ABSTRACT
Natural law proposes to traverse boundaries set up by unique legal epistemologies. This chapter attempts to chart those ideas that presented in Islamic legal theories when they interacted with concepts of natural law to characterize the dynamic when concepts of natural law appeared within the deliberations of legal theoreticians of the Muslim traditions. It looks at the intellectual challenges this dynamic produced and the legal theories that emerged. The chapter deals with the story of a boy who, to his surprise, finds himself marooned on an island. It considers the main schools of thought found in the interpretation literature of the verses and the ontological authority of reason, being central to a discussion on natural law and Islam. The chapter describes the question of what indeed is required for law, and how natural law concepts began to manifest in the Islamic legal tradition.
