Positioning Islamic Legal Maxims in the Development of Nigerian Economic Activities

Abstract

Islamic Legal Maxims (al-Qawa’id al-Fiqhiyyah) are established principles of law which jurists appeal when confronting new legal cases. Majority of these Legal Maxims are derived from the Qur’an and Sunnah and are capable in helping Muslims in arriving at the appropriate rulings where there was no explicit law exists. Therefore, using of these available treasures in the development of Nigerian economy should be welcome for the jurists, judges, lawyer, legists, Muftis, business owners, economists, bankers among others, who are to take a useful part in the practical application of Islamic financial law system, it is of the greatest importance, this study is an attempt to highlight the position of certain Islamic legal maxims to the economic development in the study area. The study also aims to conduct an applied study using the descriptive and analytical methods to capture these selected legal maxims that are relevant to the subject matter in the area. At the end of this research, it was recommended that all the Islamic financial institutions in the study area should include Legal maxims as one of the main components of their activities.