Qiyas

Qiyas (Arabic: قياس, literally 'measurement' or 'analogy') is the jurisprudential method of deriving new Shariah rulings by drawing analogies between established precedents (from Quran, Sunnah, or Ijma) and novel situations that share the same underlying legal cause ('Illah). It is the fourth primary source of Islamic law after the Quran, Sunnah, and Ijma, and one of the most important tools of Ijtihad. Structure of Qiyas: (1) Asl — the original case with a known ruling; (2) Far — the new case to be ruled upon; (3) Hukm — the ruling of the original case; (4) 'Illah — the effective cause linking old and new cases. In Islamic finance, Qiyas is extensively used: prohibiting currency speculation by analogy to Riba al-Fadl (exchange inequality prohibition), permitting Salam by analogy to agricultural pre-payment practices, and classifying modern financial derivatives through analogical analysis of classical ribawi transactions. Shariah boards apply Qiyas when evaluating fintech innovations, cryptocurrency, and digital assets.