I offer a corrective to Libson’s view that customs made their way into Islamic law in the formative period only through the ḥadīth and ijmāʿ genres. I argue that custom was incorporated into the law through the legal methodologies of Abū Ḥanīfa and Mālik. Due to the success of al-Shāfiʿī’s thesis, later jurists justified custom on grounds of necessity and exigency of the times rather than elevating it to the level of the four-source theory of Islamic law. Essential to this process of valorization of custom was a legal maxim developed by al-Juwaynī in the classical period.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
Abū Yūsuf, Yaʿqūb b. Ibrāhīm al-Anṣārī. Ikhtilāf Abī Ḥanīfa Wa Ibn Abī Laylā. Edited by Abū al-Wafāʾ al-Afghānī. Hayderabad: Maṭbaʿat al-Wafāʾ, 1938.
Āmidī, ʿAlī b. Muḥammad. Al-Iḥkām Fī Uṣūl Al-Aḥkām. Edited by ʿAbd al-Razzāq ʿAfīfī. 4 vols. Riyadh: Dār al-Ṣumayʿī, 2003.
ʿAṭṭār, Ḥasan. Ḥāshiyat Al-ʿAṭṭār ʿalā Sharḥ Al-Jalāl Al-Maḥallī ʿalā Jamʿ Al-Jawāmiʿ. 2 vols. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, n.d.
Bājī, Abū al-Walīd al-. Fuṣūl Al-Aḥkām Wa-Bayān Mā Maḍā ʿalayhi Al-ʿAmal ʿinda Al-Fuqahāʾ wa-l-Ḥukkām. Edited by Muḥammad Abū al-Ajfān. Riyadh: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2002.
Barbahārī, Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Khalaf al-. Sharḥ Al-Sunna. Edited by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Aḥmad al-Jumayzī. 1st ed. 1 vols. Riyadh: Dār al-Minhāj, 2005.
Birgivī, Muḥammad. Al-Ṭarīqa Al-Muḥammadiyya wa-l-Sīra Al-Aḥmadiyya. Edited by Muḥammad al-Nadawī. Damascus: Dār al-Qalam, 2011.
Carbonnier, Jean. Droit Civil. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2004.
Domat, Jean, and Luther Stearns Cushing. The Civil Law in Its Natural Order. Boston: Little, 1850.
Drieskens, Barbara. “A Cairene Way of Reconciling.” Islamic Law and Society 13:1 (2006): 99–122.
Dutton, Yasin. The Origins of Islamic Law: The Qurʾan, the Muwaṭṭaʾ and Madinan ʿAmal. Surrey, England: Curzon, 1999.
El Shamsy, Ahmed. “Rethinking Taqlīd in the Early Shāfiʿī School.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 128:1 (2008).
El-Gamal, Mahmoud A. Islamic Finance: Law, Economics, and Practice. Cambridge [UK]; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
European Council for Fatwa and Research. “The Concluding Statement of the Tenth Session of the European Council for Fatwa and Research: January 22–26, 2003.” European Council for Fatwa and Research. Accessed June 25, 2017. https://www.e-cfr.org/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AE%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%89-10-2/.
Fāris, Muḥammad al-Sayyid. Al-Madkhal li-l-ʿUlūm Al-Qānūniyya: Naẓariyyat Al-Qānūn. Cairo: Markaz Kulliyyat al-Ḥuqūq Jāmiʿat al-Qāhira, 2014.
Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid al-. Al-Mustaṣfā Min ʿIlm Al-Uṣūl. Edited by Ḥamza b. Zuhayr Ḥāfiẓ. 4 vols. Medina: Sharikat al-Madīna al-Munawwara li-l-Ṭibāʿa, 1992.
Ghirnāṭī, Abū al-Qāsim Ibn Juzzī al-. Taqrīb Al-Wuṣūl Ilā ʿIlm Al-Uṣūl. Edited by Muḥammad al-Mukhtār al-Shinqīṭī. 2nd ed. Medina: NP, 2002.
Griffiths, John. “What Is Legal Pluralism?” The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law 24 (1986): 1–55.
Hallaq, Wael B. A History of Islamic Legal Theories: An Introduction to Sunnī Uṣūl Al-Fiqh. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Hallaq, Wael B. Authority, Continuity, and Change in Islamic Law. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Hallaq, Wael B. Sharīʿa: Theory, Practice, Transformations. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Hoexter, Miriam. “Qāḍī, Muftī and Ruler: Their Roles in the Development of Islamic Law.” In Law, Custom, and Statute in the Muslim World, edited by Ron Shaham, 67–85. Leiden: Brill, 2006.
Ibn al-Humām, Kamāl al-Dīn, and Burhān al-Dīn Al-Marghinānī. Sharḥ Fatḥ Al-Qadīr. 10 vols. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2003.
Ibn Nujaym, Zayn al-Dīn. Al-Ashbāh wa-l-Naẓāʾir. Edited by Muḥammad Muṭīʿ al-Ḥāfiẓ. Damascus: Dār al-Fikr, 1999.
Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Muḥammad Amīn. Majmūʿat Rasāʾil Ibn ʿĀbidīn. 2 vols. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2014.
Ibn ʿAqīl, Abū al-Wafāʾ. Al-Wāḍiḥ Fī Uṣūl Al-Fiqh. Edited by ʿAbd al-Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī. Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1999.
Ibrahim, Ahmed Fekry. “Al-Shaʿrānī’s Response to Legal Purism: A Theory of Legal Pluralism.” Islamic Law and Society 20:1–2 (2013): 110–40.
Ibrahim, Ahmed Fekry. Pragmatism in Islamic Law: A Social and Intellectual History. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2015.
Ibrahim, Ahmed Fekry. “Rethinking the Taqlīd Hegemony: An Institutional, Longue-Durée Approach.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 136:4 (2016): 801–16.
Jackson, Sherman A. “Legal Pluralism between Islam and the Nation-State: Romantic Medievalism or Pragmatic Modernity?” Fordham International Law Journal. 30:1 (2006): 158–76.
Jaṣṣāṣ, Ahmad Ibn ʿAlī al-. Al-Fuṣūl fi l-Uṣūl. Edited by ʿUjayl Jāsim al-Nishmī. 4 vols. Kuwait: Wizārat al-Awqāf wa-l-Shuʾūn al-Islāmiyya, 1994.
Jaydī, ʿUmar ʿAbd al-Karīm al-. Al-ʿUrf wa-l-ʿAmal fi l-Madhhab Al-Mālikī Wa-Mafhūmuhumā Ladā ʿUlamāʾ Al-Maghrib. Rabat: Maṭbaʿat Fuḍāla, 1982.
Juwaynī, Abū al-Maʿālī ʿAbd al-Malik al-. Ghiyāth Al-Umam Fī Iltiyāth Al-Ẓulam. Edited by Muṣṭafā Ḥilmī and Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Munʿim. Cairo: Dār al-Daʿwa, n.d.
Juwaynī, Abū al-Maʿālī ʿAbd al-Malik al-. Al-Burhān Fī Uṣūl Al-Fiqh. Edited by ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm al-Dīb. 2 vols. Doha, 1978.
Layish, Aharon. “Interplay between Tribal and Sharʿī Law: A Case of Tibbāwī Blood Money in the Sharīa Court of Kufra.” Islamic Law and Society 13:1 (2006): 63–75.
Layish, Aharon. Sharīʾa and Custom in Libyan Tribal Society: An Annotated Translation of Decisions from the Sharīʾa Courts of Adjābiya and Kufra. Leiden: Brill, 2005.
Libson, Gideon. Jewish and Islamic Law: A Comparative Study of Custom during the Geonic Period. Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press, 2003.
Lowry, Joseph E. “Does Shāfiʿī Have a Theory of ‘Four Sources’ of Law?” In Studies in Islamic Legal Theory, edited by Bernard G. Weiss, 23–50. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2002.
Lowry, Joseph E. Early Islamic Legal Theory: the Risāla of Muḥammad Ibn Idrīs Al-Shāfiʿī. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2007.
Mālik b. Anas. Al-Muwaṭṭaʾ Riwāyat Yaḥyā B. Yaḥyā Al-Laythī. Edited by Kulāl Ḥasan ʿAlī. Damascus: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 2013.
Melchert, Christopher. The Formation of the Sunnī Schools of Law, 9th–10th Centuries C.E. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 1997.
Nawawī, Muḥyī al-Dīn Abū Zakariyyā al-. Rawḍat Al-Ṭālibīn. Edited by Zuhayr al-Shāwīsh. 12 vols. Beirut: Maktab al-Islāmī, 1991.
Nielsen, Hans Christian Korsholm. “State and Customary Law in Upper Egypt.” Islamic Law and Society 13:1 (2006): 123–51.
Opwis, Felicitas. Maṣlaḥa and the Purpose of the Law: Islamic Discourse on Legal Change from the 4th/10th to 8th/14th Century. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2010.
Opwis, Felicitas. “Maṣlaḥa in Contemporary Islamic Legal Theory.” Islamic Law and Society 12:2 (2005): 182–223.
Paradelle, Murielle. “Legal Pluralism and Public International Law: An Analysis Based on the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.” In Legal Pluralism in the Arab World, edited by Baudouin Dupret, Maurits Berger, and Laila Al-Zwaini, 97–112. The Hague; Boston: Kluwer Law International, 1999.
Puigelier, Catherine. “Les Temps des Lois.” In Science, éthique et droit, edited by Nicole Le Douarin and Catherine Puigelier. Paris: Odile Jacob, 2007.
Sarakhsī, Shams al-Dīn al-. Al-Mabsūṭ. 30 vols. Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1993.
Serjeant, R.B. Customary and Shariʾah Law in Arabian Society. Hampshire: Variorum, 1991.
Shabana, Ayman. “ʿUrf and ʿAdah within the Framework of Al-Shatibi’s Legal Methodology.” UCLA Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law. 6: 1 (2006): 87–100.
Shabana, Ayman. Custom in Islamic Law and Legal Theory: The Development of the Concepts of ʿurf and ʿādah in the Islamic Legal Tradition. Palgrave Series in Islamic Theology, Law, and History. New York, N.Y: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
Shāfiʿī, Muḥammad b. Idrīs al-. Al-Risāla. Edited by Aḥmad Muḥammad Shākir. 3 vols. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1940.
Shāfiʿī, Muḥammad b. Idrīs al-. Al-Umm. Edited by Rifʿat Fawzī ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. 11 vols. Manṣūra: Dār al-Wafāʾ, 2001.
Shahar, Ido. “Legal Pluralism.” The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Law. Oxford, England: Oxford Islamic Studies Online, March 18, 2017. http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com.
Shahar, Ido. “Legal Pluralism and the Study of Shariʿa Courts.” Islamic Law and Society 15:1 (2008): 112–41.
Shāṭibī, Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. Mūsā al-. Al-Muwāfaqāt. 6 vols. Riyadh: Dār Ibn ʿAffān, 1997.
Shaybānī, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-. Al-Aṣl. Edited by Mehmet Boynukalın. 12 vols. Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2012.
Stewart, Frank H. “Introduction.” Islamic Law and Society 13:1 (2006): 1–5.
Suyūṭī, Jalāl al-Dīn al-. Al-Ashbāh wa-l-Naẓāʾir Fī Qawāʿid Wa-Furūʿ Fiqh Al-Shāfiʿiyya. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1983.
Tamanaha, Brian Z. “The Folly of the ‘Social Scientific’ Concept of Legal Pluralism.” Journal of Law and Society 20:2 (1993): 192–217.
Tamanaha, Brian Z., Caroline Mary Sage, and Michael J.V. Woolcock. Legal Pluralism and Development: Scholars and Practitioners in Dialogue. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Tsafrir, Nurit. “Arab Customary Law in Israel: Sulha Agreements and Israeli Courts.” Islamic Law and Society 13:1 (2006): 76–98.
Ṭūfī, Najm al-Dīn al-. Risāla Fī Riʿāyat Al-Maṣlaḥa. Edited by Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Sāʾiḥ. Cairo: Al-Dār al-Miṣriyya al-Lubnāniyya, n.d.
Wansharīsī, Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā al-. Al-Miʿyār Al-Muʿrib wa-l-Jāmiʿ Al-Mughrib ʿan Fatāwā Ahl Ifrīqiyā wa-l-Andalus wa-l-Maghrib. Edited by Muḥammad Ḥajjī. 1st ed. 13 vols. Rabat: Wizārat al-Awqāf wa-l-Shuʾūn al-Islāmiyya li-l-Mamlaka al-Maghribiyya, 1981.
Woodman, Gordon R. “Legal Pluralism and the Search for Justice.” Journal of African Law 40:2 (1996): 152–67.
Woodman, Gordon R. “The Idea of Legal Pluralism.” In Legal Pluralism in the Arab World, edited by Baudouin Dupret, Maurits Berger, and Laila Al-Zwaini, 3–19. The Hague; Boston: Kluwer Law International, 1999.
Wymann-landgraf, Umar F. Abd-allah. Mālik and Medina: Islamic Legal Reasoning in the Formative Period. Leiden: Brill, 2013.
Zarkashī, Badr al-Dīn Muḥammad al-. Al-Baḥr Al-Muḥīṭ Fī Uṣūl Al-Fiqh. Edited by ʿAbd al-Qādir al-ʿĀfī and ʿUmar Sulaymān al-Ashqar. 2nd ed. 6 vols. Kuwait: Wizārat al-Awqāf wa-l-Shuʾūn al-Islāmiyya, 1992.
Zarkashī, Badr al-Dīn Muḥammad al-. Al-Manthūr fī l-Qawāʿid. Edited by Taysīr Fāʾiq Aḥmad Maḥmūd and ʿAbd al-Sattār Abū Ghudda. 3 vols. Kuwait: Wizārat al-Awqāf wa-l-Shuʾūn al-Islāmiyya, 1982.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 1141 | 440 | 23 |
Full Text Views | 279 | 2 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 189 | 5 | 1 |
I offer a corrective to Libson’s view that customs made their way into Islamic law in the formative period only through the ḥadīth and ijmāʿ genres. I argue that custom was incorporated into the law through the legal methodologies of Abū Ḥanīfa and Mālik. Due to the success of al-Shāfiʿī’s thesis, later jurists justified custom on grounds of necessity and exigency of the times rather than elevating it to the level of the four-source theory of Islamic law. Essential to this process of valorization of custom was a legal maxim developed by al-Juwaynī in the classical period.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 1141 | 440 | 23 |
Full Text Views | 279 | 2 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 189 | 5 | 1 |