Islamic Banking: Sharia and Sources of Sharia

Islamic finance is the management of money based upon Shariah rules. 

Sharīʿah is the fundamental religious concept of Islam, namely its law of living for the betterment of this world and hereafter. 

The complete submission  to the will of Allah (God) is the fundamental pillar of Islam: Islamic law is therefore the expression of Allah’s command for Muslim society and constitutes a system of duties that are compulsory upon a Muslim by virtue of his religious belief.

Sources of Sharia: 

Sharia, the law of living of Muslims is extracted from 4 sources out of which the first 2 are primary sources and later 2 are the secondary sources. The primary sources are Qrarán and Sunnah; the secondary sources are Ijma’, Qiyas.

1.Quran:

Quran is the holy book of Islam which was orally revealed from Allah to Prophet Muhammed through the angel Jibril (Gabriel) over a period of 23 years.

2. Sunnah

Sunnah is the words, acts or the permission of the prophet Muhammed during the period of his prophetship ie. 23 years from his 40th age to 63rd age. 

3. Ijma

Ijma (إجماع‎ )  is an Arabic term which means the consensus or the agreement of Islamic scholars on a specific issue regarding the Islamic jurisprudence which is not directly mentioned in the Quran or Sunnah. The example of Ijma is the second azan on the day of Friday Juma' which did not exist at the time of prophet; later it was introduced by the consensus of Muslim scholars to make sure that the people staying far away from the Mosque may can reach by the time of starting of Khutuba (Friday speech).

4. Qiyas: 
Qiyās قياس)  is a term in Islamic Jurisprudence for the process of deductive analogy in which the sayings in Quran and Hadith are compared and contrasted in order to develop a rule to a new circumstance and create a new injunction. 
The example of Qiyas is that the prohibition of drugs because of alcohol is prohibited in Islam.  Alcohol is prohibited in Islam and it is clearly mentioned in the Quran that it is prohibited because of Intoxication. Even though there is no mention regarding the prohibition of addictive drugs in the Quran; all drugs and measures of addiction are also prohibited in Islam based upon the deductive analogy that as the alcohol is prohibited because of intoxication; the drugs are also prohibited because of intoxication.