The task of interpreting God's word and of regulating life in conformity became lost in... debating riddling questions in which extreme sophistry and hair-splitting are joined with the boldest and most reckless flights of fancy....[Since] demons frequently assume human shape, the jurists assess the consequences of such transformations for religious law; serious arguments and counterarguments are urged, for example, whether such beings can be numbered among the participamts necessary for the Friday service. Another problematic case that the divine law must clarify: how is one to deal with progeny from a marriage between a human being and a demon in human form.... What are the consequences in family law of such marriages? Indeed the problem of (marriages with the jinn) is treated in such circles with the same seriousness as any important point of the religious law.