Law and the Qurʾān

The Qurʾān has a curious function in Islamic law. It is doubtless considered the first and foremost of the four major sources of the law (i.e. the sharīʿa). Yet in substantive legal terms and in comparison with the full corpus of the sharīʿa, the Qurʾān provides a relatively minor body of ¶ legal subject matter, although a few of the most central rulings that govern the life of Muslim society and the indivi…