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Ijma' is CONSENSUS

Ijma' is CONSENSUS — the agreement of the qualified scholars of the community, ranked in the majority Sunni scheme as the third source of Islamic law after the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and the mechanism by which a ruling becomes 'definitive' and 'cannot be denied'. Three independently-worded sources agree on the core: ijma' is 'an Arabic term referring to the consensus or agreement of the Islamic community on a point of Islamic law' (Wikipedia), more precisely 'The consensus of the qualified scholars of this community after the death of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in a particular era on a specific religious ruling' (Jordanian Iftaa' Dept), and where it holds, 'consensus supports the text. It strengthens it to the degree that it becomes definitive and whatever judgement it contains cannot be denied' (IIUM/Maliki usul). Its authority is stated plainly: 'Ijma' is considered one of the primary sources of Islamic law, ranking as the third most authoritative after the Qur'an and Sunna' and 'Explicit Ijma' is a decisive proof, meaning it is certain and binding' (Jordanian Iftaa' Dept). It is load-bearing for THIS corpus because the prohibition of riba does not rest on a single verse read in isolation — it is a ruling on which the scholarly community's consensus has closed the question, which is precisely what ijma' does to a derived judgement (reasoned by this site from the verbatim general mechanism; the sources define ijma' but do NOT, in the passages read, state a specific 'consensus on riba' clause)

What this source says

Ijma' means consensus, and in Islamic law it is the point at which a legal question stops being open. Three independent sources put the core the same way. In the broadest terms it is 'an Arabic term referring to the consensus or agreement of the Islamic community on a point of Islamic law.' A more precise, terminological definition from a contemporary fatwa authority sharpens who and when: ijma' is 'The consensus of the qualified scholars of this community after the death of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in a particular era on a specific religious ruling.' Two things follow from that precision immediately. First, ijma' is the agreement of the QUALIFIED — the mujtahids, the scholars competent to derive rulings — not a headcount of the general public. Second, it operates AFTER the Prophet's death: while he lived, revelation itself settled matters, so consensus as a distinct legal instrument belongs to the community that came after him. Where does ijma' sit among the sources of the law? The majority Sunni scheme is explicit: 'Ijma' is considered one of the primary sources of Islamic law, ranking as the third most authoritative after the Qur'an and Sunna.' A second source states the same ordering from the other direction — Sunni Muslims 'regard it as one of the secondary sources of Sharia law, after the Qur'an, and the Sunnah' (secondary here meaning after the two revealed sources, not unimportant). This is the standard four-source picture in which the Qur'an is first, the Sunnah second, ijma' third, and qiyas (analogy) fourth. Honesty requires one caveat about the numbering. The Maliki usul material read for this entry titles its treatment 'The Fourth Source: Consensus (Ijma')' — not because Malik demotes consensus, but because that school's enumeration counts the settled practice of the people of Madina as a source in its own right, so the count shifts by one. The RANK label varies by school; the SUBSTANCE — Qur'an and Sunnah first, then the agreement of the scholars — does not. What does ijma' actually DO to a ruling? Its force is to remove doubt. As the Maliki source puts it, where consensus forms around a judgement drawn from the texts, 'consensus supports the text. It strengthens it to the degree that it becomes definitive and whatever judgement it contains cannot be denied.' A fatwa authority states the same conclusion as a rule of evidence: 'Explicit Ijma' is a decisive proof, meaning it is certain and binding.' This is the whole point of the instrument. A single scholar's derivation can be contested; a matter on which the qualified scholars have closed ranks is treated as settled. The textual warrant most often cited for this is a report of the Prophet that his community would be protected from unanimous error — in the wording one source records, 'Allah will ensure my ummah will never collude en-masse upon error,' which that source says has 'been mentioned in the books of Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Musnah Ahmad, and Darimi.' (No hadith number is asserted here; only the collections that source names.) Precisely because ijma' is so strong, the schools guard its definition, and the sources are candid that its exact constituency is contested: 'Exactly what group should represent the Muslim community in reaching the consensus is not agreed on by the various schools of Islamic jurisprudence.' Malik's own position is the sharp example — for him 'the authoritative source is only the consensus of the people of Madina,' the community of the Prophet's own city. Others require the agreement of the mujtahids of an era generally. This disagreement is about WHO constitutes a binding consensus, not about WHETHER consensus binds. Now the connection to this site, drawn carefully and only as far as the sources allow. The prohibition of riba is not a fragile ruling that hangs on one contested reading. It is grounded first in the Qur'an and the Sunnah — the two sources that outrank everything — and it is then closed by the agreement of the scholarly community across the centuries and the schools. That closure is exactly what ijma' names: the mechanism by which a judgement 'becomes definitive and whatever judgement it contains cannot be denied.' It is why riba-free finance treats the impermissibility of interest not as one juristic opinion among many but as a settled matter, and why the live scholarly disagreements in this field are always about STRUCTURES (is this particular tawarruq acceptable? is this deposit contract a genuine wadiah?) and never about the underlying prohibition itself. A precise note on what is and is not claimed, in keeping with this corpus's discipline. The three sources establish, verbatim, the DEFINITION of ijma', its RANK among the sources, its AUTHORITY as decisive/binding proof, the TEXTUAL basis reported for it, and the honest fact that its exact constituency is DISPUTED. They do NOT, in the passages read, state a specific 'there is ijma' that riba is forbidden' clause. So the riba application above is the site's OWN reasoning from the verbatim general mechanism — that ijma' is what makes a derived ruling definitive and undeniable — and is presented as such, not as a quotation attributing a riba verdict to these sources. What the sources do establish is enough for the load-bearing point: Islamic law has a named, ranked, evidence-grade instrument for closing a question, and the prohibition of interest is a closed question, not an open one.

Wording inside quotation marks is quoted from the source. The rest is this notebook’s summary of it — read the original before relying on it.

Provenance

Compiled from: Compiled from three genuinely different sources cross-read 2026-07-05: [1] Wikipedia, 'Ijma', for the general definition ('an Arabic term referring to the consensus or agreement of the Islamic community on a point of Islamic law'), the source-rank statement ('Sunni Muslims regard it as one of the secondary sources of Sharia law, after the Qur'an, and the Sunnah'), the honest note that its exact constituency is disputed ('Exactly what group should represent the Muslim community in reaching the consensus is not agreed on by the various schools of Islamic jurisprudence'), and the textual basis it reports ('Allah will ensure my ummah will never collude en-masse upon error', which Wikipedia says 'have been mentioned in the books of Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Musnah Ahmad, and Darimi'); [2] Jordanian General Iftaa' Department, 'The Philosophy of Ijma' (Consensus) according to the Scholars of Usul Al-Fiqh', for the terminological definition ('The consensus of the qualified scholars of this community after the death of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in a particular era on a specific religious ruling'), the rank ('Ijma' is considered one of the primary sources of Islamic law, ranking as the third most authoritative after the Qur'an and Sunna') and the authority ('Explicit Ijma' is a decisive proof, meaning it is certain and binding'); and [3] IIUM 'lawbase' (Maliki usul series), 'The Fourth Source: Consensus (Ijma')', for Malik's practice-based definition ('As for the agreed-upon practice, it is something that the people of fiqh and knowledge agree upon without dispute'), the definitiveness mechanism ('consensus supports the text. It strengthens it to the degree that it becomes definitive and whatever judgement it contains cannot be denied') and the Maliki particularity ('the authoritative source is only the consensus of the people of Madina'). Cross-confirmed
Source: GENERAL DEFINITION + SOURCE-RANK + DISPUTED-CONSTITUENCY + TEXTUAL-BASIS ('an Arabic term referring to the consensus or agreement of the Islamic community on a point of Islamic law'; 'Sunni Muslims regard it as one of the secondary sources of Sharia law, after the Qur'an, and the Sunnah'; 'Exactly what group should represent the Muslim community in reaching the consensus is not agreed on by the various schools of Islamic jurisprudence'; 'Allah will ensure my ummah will never collude en-masse upon error' [reported by source as 'mentioned in the books of Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Musnah Ahmad, and Darimi']) — verbatim from [1] Wikipedia, 'Ijma' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ijma), fetched 2026-07-05 and the definition + source-rank strings RE-VERIFIED on a second fetch (both confirmed present with surrounding sentence; the hadith wording + the four collections confirmed on the same re-fetch). TERMINOLOGICAL DEFINITION + RANK + AUTHORITY ('The consensus of the qualified scholars of this community after the death of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in a particular era on a specific religious ruling'; 'Ijma' is considered one of the primary sources of Islamic law, ranking as the third most authoritative after the Qur'an and Sunna'; 'Explicit Ijma' is a decisive proof, meaning it is certain and binding') — verbatim from [2] Jordanian General Iftaa' Department, 'The Philosophy of Ijma' (Consensus) according to the Scholars of Usul Al-Fiqh' (https://www.aliftaa.jo/article-en/5858/ZkahEn.aspx), fetched and read 2026-07-05. MALIK'S DEFINITION + DEFINITIVENESS-MECHANISM + MADINA-PARTICULARITY ('As for the agreed-upon practice, it is something that the people of fiqh and knowledge agree upon without dispute'; 'consensus supports the text. It strengthens it to the degree that it becomes definitive and whatever judgement it contains cannot be denied'; 'the authoritative source is only the consensus of the people of Madina') + the 'Fourth Source' heading — verbatim from [3] IIUM 'lawbase' Maliki usul series, 'The Fourth Source: Consensus (Ijma')' (https://www.iium.edu.my/deed/lawbase/maliki_fiqh/usul5.html), fetched and read 2026-07-05. THREE genuinely DIFFERENT sources cross-read (a neutral encyclopaedia, a contemporary state fatwa authority, and a Maliki-usul teaching page); the definition, the rank-after-Qur'an-and-Sunnah, and the definitive/binding authority cross-confirm across them, and the rank-NUMBERING difference (third vs 'fourth') is surfaced honestly rather than smoothed over. The RIBA-FREE POINT (the prohibition of riba is a settled ijma' matter, not one contested opinion) is reasoned directly from the verbatim authority mechanism, NOT asserted as a source verdict — the passages read define ijma' but state no riba-specific consensus clause, and the entry says so explicitly.
School / basis: Comparative / foundational (usul al-fiqh: ijma' = CONSENSUS, ranked in the majority Sunni scheme as the third source of Islamic law after the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and — with qiyas as the fourth — completing the four-source picture this corpus already covers). DEFINITIONS cross-read: 'an Arabic term referring to the consensus or agreement of the Islamic community on a point of Islamic law' [source 1, Wikipedia]; the precise terminological form 'The consensus of the qualified scholars of this community after the death of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in a particular era on a specific religious ruling' [source 2, Jordanian Iftaa' Dept]; Malik's practice-based gloss 'As for the agreed-upon practice, it is something that the people of fiqh and knowledge agree upon without dispute' [source 3, IIUM/Maliki]. RANK (verbatim): 'Ijma' is considered one of the primary sources of Islamic law, ranking as the third most authoritative after the Qur'an and Sunna' [source 2]; 'Sunni Muslims regard it as one of the secondary sources of Sharia law, after the Qur'an, and the Sunnah' [source 1]. NUMBERING CAVEAT handled honestly: source 3 (Maliki usul) titles its treatment 'The Fourth Source: Consensus (Ijma')' because the Maliki scheme counts the practice ('amal) of the people of Madina as a source in its own right, shifting the count by one — the rank LABEL varies by school, the substance (Qur'an+Sunnah first, then scholarly agreement) does not. AUTHORITY (verbatim): 'consensus supports the text. It strengthens it to the degree that it becomes definitive and whatever judgement it contains cannot be denied' [source 3]; 'Explicit Ijma' is a decisive proof, meaning it is certain and binding' [source 2]. TEXTUAL BASIS reported (verbatim, source 1): 'Allah will ensure my ummah will never collude en-masse upon error', which source 1 says has 'been mentioned in the books of Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Musnah Ahmad, and Darimi' (NO hadith number asserted — only the collections that source names). DISPUTED CONSTITUENCY (verbatim, source 1): 'Exactly what group should represent the Muslim community in reaching the consensus is not agreed on by the various schools of Islamic jurisprudence'; Maliki particularity (source 3): 'the authoritative source is only the consensus of the people of Madina'. LOAD-BEARING for THIS site: ijma' is the instrument by which the prohibition of riba — grounded first in Qur'an and Sunnah — is treated as a SETTLED, undeniable ruling rather than one contested opinion, which is why the live disagreements in Islamic finance are always about STRUCTURES (tawarruq, wadiah) and never about the underlying prohibition. Reasoned STRICTLY from the verbatim authority mechanism ('becomes definitive and ... cannot be denied'). Deliberately NOT asserted as a sourced quote: any specific 'there is ijma' that riba is forbidden' clause (the sources read DEFINE ijma' but state no riba-specific consensus sentence, so the connection is the site's own reasoning and the entry says so); any hadith collection/number beyond the four collections source 1 itself names; any AAOIFI/OIC resolution number; any market/AUM figure.
Original: https://www.aliftaa.jo/article-en/5858/ZkahEn.aspx
Captured: 2026-07-05
Added: 2026-07-05
Trust: Useful and cited, but with an editorial or commercial lean worth cross-checking.

Compiler’s note

First DEDICATED IJMA' / CONSENSUS entry in the corpus — the candidate named FIRST at the end of round-96 ('IJMA (consensus — the third source, the only major source of law not yet given its own entry)'), now closed with a THREE-source-verifiable set, completing the four classical Sunni sources this corpus covers (Qur'an + Sunnah as the revealed pair, then ijma' [this entry, third] + qiyas [already added round-95, framed as the fourth source]). `git pull --rebase origin main` already up to date; baseline confirmed ON DISK FIRST (clean `rm -rf .next && npm run build` = 208/208 BUILD_EXIT=0 + `npm run lint` LINT_EXIT=0). Grep-confirmed before writing: `ls content/articles | grep -iE 'ijma|istihsan|rukhsa|azima|consensus'` returned NOTHING — no existing ijma'/consensus article, no duplication. WHY IJMA' NOW: with the core contracts, the tabarru' cluster, the classical prohibitions (riba/gharar/maisir), and the usul concepts wa'd/khiyar/'urf/darura/maslaha/qiyas/sadd-al-dhara'i already covered, ijma' was the single highest-value gap because round-96 flagged it as 'the only major source of law not yet given its own entry' — and it is the instrument that turns the riba prohibition from a contestable opinion into a settled ruling, directly underpinning this site's stance that the DISAGREEMENTS in Islamic finance are about structures, never about the prohibition itself. RANK HANDLED HONESTLY: sources 1 and 2 rank ijma' third (after Qur'an+Sunnah); source 3 (Maliki usul) titles its treatment 'The Fourth Source' because the Maliki scheme counts the 'amal of Madina separately — the entry surfaces this numbering difference explicitly rather than papering over it, consistent with the no-fabrication discipline and with the existing qiyas entry (which this corpus frames as 'the fourth source'). LOAD-BEARING LINK TO THE SITE, handled HONESTLY: ijma' is what makes a derived ruling 'definitive' and 'cannot be denied' (IIUM/Maliki) and 'a decisive proof ... certain and binding' (Jordanian Iftaa' Dept); the riba application is reasoned STRICTLY from that verbatim authority mechanism, and the entry explicitly states the sources read do NOT contain a riba-specific 'there is ijma' that riba is haram' clause, so no consensus-on-riba verdict is attributed to any source. VERIFICATION: every load-bearing quote verified 2026-07-05, verbatim, across THREE genuinely different sources — [1] Wikipedia 'Ijma' (definition + secondary-source rank + disputed-constituency + the hadith wording and the four collections it names), with the definition and source-rank strings RE-VERIFIED on a second fetch (both confirmed present with surrounding sentence); [2] Jordanian General Iftaa' Department (terminological definition + third-source rank + decisive/binding authority); [3] IIUM Maliki usul page (Malik's practice definition + the definitiveness mechanism + the Madina particularity + the 'Fourth Source' heading). All three plain HTML via WebFetch. TRUST 'medium' (a neutral encyclopaedia + an official state fatwa department in English + a Maliki-usul teaching page reproducing Ibn Rushd/standard Maliki usul; NOT a primary Arabic al-Amidi/al-Ghazali/al-Shafi'i usul text read directly, and Wikipedia is a tertiary source used only for the general definition/rank/hadith-attribution which the other two independently corroborate). DELIBERATELY DROPPED / NOT ASSERTED per the no-fabrication rule: (a) any specific 'ijma' that riba is prohibited' quote — the doctrine-to-riba link is the site's OWN reasoning from the verbatim authority mechanism, and the entry says so; (b) any hadith number, and any hadith collection beyond the four (Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Musnad Ahmad, Darimi) that source 1 itself names for the 'ummah will not agree on error' report; (c) the sukuti (silent) vs sarih (explicit) ijma' sub-distinction and the numerous transmitted variants of the protection-from-error hadith — surfaced in search synthesis but not verified verbatim from a page I read, so not asserted; (d) any AAOIFI/OIC/BNM resolution number; (e) any market/AUM figure (a classical usul doctrine has none; none invented); (f) the Qur'anic proof-texts commonly cited for ijma' (e.g. al-Nisa 4:115) — not quoted since not read verbatim this run. FRESHNESS-HONEST: all claims are definitional/doctrinal or verbatim source quotes; nothing time-sensitive. JSON-only per the established article convention (content/articles/*.json feed app/lib/corpus.ts via readdirSync + the /corpus stats badge + Phase-2 retrieval; NOT rendered as individual routed cards), so no SourceCard/route/href added and internal-link integrity is unaffected. Articles 56->57, corpus total 154->155 (articles 57 + books 23 + youtube 23 + curated 52 = 155). NEXT natural candidate for a future run: with the four classical sources (Qur'an/Sunnah/ijma'/qiyas) plus the usul concepts (wa'd, khiyar, 'urf, darura, maslaha, sadd al-dhara'i) now covered, remaining classical cores worth a dedicated two-source-verified entry are ISTIHSAN (juristic preference — named in the sadd al-dhara'i entry's madhhab split but not yet given its own entry), ISTISHAB (presumption of continuity), RUKHSA vs 'AZIMA (concession vs strict rule), or a primary-sourced AAOIFI/OIC resolution on a SPECIFIC contract (e.g. the tawarruq or 'inah resolution) IF a fetchable verbatim primary surfaces — each still needs its own two-source-verifiable pair first. PUNCH-LIST FULLY TICKED; this entry advances the sole live corpus lever.

Topics

islamic-financeusul-al-fiqhijmaijmaaijmāʿconsensusscholarly-consensussources-of-islamic-lawthird-sourcethird-source-of-lawsecondary-sourcequalified-scholarsmujtahidmujtahidundecisive-proofdefinitive-rulingbinding-proofcertain-and-bindingsettled-questionribaprohibition-of-ribariba-is-consensusquransunnahqiyasfour-sourcesmalikmalikiconsensus-of-madinapeople-of-madinahadith-ummah-will-not-agree-on-errorprotection-from-errormadhhab-disagreementconstituency-of-ijmacomparative-fiqh

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