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uṣūl al-fiqh
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uṣūl al-fiqh

Islamic law
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uṣūl al-fiqh, the sources of Islamic law and the discipline dedicated to elucidating them and their relationship to the substantive rulings of the law. The field of uṣūl al-fiqh encompasses theoretical discussions of the nature of the religious law, its relationship to reason and ethics, and its derivations from the Qurʾān, the Prophet’s Sunnah (practice of the Prophet Muhammad as transmitted through his sayings, actions, and tacit approval), ijmāʿ (consensus of scholars), and qiyas (analogical deductions from these three), as well as a number of other possible sources.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Noah Tesch.