Ijma'

The agreement of the qualified scholars of one generation on a single ruling.

Also written · Ijma · Ijmaa · Ijma al-ummah · Icma · Ijema · Ijmah · consensus · scholarly consensus · agreement of scholars · unanimity

The meaning

What Ijma' means in Islam

It is the third of the four agreed sources, after the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Certain ijma' is rare, and mostly concerns matters everyone already knows, such as the five daily prayers and the prohibition of wine. Scholars differ over whether a consensus after the Companions can ever be verified across a scattered world, so a claim of ijma' is something to check rather than accept on sight.

Evidence · Editorial · Our own summary, drawn from the sources named

Read beside it

Words that sit beside it

Usul al-FiqhThe science of how rulings are derived: which sources count, and how they are read.أُصولُ الفِقْه
QiyasAnalogy: extending a known ruling to a new case that shares the same underlying reason.قِياس
IkhtilafScholarly disagreement, which classical Islam treated as normal rather than as a crisis.اِخْتِلاف
FiqhThe human effort to work out Islamic law from its sources, and the rulings that result.الفِقْه