Shahid Mahmood (Superior University) has posted Stages in the Development of the Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
The principles of Islamic jurisprudence, known as usul al-fiqh, did not develop suddenly as a complete and separate science. Instead, they grew slowly over time through a long process of legal, theological, and intellectual development. Their origins can be traced back to the Prophetic period, when the foundations of Islamic law were found in the Qur’an and the Sunnah. After that, they continued to develop through different historical stages, including the period of the Companions, the rise of the early juristic schools, the classical age in which legal theory was systematized, the post-classical stage of commentary and refinement, and the modern period of reform and contemporary application. Scholars today generally agree that Islamic legal theory took shape gradually as Muslim jurists worked to establish proper methods for deriving rulings from the Qur’an, the Sunnah, consensus, analogy, and other interpretive tools. This article explores the main stages in the development of usul al-fiqh and argues that its history represents a continuous effort to remain faithful to divine revelation while also responding to new legal and social challenges. It also shows that usul al-fiqh should not be seen as a fixed or unchanging body of rules. Rather, it is a living and flexible methodological tradition that continued to grow within both Sunni and Shiʿi legal thought and still remains relevant in the modern world.
To receive new posts from Legal Theory Blog by email, get a free subscription to Legal Theory Stack.
Lawrence Solum