Contracts and Business Transactions in the light of Islamic Shari‘ah: An Analytical Study

Abstract

The basic philosophy of Islamic Law is to protect the rights of the persons because all the commands of Almighty Allah has revealed with due purposes and objectives. But due to the human ineptitude cannot understand the reasons. The fundamental and true spirit of Islamic Law is to protect the rights of the individuals in every field of Shari‘ah including Contracts and Business Transactions. The current study highlights the objectives of Shari‘ah in several contracts and financial transactions in the light of Qur’an, Sunnah and Islamic Legal Maxims. The focus of this research paper is on the one branches of Islamic Law, namely Law of Contract. It also elaborates the true spirit of Almighty Allah in describing the injunctions in this filed. This paper comes with so many illustrations that Almighty Allah has prescribed the rulings in accordance with Maqasid Shari‘ah. It also discusses the relationship of the rulings of Law of Contract with the objectives of Shari‘ah. It denotes that contract is to be made in its true spirit in accordance with Shari‘ah prescriptions. This paper also analyses the contracts in the light of Maqasid Shari‘ah and highlights that individuals objectives should not be given priority in case of any contradiction while acting upon the commands of Shari‘ah. This research concludes that objectives of Shari‘ah are very important in every field of Islamic Law including law of contract and a mere priority over individuals is not recommended by Islamic Law. The spirit and objectives of Islamic law must be protected.