Fiqh & Its Essentials
Literally, fiqh means understanding; it refers to the study of the law in Islam and is usually defined in jurisprudence textbooks as the knowledge of the rights and duties whereby human beings are enabled to observe right conduct in this life and to prepare themselves for the world to come. Whereas shari'a refers to the divine law itself, fiqh denotes the human interpretation of the divine commands; it constitutes the discipline of deriving and formulating positive law in a number of branches (furu), including worship (ibadat), contractual law (mu'amalat), criminal law (ta'zir and hudud), and family and personal law (ahwal shakhsiyya).
