ABSTRACT

This chapter seeks to highlight the role of custom in Islamic legal discourses during the pre-modern period and explores later developments in the modern context. The domain of legal implementation has been one of the important contexts illustrating the role of custom in the continued process of legal construction, as demonstrated in the fatwa and judgeship literature. To begin with, knowledge of and familiarity with custom has been one of the important qualifications of a competent mufti or judge. Turning to the question of the authority of custom, it can be explored in two main contexts. The first investigates the textual evidence invoked to support and justify its legitimacy. The second investigates its relationship to other legal sources, especially in cases of conflict. Starting with textual sources, the jurists make a distinction between a concurrent or contemporaneous custom and a subsequent one.