Faqîh

A faqīh (plural fuqahā, فقيه, pl. ‏فقهاء‎) is an Islamic jurist, an expert in fiqh, or Islamic jurisprudence and Islamic Law. Fiqh Islamic jurisprudence or fiqh is the human understanding of the Sharia (believed by Muslims to represent divine law as revealed in the Quran and the Sunnah (the teachings and practices of the Islamic prophet Muhammad). Sharia expanded and developed by interpretation (ijtihad) of the Quran and Sunnah by Islamic jurists (Ulema) and implemented by the rulings (Fatwa) of jurists on questions presented to them. Fiqh deals with the observance of rituals, morals and social legislation in Islam. In the modern era there are four prominent schools (madh'hab) of fiqh within Sunni practice and two (or three) within Shi'a practice. The historian Ibn Khaldun describes fiqh as "knowledge of the rules of God which concern the actions of persons who own themselves bound to obey the law respecting what is required (wajib), sinful (haraam), recommended (mandūb), disapproved (makrūh) or neutral (mubah)". This definition is consistent amongst the jurists. Another definition of fiqh is "Knowledge of legislative rulings, pertaining to the actions of man, as derived from their detailed evidences." "Legislative rulings..." here excludes rulings that are purely theoretical in nature, such as those found in the science of uṣūl al-fiqh, as well as those theological in nature, generally discussed in the books of Aqidah or Kalam. "derived from their detailed evidences" here connotes two things: that there is a method of derivation; and, that the source for such derivation are the various evidences considered valid Islamically. Methods of derivation are laid out in the books of uṣūl al-fiqh (principles of fiqh), and those evidences which are deemed valid for deriving rulings from are many in number. Four of them are agreed upon by the vast majority of jurists. They are: The Qur'an The Sunnah Ijma' or Consensus Qiyas or Analogy These four types of evidence are seen as acceptable by the vast majority of Jurists from both the schools of Sunni Jurists (the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali and sometimes the Zahiriyah), as well as Shi'a Jurists.