Fiqh

Fiqh

Fiqh ( Arabic: فقه ‎, IPA: [f ɪ qəh] ) is Islamic jurisprudence. Fiqh is an expansion of the Sharia Islamic law—based directly on the Quran and Sunnah—that complements Shariah with evolving rulings/interpretations of Islamic jurists.

Fiqh deals with the observance of rituals, morals and social legislation. There are four prominent Sunni schools of Fiqh ( Madh'hab) and two schools for the Shi'a. A person trained in fiqh is known as a Faqih (plural Fuqaha).

Etymology

The word fiqh is an Arabic term meaning "deep understanding" or "full comprehension". Technically it refers to the science of Islamic law extracted from detailed Islamic sources (which are studied in the principles of Islamic jurisprudence)--the process of gaining knowledge of Islam throughjurisprudence, and the body of legal advisements so derived, is known as fiqh.

The historian Ibn Khaldun describes fiqh as "knowledge of the rules of God which concern the actions of persons who own themselves bound to obey the law respecting what is required ( wajib), forbidden ( haraam), recommended ( mandūb), disapproved ( makruh) or merely permitted ( mubah)". [2]

This definition is consistent amongst the jurists.

Introduction

There are cases where the Qur'an gives a clearly defined and concrete answer on how to deal with different issues. This includes how to perform the ritual purification ( Arabic: wudu) before the obligatory daily prayers ( Arabic: salat). On other issues, the Qur'an alone is not enough to make things clear. For example, the Qur'an states one needs to engage in daily prayers ( Arabic: salat) and fast ( Arabic: sawm) during the month of Ramadan, however, it does not define how to perform these duties. The details about these issues can be found in the traditions of Muhammad ( Arabic: Sunnah). This is true for most detailed issues, thus the Qur'an and Sunnah are the basis for the Islamic Divine Law ( Arabic: Shariah).

With regard to some topics, the Qur'an and Sunnah are simply silent. In those cases, the Muslim jurists ( Arabic: Fuqaha) try to arrive at conclusions using other tools. Sunni jurists use analogy ( Arabic: Qiyas) and historical consensus of the community ( Arabic: Ijma). The conclusions arrived at with the aid of these additional tools constitute a wider array of laws than the Sharia constitutes of, and is called fiqh. Thus, in contrast to the sharia, fiqh is not regarded as sacred, and the schools of thought have differing views on its details, without viewing other conclusions as sacrilegious. This division of interpretation in more detailed issues has resulted in different schools of thought ( Arabic: madh'hab).

This wider concept of Islamic jurisprudence is the source of a range of laws in different topics that govern the lives of the Muslims in all facets of everyday life

.