CREATIVITY IN ISLAMIC LAW: A CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF ITS UNITY IN DIVERSITY

Abstract

Shari'ah, being the indivisible and inimitable law of God, was put to test with the emegence of fiqhi madhahib in Islam. Many feel that these madhahib have stifled the creative spirit of Islam through creating disunity in the uniform application of Islamic law. As such they called for the eradication of such jurisprudential segmentation so as to unify the shari'ah. The writer feels that the existence of these madhahib itself is a result of creativity exercised by the sucessive generations of scholars to meet the exigencies of perpetuity. As such the call to unify these madhahib will pave the way for the return to a retrograde rigidity in the application of Islamic law. Moreover, the urgency to devise a new fiqh for Muslims living in minority situations too need to be critically analysed in the light of creativity operating on the plane of unity in diversity. Thus, this paper will examine some of the scholarly approaches in reconciling the inter- and intra-madhahib differences and explore the possibility of employing their findings to address the challenges faced by Muslims living as minorities.