ABSTRACT
Under the names 'adah and 'urf, Islamic legal authorities have long recognized the existence of local custom which can sometimes run counter to details of the Shari'a . Traditional customs hallowed with age in particular Muslim communities may be at variance with what members of these communities find recommended in the Arabic legal text-books if and when they learn to read them. The divergence between the strict prescriptions of the scholars and the custom of the community is not, however, to be attributed simply to difficulties of acquiring the books and reading them. Customary procedures have their own positive content, and even in Arab communities and the centres of Arab civilization local custom has continued to assert itself side by side with the scholarly law. But where Arabic is not the daily language of the community one may expect to find more people doubtful of the ways in which their own popular Islam differs from the prescriptions of the Shari'a, and here arise differences of opinion within one and the same community.
