The Role of ʿUrf in the Jurisprudence of Ibn Idrīs

Abstract

Ibn Idrīs’s recognition of the merits and particularities of his era, together with his awareness of the circumstances of the society in which he lived and his efforts to address the problems confronting it, led him to seek to overcome the atmosphere of stagnation and intellectual inertia that dominated jurisprudence during his time. By characterizing his age as one marked by the sterility of intellect and intellectual backwardness, and by challenging the opinions of earlier jurists, he opened the way for consideration of the role of time and place in the transformation and development of Islamic jurisprudence, thereby laying the necessary foundations for a renewed approach to jurisprudential thought.
Ibn Idrīs defines ʿurf as a practice or verbal expression that is commonly and consistently prevalent among people. He further maintains that, since ʿurf has two distinct origins or modes of emergence, it may perform two different functions. The first is an independent function, through which ʿurf contributes to the discovery and determination of the legal ruling. The second is an instrumental function, through which it serves to identify the subjects and concrete instances to which legal rulings apply, as well as to clarify the meanings of terms and expressions.