A branch of religious knowledge
in Islam is called fiqh, or understanding, is the theoretical foundation of
Shari’ah. Usul al-fiqh, or sources of law, define the principles and methods on
which it is based. It is the rules wherefrom the general principles of Islamic
Law are extracted. The recognized primary sources of Islamic law are the Qur’an
and Sunnah. In matters that were not clearly spelled out in the Holy Quran or
Sunnah as primary sources, Muslim jurists developed other methods of finding a
solution to a question, based upon general principles and theory of Islamic law
as laid down I Holy Quran and Sunnah. Amongst these other sources, the first is
ijma’ or unanimous consensus among jurists, and the second source of law in
Islam is qiyas, or analogy. Ijma or Unanimous consensus means that after making
public a judgment about a matter of law, jurists found general agreement with
it, and no jurist made sound legal arguments against the ruling.
Ijma or Unanimous consensus belonged mainly to the time when jurists and
knowledgeable people were known to one another in the growing Muslim
territories. The principle of ijma’ is being debated today. It might apply to
longstanding agreement of scholars over time, or take on new importance with the
possibilities offered by mass communication.
Analogy means using logic and reasoning to apply a known law to a new situation
not covered in the original law. As an example of analogy, Islam forbids Muslims
to drink wine. Jurists have applied this prohibition by making an analogy to
other intoxicating beverages like whiskey and beer, as well as drugs such as
opium. They stated that the Islamic sources gave as the reason for prohibiting
wine that it intoxicates. Thus, other intoxicating substances were also
prohibited by analogy. (to be continued as part-II)