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Philosophy and Fundamentals of Sharī’ah for Islamic Finance
SHA0011

TOPIC 2: RULE-MAKING PROCESS IN ISLAMIC LAW

Learning Objectives
At the end of the topic, you will be able to:
• Define Ijtihād
• Describe the historical development of Ijtihād
• Understand the salient features and differences of opinion among the Schools
of Islamic Legal Thought
• Understand why the divergence of opinion is acceptable in Islām
• List the ethics of disagreement in Islām
• Understand the rule making process by Mujtahid
• Define and list the components of Islamic jurisprudence
• Describe the sources of Sharī’ah
• Define Islamic Legal Maxims
• Describe the five main rules of Islamic Legal Maxims
• Describe the relationship between Islamic Legal Maxims and Islamic Jurisprudence
• Define and list Siyāsah Shar‘iyyah

UNIT 1: DEFINITION OF IJTIHĀD
Ijtihād is an Arabic word which literally means to strive, endeavour, make
every efforts and work hard in doing something. In a technical term, ijtihād
refers to “a process of acquiring probable knowledge by exerting mujtahid’s
full efforts, ability and capacity”. Likewise, Imām al-Āmidi defined ijtihād as
“to spare no effort in discovering the Sharī’ah rulings”. Simply put, ijtihād is
exerting and maximising mujtahid abilities and efforts in adducing Sharī’ah
rulings.

Given the fact that primary texts of Sharī’ah are limited while the issues and
incidents of humans are unlimited, ijtihād is extremely important as it offers
continuous respond to the new unprecedented cases, where the texts are
absents. Though the texts might be available, ijtihād is also pertinent in
deriving the correct understanding, especially in extracting the (‘illah) of any
given texts.

As far as Islamic financial system is concerned, the role of ijtihād is not merely
confined in understanding the Sharī’ah texts per say, but also is required in
coming with a new invention of financial products.