Ijma

Ijma (Arabic: إجماع, literally 'agreement' or 'consensus') is the unanimous agreement of qualified Islamic scholars (Mujtahidun) of a given era on a legal ruling. It is the third primary source of Islamic law after the Quran and Sunnah. A ruling established by Ijma carries binding authority because the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) stated that 'my community will never agree on an error.' In Islamic finance, Ijma operates at multiple levels: (1) Classical Ijma — ancient unanimous consensus on fundamental prohibitions (Riba, Gharar) that cannot be overridden; (2) Contemporary collective Ijtihad — modern Shariah boards and bodies like AAOIFI, OIC Islamic Fiqh Academy, and national Shariah councils issue resolutions that function as conditional Ijma for their jurisdictions. AAOIFI Shariah Standards represent the closest contemporary equivalent to Ijma in global Islamic finance — adopted across 45+ countries as the authoritative standard for contract permissibility and structure.