Al-qawa‘id al-fiqhiyyah or Legal Maxims are general rules of Fiqh, which can be applied to various cases under common rulings. They are often resorted to in applications of Shari’ah in Islamic finance. Among the number of maxims that exist, scholars have classified five to be the major maxims that cover all the areas of Islamic law. In this ever-evolving industry, the role of these maxims are becoming more important than before as they shed light on new issues that may not be directly addressed in the Quran and the Sunnah. Contemporary jurists have thus resorted to the use of these maxims in the application of Shari’ah in the Islamic finance industry.
