The Ijma' of the four Imams is a binding law upon all Sunnis. It might be supposed that as the growing needs of the Empire led to the formation of these schools of interpretation; so now the requirements of modern, social and political life might be met by fresh Imams making new analogical deductions. This is not the case. The orthodox belief is, that since the time of the four Imams there has been no Mujtahid who could do as they did. If circumstances should arise which absolutely require some decision to be arrived at, it must be given in full accordance with the 'mazhab,' or school of interpretation, to which the person framing the decision belongs.[29] This effectually prevents all change, and by excluding innovation, whether good or bad, keeps Islam stationary. Legislation is now purely deductive. Nothing must be done contrary to the principles contained in the jurisprudence of the four Imams. "Thus, in any Muhammadan State legislative reforms are simply impossible. There exists no initiative. The Sultan, or Khalif can claim the allegiance of his people only so long as he remains the exact executor of the prescriptions of the Law." The question then as regards the politics of the "Eastern {24} Question" is not whether Muhammad was a deceiver or self-deceived, an apostle or an impostor; whether the Quran is on the whole good or bad; whether Arabia was the better or the worse for the change Muhammad wrought; but what Islam as a religious and political system has become and is, how it now works, what Orthodox Muslims believe and how they act in that belief. The essence of that belief is, that the system as taught by Prophet, Khalifs and Imams is absolutely perfect.[30] Innovation is worse than a mistake. It is a crime, a sin. This completeness, this finality of his system of religion and polity, is the very pride and glory of a true Muslim. To look for an increase of light in the knowledge of his relation to God and the unseen world, in the laws which regulate Islam on earth is to admit that Muhammad's revelation was incomplete, and that admission no Muslim will make.