Doctrine of Necessity (In Islamic Jurisprudence)

Abstract

Islamic Jurisprudence provides the mechanism to understand the Islamic Law and the Islamic law is basically and principally pillared/sourced on Qur’an, the divine revelation (the words of the Almighty ALLAH) and the Sunnah (Prophetic Traditions), the words and the practice of the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) and those two are considered the basic sources of law in Islamic Law. Furtherance to the said sources seconding to the basic pillars is as Ijma (Consensus) and Qiyas (application of rule by analogy). After that the Ijtihad (Juristic consensus of opinion of the imam’s mujtahid,) Istihsan (juristic preference), Maslahah Mursalah (Public Interest), Urf (Custom), Istishab (presumption of existence or non-existence of facts Presumption of Continuity), Sadd al-Dhara’ (Blocking the Means). The paper is an effort to discuss these in order to present the pros and cons of the doctrine of necessity in Islamic jurisprudence.