Rethinking Uṣūl al-Fiqh in Islamic Finance: From Diversified Jurisprudential Schools to Unified Uṣūl?

Abstract The ultimate aim of this research is to conceptually present a new phenomenon of officializing a new Islamic legal methodology ( uṣūl al-fiqh ) utilized to deduce jurisprudential rulings pertaining to Islamic finance. With the existence of Islamic international bodies and Islamic financial infrastructure organizations, contemporary Islamic financial rulings do not necessarily depend on the legal methodology adopted by a particular jurisprudential school of thought. Rather, such international bodies include Sharīʿah jurisconsults in their Sharīʿah boards who depend on diverse classical Islamic legal methodologies when deducing rulings pertaining to Islamic financial practices. This research historically displays the beginnings of uṣūl al-fiqh during the 9–11 Century, and thereafter argues that since the codification of uṣūl al-fiqh is a developing science, the standardization effort by AAOIFI may officially be considered as a new approach to uṣūl al-fiqh (a form of unification). It includes an empirical enquiry, displaying that the concept of unified uṣūl is already in existence, in one form or another.