The relationship of Islamic economics with classical fiqh: The example of Islamic financial standards

Islamic finance standards are texts that aim to determine the functioning of Islamic finance institutions by taking into account classical fiqh knowledge and current economic and financial needs. The organisations that formulate these standards worldwide are generally Gulf countries, Asian countries where Islamic finance has developed such as Malaysia and Indonesia, and countries such as Turkey. Different organisations working in different geographies reveal many differences and richness as well as similarities. The institutional structures of these organisations, their standard preparation methods, their relations with the classical fiqh heritage, the structure of their advisory boards and especially the basis of fiqh provisions are important issues and constitute the main topics of this study. Since Islamic finance standards are jurisprudential texts, they have to establish a relationship with classical fiqh in some way. The nature of this relationship constitutes the main purpose of this thesis. For this purpose, six organisations that develop Islamic finance standards have been identified. These organisations are AAOIFI, IFSB, TKBB, IIFM, DSN-MUI and SACBNM. The clearest area where the relations with classical fiqh can be seen in Islamic finance standards are the justification and bases of the provisions. In this thesis, 44 standards on ten different subjects from six different institutions were identified and analysed in this regard. As a result of the examination of the standards, it has been observed that classical jurisprudence is frequently used in Islamic finance standards both as a source and method. The methods used in the basis of the standards can be generally expressed as the narrations, general fiqh principles of ibaha, necessity, maslahat and sedd-i zarai, classical fiqh sources, standards and fatwas of other institutions, qiyas, rules, madhhab opinions, consensus of opinion/ijma and custom/urf and usage. In general terms, it is possible to state that Islamic finance standards have a balanced use of classical fiqh without sanctifying it but without ignoring it, that institutions have their own habits of use, that the grounds shown most of the time are based on justified grounds, and that the irregular use of necessity and maslahat-based approaches, which are widely criticised in the literature, is not common.