الرحلةThe Journey

مصطفى أحمد الزرقا

Mustafa al-Zarqa (RH)

Mustafa Ahmad al-Zarqa

Also known as: Mustafa Zarqa, al-Zarqa

1322–1420 AH · 1904–1999 CE

Fiqh Hanafi

Syrian jurist who set out Islamic law in the language of modern legal study.

Mustafa al-Zarqa was born in Aleppo, the son of the Hanafi jurist Ahmad al-Zarqa, author of a well-known commentary on the legal maxims. He studied the religious sciences with his father and the scholars of Aleppo, and law and literature at the University of Damascus.

He taught Islamic law at the universities of Damascus and Jordan. His al-Madkhal al-Fiqhi al-'Amm presents the general theory of Islamic law, contracts, legal personality and the legal maxims in the terms used by modern law faculties, and it remains a standard reference. He helped plan the Kuwaiti Encyclopaedia of Islamic Jurisprudence and wrote on insurance, endowments and other modern questions.

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Life journey

  1. 1904 CE Aleppo (Halab) حلب
  2. 1944 CE Damascus دمشق
    Taught Islamic law at the University of Damascus.
  3. 1966 CE Amman عمان
    Taught at the University of Jordan; the dates are approximate.
  4. 1989 CE Riyadh الرياض
    Died 1999 CE · 1420 AH
    Spent his last years in Riyadh, where he died.

Key works

  • al-Madkhal al-Fiqhi al-'Amm المدخل الفقهي العام
    The General Introduction to Jurisprudence
    A systematic introduction to the general theory of Islamic law.

Places in their life

The courtyard of the Umayyad Mosque, Damascus
The courtyard of the Umayyad Mosque, Damascus
Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sources

  • Mustafa Ahmad al-Zarqa, al-Madkhal al-Fiqhi al-'Amm (author's introduction)
Draft, awaiting scholarly review.
The years in Amman and Riyadh are approximate. A published biography should be added as a source.