The Role of Customs in Islamic Personal Law

Abstract

In this paper I intend to study the customs which were prevalent in Islamic Law. After having an idea about the customs prevalent in Islam I would study the development of custom as a source of Islamic Law. Then I would look into some specific matters in Islamic Law, and see what were the customs in historical times and what is the law regarding them now. After that I intend to whether or not the customs have had any role in the development of laws regarding these matters.The approach which I have taken is a doctrinal approach, as according to me it is a good approach for my topic. The approach is both primary and secondary in nature. For example I have looked into various books available at the NLUO library, also have searched some books in the internet and of course I have gone through the study materials provided by our professor. The research areas in this paper are divided into three parts which are mentioned as follows. The first area is to see what are the various sources of law in Islam, i.e. The Quran, The Ahadis, The Ijmaas, and The Qiyas. An idea about the sources of Islamic law will help understand from where customs mainly developed or in which source customs were treated with more value. The second research area in which I look into is how the customs developed as a source of law in Islam. Here I discuss the evolution of custom from the pre-classical era when customs were not recognized as a ‘legitimate’ source of law to the recent era when finally custom was admitted as a ‘material’ source of law in Islam. The third and the final part is where I look into customs of specific matters of Islam such as marriage, inheritance etc. As my paper intends to study the role of customs I need to have knowledge of what the customs were, in regards the areas I have specified.The first chapter deals in details the main sources of Islamic Law and customs as a source of law. I have sorted to treating facts in a descriptive way in this chapter for the sources . By this chapter I wish to know the basic sources of Islamic Law and how customs developed as a legitimate source.The next chapter deals with the customs of inheritance and the role the customs played in development of the laws of the inheritance. I have treated the facts in an analytical way: analyzed the role of custom regarding inheritance. By this chapter I intend to find whether or not customs have had any role in laws of Inheritance in Islam, if any, then what the different aspects of it are. The next chapter is similar to the previous one, except that it looks into the matters regarding marriage.