Fiqh (Arabic: فقه) is Islamic
jurisprudence. It is an expansion of Islamic law,
complemented by the rulings of Islamic jurists to direct the lives
of Muslims.
The Historian Ibn Khaldun describes fiqh as "knowledge of the rules of God which
concern the actions of persons who own themselves bound to obey the law respecting what is required (wajib), forbidden (haraam), recommended (mandūb), disapproved (makruh) or merely permitted
(mubah)".[1]
Etymology
The word fiqh is an Arabic term meaning "deep understanding" or "full comprehension". Technically it refers to the
science of Islamic law extracted from detailed Islamic sources (which are studied in the principles of Islamic jurisprudence). The process of gaining knowledge of Islam
through jurisprudence, and the body of legal advisements so derived, is known as fiqh.
Introduction
There are cases where the Qur'an gives a clearly defined and concrete answer on how do deal
with different issues. This includes how to perform the ritual purification (Arabic:
wudu) before the obligatory daily prayers (Arabic:
salat).
On other issues, the Qur'an alone is not enough to make things clear. For example, the holy book states that one needs to
engage in daily prayers (Arabic: salat)
and fast (Arabic: sawm) during the month of Ramadan, however, it does not define how to perform these duties. The details about
these issues can be found in what is called the tradition of Muhammad (Arabic:
Sunnah). This is true for most detailed issues, thus the Qur'an and Sunnah are the basis for the Islamic Divine Law (Arabic: Sharia).
However, the Muslim jurists (Arabic: Fuqaha) do
not always agree on how to interpret the Qur'an and Sunnah to arrive at the
sharia. This division of interpretation in more detailed issues has resulted in different
schools of thought (Arabic: madh'hab).
And with regard to some topics, the Qur'an and Sunnah are
simply silent. In those cases, the Muslim jurists (Arabic: Fuqaha) try to arrive at conclusions using other tools. Sunni jurists use
analogy (Arabic: Qiyas) and historical consensus of the community (Arabic:
Ijma). The conclusions arrived at with the aid of these additional tools constitute a wider
array of laws than the Sharia constitutes of, and is called fiqh. Thus, in contrast to the sharia, fiqh is
not regarded as sacred, and the schools of thought have differing views on
its details, without viewing other conclusions as sacrilegious.
This wider concept of Islamic jurisprudence is the source of a range of laws in different topics that govern the lives
of the Muslims in all facets of everyday life.
Islamic Law
Islamic law (fiqh) covers two main areas, rules in relation to actions and rules in relation to circumstances
surrounding actions.
Rules in relation to actions (amaliyya) comprise:
- Obligation (fard)
- Recommendation (mandoob)
- Permissibility (mubah)
- Disrecommendation (makrooh)
- Prohibition (haram)
Rules in relation to circumstances (wadia') comprise:
- Condition (shart)
- Cause (sabab)
- Preventor (mani)
- Permit/Enforce (rukhsah, azeemah)
- Valid/Corrupt/Invalid (sahih, fasad, batil)
Muslim Jurist: Ulema
-
The Muslim Jurists are called the ulema, from the Arabic ilm (knowledge). They
are also called the faqeeh (pl. fuqahaa) from fiqh.
Fields of jurisprudence
Methodologies of jurisprudence usul al-fiqh (أصول الفقه)
-
The Modus operandi of the Muslim jurist is known as usul al-fiqh (principles of jurisprudence).
There are different approaches to the methodology used in fiqh to derive sharia
from the Islamic sources. The main methodologies are:
- The four classical Sunni schools are, in chronological order: the Hanafi school, the Maliki school, the Shafi'i
school and the Hanbali school. They represent the generally accepted Sunni authority for Islamic jurisprudence.
Other schools are the Thahiri, Sufian Al'thawree, Sufian bin O'yayna, Layth bin Sa'ad. The four most famous schools mentioned
go back to the schools as Sufian Bin Oyayna.[citation needed]
The four schools of Sunni Islam
The four schools (or Madh'hab) of Sunni Islam are each named by students of the classical jurist who taught them. The Sunni schools (and where they are commonly found) are
- Hanafi (Turkey,Pakistan,
the Balkans, Central Asia, Indian subcontinent, China and Egypt)
- Maliki (North Africa, West Africa and several of the Arab Gulf
States)
- Shafi'i (Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, East Africa,
Yemen and southern parts of India)
- Hanbali (Arabia).
These four schools share most of their rulings, but differ on the particular hadiths
they accept as authentic and the weight they give to analogy or reason (qiyas) in deciding
difficulties.
The Hanafi school was the earliest established under the jurist Imam Abu Hanifa, who was born and taught in Iraq. Imam Abu Hanifa (80A.H. - 150A.H.), whose real name was Nu'man ibn Thabit, was born in the city of Kufa (modern day Iraq) in the year 80 A.H (689 A.D). Born into a family of tradesmen, the Imam's family were of
Persian origin. Under Imam Abu Hanifa, the witr prayer was considered to be compulsory and the Hanafis also differed with other
sects in relation to methods of taking ablution, prayers and payment of tithe or zakat. Imam Abu Hanifa also differed with
the other three schools in many areas including the type of punishments meted out for various crimes in Islam. On the whole, the
Hanafi school of jurisprudence could be said to have the most differences with other three schools.
Students of Imam Malik established the Maliki school of which a majority now can be found in North Africa and some Persian
gulf states . Imam Malik, whose real name was Abu Abdullah, Malik bin Anas, was born in Medina in the year 715 AD. His ancestral
home was in Yemen, but his grandfather settled in Medina after embracing Islam. He received his education in Medina, which was
the most important seat of Islamic learning, and where the immediate descendants of the Muhammad's followers lived. Imam Malik
was attracted to the study of law, and devoted himself to the study of fiqh. His principal book, the Kitab
al-Muwatta, is one of the earliest surviving books on hadith and fiqh.
Differences under the Maliki school included the fact that those following the Maliki school could state their purpose (or
niat) once only for compulsory fasting which is valid for the whole month of Ramadhan whilst for the Shafi'ie school (see
below), one would have to state his purpose every day of the month of Ramadhan for his fast to be valid the next day.
Ja'fari jurisprudence
The Jaferi school (Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Lebanon,
Bahrein, Pakistan, and parts of Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia) is associated with Shia Islam. The fatwas, or time and space bound rulings of early
jurists, are taken rather more seriously in this school, due to the more hierarchical structure of Shia Islam, which is ruled by
the imams. But they are also more flexible, in that every jurist has considerable power to
alter a decision according to his opinion.
The Jafari school uses uses 'aql "intellect" instead of qiyas in the Sunni
achools, when establishing Islamic laws.
Each school reflects a unique al-urf or culture, that the classical jurists themselves
lived in, when rulings were made. Some suggest that the discipline of isnad which developed
to validate hadith made it relatively easy to record and validate also the rulings of jurists, making them far easier to
imitate (taqlid) than to challenge in new contexts. The effect is, the schools have been
more or less frozen for centuries, and reflect a culture that simply no longer exists.
Early shariah had a much more flexible character, and many modern Muslim scholars
believe that it should be renewed, and that the classical jurists should lose special status. This would require formulating a
new fiqh suitable for the modern world, e.g. as proposed by advocates of the Islamization of knowledge, and would deal with the modern context. This modernization is
opposed by most conservative ulema.
Notes
- ^ Levy (1957). Page 150.
References
- Levy, Reuben (1957). The Social Structure of
Islam. UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521091824.
See also
External links
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