The Qurʾān and the Sunna
The two primary and transmitted sources of Islamic Law are the Qurʾān and the Sunna (Prophetic traditions and practices) and according to some scholars Ijmah is also included as Primary Source. This combination of the two crucial sources of Islamic Law is seen as a link between reason and revelation. Indeed, the marriage between these two sources has resulted in the emergence of Islamic Law [8: p. 15]. The Qurʾān is considered the most sacred and important source of Islamic Law, which contains verses related to god, human beliefs and how a particular believer should live in this worldly life. The human conduct that should govern the believers’ life, which is clearly stated in the Qurʾān, is indeed the domain of Islamic Law. The Qurʾān comprises about five hundred legal verses that explicitly set out legal rulings that need to be applied by all believers [8: p. 16]. Even non-legal verses in the Qurʾān do support the establishment of the legal system of Islam, as will be expounded by Professor Almatroudi. The second primary and transmitted source of Islamic Law is the Sunna, which represents the Prophet Mohammad’s (peace be upon him) deeds and sayings, which were formulated in the form of narratives and became known as Prophetic Ḥadīth [8: p. 16]. The Sunna also comprises a number of legal provisions that must be applied by all believers of Islam. Certain legal rulings in these transmitted Islamic sources are definitive. In other words, the law-giver (God) has formulated them in such a way which does not need personal legal reasoning and is not open to different interpretations as they are clear and definitive. Conversely, there exists a corpus of legal contents stated in both the Qurʾān and the Sunna, the application of which requires reasoning. The law-giver who has formulated certain legal rulings stated in the Qurʾān and the Sunna in such a way that never accepts two different interpretations, could have also done the same with regard to the rest of legal contents laid down in the aforementioned Islamic sources. However, there has been a pivotal reason behind making a huge bulk of legal contents mentioned in the Qurʾān and the Sunna open to legal reasoning. This flexibility in the law qualifies it to be legally valid for all legal cases regardless of time and place as it is amenable to development and change, a matter which will be further discussed in Sect. 3. Furthermore, the difference in the interpretation of a particular legal issue is deemed amongst jurists a kind of mercy. The de facto corpus of legal contents stated in the Qurʾān and the Sunna, the application of which demands independent legal reasoning leads us to another source of Islamic Law known as legal reasoning.
Legal Reasoning
Legal reasoning (ijtihād) is an untransmitted source of Islamic Law, whose emergence is due to the fact that Islamic jurists could not always interpret the language of the Qurʾān and that of the Sunna in the same way arriving at the same legal result, rather they frequently differ in their interpretations of certain Qurʾānic verses and particular Prophetic traditions, reaching different legal rulings. This is owing to the fact that the law-giver has deliberately set out a number of legal rulings in these two revealed legal sources, and formulated them in such a way that makes them open to reasoning and juristic interpretation so that the law becomes legally valid on a permanent basis and is susceptible to development as new legal issues emerge. Hallaq [8: p. 19] points out that certain terms in the Qurʾān and the Sunna can have more than a single legal interpretation. Metaphorical lexical items, for instance, need to be interpreted to convey specific legal meanings.
Consensus
Related to legal reasoning is another source of Islamic Law known as consensus (ijmāʿ), which refers to the agreement of jurists, living in a particular age, on a specific legal ruling of a particular act, after being subject to different legal views and opinions. Consensus has to be founded on the Qurʾān and/or the Sunna. Consensus plays a crucial role in ratifying and ascertaining legal rules which may have been grounded in probable evidence.