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Change in the Modern Practice of Ijtihād: The Case of Islamic Finance

Year 2012, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 149 - 171, 21.02.2013
https://doi.org/10.12730/13091719.2012.32.57

Abstract

In recent decades, crucial changes in the legal reasoning of Islamic sharīʿa resulting from the differing influences of changing social needs, economic factors, and political-legal circumstances have been observed. This paper argues that these changes are particularly visible in the manner in which the major sources of uṣūl al-fiqh are utilized, the meanings attached to them and the frequency with which they are utilized in solving distinctly modern problems in the Muslim world. The paper makes this argument in terms of the modern theoretical approaches in Islamic finance by focusing on how a number of classical legal institutions, such as the ḍarūra, maṣlaḥa, and other foundations of ijtihād, have been re-interpreted in a manner that reflects changing socio-economic conditions in the age of globalization. The paper also demonstrates how other classical institutions, such as madhhab and the use of classical sources of uṣūl al-fiqh, have been radically changed by the (new) theorists of Islamic economics because of changing social and legal circumstances. Thus, for instance, the paper dis-cusses how the ijtihād in Islamic finance has been both greatly intensified and partly transformed into a collective enterprise rather than the individual act of a scholar because of increasing complexity in economics and the accompanying specialization and professionalization of ʿulamāʾ. The paper ends with a discussion of the possible implications of these changes for the contemporary practice of Islamic finance in the West, as well as in the Muslim world.

References

  • Abū l-Baṣal, ʿAbd al-Nāṣir Mūsā ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, “Manhaj al-fatwā fī aḥkām al-muʿāmalāt al-muʿāṣira,” Abḥāth al-Yarmūk 18/2B (2002), 449-484.
  • Abū Sulaymān, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb Ibrāhīm, Fiqh al-ḍarūra wa-taṭbīqātuhū l-muʿāṣira: Āfāq wa-abʿād (Jeddah: Al-Bank al-Islāmī li-l-Tanmiya, al-Maʿʻhad al-Islāmī li-l-Buḥūth wa-l-Tadrīb, 2002).
  • Ainley, Michael, et al., Islamic Finance in the UK: Regulation and Challenges (Lon-don: The Financial Services Authority, 2007).
  • al-Ashqar, Muḥammad Sulaymān, Bayʿ al-murābaḥa kamā tujrīhi l-maṣārif al-Islāmiyya (Amman: Dār al-Nafāʾis, 1983).
  • ʿAṭiyya, Jamāl, “al-Jawānib al-qānūniyya li-taṭbīq ʿaqd al-murābaḥa,” Majallat Jāmiʿat al-Malik ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz: al-Iqtiṣād al-Islāmī 2/1 (1990), 131-155.
  • Bälz, Kilian, Sharia Risk? How Islamic Finance Has Transformed Islamic Contract Law (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Law School, Islamic Legal Studies Program [ILSP], 2008).
  • Cebeci, İsmail, Ceride-i İlmiyye Fetvaları [Fatwās of Jarīda-i ʿIlmiyya] (Istanbul: Klasik Yayınları, 2009).
  • Cebeci, İsmail, “Integrating Social Maslahah into Islamic Finance,” Accounting Research Journal 25/3 (2012), 166-184, http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/10309611211290158.
  • Fayyāḍ, ʿAṭiyya, al-Taṭbīqāt al-maṣrafiyya li-bayʿ al-murābaḥa fī dawʾ al-fiqh al-Islāmī (Cairo: Dār al-Nashr li-l-Jāmiʿāt, 1999).
  • Ḥammād, Nazīh, al-ʿUqūd al-murakkaba fī l-fiqh al-Islāmī: Dirāsa taʾṣīliyya li-l-manẓūmāt al-ʿaqdiyya al-mustaḥdatha (Dimashq: Dār al-Qalam & Beirut: al-Dār al-Shāmiyya, 2005).
  • Ḥammūd, Sāmī Ḥasan, “Bayʿ al-murābaḥa li-l-āmir bi-l-shirāʾ,” Majallat Majmaʿ al-Fiqh al-Islāmī 5/2 (1988), 1089-1113.
  • al-Ḥaṭṭāb, Kamāl Tawfīq Muḥammad, “al-Qabḍ wa-l-ilzām bi-l-waʿd fī ʿaqd al-murābaḥa li-l-āmir bi-l-shirāʾ fī l-fiqh al-Islāmī,” Muʾta li-l-buḥūth wa-l-dirāsāt 15/1 (2000), 233-259.
  • Hegazy, Walid, “Fatwas and the Fate of Islamic Finance: A Critique of the Practice of Fatwa in Contemporary Islamic Financial Markets,” in S. Nazim Ali (ed.), Islamic Finance: Current Legal and Regulatory Issues (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Law School, Islamic Legal Studies Program [ILSP], Islamic Finance Project, 2005), 133-149.
  • Kamali, Mohammad Hashim, “A Shariʿah Analysis of Issues in Islamic Leasing,” Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Islamic Economics 20/1 (2007), 3-22, http://dx.doi.org/10.4197/islec.20-1.1.
  • Kaya, Eyyup Said, Mezheblerin Teşekkülünden Sonra Fıkhî İstidlâl [Legal Reason-ing after the Formation of Madhhabs ] (PhD dissertation; Istanbul: Marma-ra University, 2001).
  • Kaya, Eyyup Said,“Continuity and Change in Islamic Law: The Concept of Madhhab and the Dimensions of Legal Disagreement in Hanafi Scholarship of the Tenth Cen-tury,” in Peri Bearman, Rudolph Peters, Frank E. Vogel (ed.), The Islamic School of Law: Evolution, Devolution, and Progress (Cambridge, MA: Har-vard Law School, Islamic Legal Studies Program [ILSP], 2005), 26-40.
  • Khorshid, Aly, “Adding Social Responsibility and Accountability to the Mandate of Shariʿa Advisory Boards,” in S. Nazim Ali (ed.), Building Bridges Across Fi-nancial Communities: The Global Financial Crisis, Social Responsibility, and Faith-Based Finance (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Law School, Islamic Legal Studies Program [ILSP], Islamic Finance Project, 2012), 83-101.
  • al-Miṣrī, Rafīq Yūnus, “Bayʿ al-murābaḥa li-l-āmir bi-l-shirāʾ fī l-maṣārif al-Islāmiyya,” Majallat Majmaʿ al-Fiqh al-Islāmī 5/2 (1988), 1127-1179.
  • al-Miṣrī, Rafīq Yūnus, Bayʿ al-murābaḥa li-l-āmir bi-l-shirāʾ fī l-maṣārif al-Islāmiyya (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1996).
  • Mulḥim, Aḥmad Sālim ʿAbd Allāh, Bayʿ al-murābaḥa wa-taṭbīqātuhā fī l-maṣārif al-Islāmiyya (Amman: Dār al-Thaqāfa, 2005).
  • al-Qaraḍāwī, Yūsuf, Bayʿ al-murābaḥa li-l-āmir bi-l-shirāʾ kamā tujrīhi l-maṣārif al-Islāmiyya: Dirāsa fī ḍawʾ al-nuṣūṣ wa-l-qawāʿid al-sharʿiyya (Cairo: Makta-bat Wahba, 1987).
  • Şensoy, Necdet, “Müzâkere (Ahmet Tabakoğlu’nun “İslâm İktisadı Metodolojisi” Başlıklı Tebliği Üzerine) [Discussion (On the Article “The Methodology of Is-lamic Economics” by Ahmet Tabakoğlu)],” in İslâmî İlimlerde Metodoloji (Usûl) Mes’elesi 2 [The Problem of Methodology (Uṣūl) in Islamic Sciences 2] (Istanbul: Ensar Neşriyat, 2005), 1254-1255.
  • Tabakoğlu, Ahmet, İslâm İktisadı: Toplu Makaleler II [Islamic Economics: A Collec-tion of Articles II] (Istanbul: Kitabevi Yayınları, 2005).
  • ʿUmar, Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm, “al-Tafāṣīl al-ʿamaliyya li-ʿaqd al-murābaḥa fī l-niẓām al-maṣrafī al-Islāmī,” in Khuṭṭat al-istithmār fī l-bunūk al-Islāmiyya: al-Jawānib al-taṭbīqiyya wa-l-qaḍāyā wa-l-mushkilāt (Amman: al-Majmaʿ al-Malikī li-Buḥūth al-Ḥaḍāra al-Islāmiyya, 1987), 175-228.
  • Ünal, Murat, The Small World of Islamic Finance: Shariah Scholars and Govern-ance – A Network Analytic Perspective v. 6.0, http://www. funds-at-work.com/uploads/media/Sharia-Network_by_Funds_at_ Work_AG.pdf (accessed 20 December 2011).
  • Vogel, Frank E. and Hayes, Samuel L., Islamic Law and Finance: Religion, Risk, and Return (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 1998).
  • al-Zarqā, Muṣṭafā Aḥmad, al-Fiqh al-Islāmī fī thawbihī l-jadīd: vol. I-II: al-Madkhal al-fiqhī al-ʿām; vol. III: Madkhal ilā naẓariyyat al-iltizām fī l-fiqh al-Islāmī (9th edn., Dimashq: Dār al-Fikr, 1967).
  • http://www.albaraka.com/media/pdf/Research-Studies/RSMR-200706201-EN.pdf (accessed 10 November 2011).
  • http://www.fiqhacademy.org.sa (accessed 22 December 2011).
  • www.e-cfr.org/data/cat30072008114456.doc (accessed 22 August 2012).

Change in the Modern Practice of Ijtihād: The Case of Islamic Finance

Year 2012, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 149 - 171, 21.02.2013
https://doi.org/10.12730/13091719.2012.32.57

Abstract

In recent decades, crucial changes in the legal reasoning of Islamic sharīʿa resulting from the differing influences of changing social needs, economic factors, and political-legal circumstances have been observed. This paper argues that these changes are particularly visible in the manner in which the major sources of uṣūl al-fiqh are utilized, the meanings attached to them and the frequency with which they are utilized in solving distinctly modern problems in the Muslim world. The paper makes this argument in terms of the modern theoretical approaches in Islamic finance by focusing on how a number of classical legal institutions, such as the ḍarūra, maṣlaḥa, and other foundations of ijtihād, have been re-interpreted in a manner that reflects changing socio-economic conditions in the age of globalization. The paper also demonstrates how other classical institutions, such as madhhab and the use of classical sources of uṣūl al-fiqh, have been radically changed by the (new) theorists of Islamic economics because of changing social and legal circumstances. Thus, for instance, the paper dis-cusses how the ijtihād in Islamic finance has been both greatly intensified and partly transformed into a collective enterprise rather than the individual act of a scholar because of increasing complexity in economics and the accompanying specialization and professionalization of ʿulamāʾ. The paper ends with a discussion of the possible implications of these changes for the contemporary practice of Islamic finance in the West, as well as in the Muslim world.

References

  • Abū l-Baṣal, ʿAbd al-Nāṣir Mūsā ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, “Manhaj al-fatwā fī aḥkām al-muʿāmalāt al-muʿāṣira,” Abḥāth al-Yarmūk 18/2B (2002), 449-484.
  • Abū Sulaymān, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb Ibrāhīm, Fiqh al-ḍarūra wa-taṭbīqātuhū l-muʿāṣira: Āfāq wa-abʿād (Jeddah: Al-Bank al-Islāmī li-l-Tanmiya, al-Maʿʻhad al-Islāmī li-l-Buḥūth wa-l-Tadrīb, 2002).
  • Ainley, Michael, et al., Islamic Finance in the UK: Regulation and Challenges (Lon-don: The Financial Services Authority, 2007).
  • al-Ashqar, Muḥammad Sulaymān, Bayʿ al-murābaḥa kamā tujrīhi l-maṣārif al-Islāmiyya (Amman: Dār al-Nafāʾis, 1983).
  • ʿAṭiyya, Jamāl, “al-Jawānib al-qānūniyya li-taṭbīq ʿaqd al-murābaḥa,” Majallat Jāmiʿat al-Malik ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz: al-Iqtiṣād al-Islāmī 2/1 (1990), 131-155.
  • Bälz, Kilian, Sharia Risk? How Islamic Finance Has Transformed Islamic Contract Law (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Law School, Islamic Legal Studies Program [ILSP], 2008).
  • Cebeci, İsmail, Ceride-i İlmiyye Fetvaları [Fatwās of Jarīda-i ʿIlmiyya] (Istanbul: Klasik Yayınları, 2009).
  • Cebeci, İsmail, “Integrating Social Maslahah into Islamic Finance,” Accounting Research Journal 25/3 (2012), 166-184, http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/10309611211290158.
  • Fayyāḍ, ʿAṭiyya, al-Taṭbīqāt al-maṣrafiyya li-bayʿ al-murābaḥa fī dawʾ al-fiqh al-Islāmī (Cairo: Dār al-Nashr li-l-Jāmiʿāt, 1999).
  • Ḥammād, Nazīh, al-ʿUqūd al-murakkaba fī l-fiqh al-Islāmī: Dirāsa taʾṣīliyya li-l-manẓūmāt al-ʿaqdiyya al-mustaḥdatha (Dimashq: Dār al-Qalam & Beirut: al-Dār al-Shāmiyya, 2005).
  • Ḥammūd, Sāmī Ḥasan, “Bayʿ al-murābaḥa li-l-āmir bi-l-shirāʾ,” Majallat Majmaʿ al-Fiqh al-Islāmī 5/2 (1988), 1089-1113.
  • al-Ḥaṭṭāb, Kamāl Tawfīq Muḥammad, “al-Qabḍ wa-l-ilzām bi-l-waʿd fī ʿaqd al-murābaḥa li-l-āmir bi-l-shirāʾ fī l-fiqh al-Islāmī,” Muʾta li-l-buḥūth wa-l-dirāsāt 15/1 (2000), 233-259.
  • Hegazy, Walid, “Fatwas and the Fate of Islamic Finance: A Critique of the Practice of Fatwa in Contemporary Islamic Financial Markets,” in S. Nazim Ali (ed.), Islamic Finance: Current Legal and Regulatory Issues (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Law School, Islamic Legal Studies Program [ILSP], Islamic Finance Project, 2005), 133-149.
  • Kamali, Mohammad Hashim, “A Shariʿah Analysis of Issues in Islamic Leasing,” Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Islamic Economics 20/1 (2007), 3-22, http://dx.doi.org/10.4197/islec.20-1.1.
  • Kaya, Eyyup Said, Mezheblerin Teşekkülünden Sonra Fıkhî İstidlâl [Legal Reason-ing after the Formation of Madhhabs ] (PhD dissertation; Istanbul: Marma-ra University, 2001).
  • Kaya, Eyyup Said,“Continuity and Change in Islamic Law: The Concept of Madhhab and the Dimensions of Legal Disagreement in Hanafi Scholarship of the Tenth Cen-tury,” in Peri Bearman, Rudolph Peters, Frank E. Vogel (ed.), The Islamic School of Law: Evolution, Devolution, and Progress (Cambridge, MA: Har-vard Law School, Islamic Legal Studies Program [ILSP], 2005), 26-40.
  • Khorshid, Aly, “Adding Social Responsibility and Accountability to the Mandate of Shariʿa Advisory Boards,” in S. Nazim Ali (ed.), Building Bridges Across Fi-nancial Communities: The Global Financial Crisis, Social Responsibility, and Faith-Based Finance (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Law School, Islamic Legal Studies Program [ILSP], Islamic Finance Project, 2012), 83-101.
  • al-Miṣrī, Rafīq Yūnus, “Bayʿ al-murābaḥa li-l-āmir bi-l-shirāʾ fī l-maṣārif al-Islāmiyya,” Majallat Majmaʿ al-Fiqh al-Islāmī 5/2 (1988), 1127-1179.
  • al-Miṣrī, Rafīq Yūnus, Bayʿ al-murābaḥa li-l-āmir bi-l-shirāʾ fī l-maṣārif al-Islāmiyya (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1996).
  • Mulḥim, Aḥmad Sālim ʿAbd Allāh, Bayʿ al-murābaḥa wa-taṭbīqātuhā fī l-maṣārif al-Islāmiyya (Amman: Dār al-Thaqāfa, 2005).
  • al-Qaraḍāwī, Yūsuf, Bayʿ al-murābaḥa li-l-āmir bi-l-shirāʾ kamā tujrīhi l-maṣārif al-Islāmiyya: Dirāsa fī ḍawʾ al-nuṣūṣ wa-l-qawāʿid al-sharʿiyya (Cairo: Makta-bat Wahba, 1987).
  • Şensoy, Necdet, “Müzâkere (Ahmet Tabakoğlu’nun “İslâm İktisadı Metodolojisi” Başlıklı Tebliği Üzerine) [Discussion (On the Article “The Methodology of Is-lamic Economics” by Ahmet Tabakoğlu)],” in İslâmî İlimlerde Metodoloji (Usûl) Mes’elesi 2 [The Problem of Methodology (Uṣūl) in Islamic Sciences 2] (Istanbul: Ensar Neşriyat, 2005), 1254-1255.
  • Tabakoğlu, Ahmet, İslâm İktisadı: Toplu Makaleler II [Islamic Economics: A Collec-tion of Articles II] (Istanbul: Kitabevi Yayınları, 2005).
  • ʿUmar, Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm, “al-Tafāṣīl al-ʿamaliyya li-ʿaqd al-murābaḥa fī l-niẓām al-maṣrafī al-Islāmī,” in Khuṭṭat al-istithmār fī l-bunūk al-Islāmiyya: al-Jawānib al-taṭbīqiyya wa-l-qaḍāyā wa-l-mushkilāt (Amman: al-Majmaʿ al-Malikī li-Buḥūth al-Ḥaḍāra al-Islāmiyya, 1987), 175-228.
  • Ünal, Murat, The Small World of Islamic Finance: Shariah Scholars and Govern-ance – A Network Analytic Perspective v. 6.0, http://www. funds-at-work.com/uploads/media/Sharia-Network_by_Funds_at_ Work_AG.pdf (accessed 20 December 2011).
  • Vogel, Frank E. and Hayes, Samuel L., Islamic Law and Finance: Religion, Risk, and Return (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 1998).
  • al-Zarqā, Muṣṭafā Aḥmad, al-Fiqh al-Islāmī fī thawbihī l-jadīd: vol. I-II: al-Madkhal al-fiqhī al-ʿām; vol. III: Madkhal ilā naẓariyyat al-iltizām fī l-fiqh al-Islāmī (9th edn., Dimashq: Dār al-Fikr, 1967).
  • http://www.albaraka.com/media/pdf/Research-Studies/RSMR-200706201-EN.pdf (accessed 10 November 2011).
  • http://www.fiqhacademy.org.sa (accessed 22 December 2011).
  • www.e-cfr.org/data/cat30072008114456.doc (accessed 22 August 2012).
There are 30 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Religious Studies
Journal Section Research Articles
Authors

İsmail Cebeci

Publication Date February 21, 2013
Submission Date October 18, 2012
Published in Issue Year 2012 Volume: 3 Issue: 2

Cite

ISNAD Cebeci, İsmail. “Change in the Modern Practice of Ijtihād: The Case of Islamic Finance”. Ilahiyat Studies 3/2 (February 2013), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.12730/13091719.2012.32.57.
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