Primary sources and secondary sources of islamic law PDF

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Primary sources and secondary sources of Islamic law...

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Islamic law is a code of basic principles which determine the relationship between man and God on one hand and among the individual themselves. There are two types of main sources of Islamic law which usually referred by people which are primary sources and secondary sources of Islamic law. Primary sources includes Quran and Sunnah while secondary sources includes Ijma, Qiyas, Ijtihad and Urf. First of all, Quran. Quran is first and main source of Islamic law. From the literal meaning, Al-Quran means reading or recitation while it also can be defined as the book containing the words of Allah revealed to Prophet Muhammad s.a.w in Arabic and transmitted to Muslims by continuous testimony. It includes many commandments, rules and principles for the behavior and relations of individuals in the society. Most of its principles are general in nature though some of them are well defined. The words of Quran are final and cannot be changed. The second one, Sunnah. Sunnah is also equally important as Quran. From literal meaning, Sunnah means a clear path or a beaten track. Sunnah refers to all that is narrated from the Prophet s.a.w including his actions, sayings and whatever he has tacitly approved which are not revelations of the Quran. The understanding of Sunnah is compulsory in order to understand the teachings of Quran. It is also common for people to ask the Prophet directly for legal rulings on various matters. When he passed judgment on such matters, all of these details were recorded. They were used for reference in future legal rulings. Next is the secondary source of law, Ijma. Ijma means the consensus among Islamic jurists on matters within the limits of Quran and Sunnah. Muslim jurists provide many verses of the Quran that legitimize Ijma as a source of legislation. To illustrate, the institution of khilafat is established on the basis of Ijma among the Islamic jurists. There are two different types of Ijma. Ijma al-ummah is a consensus of the entire community, while Ijma al-aimmah is a consensus by religious authorities. The Prophet Muhammad once said that his community would never agree on an error. Qiyas is also one of the secondary sources. It means to conclude general principle from Quran and Sunnah to generalize the Versus or Hadith. For instance, from wine, the jurists concluded and generalized that all things causing unconsciousness are prohibited by Islam. According to Hadith, Muhammad said: "Where there is no revealed injunction, I will judge amongst you according to reason." For example, when recent scientific evidence showed that

tobacco smoking is hazardous to human health, Islamic authorities deduced that the Prophet Mohammad's words "Do not harm yourselves or others" could only indicate that smoking should be forbidden for Muslims. While Ijtihad is the interpretation of principles and provisions of Quran and hadith by faqih or imam. We can find four imams who formed different school of thought by interpreting the Quran and Sunnah by study and research. One school of thought believes that Ijtihad ended with the four pious caliphs while others believe that it is not ended. Urf is also a secondary source of Islamic law. Urf is the common practice among the Muslims as their common habit. Another term synonyms with urf is ‘adah’. Adah means repetition or recurrent practice of individuals or a group of individuals. Most jurists consider urf and adah to mean the same....