Islamic finance and insurance

Sources of Shari’ah

The principles of Shari’ah, or Islamic law, are derived from:

1. •

   the primary or divine sources:

   1. ◦

      the Qur'an—the principal religious text in Islam and the ultimate reference point and origin of all Islamic legislation, believed to be the direct word of Allah as revealed to the Prophet Mohammed through the Angel Gabriel, and

   2. ◦

      the Sunnah—the words, deeds and tacit approvals of the Prophet Mohammed, much of which are recorded in the Hadith or traditional accounts of the Prophet Mohammed

2. •

   the secondary sources or jurisprudence founded in the primary sources, the nature and importance of which varies between different schools of Islam:

   1. ◦

      the Ijma—historic collective reasoning and consensus among authoritative Muslims of a particular generation on particular issues, developed to assuage controversy and inconsistencies, and

   2. ◦

      the Qiyas—analogical reasoning based on the primary sources and used in unprecedented situations when scholars are unable to provide a definitive answer from the primary sources and Ijma