SPRING 2015
Course Basics
Credit Hours (To be filled by the Department /Academic Registrar / Dean in accordance with
Degree requirements)
Course Distribution
Core This is a core law subject, with no optional or elective modules.
Course Description
This course introduces the science of Fiqh (Islamic law), called Uṣūl al-Fiqh, by examining the sources,
methodologies, methodological tools, historical development and modern application of Islamic law. It aims at
developing an indepth understanding of the reasoning and principles underlying the rules of Islamic law
through the analysis of a wide variety of primary and secondary sources such as the Qur’ān, Aḥādīth, classical
Islamic legal texts, fatāwā (legal opinions of jurisconsults), case law, legal commentaries, articles and research
papers. This course will enable students to critically engage with contemporary debates about Islamic law by
developing a profound understanding of its sources, methodologies and history.
Comparative references will also be made to the developments in jurisprudence under English law and Civil
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law in order to highlight the distinguishing features of Islamic jurisprudence and its interaction with other legal
systems.
Course Prerequisites
• (To be decided by the Academic Registrar, Dean and the Department of Law &
Policy according to the degree progression)
• Provide an understanding of the function and scope of Uṣūl al-Fiqh in the process of deducing rules
from the primary and secondary sources of Islamic law.
• Develop a profound appreciation of the methodology of drawing rules from the primary and secondary
sources and the reasons for the difference of juristic opinions.
• Develop awareness about the aims and objectives of law in Islam vis-à-vis the requirements of the
society.
• Generate the ability to critically evaluate the issue of the relevance of Fiqh in judicial and legislative
law making in the modern state.
Learning Outcomes
• Clear understanding of the sources, methodologies, methodological tools, history, theories and practical
applications of Islamic law.
• Ability to critically engage with and analyse the primary and secondary texts on Islamic law.
• Appreciation of the challenges faced by Islamic law in the modern world.
Class sessions will be interactive based on the suggested readings assigned for a particular topic. You will be
given essay titles to produce your pieces of writing. You may also be required to present your work in the
class, argue and defend it, if necessary.
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Examination Detail
Midterm Exam Yes/No: Yes
Duration: TBD
Duration: TBD
Course Overview
Topic Recommended Readings Objectives
3. Principal Sources (1): Kamali, MH, Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence Introduction to the
Qur’ān and Ḥadīth (Islamic Texts Society 1991) Ch 2 (The Sources of primary sources of
Sharī‘ah: the Qur’ān) and Ch 3 (The Sunnah) 22-83. Islamic law.
4. Principal Sources (2): Al-Shāfi‘ī, MI, Al-Risāla fī uṣūl al-Fiqh (2nd edn Ibid
Qur’ān, Ḥadīth, Practice Majid Khadduri tr, The Islamic Texts Society 1961)
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of Companions 32-40, 88-108.
(especially righted
guided Caliphs), Sharā‘ Khurshid Jan v Fazal Dad PLD 1964 (WP) Lahore
min qablinā (Judaism, 558 (addressing the issues of the sources of Muslim
Christianity, Natural law and the authority of courts to differ from the views
Law) of classical jurists on policy grounds)
5. Subordinate/Supplement Articles 36-45 Majalla (Ottoman Civil Code) 1870. Introduction to the
ary (1): ‘Urf subordinate sources
Rahim, A, The Principles of Muhammadan of Islamic law and
Jurisprudence (Luzac & Co. 1911) Chapter III highlighting the
(Custom and Usage) 136-37. distinction between
sources and
Libson, G, 'On the Development of Custom as a methodology.
Source of Law in Islamic Law' (1997) 4 Islamic Law
and Society 131
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Fadel, M, 'The Social Logic of Taqlīd and the Rise of
the Mukhataṣar' (1996) 3 Islamic Law and Society
193.
10. Primary Methodological Al-Shāfi‘ī, MI, Al-Risāla fī uṣūl al-Fiqh (2nd edn Ibid
tools: Majid Khadduri tr, The Islamic Texts Society 1961)
Qiyās (analogy), Istiḥsān 285-94, 304-32.
(juristic preference) and
Ijmā‘ (consensus) Rahim, A, The Principles of Muhammadan
Jurisprudence (Luzac & Co. 1911) Chapter III
(Sources of Law) 115-65.
12. Methodological tools (2): Kamali, MH, Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence Ibid
Istiṣḥāb (continuity), (Islamic Texts Society 1991) Ch 15 (Istishab) 259-68;
Sadd al-dharā’a (pre- Ch 16 (Sadd al-Dhara’i) 269-76.
emptive measures),
Ḍarūra (exigency) and Krawietz, B, 'Ḍarūra in Modern Islamic Law: The
Ḥiyal (legal devices) Case of Organ Transplantation ' in R Greave and E
Kermeli (eds), Islamic Law: Theory and Practice (I.B.
Tauris 1997) 185-93.
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and the Common Law' (1985-1986) 34 Cleveland other legal systems.
State Law Review 79
14. Methodology in Islamic Hallaq, WB, 'Logic, Formal Arguments and Ibid
Law and other Legal Formalization of Arguments in Sunnī Jurisprudence'
Systems (2) (1990) 37 Arabica 315
15. Stages of Development Hallaq, WB, 'Islamic Law: History and Understanding the
(1) Transformation' in R Irwin (ed) The New Cambridge origins and
History of Islam, vol 4 (Cambridge University Press development of
2010) 142-83 (for a very brief introduction) Uṣūl al-Fiqh.
17. Stages of Development Shalakany, AA, 'Islamic Legal Histories' (2008) 1 Evaluation of the
(3) Berkeley Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Law 1 modern Western
(a critique of Schacht and Coulson’s works) scholarship on the
history of Islamic
Hallaq, WB, 'The Quest for Origins or Doctrine? law.
Islamic Legal Studies as Colonialist Discourse' (2003)
2 UCLA J. Islamic & Near EL 1
18. Current Challenges (1): Hallaq, WB, The Impossible State: Islam, Politics, and Conceptualise the
Islamic law and the Modernity's Moral Predicament (Columbia University relationship
Modern State Press 2013) 1-36, 155-70. between Sharī‘a
and the modern
Hallaq, WB, 'Juristic Authority vs. State Power: The state by engaging
Legal Crises of Modern Islam' (2003) 19 Journal of with the thesis that
Law and Religion 243 morality oriented
Islamic law is
Fadel, M, 'A Tragedy of Politics or an Apolitical incompatible with
Tragedy?' (2011) 131 Journal of the American Oriental the modern state
Society 109 based on coercive
power.
19. Current Challenges (2): Peters, R, 'From Jurists Law to Statute Law or What Ibid
Islamic law and the Happens When the Shari'a is Codified' (2002) 7
Modern State Mediterranean Politics 82
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Aharon, L, 'The Transformation of the Sharī‘a from
Jurists' Law to Statutory Law in the Contemporary
Muslim World' (2004) 44 Die Welt des Islams 85
20. Current Challenges (3): Peters, R, 'Idjtihād and Taqlīd in 18th and 19th Critical evaluation
Judicial and Legislative Century Islam' (1980) XX Die Welt des Islams 131 of the issue of the
Ijtihād relevance of Fiqh
Kamali, MH, 'Issues in the Legal Theory of Uṣūl and in judicial and
Prospects for Reform' (2001) 40 Islamic studies 5 legislative law
making in the
Fadel, M, Book Review Radical Reform: Islamic modern state.
Ethics and Liberation by Tariq Ramadan, Oxford
University Press, 2009 in 81 (2013) Journal of the
American Academy of Religion 1159.
21. Current Challenges (4): Odatalla v Odatalla [2002] 355 N.J. Super. 305; 810 Examination of the
Islamic Jurisprudence in A.2d 93 (Ch. Div. 2002) available issue of the
the West at https://www.courtlistener.com/njsuperctappdiv/b42 application of
w/odatalla-v-odatalla/ Islamic law in the
West by looking
Shamil Bank v Beximco Pharmaceuticals [2004] into selected court
EWCA (Civ) 19 available decisions.
at http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2004/19.
html
22. Islamic Jurisprudence in Mohammad Ahmed Khan v Shah Bano Begum 1985 Analysis of the
South Asia (1) AIR 945 developments in
Islamic
Mas‘ud, MK, 'Trends in the Interpretation of Islamic Jurisprudence
Law in the Fatāwā Literature of Deoband School, M.A under Pakistani
Thesis' (McGill University 1969) available legal system in the
at http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/view/action/singleVi historical context
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ewer.do?dvs=1389340782328~394&locale=en_US&s of South Asia.
how_metadata=false&VIEWER_URL=/view/action/si
ngleViewer.do?&DELIVERY_RULE_ID=6&adjacen
cy=N&application=DIGITOOL-
3&frameId=1&usePid1=true&usePid2=true
23. Judicial Islamisation of Qazalbash Waqf v Chief Land Commissioner PLD Examination and
Laws in Pakistan (1) 1990 SC 99 critical evaluation
of the application
of Islamic
jurisprudence in the
process of judicial
Islamisation of
laws.
24. Judicial Islamisation of M Aslam Khaki v Muhammad Hashim 2000 PLD SC Ibid
Laws in Pakistan (2) 225 (Ribā Judgment)
Textbook(s)/Supplementary Readings
Books
Ahmad, AA, Structural Interrelations of Theory and Practice in Islamic Law: A Study of Six Works of
Medieval Islamic Jurisprudence (Brill 2006) (See Chapters 1, 2 and 8)
Hasan, A, The Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence: Command of the Sharī'ah and Juridical Norm (Islamic
Research Institute, International Islamic University 1993)
Lowry, JE, Early Islamic Legal Theory: The Risāla of Muḥammad Ibn Idrīs Al-Shāfi‘ī (Brill 2007) (See
Chapter 2 Hermeneutical Techniques) 61-163
Masud, MK, Shatibi’s Philosophy of Islamic Law (Islamic Research Institute, International Islamic University
1995)
Vikør, KS, Between God and the Sultan: A History of Islamic Law (Hurst & Co. 2005)
Articles
al-Atawneh, M, 'Wahhabi Legal Theory as Reflected in Modern Official Saudi Fatwas: Ijithad, Taqlid,
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Sources, and Methodology' (2011) 18 Islamic L. & Soc'y 327
Dutton, Y, 'The Introduction to Ibn Rushd's “Bidāyat al-Mujtahid”' (1994) Islamic Law and Society 188
Emon, AM, 'Natural Law and Natural Rights in Islamic Law' (2004) 20 Journal of Law and Religion 351
El Fadl, KA, 'Islamic law and Muslim minorities: The juristic discourse on Muslim minorities from the
second/eighth to the eleventh/seventeenth centuries' (1994) Islamic Law and Society 141
Hallaq, WB, 'Non-Analogical Arguments in Sunni Juridical Qiyas' (1989) 36 Arabica 286
Horii, S, 'Reconsideration of Legal Devices (Ḥiyal) in Islamic Jurisprudence: The Ḥanafī's and Their "Exits"
(Makhārij)' (2002) 9 Islamic Law and Society 312
Moosa, E, 'Colonialism and Islamic Law' in MK Masud and others (eds), Islam and Modernity (Edinburgh
University Press 2009)
Opwis, F, 'The Construction of Madhhab Authority: Ibn Taymiyya's Interpretation of Juristic Preference
(Istiḥsān)' (2008) 15 Islamic Law and Society 219
Rabb, IA, 'Islamic Legal Maxims as Substantive Canons of Constructions: Hudud-Avoidance in Cases of
Doubt' (2010) 17 Islamic L. & Soc'y 63
Zaman, MQ, ‘The Caliphs , the ʿUlamāʾ , and the Law: Defining the Role and Function of the Caliph in the
Early ʿAbbāsid Period’ (1997) 4 Islamic L. & Soc'y, 1-36.
Research Journals
Online Resources
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Gateway to selected scholarly websites
http://www.intute.ac.uk/
http://www.ssrn.com/
http://www.pakistanlawsite.com/
http://www.indiankanoon.org/
http://www.manupatra.com/
http://www.bailii.org/
http://www.westlaw.co.uk/
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