Āda and ‘Urf in Hanafi and Shafii” Fiqh

By: Noha Adel Bakr

” In this chapter, I have briefly traced the position of custom, or ‘Urf, in the Islamic legal tradition from it’s inception through the mid-seventh/ thirteenth century. Throughout this period, the use of custom went through two important stages of legal development. The first stage was the absorption of pre-Islamic customs of Arabs, Persians, and others into the sharī’a (i’ tibār al-‘urf). The second stage was the formal establishment of custom as one of the five major principles of jurisprudence, with its related conditions, restrictions, sub-principles and guidelines (al-taq ͨ īd al-fiqhī).”