Pragmatism in Islamic Law

Ahmed Fekry Ibrahim

"In Pragmatism in Islamic Law, Ibrahim presents a detailed history of Sunnī legal pluralism and its utilization to accommodate the changing needs of Muslim societies. Since the formative period of Islamic law, jurists have debated whether it is acceptable for a law to be selected based on its utility, rather than weighing conflicting articulations of the law to determine the most likely expression of the divine will. Virtually unanimous opposition to the utilitarian approach, referred to as 'pragmatic eclecticism,' emerged among early jurists. However, due to a host of changing institutional and socioeconomic transformations, a trend toward the legitimization of pragmatic eclecticism arose in the thirteenth century. Subsequently, the Mamluk authorities institutionalized this pragmatism when Sultan Baybars appointed four chief judges representing the four Sunnī schools in Cairo in 1265...