Methodological Approach of Fiqh Academies towards Contemporary Islamic Financial Issues

Abstract

Present study argues that contemporary fiqh academies have adopted an ease-based moderate approach to resolve the current financial issues within the framework of Sharī‘ah. They played a vital role in development of Islamic Finance (IF) through an intricate expansion of Islamic legal principles pertaining to commercial laws. These academies operate as hubs of ijtihād institution. Their mode of ijtihād is collective or group ijtihād, in order to resolve contemporary fiqhi issues, and a considerable part of their resolutions consists of modern financial transactions. For the sake of resolving novel issues, Islamic legal interpretations of all the four schools of ahl-al-Sunnah, are deemed as common legal heritage, hence freely consulted without any bias to formulate new legal rules. However, many of the contemporary Muslim scholars criticized their methodological approach, mainly because they judge it as gross misapplication of the theories and principles of Islamic Law, thus leading to an abuse of legal diversity in fiqh discourse. The present research has undertaken an appraisal of methodology of some eminent pioneering fiqh academies of the world towards the development of IF industry through their fatāwa. The study concludes that these academies.