, sought to preserve the achievements of the Chrisian natural law against the attack by the new generation of thinkers on philosophical religious teachings. The vigorous attack of humanism on the doctrine of natural law in that period led Grotius to introduce an explanation of this law, which was, according to a large number of thinkers, based on secular thoughts. In spite of the efforts made by Pufendorf to remove the idea of secular interpretation from the content of natural law, his efforts were not quite successful. This article first expounds natural law in the early Protestant era, and then underlines the shortcomings in the explanation of those who proposed this theory. These shortcomings leveled at the theorists critical remarks are divided in to two separate groups: common criticisms including one critical point raised against all those who proposed the theory of natural law in the early Portestant era, and special criticisms containing five critical points which shed light on the shortcomings in the views of each of these thinkers.